Jeremiah 17:19-27 - Homiletics

The Sabbath.

As Gentiles we were never under the special regulations of the Jewish Law, and as Christians we are free from all formal laws of "ordinances," and called to free spiritual obedience. Like St. Paul, we may be able to see that no one day is more sacred than other days ( Romans 14:5 ); and if we are unable to go so far as this, we must admit that there is, in the New Testament, no direct command to Christians to observe the first day of the week just as the Jews observed the seventh. Still, to him who is in sympathy with the thoughts of God and desires to do the will of God rather than to seize excuses for liberty only to exercise his own serf-will, there is much in the Old Testament Sabbath requirements which must command the reverence of his conscience as springing out of Eternal Divine counsels, and representing what is inherently good and profitable.

I. CONSIDER IN WHAT THE OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH CONSISTED .

1. Rest . "Bear no burden." Work is holy, but so also is rest, and if work usurp the place of rest it becomes unholy, as anything does which is in the wrong place. Men bear burdens on their minds. If the shop is shut but the mind of the tradesman continues devoted to business cares on the Sunday, he is making no more Sabbath of the day than if he were openly buying and selling. The rest needed for refreshment is rest from the toils and anxieties of the mind, quite as much as a cessation of manual labor.

2. Hallowing the day . The Jew treated the Sabbath day as essentially holy. We may have freer notions. But we, too, can hallow the day if we devote it to sacred uses. We should remember that it is not the day that hallows the conduct, but the conduct that hallows the day. Sacred days, like sacred places, are not endowed with a mystical consecration, which transfers its grace to whatever is done in them, but they are simply made sacred by the acts of goodness to which they are devoted.

3. Personal care to observe the rest and sanctity of the day. "Take heed in your souls;" "diligently hearken." The observance of the Sabbath was to the Jew a duty to be personally regarded and conscientiously executed. If we feel any corresponding duty, the example of the more lax conduct of others should not affect us, nor should we be content with the outward decorum which satisfies the world.

II. CONSIDER THE OBLIGATION TO KEEP THE SABBATH .

1. The Sabbath was instituted by the command of God . It was required by one of the ten commandments, and thus exalted to a position of peculiar sanctity. To the Jew who felt that this law of God was binding on him, the duty of implicit obedience was imperative. When once we know God's will no valid excuse can be found for neglecting it. Though the letter of the Mosaic Law was limited and temporal, the spirit of its obligations is eternal, since they spring from the changeless character of God. It is for us to discover the eternal Divine principle which led to the institution of the Sabbath, and see that this is obeyed.

2. It corresponded to the constitution of nature . Changes in nature are recurrent. Rest and labor alternate in the physical world.

3. It was designed to benefit men. ( Mark 2:27 .) The wealthy might not have felt the requirement, but the burden-bearers and hand-laborers did, and must have enjoyed the repose it afforded them. Do we need this? If in quieter times such a rest was necessary, is it needless in the rush and roar of our wearing modern life? If seasons set apart for religious observances were ever profitable, are they useless amid the pressing claims and innumerable distractions of the age we live in?

III. CONSIDER THE BLESSEDNESS OF OBSERVING THE SABBATH . The Jews had premises of blessing to the court, the city, the country, and the Church (see Matthew Henry, in loc .).

1. This might be expected as the reward of obedience . It is always blessed to do the will of God, though the first doing of it is often painful.

2. This might also be expected, because the Sabbath was made for man . It was a beneficent institution. It is found by experience that the observance of a weekly day of rest is conducive to the prosperity of a people.

3. Accordingly, the neglect of the Sabbath might be expected to bring disaster ( Jeremiah 17:27 ). This was the case with the Jew, not because of the inherent sanctity of the day or of the essential immorality of working on it, but because the breach of the Sabbath was a breach of the Law, an act of overt rebellion against God. If we disobey what we believe to be the will of God, this must be to our own hurt.

4. The blessedness of the observance of the Jewish Sabbath teaches us all to avoid treating the day of rest as a gloomy day , and making children and dependants dislike it on account of the formalism or harshness of our behavior. The day of rest should be the brightest day of the week. To the Christian, Sunday is "the Lord's day," the day of Easter gladness, commemorating the joy of the Resurrection.