[98] Ex. 25-31.
[99] Ex. 31:12-18.
[100] Eze. 20:11, 12, 19, 20.
[101] See [third chapter] of this work.
[102] “To sanctify, kadash, signifies to consecrate, separate, and set apart a thing or person from all secular purposes to some religious use.” Clarke’s Commentary on Ex. 13:2. The same writer says, on Ex. 19:23, “Here the word kadash is taken in its proper, literal sense, signifying the separating of a thing, person, or place, from all profane or common uses, and devoting it to sacred purposes.”
[103] Gen. 17:7, 8; 26:24; 28:13; Ex. 3:6, 13-16, 18; 5:3; Isa. 45:3.
[104] Lev. 11:45.
[105] See [chapter third].
[106] As a sign it did not thereby become a shadow and a ceremony, for the Lord of the Sabbath was himself a sign. “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in Mount Zion.” Isa. 8:18. In Heb. 2:13, this language is referred to Christ. “And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against.” Luke 2:34. That the Sabbath was a sign between God and Israel throughout their generations, that is, for the time that they were his peculiar people, no more proves that it is now abolished than the fact that Jesus is now a sign that is spoken against proves that he will cease to exist when he shall no longer be such a sign. Nor does this language argue that the Sabbath was made for them, or that its obligation ceased when they ceased to be the people of God. For the prohibition against eating blood was a perpetual statute for their generations; yet it was given to Noah when God first permitted the use of animal food, and was still obligatory upon the Gentiles when the apostles turned to them. Lev. 3:17; Gen. 9:1-4; Acts 15.
The penalty of death at the hand of the civil magistrate is affixed to the violation of the Sabbath. The same penalty is affixed to most of the precepts of the moral law. Lev. 20:9, 10; 24:15-17; Deut. 13:6-18; 17:2-7. It should be remembered that the moral law embracing the Sabbath formed a part of the civil code of the Hebrew nation. As such, the great Law-giver annexed penalties to be inflicted by the magistrate, thus doubtless shadowing forth the final retribution of the ungodly. Such penalties were suspended by that remarkable decision of the Saviour that those who were without sin should cast the first stone. But such a Being will arise to punish men, when the hailstones of his wrath shall desolate the earth. Our Lord did not, however, set aside the real penalty of the law, the wages of sin, nor did he weaken that precept which had been violated. John 8:1-9; Job 38:22, 23; Isa. 28:17; Rev. 16:17-21; Rom. 6:23.