Leviticus 19:3 - Homiletics

The laws of submission

1. The family is an institution of God's appointment ( Genesis 1:28 ; Genesis 2:24 ). The command to children to honour their father and mother is distinguished in the Decalogue by a blessing attached to it ( Exodus 20:12 ; Ephesians 6:2 ); and a special blessing is bestowed on the house of the Rechabites for obeying it ( Jeremiah 35:18 ). St. Paul enjoins the observance of the duty, both as an act right in itself and as positively commanded in God's Law ( Ephesians 6:1 , Ephesians 6:2 ). The father's duty is "nurture and admonition of the Lord" ( Ephesians 6:4 ), including guidance, remonstrance, reproof ( 1 Samuel 2:23 ). By means of this institution the character of every member of the commonwealth is formed, at the moment when alone it is plastic, by the influence best adapted for turning it to good. Contrast the system adopted by Rousseau for dealing with his children, and the probable results on parents, children, and the State. Cf. the Form of Solemnization of Matrimony: "Marriage was ordained for the procreation of children, to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord, and to the praise of his holy Name."

An analogous position to that of the parent is afterwards held by the civil magistrate in respect to the subject, and by the pastor in respect to a member of his flock. Therefore, in order to carry out the commandment, a man has not only "to love, honour, and succour his father and mother," but also "to honour and obey the queen, and all that are put in authority under her: to submit himself to all his governors, teachers, spiritual pastors and masters: to order himself lowly and reverently to all his betters" (Church Catechism). On the other hand, the authorities in the State and in the Church have their duties also, not now the same as those of the parent towards the child, on account of the changed position of him who was once a child, but nevertheless analogous to them. So in other cases, wherever men stand in a relation to each other similar to that of parent and child, obligations similar to those which bind parents and children arise.

2. Sabbatical observance appears, at first sight, a small thing to place on a level, as here, with the fifth commandment, or, as in the Decalogue, with the first, second, and third commandments; but when we examine into it closely, we find that this disproportion does not exist.

I. ITS INSTITUTION . It shares with the ordinance of marriage alone the characteristic of having been instituted at the creation of the world. "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 ). Being coeval with creation, the sabbatical law, like the marriage law, is of universal obligation on all mankind.

II. ITS JEWISH FORM . The sabbatical law was observed during the period preceding the Mosaic Law ( Exodus 16:22-30 ). For the Jews it took the form given it in the fourth commandment ( Exodus 20:8-11 ; Deuteronomy 5:12-15 ) and other Mosaic injunctions ( Exodus 31:13 , Exodus 31:14 ; Exodus 35:2 , Exodus 35:3 ; Numbers 15:32-36 ). To them it commemorated the rest after the Creation and the rest after the toils of Egypt, while it looked forward to the rest of Canaan while they wandered in the wilderness ( Psalms 95:11 ), and, after they had entered Canaan, to the still further rest of the Messianic kingdom ( Hebrews 4:8 ); and it was to be kept with such severity that no work at all was to be done upon it, even to the extent of gathering sticks or lighting a fire.

III. ENDS SERVED BY THE JEWISH FORM .

1 . It formed a very noticeable distinction between the Jews and the neighbouring nations, and so it was a preservative from idolatry.

2 . It served, like circumcision, as a symbol constantly reminding them that they were God's people, and should live in accordance with their profession. "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 sanctify them" ( Ezekiel 20:12 ).

IV. THE CHRISTIAN FORM . Christ declared his lordship over the sabbath day ( Matthew 12:8 ), but he did not exercise that lordship for the purpose of destroying it as an institution, but merely of adapting the primary law of the sabbath to altered circumstances. The Jewish sabbath, as such (that is, in its peculiarities), ceased to be binding, but the obligation of sabbatical law continued, and the ordinance took a changed form. By apostolic authority, as proved by apostolic practice, the Christian sabbath was kept on the first day of the week—the anniversary of Christ's resurrection—and the severity of its character was abrogated. As God had rested on the seventh day after his labour of creation, so Christ had rested in the grave on the seventh day after his labour of redemption. Why should the seventh day be any longer kept? "The Jewish sabbath died out in the course of the first generation of Christians, as circumcision died out, as the temple, as the Law itself died out The Lord's day was a Divine and more immortal shoot from the same stock. It was rooted in the primitive law of the Creation. It recognized and adopted the old weekly division of time, that perpetual and ever-recurring acknowledgment, wherever it was celebrated in all the world, of the Divine blessing and promises. It had the Divine sanction of the tables of stone—those tables, written by God's own finger, and therefore greatly superior in sanctity and enduring weight to the temporary enactments of the ceremonial law. It took up the old series of commemorations and sacred anticipations. It bade the true Israel of God record with gratitude and keep in mind, by the weekly institution and its recurring festival of rest and praise, the creation of mankind, the deliverance from Egypt, the entrance of the people into the promised land, the return from captivity, the coming of the Messiah; and to look forward under the dispensation of the Holy Ghost to the crowning and final mercy of the long scheme of Providence, the eternal rest in heaven which yet remaineth for the people of God" (Bishop Moberly, 'The Law of the Love of God').

V. THE ENDS OF THE SABBATICAL INSTITUTION .

1 . To reserve a certain sufficient part of time free for spiritual interests.

2 . To teach the lesson of obedience to positive precept in religious things. The appointment of one-seventh of our time for this purpose is wholly arbitrary. There is no account to be given of it except that it is God's will There is no other account to be given of weeks. Months and years have their reasons in physical nature; not so weeks. God has commanded, and because he has commanded, the weekly rest is observed by those who love God; and not only is the weekly rest observed, but a loving obedience is paid to all religious institutions and ordinances established by lawful authority.

VI. EFFECT ON THE INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIAN 'S LIFE . "The Christian man, desirous of loving God with all the affection of his heart, with all the rational intelligence of his mind, with all the devotion of his life, with all the energy of his strength, in the love taught him under the fourth law, will yield himself up gratefully and religiously to obey all duly ordered positive laws of the Church of God. The Sunday and its sacred observance will be to him the center, and furnish, so to speak, the form of his own way of life, and that of all his family and dependents. He will regard it every time it returns as God's holy day of rest, the weekly commemoration of the primeval rest of God and of all the signal mercies of the elder covenant. Knowing himself to be of the true Israel of God, he will not forget the blessings connected by God himself with the sabbatical institution, vouchsafed to his fathers in the faith. He will celebrate it weekly as the feast of the Lord's resurrection, and all the blessings of that resurrection; as the feast of the Holy Ghost the Giver of peace and rest in the Church, as the weekly antepast of that glorious and unending rest in the presence of God which still remaineth for the people of God. It will be to him a day of rest, peace, prayer, praise, and holy joy; no mournful and austere time, but on the contrary, a thankful happy time. He will remember his Lord's injunction not to forbid or refuse works of necessity or mercy on that day. He will gratefully shut up the records of the cares, the interests, and the occupations of the week, and give that holy day to God; not discharging himself of his duties of worship by an attendance in God's house or holding himself at liberty to make his own convenience or inclination the rule of obedience; but faithfully, dutifully, and completely sanctifying that day to rest, worship, and the thought of God and heaven. And the other days, the train of Sunday, will borrow of its light; each having its own sacred, special commemoration belonging to it, and each reflecting some of the brightness of the Sunday just preceding and catching more—and more from that which follows (Moberly, 'The Law of the Love of God').

VII. RESULTS OF ITS NEGLECT .

1 . To the individual:

2 . To a nation: