Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
This command belongs to the Day of Atonement, whose solemn services were performed on the tenth day of the seventh month. On that day no manner of work was to be done, with all work and business set aside. This was a statute for ever, binding throughout all generations in all dwellings.
It was a time for afflicting the soul and for solemn humiliation before God. Every person was to humble himself while the atonement was being made, and the whole congregation was to devote the day to that humiliation. The day was given to prayer, fasting, searching of heart, and self-examination.
That humbling meant calling sins to mind and repenting of them with affliction of soul. It meant confessing one's own sins with real contrition, repenting of them, and forsaking them. On such a day humility and repentance are fitting, rather than strife and rivalry.
Every part of the service had to be attended to with becoming reverence and the greatest care, lest anger be displayed. The high priest had to make the most careful and solemn preparation and guard himself with utmost diligence from all contamination.
The day was a preparation for the great conflict. Its ordinance points to the present solemn period of the antitypical Day of Atonement now going on in heaven. That present work requires still greater holiness from those who minister in sacred things. It requires all to humble their hearts, to look beyond earthly gain to the great beyond, to hesitate at no sacrifice, and through watchfulness and prayer to come off conquerors.
This command belongs to the Day of Atonement, whose solemn services were performed on the tenth day of the seventh month. On that day no manner of work was to be done, with all work and business set aside. This was a statute for ever, binding throughout all generations in all dwellings.
It was a time for afflicting the soul and for solemn humiliation before God. Every person was to humble himself while the atonement was being made, and the whole congregation was to devote the day to that humiliation. The day was given to prayer, fasting, searching of heart, and self-examination.
That humbling meant calling sins to mind and repenting of them with affliction of soul. It meant confessing one's own sins with real contrition, repenting of them, and forsaking them. On such a day humility and repentance are fitting, rather than strife and rivalry.
Every part of the service had to be attended to with becoming reverence and the greatest care, lest anger be displayed. The high priest had to make the most careful and solemn preparation and guard himself with utmost diligence from all contamination.
The day was a preparation for the great conflict. Its ordinance points to the present solemn period of the antitypical Day of Atonement now going on in heaven. That present work requires still greater holiness from those who minister in sacred things. It requires all to humble their hearts, to look beyond earthly gain to the great beyond, to hesitate at no sacrifice, and through watchfulness and prayer to come off conquerors.