Matthew 12:8

8. Lord even of the sabbath day As the Lord said, in the sixth verse, that he was greater than the temple, now he affirms himself greater than the statute law of Moses; nay, he is greater than the Sabbath law established by God at the creation. Thus does he maintain himself to be the incarnate Legislator of the world, He is truly God manifest in the flesh. Our Lord here asserts his high dignity in order to silence the murmurings of the Jews at his assuming to change the fundamental interpretations of the law. But may we not also believe that he here hints as Lord of the Sabbath, that some change would be made in its observance under the new dispensation of the Son of man?

In regard to the Sabbath we may here observe, 1. There is good proof that it was established on the day of the holy rest of God, at the end of the creative week. That day was the first Sabbath, just as that week was the first week. This Sabbath formed a part of the patriarchal religion, and was adopted with the great body of the patriarchal system into the law of Moses. Yet under Moses much that was specially Jewish was overlaid upon the original Sabbath, so that a double Sabbath, as it were, existed on the same day.