MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 23:10-12
SABBATIC YEARS AND DAYS
It has been said that a life according to nature is the highest good. Now, most certainly, a life conducted on the principles laid down by Him who is the God of nature and of grace is the highest good,—being productive of the largest amount of happiness The wisdom and benevolence of the Almighty are manifested in the appointment of the Sabbath; and those consult their highest good—not only their future, but their present welfare—who observe that appointment, and devote a seventh of their time to rest, and to the cultivation more especially of the spiritual life.
I. The beneficence of the Sabbatic year.
1. It is beneficent to the land. Every seventh year the land must rest and lie still. Even in high farming it is found needful to give the land a rest by a change of crops. The earth is wonderfully productive, and has a marvellous power of renewing its youth from year to year, and from age to age. But this power of productiveness must not be stretched too far. The land, too, must have its Sabbath. A shortsighted policy works the land until it becomes comparatively barren; and thus selfishness, in the long run, is not as profitable as a spirit directed by Divine regulations.
2. It is beneficent to the owner of the land. He learns by this arrangement to husband his resources, and to be provident. One reason of the poverty of uncultured tribes is, that they are not provident. They do not look into the future, and store up seed for the coming harvest. This Sabbatic year will teach the owner to be provident. It will teach him to have a wise management of affairs. He will be taught to take a large view of God’s dealings. He will see that the world is not conducted on the haphazard principle. There is method in the Divine government Thus the farmer’s reflective faculties are developed. He is not to be a mere working machine; but a king in nature moving in subjection to the Divine King, learning lessons of dependence upon God, and admiring the bounty of that God who in six years gives ample supplies for the seventh.
3. It is beneficent to the poor and to the beasts, “that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave, the beasts of the field shall eat.” The poor have a divine right to the charities of the rich. There is no law against the plenty obtained by six years’ hard labour; but here is a wise limit to the spirit of acquisition. The poor must not envy the rich their six years’ plenty; and the rich must not deny to the poor the power to glean in the seventh year. God cares even for oxen; and the rich must care for those who are God’s care. If God cares for oxen, how much more for those made in His image. That community must be safe and prosperous where there is this mutual consideration. Communistic violence will not be known in that land where the rich do not oppress the poor. There is plenty for all in God’s vast universe. Let there be no waste, but a wise economy. Surely six years’ produce is enough for the reasonable and benevolent owner of property! Let the poor have the gleanings of the seventh year.
II. The beneficence of the Sabbatic day. The blessed Saviour said, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” And in the Old Testament we find that the appointment of the Sabbath was a beneficent arrangement for man’s welfare. But some so read our Saviour’s words that the Sabbath is divested of any binding power. The Sabbath was made for man, and therefore if man does not want to keep a Sabbath he has no need to do so. Put the statement in another form. It is self-evident that food was made for man, and not man for food. No one would ever think that the statement meant that man need not take food. It was made to meet man’s physical necessities, and he cannot do without it. Now, just in the same way as food was made for man, so the Sabbath was made for man’s physical, intellectual, and moral nature. The Sabbath was not made for man as a toy is made for the child, to minister for an hour or two to its amusement, and then to be destroyed. The Sabbath was made for man as the sun was made for man, to give us light, heat, beauty, and productiveness. The Sabbath was made for man as the revolving seasons, as the sweet interchange of day and night were made for man, that this world may be to him a glorious dwelling-place. The Sabbath was made for man, as the Bible was made for man, that he may attain the true conceptions of manhood, that the true royalty of his nature may not be blotted out of existence, that he may rise above mere notions of animality, that he may stand in this world conscious of the dignity of his origin and the greatness of his sublime destiny. The Sabbath was made for man as the Saviour Himself was made a man for men, that the powers of evil may not gain a complete mastery, and that they may sit in heavenly places, clothed in garments of spiritual fashion, and radiant with Divine beauty. The Sabbath was made for man as heaven is made for redeemed man. A refuge from the storms of life. A home of peace after the six days of care and toil. A goal to which we look with glad hearts, and towards which we work with hopeful spirits amid the intense struggles and fervid contests and fierce strifes of existence. There are those who seem to regard the Sabbath as an infringement on their rights, and as a robbery of the time they might otherwise profitably employ in trade or commerce. And they strive to frustrate the purposes of Divine benevolence by putting seven days’ labour into the six, and then taking the seventh day for the purpose of recruiting an over-wrought physical or mental nature. But it will not do. By and by the man will be compelled to pay the penalty of his folly. Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest. To put seven days’ labour into six is like stretching the bow until it snaps and is destroyed. Man needs periods of rest and release from care, from toil, and from business, and this need is met by the appointment of the Sabbath. This is one of the most beneficent of Divine institutions; and it is the one that is the most universally observed. The greater part of civilized humanity, as if by instinctive feeling, seem to appreciate its beneficence. Its infringement is only the result of a narrow selfishness that would soon bring the social fabric to awful ruin. The Sabbath is not for work, is not for pleasure that may be harder toil than our accustomed work, is not for doing little odds and ends for which we have not time in the week, but for rest—rest of body and rest of mind—rest in divine service, rest in peaceful worship, and rest in holy employments. The Sabbath day fosters the spirit of benevolence. The letter of the Old Testament is not binding, but the spirit is. We must do all that lies in our power so that the ox and the ass may rest, and the son of the handmaid and the stranger may be refreshed. In this world of selfishness it will foster a benevolent spirit, and produce restful feelings to strive to minister to the welfare of the lower animals, and the refreshment even of the stranger. The Sabbath throws open the arms of love, and would enfold a wearied universe and impart abiding rest.—W. Burrows, B.A.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
THE SABBATIC YEAR.—Exodus 23:9-11
For the whole subject, see Dr. Milligan’s article on “Sacred Seasons” in Cassells’ “Bible Educator.” This law was intended—
1. To show the fertility of the land of promise. Every seventh year, without skill or toil, the land would produce of itself sufficient for the poor and the beasts of the field.
