“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.
The Israelites had just made a calf and called it a feast; now God prescribes His own feasts to guard them from that snare. Serious godliness is a continual feast, and joy in God always. Even in harvest's press, the Sabbath must not yield; the work will prosper better for honoring it than for abandoning it.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 34:18-27
Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord God,.... At the three above mentioned feasts; see Gill on Exo 23:17 here it is added: the God of Israel; who had chosen them to be his special people, had redeemed them out of Egypt, and done great things for them since; had made a covenant with them, and had now renewed...
In earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest - This commandment is worthy of especial note; many break the Sabbath on the pretense of absolute necessity, because, if in harvest time the weather happens to be what is called bad, and the Sabbath day be fair and fine, they judge it perfectly lawful to employ that day in endeavoring to save the fruits of...