ANOTHER reason why the Sabbath days here included in the typical economy could not have reference to the weekly Sabbath is, that the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment never was a type or a shadow of anything. It was instituted and fully appointed at the creation of the world, before sin entered, and consequently before types and shadows were needed. Instead of being a shadow of anything to come, it points unfailingly back to creation. Types and shadows were needed to point forward to the remedy for sin, only after sin entered. And as we have seen, the Sabbath day was set apart before the entrance of sin; and, too, there is nothing about the Sabbath day which suggests type or shadow.
Speaking of the handwriting of ordinances, and the ceremonial days of Col. 2:16, Dr. Adam Clarke says:
The apostle speaks here in reference to some particulars of the handwriting of ordinances, which had been taken away, viz., the distinction of meats and drinks, what was clean and what unclean, according to the law; and the necessity of observing certain holy days or festivals, such as the new moons, and particular sabbaths, or those which should be observed with more than ordinary solemnity; all these had been taken out of the way and nailed to the cross, and were no longer of moral obligation. There is no intimation here that the Sabbath was done away, or that its moral use was superseded, by the introduction of Christianity. I have shown elsewhere that "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" is a command of perpetual obligation, and can never be superseded but by the final termination of time.
Dr. Albert Barnes, speaking of the same text, says:
"Or in respect of a holy day." . . . The word rendered "holy day"—heortē—means properly a feast or festival, and the allusion here is to the festivals of the Jews. . . . "Or of the Sabbath days" (Greek, "of the sabbaths"). The word sabbath in the Old Testament is applied not only to the seventh day, but to all the days of holy rest that were observed by the Hebrews, and particularly to the beginning and close of their great festivals. There is, doubtless, reference to those days in this place, as the word is used in the plural number. . . . There is not the slightest reason to believe that he meant to teach that one of the Ten Commandments had ceased to be binding on mankind. If he had used the word in the singular number—the Sabbath—it would then, of course, have been clear that he meant to teach that that commandment had ceased to be binding, and that a Sabbath was no longer to be observed. But the use of the term in the plural number, and the connection, show that He had His eye on the great number of days which were observed by the Hebrews as festivals, as a part of their ceremonial and typical law, and not to the moral law or the Ten Commandments. No part of the moral law—no one of the Ten Commandments, could be spoken of as "a shadow of good things to come." These commandments are from the nature of the moral law, of perpetual and universal obligation.
The American Tract Society, in "New Testament with Notes," says:
"Judge you;" pronounce you good or bad, according to your treatment of the ceremonial law. A holy day—sabbath days; in the original, a festival-sabbath. The days referred to are those required to be observed in the ceremonial law—days associated by God with meats, drinks, and new moons. The passage does not refer to the Sabbath of the moral law, associated with the commands forbidding theft, murder, and adultery. The weekly Sabbath was never against men or contrary to them, but always for them, and promotive of their highest good. The observance of it caused them to ride upon the high places of the earth, and to possess the heritage of God's people. Isa. 58:13, 14; Jer. 17:21-27.