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Jesus Rescues the Sabbath
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The Sabbath was not for Israel merely, but for the world. Like
the other precepts of the Decalogue, it is of imperishable obligation.
Of that law Christ declares, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or
one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law.”
Matthew 5:18
. So long
as the heavens and the earth endure, the Sabbath will continue as a
sign of the Creator’s power. And when Eden shall bloom on earth
again, God’s holy rest day will be honored by all beneath the sun.
“From one Sabbath to another” the inhabitants of the glorified new
earth shall go up “to worship before Me, saith the Lord.”
Isaiah
66:23
.
The Sign of True Conversion
But in order to keep the Sabbath holy, men must themselves be
holy. Through faith they must become partakers of the righteousness
of Christ. When the command was given to Israel, “Remember the
Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (
Exodus 20:8
), the Lord said also to
them, “Ye shall be holy men unto Me.”
Exodus 22:31
.
As the Jews departed from God and failed to make the righteous-
ness of Christ their own by faith, the Sabbath lost its significance
to them. Satan worked to pervert the Sabbath, because it is the
sign of the power of Christ. The Jewish leaders surrounded God’s
rest day with burdensome requirements. In the days of Christ its
observance reflected the character of selfish and arbitrary men rather
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than the character of the loving heavenly Father. The rabbis virtually
represented God as giving laws impossible for men to obey. They
led the people to look on God as a tyrant, and to think that the Sab-
bath made men hardhearted and cruel. It was the work of Christ
to clear away these misconceptions. Jesus did not conform to the
rabbis’ requirements, but went straight forward, keeping the Sabbath
according to the law of God.
A Sabbath Lesson
One Sabbath, as the Saviour and His disciples passed through
a field of ripening grain, 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 would have excited no comment, for a person passing