LESSON X.—SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1899.
15 "In those days saw I in Judah some treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses therewith; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold 16 victuals. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought in fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, 18 What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring 19 all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath. And it came to pass that, when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut, and commanded that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath; and some of my servants set I over the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the Sabbath day. 20 So the merchants and sellers of all kind of ware lodged with- 21 out Jerusalem once or twice. Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came 22 they no more on the Sabbath. And I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the Sabbath day. Remember unto me, O my God, this also, and spare me according to the greatness of Thy mercy." Golden Text: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." Ex. 20:8. (1) What was the condition of things at Jerusalem at the time of this lesson? Note 1. (2) What disregard of God's law did Nehemiah observe? V. 15. Note 2. (3) What did he do? Same verse. (4) What further evils did he find? V. 16. (5) What decided protest did he make to the men in authority? Vs. 17, 18. Note 3. (6) What preventive measures did he take? V. 19. Note 4. (7) What effect did these have? V. 20. (8) What did Nehemiah further do? V. 21. Note 5. (9) What change did he give the Levites? V. 22. Note 6. (10) What command should we all heed? Golden text. Note 7. 1. The time of this lesson was in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes. Verse 6. The section includes chapter 13. Read in connection with this lesson Isa. 56:1-8; 58:12, 13; and Jer. 17:19-27. Nehemiah found a sad state of things on his return. One of the chief enemies of the Lord, Tobiah, the Ammonite, a heathen, had been given a place in the temple of the Lord by Eliashib, the priest; the Sabbath was of course desecrated under such a condition of things; and intermarriages with the heathen were becoming frequent. 2. In Judah.—God's people in the country were transgressing the Sabbath. The commercial spirit, the spirit of worldly getting, was absorbing their life and crushing spirituality, even as it is with many to-day. And the men of Jerusalem encouraged the people in the country by buying. And this example of God's own people, of course, encouraged the heathen of Tyre. 3. I contended.—Here were the circumstances; Jerusalem was the city of God; the Jews were the people of God, brought back from captivity to represent Him; they professed so to do and be; and surely Nehemiah had the right, as the Lord laid upon him the duty, to demand that the nobles of Judah should live up to the purpose for which they were called. Wrath upon Israel.—If Israel had but kept the Sabbath in the past, Jerusalem would have remained "forever." Jer. 17:25. But the people turned from God to Baal, from the Sabbath of the Lord to the sun festivals of Baal, chief among which was the sun's day, and Jerusalem was destroyed. Jer. 17:27; 2 Chron. 36:19-21. It was Nehemiah's hope that after the captivity the Jews would reform. 4. Began to be dark.—In this we have a confirmation of the time when the day, and hence the Sabbath day, began, namely, "when the sun was setting," when the heavy walls and gates cast their dense shadows. See also Gen. 1:5; Lev. 23:32; Matt. 8:16; Mark 1:32; Luke 4:40. The Sabbath of the Lord begins at sunset of the sixth day. The only time to keep the Sabbath is to observe it at the time given of God. The doors should be shut.—It was the church of God closing its doors. Nehemiah was acting within the church as a governor appointed of God. 5. Testified against them.—They had no business there at such a time. Note that Nehemiah did not command that the sellers should keep the Sabbath; he simply prohibited them from selling upon ground consecrated to God. They could sell, but not in a city belonging to the Lord and the Lord's people. His act was a faint type of Christ's driving the sellers from the temple courts. 6. Commanded the Levites.—He went to the root of the matter. The priests and Levites were responsible for these evils. Let them be purged from their uncleanness, not a mere ceremonial cleansing, but cleansing of heart, and then they could consistently close their gates to the heathen traffickers. Yet the unconverted Jews and priests and rabbis developed out of this a perverted observance of the Sabbath, so that in Christ's time their way of observing the day had become a yoke of bondage. 7. Remember.—So God commands every one to remember the Sabbath day, the rest day, His rest day. In the same command He tells us what this day is, the seventh of the septenary cycle. God rested upon, blessed and sanctified only one day—the seventh. No other day is His rest day, no other day can be. To keep it holy.—Mortal man can not make a day holy. He can only by divine grace keep holy that which is holy. But he can not keep the Sabbath holy unless he is first holy. The Lord of the Sabbath must sanctify the man before the man can sanctify, or keep holy, the Sabbath. This is evident from the fact that God's "law is spiritual;" His Sabbath or rest is therefore spiritual. It is rest from sin. He only, therefore, who is freed from sin can keep the Sabbath holy. How foolish, then, it would be to endeavor to enforce Sabbath-keeping by law! How doubly foolish and evil it is to endeavor to enforce Sunday-keeping by law; for (1) Sunday is not the Lord's Sabbath; it never can be the Lord's Sabbath; it is not a holy day, and hence can not be kept holy; and (2) no human law can compel a holy observance of any day. Here is true Sabbath-keeping: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." Isa. 58:13, 14. "Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil." Isa. 56:2.