Thou hast despised - All my ordinances are not only neglected, but treated with contempt; and my Sabbaths profaned. There is not only no power of godliness among you, but there is no form.
In calling the attention of Judah to the sins that finally brought upon them the Babylonian Captivity, the Lord declared: “Thou hast ... profaned My Sabbaths.” “Therefore have I poured out Mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads.” Ezekiel 22:8, 31. PK 182.1
At the restoration of Jerusalem, in the days of Nehemiah, Sabbathbreaking was met with the stern inquiry, “Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath.” Nehemiah 13:18. PK 182.2
Christ, during His earthly ministry, emphasized the binding claims of the Sabbath; in all His teaching He showed reverence for the institution He Himself had given. In His days the Sabbath had become so perverted that its observance reflected the character of selfish and arbitrary men rather than the character of God. Christ set aside the false teaching by which those who claimed to know God had misrepresented Him. Although followed with merciless hostility by the rabbis, He did not even appear to conform to their requirements, but went straight forward keeping the Sabbath according to the law of God. PK 183.1
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