Exodus 34:21-26 Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest: in ripening time and in harvest you shall rest.… "Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest"; that is, you shall not violate the Sabbath-day because it is harvest. I have heard persons say, It has been six days very wet; the corn is standing, and Sunday happens to be a bright sunny day; and they say, We ought to go and cut down the corn on the Sabbath-day. Here is a provision for this very possibility. God says, Even in harvest and earing time you shall still keep the Sabbath sacred to God. And I have noticed, although I admit my observation has been very limited, that that man who has cut down his corn on the Sunday in order to get it in well, did not succeed one whir better in the long run than he that observed the Sabbath as holy, and waited for sunny week-days in order to do his week-day work. I admit that there are works of necessity and mercy that are proper to be done on the Sabbath-day; and I can conceive the possibility that a time may come — an autumn may come when, even upon the Sabbath-day, you should be obliged to cut down the corn in consequence of unfavourable weather on the week-days; but you should first be well satisfied that there is no prospect of sunshine during the six days that are to follow. Do not forget that God said — not as ceremony but morality — that in earing time, and in harvest even, thou shalt rest, or sabbatize, or keep the Lord's day. (J. Cumming, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest. |
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