Exodus 31:14

14. Surely be put to death It is to be noted that all the commandments of the first table have the death penalty attached to their violation, and so it is taught that the wilful breaking of any of these laws was to be treated as a capital crime . None of them are so regarded under the Gospel . Idolatry, image-worship, blasphemy, sabbath-breaking, and dishonouring of parents are nowhere under a Christian civilization punishable with death. Has God therefore changed? No, but man has changed, and under the discipline of a dispensation “written and engraven in stones,” (2 Corinthians 3:7,)

“the ministration of death” has accomplished its work, and elevated the moral sense of man to a higher plane. With the higher and clearer revelations of divine truth the lower forms of the ancient moral discipline have been superseded. So, too, the avenger of blood is no longer tolerated, and the lex talionis is abolished by the light and methods of a higher civilization. But it would be in the highest degree absurd to argue, that because the ancient penalty of the sabbath law is no more in force, therefore the sabbath itself is no longer binding. Equally absurd is the notion of some modern critics that, because the sabbath law is variously repeated in the Pentateuch, with reasons and penalties in one place which are not found in another, therefore, these laws are of diverse authorship, and contradictory. A legislature may modify, change, or supplement its own action in the progress of a single session; much more may we suppose that the legislation through Moses would have received many supplements under his own immediate direction. Thus every new association or event which could be made to enhance in the people’s minds the sanctity and worth of the sabbath would and should have been utilized for such a worthy end.