2. To encourage habits of thrift and forethought, so that they might provide for the year of rest.
3. To test
(1.) their faith in the providence, and
(2.) their obedience to the laws of God. The subject suggests—
I. That periods may arrive by the order or permission of God when work must be laid aside. Commercial depression, sickness, old age.
II. That the prospect of such periods should lead us to provide for them. We are not like “fowls of the air,” or “grass of the field,” which have to be literally fed and clothed by the providence of God, and are utterly unable to forecast and provide for contingencies.
III. That the prospect of such periods should teach us resignation to the will of God and faith in His goodness (Matthew 6:25-34).
Application.—i. There remaineth “a rest” for the people of God; ii. Prepare for that rest by faith and obedience.
—J. W. Burn.
LABOUR AND REST.—Exodus 23:12
This verse teaches us—
I. That rest is needful, “May be refreshed.”
1. Rest is needful that the exhausted faculties may repose after past work.
2. Rest is needful that those faculties may be invigorated for future service.
3. Rest is needful that work may not become irksome; for if so
(1.) It will be done slovenly; and
(2.) Done imperfectly.
4. Rest is needful that work may be free and joyous.
II. That rest is mercifully provided.
1. This rest is provided by God, lest man should not overlook its necessity.
2. This rest is provided by God lest the servant, the foreigner, or the beast should be defrauded of their right to it.
III. That rest should be diligently earned. “Six days shalt thou do thy work.”
1. Not lounge over it;
2. Not neglect it; but
3. Do it earnestly, conscientiously, and well.
Application.—i. A lesson to employers. God has provided this rest, beware how you steal what God has given to man. ii. A lesson to working men. This rest is yours by right. Then
(1.) claim it;
(2.) don’t abuse it;
(3.) don’t curtail that of others;
(4.) work during your own time, rest during God’s. iii. A lesson to the world at large. Sabbath-breaking is the direct cause of
(1.) Intellectual evils; overtaxed brains, &c.;
(2.) moral evils; neglect of the rights of God and man;
(3.) physical evils. Science has demonstrated the need of one day’s rest in seven.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Mosaic Morals! Exodus 23:1-19. A modern jurist, Hennequin, says: “Good right had Moses to challenge the Israelites, what nation hath statutes like yours? a worship so exalted—laws so equitable—a code so complex?” A Frenchman and an infidel, he observes that, compared with all the legislations of antiquity, none so thoroughly embodies the principles of everlasting righteousness. Lycurgus wrote, not for a people, but for an army: It was a barrack which he erected, not a commonwealth. Solon, on the other hand, could not resist the surrounding effeminate influences of Athens. It is in Moses alone that we find a regard for the right, austere and incorruptible; a morality distinct from policy, and rising above regard for times and peoples.
“But what could Moses’ law have done
Had it not been divinely sent?
The power was from the Lord alone,
And Moses but the instrument.”
—Newton.
Sacred Seasons! Exodus 23:10. The deeper basins of the African Sahara are frequently of great extent, and sometimes contain valuable deposits of salt. Wherever perennial springs rise from the earth, or wherever it has been possible to collect water in artificial wells, green aoses break the monotony of the desert. They might be compared with the charming islands that stud the vast solitudes of the Southern Seas. A wonderful luxuriance of vegetation characterises these oases of the wilderness. And what is life but a wilderness? What are the sacred seasons but these emerald, living oases! Here the pilgrims halt for refreshment and repose. Here they rest beneath the shadow of the lofty palm-trees, dip their vessels in the waters of the calm, clear fount, feed upon the luscious clusters of grape and pomegranate, orange and apricot. Then with recruited strength they go forth again upon their pilgrimage towards the Land of Rest; singing as they press onward over the sands of time, How sweet
“To hold with heaven communion meet—
Meet for a spirit bound to heaven;
And, in this wilderness beneath,
Pure zephyrs from above to breathe.”
—Bowing.
Sabbath Beneficence! Exodus 23:12. Stations on the line of your journey, remarks Pulsford, are not your journey’s end; but each one brings you nearer. A haven is not Home; but it is a place of quiet and rest where the rough waves are stayed. A garden is a piece of common land, yet it has ceased to be common. It is now an effort to regain paradise. Such are the Lord’s days. The true Lord’s Day is the rest that remaineth for the people of God—is the upper Eden of eternity. But its earthly type is the ever-recurring weekly world-Sabbath. By cultivating our earthly Sabbaths, we are making an effort to regain the lost Paradise. That benefit God designed, and that blessing God will confer.
“Sabbaths, like waymarks, cheer the pilgrim’s path,
His progress mark, and keep his rest in view.”
“In life’s bleak winter they are pleasant days,
Short foretastes of the long, long spring to come.”
—Wilcox.