The Sabbath

The Sabbath
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For many years most States had laws called Blue Laws. Which forbade most from doing business on Sundays, but few Americans ever really knew why. The answer is found in part:

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.” (Exodus 20:8-10)

“Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.” (Exodus 31:16)

Jeremiah declared that if the Sabbath was kept holy Jerusalem would remain a city inhabited in peace forever. There the people would come from the villages of Judah and from the suburbs of Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the slopes, the hills and the deserts, bringing their tithes and gathering to worship in the Temple of the Lord. But if they refused to keep the Sabbath holy, the alternative to these blessings was as follows:

But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the Palace of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched. (Jeremiah 17:27)

Barometer of Spirituality

Why does the Lord lay so much stress upon the need of keeping a Sabbath of rest sacred to Him? It is because the attitude of the people toward the observance of the Sabbath is a perfect barometer of their spirituality: