A New Look at the Old Law

The 4th Commandment about the Sabbath Day was one of the most hotly contested issues between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees who took it upon themselves to be the guardians and arbiters of Jewish traditions. But even before Jesus' public ministry, the prophets of God had been exhorting the Old Covenant Hebrew people to repent from their selfish disregard as well as their hollow and external ceremonialism about the Sabbath, (cf. Isaiah 58:13; Jeremiah 17:19ff; Ezekiel 20:12ff; Amos 8:5,et al.).