History 07 THE SABBATH. 6d
Lord and honorable, and will honor him thus, he will
honor them with a place in his Lmmortal kingdom.
Isa. 58:13, 14.
When Jerusalem was threatened with destruction by
Nebuchadnezzar, the Lord sent to that people, through
Jeremiah, an offer to preserve their city from his power,
it’ they would hallow the Sabbath day. He even prom-
ised that the city should stand forever, on condition,
however, that they should not violate his Sabbath. Jer.
17:19-27. But they did not regard this gracious of-
fer of the God of Heaven. Kzekiel informs us that
they profaned the Sabbath of the Lord, and hid their
eyes from it. Kze.22:8 26. And he further informs
us how they defiled his sanctuary, and profaned his
Sabbath ; for they slew their children in sacrifice to
their idols on that day, and then came into the sanctuary
to profanc it. Eze. 23:38, 39. It was thus that they
treated the Sabbath in response to the gracious offer
made them through Jeremiah. And thus wrath came
upon them to the uttermost in the destruction of their
city and the ruin of their nation.
After the Babylonish captivity, when a remnant had
returned to their own land, Nehemiah found them
again violating the Sabbath. He reminded them that
the violation of the Sabbath had been the cause of
their ruin, and earnestly entreated them to desist from
this great transgression. With this solemn appeal of
Nehemiah ends the history of the Sabbath in the Old
Testament. Neh. 13:18.
The prophet Isaiah has given us a glorious view of the
future kingdom of God. When the second Adam shall,
with the family of the redeemed, possess the new earth,
then shall the immortal saints assemble from the whole
face of the earth, on each successive Sabbath, to wor-
ship before the Lord of hosts. Isa. 66:22, 23. And
Paul tells us of this final rest of the redeemed, that
there remains a Sablatismos, i. e., as the margin has it,
“a keeping of the Sabbath,” to the people of God.
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