MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 16:22-30
THE SABBATH IN ITS RELATION TO SECULAR TOIL
We see in this narrative how very slow men are to understand the meaning of the Divine Word and command, especially if it appears to contradict the usual method of things. When the elders saw the people gathering on the Friday enough manna for two days, they came and told Moses, imagining that the law was being broken, and they were not satisfied until he had assured them that the conduct they reported was right. Men are indeed slow to understand the laws of God concerning them, especially as regards their secular toil.
I. That man must not engage in secular toil on the Sabbath. The Israelites were commanded to gather twice as much manna on the Friday as they needed, in order that they might have sufficient for the day of rest. What was thus preserved did not become offensive. It had the blessing of God. Thus we see the Divine regard paid for the Sabbath in the wilderness. If Israel thus rested from gathering manna on the Sabbath, ought not men much more to rest from the secular engagements of life? And if God has such respect for this day, ought not men to respect it likewise? Men must not even earn their daily bread on the Lord’s-day,—they must provide it before. If food is not to be earned on this day, surely pleasure should be excluded from it, and all vain jesting. We should always regard the sanctity of the Sabbath.
II. That men engaged in secular toil on the Sabbath will as a rule find their labour vain and profitless. Some of the Israelites went out into the fields on the Sabbath, as they were wont to do morning by morning, but they found nothing. And men who go into their fields, and warehouses, and markets, and museums on the day of rest, generally go with like result; they bestow hard labour for no result. They do not realise the money they expected. They do not obtain the pleasure they desired. They do not get the education they intended. The man who goes out to work on the Lord’s day will in the long run find nothing. He will lack the physical rest needful to diligent toil; men cannot work seven days running all the year through. He will lack the respect of pious customers. He will, above all, lack the blessing of God, without which all hope of prosperity is vain.
III. That men engaged in secular toil on the Sabbath show plainly that they have no regard for the commands of God. These Israelites had been Divinely commanded not to go out to gather manna on the Sabbath, as on that day none would fall; yet they went. “And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws.” Men who pursue their secular toil on the day of rest show to the world very clearly that they are devoid of reverence for the Supreme Being, and that they are lacking in good moral character. The way in which a man spends the Lord’s-day is an index to his soul-life and to his character: only vile men will throw off all the restraint of God’s law, and if they will do this in one thing they will in another. They are outcasts in society. They are selling their souls for gain.
IV. That men engaged in secular toil on the Sabbath have no delight in the culture of their moral nature. It is especially on the day of rest that men of secular toil have the leisure and opportunity for soul-culture, by inward meditation, by earnest devotion, by wise reading, and by the ministry of the sanctuary. And a man who pursues his work on the Sabbath, thereby testifies that he cares not for these important things. He does not wish to reflect on his inner life. He does not wish to remember God. He does not wish to refresh his soul after the activity of the week. He declares that he wishes to go ignorant and careless through time into the mystery of eternity. LESSONS:—
1. That men should work harder on Saturday if necessary in order to get the rest of Sunday.
2. That men who disobey the laws of God in human life make no gain thereby.
3. That the Sabbath must be regarded as a day of spiritual rest unto the Lord.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exodus 16:22. When God orders the manna to be cared for, it is duty to gather bread for two days.
God expects an account of mercies received by His ministers.
Direction from God is to be expected for the right use of mercies received.
Exodus 16:23-26. The holy Sabbath is a rest unto Jehovah, He hath said it, He terminates it.
Reserves of food for to-morrow when God commands shall prove no curse.
God’s rest and man’s repast are made very consistent by Jehovah.
Exodus 16:27-30. God’s fairest offers and sweetest commands are accounted grievous by some.
God frustrates sinners who think to gain by breaking the Sabbath.
God’s bountiful blessing on the Sabbath ought to shame those who degrade it.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Sabbath! Exodus 16:23. At the very time that Israel was so engrossed with the material, i.e., with the body—God reminded them of the importance of the moral, i.e., of the soul. As Kalisch remarks, the Sabbath here introduced is admirably calculated to disclose the internal end of the Sabbath. And what was that end? The perfect harmonising and reconciling of the material and moral—of the physical and spiritual—life of man. And most worthy of notice is the fact that the Sabbath was here fully recognised as an institution—not of recent date—but as it was, an ordinance co-eval with Creation itself; nay, as Mant says, the perpetual memory of the Maker’s rest. So that the manna preaches with Wisdom’s voice—cries loudly on us to hallow the Sabbath-day—proclaims distinctly the law of righteous condemnation for neglect or misuse—and points plainly to the fruits of obedience to the Divine behest. As Beecher says, the world without a Sabbath would be like a man without a smile—like a summer without a flower—like a homestead without a garden. It is the green oasis—the little grassy meadow in the wilderness. Wilberforce exclaimed: “Oh! what a blessing is Sunday, interposed between the waves of worldly business, like the Divine path of Israel through the parted Jordan.” Yet that day’s joys are in proportion to our week’s provision; and neglect of Jesus during the preceding days, will deprive us of enjoying His grace on the Sabbath. And so with preparations in time for the endless Sabbath of heaven. Therefore—
“Now in the morning sunlight, and now at life’s decay,
We gather of the portion appointed for THAT DAY.”
Sabbath! Exodus 16:28. On the sides of an English coal mine, limestone is in constant process of formation, caused by the trickling of water through the rocks. This water contains a great many particles of lime, which are deposited in the mine, and, as the water passes off, these become hard, and form the limestone. This stone would always be white, like white marble, were it not that men are working in the mine, and as the black dust rises from the coal, it mixes with the soft lime, and in that way a black stone is formed. Now, in the night, when there is no coal-dust rising, the stone is white; then again, the next day, when the miners are at work, another black layer is formed, and so on alternately black and white through the week until Sabbath comes. Then if the miners keep holy the Sabbath, a much larger layer of white stone will be formed than before. There will be the white stone of Saturday night, and the whole day and night of the Sabbath, so that every seventh day the white layer will be about three times as thick as any of the others. But if the men work on the Sabbath they see it marked against them in the stone. Hence the miners call it “the Sunday stone.” How they need to be very careful to observe this holy day, when they would see their violation of God’s command thus written down in stone—an image of the indelible record in heaven!
“Heaven here; man on those hills of myrrh and flowers;
A gleam of glory after six day’s showers.”
—Vaughan.
Sabbath-Rest! Exodus 16:25. Like the pilgrim, the Christian sits down by this well in the desert—for what to him is the Sabbath but a fountain in a land of drought,—a palm-tree in the midst of the great wilderness; and as he drinks of the refreshing waters of this palm-shaded fountain, he is reminded of that rest which remaineth for the people of God. When, as Cumming says, that last Sabbath comes—the Sabbath of all creation—the heart, wearied with tumultuous beatings, shall have rest; and the soul, fevered with its anxieties, shall have peace. The sun of that Sabbath will never set nor hide his splendours in a cloud. Our earthly Sabbaths are but dim reflections of the heavenly Sabbath, cast upon the earth, dimmed by the transit of their rays from so great a height and so distant a world. They are but—
“The preludes of a feast that cannot cloy,
And the bright out-courts of immortal glory!
—Barton.