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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Exodus 31:12 - 31:18
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Concerning the Celebration of the Sabbath
v. 12. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
v. 13. Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily, My Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Through the rest of the Sabbath-day the children of Israel were to remain conscious of the fact that it was Jehovah that sanctified them, the Sabbath being the day especially consecrated to His service.
v. 14. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore, observe it most religiously; for it is holy unto you. Everyone that defileth it shall surely be put to death, the desecration or profanation of the day consisting chiefly in not observing the rest enjoined by the Lord; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people, the breaking of the Sabbath being a capital crime.
v. 15. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, a day devoted entirely to rest from physical labor, holy to the Lord; whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath-day, he shall surely be put to death.
v. 16. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, their resting should make the day a real Sabbath, for a perpetual covenant.
v. 17. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever, the public symbol and expression of the relation between Jehovah and Israel; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. As the text expressly notes, this phase of the Third Commandment, according to which one special day was set apart for total rest, concerned only the children of Israel. For the believers of the New Testament the observance of the Third Commandment consists in this, that we gladly hear and learn the Word of God. He that despises preaching and God's Word destroys himself by starving his soul.
v. 18. And He (God ) gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. In what manner this engraving was done is not revealed, the fact alone being stated. The Decalogue is the word and will of the Lord, of which He Himself says that heaven and earth will pass away before one tittle of this will is invalidated. The ministry of the New Testament is written with the Spirit of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in the fleshy tables of the heart, 2Co_3:3.