Ezekiel 20:12

I gave; both commanded, and also sanctified, those portions of time to be holy rests. My sabbaths; either the weekly sabbath, which, recurring every seventh day, soon multiplied into many, and was to be the commemoration of God's rest from his labour, Israel's delivery out of Egypt, Deuteronomy 5:15, and an awakening of their hopes of the eternal rest with God; or it may, as most like it doth, include all the solemn days of God's worship, every of which was a sabbath, and no work to be done in it. To be a sign of their being peculiarly my people, select from all other, to walk with me, to rest in me, and receive more grace from me. That they might know: this was a teaching sign, they might by other ways know, and by this also. I am the Lord; in this see my authority, and my holiness, who by such means do promote and attain such holy purposes and ends. That sanctify them; that have withdrawn them from the profane and common herd of the heathen, and made them by this relatively holy; or else, that have changed the heart, and filled it with holy, pure, and gracious inclinations, and so made them really holy.