[137] Dr. Gill, who considered the seventh-day Sabbath as a Jewish institution, beginning with Moses, and ending with Christ, and one with which Gentiles have no concern, has given his judgment concerning this question of fire on the Sabbath. He certainly had no motive in this case to answer this popular objection only that of stating the truth. He says:—
“This law seems to be a temporary one, and not to be continued, nor is it said to be throughout their generations, as elsewhere, where the law of the Sabbath is given or repeated; it is to be restrained to the building of the tabernacle, and while that was about to which it is prefaced; and it is designed to prevent all public or private working on the Sabbath day in any thing belonging to that;” etc.—Commentary on Ex. 35:3.
Dr. Bound gives us St. Augustine’s idea of this precept: “He doth not admonish them of it without cause; for that he speaketh in making the tabernacle, and all things belonging to it, and showeth that, notwithstanding that, they must rest upon the Sabbath day, and not under the color of that (as it is said in the text) so much as kindle a fire.”—True Doctrine of the Sabbath, p. 140.
[138] Lev. 19:1-3, 30.
[139] Lev. 23:3. It has been asserted from verse 2, that the Sabbath was one of the feasts of the Lord. But a comparison of verses 2, 4, shows that there is a break in the narrative, for the purpose of introducing the Sabbath as a holy convocation; and that verse 4 begins the theme anew in the very language of verse 2; and it is to be observed that the remainder of the chapter sets forth the actual Jewish feasts; viz., that of unleavened bread, the Pentecost, and the feast of tabernacles. What further clears this point of all obscurity is the fact that verses 37, 38, carefully discriminate between the feasts of the Lord and the Sabbaths of the Lord. But Ex. 23:14, settles the point beyond controversy: “Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year.” And then verses 15-17 enumerate these feasts as in Lev. 23:4-44. See also 2 Chron. 8:13.
[140] Lev. 26:1, 2.
[141] Eze. 20:15, 16.
[142] Num. 13:14.
[143] Num. 15:32-36.
[144] Eze. 20:15, 16 comp. with Num. 14:35.