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The Desire of Ages
Upon one Sabbath day, as the Saviour and His disciples returned
from the place of worship, they passed through a field of ripening
grain. Jesus had continued His work to a late hour, and while passing
through the fields, the disciples began to gather the heads of grain,
and to eat the kernels after rubbing them in their hands. On any other
day this act would have excited no comment, for one passing through
a field of grain, an orchard, or a vineyard, was at liberty to gather
what he desired to eat. See
Deuteronomy 23:24, 25
. But to do this on
the Sabbath was held to be an act of desecration. Not only was the
gathering of the grain a kind of reaping, but the rubbing of it in the
hands was a kind of threshing. Thus, in the opinion of the rabbis, there
was a double offense.
The spies at once complained to Jesus, saying, “Behold, Thy disci-
ples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day.”
When accused of Sabbathbreaking at Bethesda, Jesus defended
Himself by affirming His Sonship to God, and declaring that He
worked in harmony with the Father. Now that the disciples are at-
tacked, He cites His accusers to examples from the Old Testament,
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acts performed on the Sabbath by those who were in the service of
God.
The Jewish teachers prided themselves on their knowledge of the
Scriptures, and in the Saviour’s answer there was an implied rebuke
for their ignorance of the Sacred Writings. “Have ye not read so much
as this,” He said, “what David did, when himself was an hungered,
and they which were with him; how he went into the house of God,
and did take and eat the shewbread,... which it is not lawful to eat
but for the priests alone?” “And He said unto them, The Sabbath was
made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” “Have ye not read in the
law, how that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple profane
the Sabbath, and are blameless? But I say unto you, That in this place
is one greater than the temple.” “The Son of man is Lord also of the
Sabbath.”
Luke 6:3, 4
;
Mark 2:27, 28
;
Matthew 12:5, 6
.
If it was right for David to satisfy his hunger by eating of the bread
that had been set apart to a holy use, then it was right for the disciples
to supply their need by plucking the grain upon the sacred hours of the
Sabbath. Again, the priests in the temple performed greater labor on
the Sabbath than upon other days. The same labor in secular business
would be sinful; but the work of the priests was in the service of