Ezekiel 20:20 - Homiletics

The sanctity of the sabbath.

The sabbath was given to Israel as a day of rest for man and beast ( Exodus 20:8-11 ). But it also had a deeper mystical significance which gave it a peculiar sanctity. It was the sign of Israel, the note by which the chosen people might be marked, the seal of the covenant of Sinai, as circumcision was the seal of the earlier covenant with Abraham. In this particular, of course, the sabbath belonged only to the Jews under the Law, and our neglect of the seventh day and observance of the "Lord's day" are signs that we have passed under a new covenant with a new sanction, seal, and token, viz. that of the communion ( Luke 22:20 ), which therefore takes a place with us corresponding to the sabbath in the Law and circumcision among the patriarchs. Nevertheless, the grounds on which the sabbath was selected as the symbol of the covenant of the Law are wider than the dominion of Israel, and deserve to be inquired into with a view to ascertaining their perpetual significance.

I. THE SANCTITY OF THE SABBATH WAS ASSOCIATED WITH NATURE . God rested from creation ( Genesis 2:2 ). This fact is stated in primitive language. But the latest science shows that the course of nature is not a mechanical revolution, but a sort of vital pulsation. Its movement is rhythmic. It goes by shock and pause. It has its work and its rest. Summer activity and winter sleep, day and night, storm and cairn, are nature's alternate week days and sabbaths. We are part of nature, and must observe its methods.

II. THE SANCTITY OF THE SABBATH WAS ASSOCIATED WITH THE NEEDS OF MAN . "The sabbath was made for man." Therefore man needed the sabbath.

1 . He needed the rest . Ceaseless toil wears and frets the very fibre of life. Masters and slaves, as well as the beast of burden, were benefited by the Jewish sabbath. We are not under the same formal regulations as those by which Israel was governed. But the conditions of business life in the modern world are so much more exacting than any that can be imagined to belong to the simple pastoral and agricultural life of the ancient Jews, that the requirement of some equivalent to their sabbath must be much stronger with us.

2 . He needed the opportunity for remembering God . The sabbath was sacred to the covenant. Sunday is sacred to the resurrection of Christ. The congenial thoughts and holy occupations of such a day are helpful.

"The Sundaies of man's life,

Thredded together on time's string,

Make bracelets to adorn the wife

Of the eternal, glorious King.

On Sunday heaven's gates stand ope;

Blessings are plentiful and rife,

More plentiful than hope."

(Geo. Herbert.)

III. THE SANCTITY OF THE SABBATH WAS ASSOCIATED WITH GOD . God ordained the sabbath; it was typical of his resting; and it was the seal of his covenant with Israel. Thus it was in a threefold sense God's day. Christ has warned us against the formal abuse of its sanctity, and St. Paul has dared to assert a large Christian liberty in regard to it. Anything that makes its use formal savours of the Law, is Judaistic, is anti-Christian. Anything that makes it a day of gloom and repression is even contrary to its old Jewish observance as a festival. But, on the other hand, God has claims of worship. If Sunday is given up to amusement or toil those claims are ignored. It is our duty to give them all possible range in this age of driving secular interests. Thus are we led on to

"The sabbaths of eternity,

One sabbatic, deep and wide."

(Tennyson, 'St. Agnes.')