Ye shall keep my sabbaths. — The greatest safeguard against the above-named abomination, and the surest way to fulfil the Divine commands, is by keeping the Sabbath day, and following the instruction imparted on this day of rest. (See Leviticus 19:3.)
And reverence my sanctuary — which the Israelites frequented on the Sabbath. (See Exodus 35:3.) The way to reverence the sanctuary, according to the definition of the Jewish canonists, was for an Israelite not to come into the sanctuary when legally defiled, not to ascend the mountain of the house of God with his staff in his hand, with his shoes on his feet, in his working clothes, with the dust on his feet, or carrying bags of money about his person, not to spit in the sacred precincts, or make them a thoroughfare. It is in reference to the last-mentioned rule that we are told Christ “would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the Temple” (Mark 11:16) — He would not allow them to use the sacred precincts as a short cut.