SITUATED as we are in Christendom, is not easy to realize nation holding a feast to the Lord. A national feast to the Lord, we may say, is an impossibility amongst Gentile kingdoms, it has never been ordered by Jehovah, and, therefore, could not be obediently held. The Jewish people seem to have been slow in keeping the feasts of Jehovah's ordering, for even that of the Passover was neglected, and the keeping of it in Hezekiah's days is marked by especial mention—" for since the time of Solomon, the Son of David, King of Israel, there was not the like in Jerusalem." (2 Chron. 30:2626So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like in Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 30:26).) A feast to the Lord can only be kept in obedience to the Lord, and in order to keep such a feast, the nation of Israel had to cleanse itself of its idols.
Religious feasts, or festivals, are held by Gentile nations. The heathen have theirs. Christendom, in some countries, has its festivals; but a national feast to Jehovah is quite another thing altogether from such vain and often profane entertainments—holiness becomes His house for ever.
Amongst the feasts of the Lord, the Sabbath took the front place. “Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings." (Lev. 23:33Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. (Leviticus 23:3).) The Lord, in a special way, preserved His Sabbath amongst Israel in their wanderings in the wilderness, for on the sixth day a double portion of the manna fell, and none fell on the Sabbath. (Exod. 16:22-2522And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. 24And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. 25And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the Lord: to day ye shall not find it in the field. (Exodus 16:22‑25).) True, as a people, they neglected, or at least they did not commemorate, the feast of the Passover year by year in their wanderings in the desert, for they neglected the rite of circumcision (Joshua 5:55Now all the people that came out were circumcised: but all the people that were born in the wilderness by the way as they came forth out of Egypt, them they had not circumcised. (Joshua 5:5)), but the evidence of the Sabbath as the manna fell from heaven was present to them week by week for their forty years of wandering.
“The rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord” (Exod. 16:2323And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. (Exodus 16:23)) is mentioned, at the beginning of Israel's wanderings, and in such a way as to lead to the belief, that that holy day had been recognized by the people, in Egypt, at least, by such of them as retained in their hearts the fear of Jehovah in that land of idols and profane feasts to many gods.
The Sabbath is the rest day of the great Creator, "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." (Gen. 2:33And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. (Genesis 2:3).) He created, and He made; He called forth into being, and He fashioned the existent into its present form; and having viewed all His work, and having declared “it was very good," He rested. In that rest He placed the first man to rejoice before Him, and to enjoy with Him of the work of His divine hand.
The Sabbath is a hallowed day, the last day of the week of divine creative labor, and is full of the deepest significance, both as regards the purpose of the Creator, and also the purpose of the Redeemer. Ever must man, who knows God, look back to the first Sabbath with feelings of the most profound piety, and, as he considers the sin, and sorrow, and evil around him, with feelings of the deepest humiliation. The first Sabbath is past, and such a rest will never return. Its rest was broken by sin, and ever since that Sabbath was broken, sorrow and death have caused man labor and tears. However, we expect a Sabbath, the rest of which shall never be assailed—a rest which shall be eternal, in which the gracious purpose of our Redeemer God shall be abundantly realized. “There remaineth therefore a rest "—a Sabbath—" to the people of God." (Heb. 4:99There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. (Hebrews 4:9).)
The feast of the Sabbath was commemorative. It was a holy day, and thereon those who loved His name commemorated the work of the divine Creator. The feast was unto the Lord. He Himself had designated it as “My " feast. No servile work was to be done on that day; but joy in the Lord, and rejoicing before the Lord, were necessary qualifications for its proper keeping. It was just at this point the Pharisees and others erred, when they found fault with Jesus for His acts of mercy wrought on the Sabbath day. Love to God and delight in Him and His love they heeded not. The Sabbath was in their eyes rather a feast of the Jews than a feast to the Lord. The most holy season and occasion may soon degenerate into a formal affair. Then the kernel lies dead in the husk, and the husk alone is valued by the religious. Had the religious people of the times of the Messiah rightly read the meaning of the suffering and the misery, the leprosy, the paralysis, and other griefs in their midst, they would have discovered that such ills are inconsistent with a Sabbath of divine rest. But Pharisees and rulers of synagogues were too proud to read the plain lesson, and their pride blinded their eyes so that they were too dull to see the love of God in His Son healing the people. They would not own that suffering is the result of sin, and that if Israel had not sinned, the sufferings in its midst would not have existed. Even though so early as Israel's departure from Egypt, God had declared that this should be the case. (Exod. 15:2626And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee. (Exodus 15:26)).
It was patent that a paralyzed man, such as had been taken to the pool of Bethesda for nearly forty years, could not enter the temple and worship Jehovah; the man had no power to go in thither, and the lame were forbidden entrance. Now when Jesus had given power to the limbs of the man, he went into the temple, but no true worshipper was he, his heart was unmoved towards the Lord, and by his alliance with priests and Pharisees, he brought down persecution on Jesus for healing his paralysis on the Sabbath day. (John 5:1616And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day. (John 5:16).)
Now what was the Lord's answer to the Jews who accused Him for breaking the Sabbath?— "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." What a Sabbath-day truth! Divine love ceases not in its activity because it is the day of rest! Human sin and suffering have disturbed the creation rest of God, but because He is love, the Father and the Son work in love for the good of men.
Our Lord, who worked even unto death for our salvation on the cross, was laid in the tomb on the Sabbath. The work was finished, and that Sabbath was in a sense the last Sabbath of rest. Henceforth, at least till His coming again, the Lord's Day, the first day, took the place for the time of the Sabbath, the seventh day. Now He is risen from the dead, and He is changeless in His holy and loving activity on our account. He is working not only in, but also with, His servants for the good of man (Mark 16:2020And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. (Mark 16:20)). He is engaged on the throne of God on behalf of His people, " He ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:2525Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)). Thus the Sabbath teaches of a rest yet to come.
As a rest remains to the people of God, the Sabbath feast was anticipative, as well as commemorative. Established upon His own work of redemption, Jesus shall bring in a rest which shall know no interruption, and no ending. That shall be indeed a feast unto the Lord; holiness and joy shall reign in human hearts, and God shall rest in His love towards His people. He will have perfected in redemption the purpose He had in view in creation. And in that rest the spirit of these most lovely words will be realized—" The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing." (Zeph. 3:1717The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17).)