1. Who was the direct agent in the creation of the earth?
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:1,3)
2. State briefly what was done on each of the first four days.
3. What was made on the fifth day?
"And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that has life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day." (Genesis 1:20-23)
4. What upon the sixth day?
"And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creeps upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:25-27)
5. How did God regard His work when it was done?
"And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." (Genesis 1:31)
6. How did He spend the seventh day?
"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made." (Genesis 2:1-2)
7. After He had rested on the seventh day, what did He do?
"And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." (Genesis 2:3)
8. What is the meaning of "sanctify"?
"To set apart for a holy or religious use." (Webster)
9. What is the name of the seventh day?
"But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates." (Exodus 20:10)
10. For whom was the Sabbath made?
"And He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27)
11. What is necessarily implied in the statement that after God had rested upon the seventh day He sanctified or set it apart?
That He told man what He had done, and commanded him to keep it holy.
12. Give two instances of the use of the word "sanctify," which confirm this.
"And you shall set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that you go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever touches the mount shall be surely put to death: ... And Moses said unto the Lord, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for You charged us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it." (Exodus 19:12,23)
"And they sanctified Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjath-arba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah." (Joshua 20:7, margin)
13. What is the great object of the Sabbath?
"Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctified them." (Ezekiel 20:12)
14. How does the Sabbath serve as a "sign" to make us know the true God?
"Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever does any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. ... It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed." (Exodus 31:15,17)
15. What is God's distinguishing characteristic?
"For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols; but the Lord made the heavens." (Psalm 96:4-5)
"But the Lord is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting king: at His wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide His indignation. Thus shall you say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by His discretion." (Jeremiah 10:10-12)
16. What is the difference between God and men?
"Know you that the Lord He is God; it is He that has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture." (Psalm 100:3)
"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:9)
"Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, He takes up the isles as a very little thing. ... All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity." (Isaiah 40:15,17)
17. Then what was the Sabbath designed to do for men?
To be a continual reminder of God's greatness, and of their dependence upon Him, and of their duty to serve Him with humility.
18. If Christ created the heavens and the earth, who must have made the Sabbath?
Christ, for the same one that worked six days, rested on the seventh.
19. Then what relation does He sustain to it?
"Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." (Mark 2:28)
20. Then in keeping the Sabbath, whom do we honor?
21. And when the Sabbath is not kept, who is dishonored?--Signs of the Times, January 6, 1888--Lesson 2 - Sabbath, January 14--Genesis 1:20-31; 2:1-3.
E.J. Waggoner[1]
Notes: