Exodus 20:8-11 - "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it
holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a
sabbath of the Lord your God; in
it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or
your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in
six days the Lord made the heavens
and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day;
therefore the Lord blessed the
sabbath day and made it holy."
There is a lot of controversy in the church today concerning this fourth commandment. What is the purpose for this command? What does it mean to "remember the sabbath day"? Is there a particular day that we are supposed to take off, and if so, what day is it? I will say again that nothing the Lord says or does is without a purpose. The Lord has a reason for giving this commandment, and it is a commandment by the way, it's not a suggestion, and we desire to see His heart in these things.
This passage is not the first time in the Bible that the sabbath is mentioned or observed. In these verses the Lord gives the basis for the commandment. He says - "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy." This commandment finds its basis all the way back in the beginning, after the six days of creation. We read in Genesis 2:2-3 - "By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." After the six days of creation God was not tired. He wasn't worn out and that's why He needed to take a break. No, God rested from His work because His work was completed. And God uses Himself as an example for us to follow. He says "I worked six days and then took the day off, and I want you to do the same." What a tender, loving God we have. He wants us to take a day off. And think about who this commandment was directed at, the children of Israel. These people had just come out of Egypt where they had been slaves all their lives. They didn't know what a day off was.
This is one of two positive commandments. The Lord commands us to take a day off. The Lord is a good judge of human nature. He knows that we need a command to take a break, because we can become so consumed with our work that it overruns our lives. Our society places so much of an emphasis on work that usually after you meet someone, after learning their name, the first question we ask is "what do you do for a living?"
This fourth commandment is the one commandment that many people, even Christians brag about breaking. You hear things like this, "I haven't taken a day off in six years." And we're supposed to applaud at that? And even those in full time ministry will say things like this, "I would rather burn out for God than rust out." That's foolish. For some reason over working has become considered a noble or godly thing, but it's not. And since God knows our frame, He knows our thinking, He knows that we need to be commanded to take a day off.
The sabbath is Saturday, but the sabbath law also included other special days throughout the year. It was once a week, and also other special days throughout the year. But there was also a sabbath year. The children of Israel were told to work for six years and take the seventh year off. The Lord says in Leviticus 25:3-5 - "Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. Your harvest’s aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year." There are some people who think that they are keeping the sabbath because they go to church on Saturday instead of Sunday, but there is a lot more involved in keeping the sabbath law than simply attending church on one day as opposed to another, like this sabbath year for instance.
The children of Israel never obeyed the Lord in taking the seventh year off. This is one of the reasons that the Lord allowed them to be taken into captivity by Babylon. We read in 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 - "Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete." The children of Israel lived in the land for 490 years and never kept this sabbath year. So Israel was in bondage to the Assyrians for 70 years in order for the land to have it's sabbaths. So what does it mean to "remember the sabbath"? It means to call it to mind in order to elicit the proper response. And what is the proper response? Vs.8 - "to keep it holy." God wants us to take one day of the week and keep it holy, keep it separate for a specific purpose, because He cares about us.
By the time that Jesus walked on the earth the Jews had complicated the sabbath law so much that keeping the sabbath was a burden. Gods law gives certain details about what can and cannot be done on the sabbath day, but the Jewish people added their own interpretations of these details and also added some more rules, and it got to the point that you would almost need a vacation after keeping the sabbath because it was so difficult. The pharisees were constantly trying to find grounds of accusation against Christ in regard to this commandment. Think of it, Gods creatures accusing Him of breaking the law which He Himself carved in stone with His finger thousands of years before. One of these incidents is recorded in Matthew 12:1-14 which says - "At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.” But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘ I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Departing from there, He went into their synagogue. And a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse Him. And He said to them, “What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand!” He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, as to how they might destroy Him." In Marks account we're given additional information. Jesus says in Mark 2:27 - "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." God gave the sabbath in order to give us a day of rest, but the pharisees and Jewish leaders had made it work. The sabbath was given to keep us, not so that we could keep it.
God cares about us enough to give us a commandment to relax. Nine of the ten commandments are reinforced in the New Testament, this is the only one that's not. Does that mean it's no longer valid? From what I read in Scripture, I am convinced that the Lord still wants us to take one day of the week and set it apart as a day of rest. But He doesn't want us to be burdened down with rules about it like what happened in Israel. We read in Colossians 2:16-17 - "Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ." The sabbath day is a shadow of something that is to come, an eternal rest which is spoken about in Hebrews chapter 4. God doesn't want us to become so taken up with the shadow that we miss the substance.
There are all sorts of different opinions concerning the sabbath day, but we are not to judge one another based on our opinions. Some people think you should meet together and worship God on Saturday, some on Sunday, others have different opinions about the details of this commandment. But Paul says in the verse above that no one is to act as your judge in regard to a sabbath. By the way, this is the only commandment that we're told this about. It doesn't say "let no one act as your judge in regard to murder" because this is straight forward, as most of the commandments are. But with this one, we're not to let anyone be our judge in regard to the sabbath. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. We can't become so taken up with the sabbath, the shadow, that we forget about what it represents. That future day of rest.
Hebrews 4:9-11 - "So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience."
There is a lot of controversy in the church today concerning this fourth commandment. What is the purpose for this command? What does it mean to "remember the sabbath day"? Is there a particular day that we are supposed to take off, and if so, what day is it? I will say again that nothing the Lord says or does is without a purpose. The Lord has a reason for giving this commandment, and it is a commandment by the way, it's not a suggestion, and we desire to see His heart in these things.
This passage is not the first time in the Bible that the sabbath is mentioned or observed. In these verses the Lord gives the basis for the commandment. He says - "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy." This commandment finds its basis all the way back in the beginning, after the six days of creation. We read in Genesis 2:2-3 - "By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." After the six days of creation God was not tired. He wasn't worn out and that's why He needed to take a break. No, God rested from His work because His work was completed. And God uses Himself as an example for us to follow. He says "I worked six days and then took the day off, and I want you to do the same." What a tender, loving God we have. He wants us to take a day off. And think about who this commandment was directed at, the children of Israel. These people had just come out of Egypt where they had been slaves all their lives. They didn't know what a day off was.
This is one of two positive commandments. The Lord commands us to take a day off. The Lord is a good judge of human nature. He knows that we need a command to take a break, because we can become so consumed with our work that it overruns our lives. Our society places so much of an emphasis on work that usually after you meet someone, after learning their name, the first question we ask is "what do you do for a living?"
This fourth commandment is the one commandment that many people, even Christians brag about breaking. You hear things like this, "I haven't taken a day off in six years." And we're supposed to applaud at that? And even those in full time ministry will say things like this, "I would rather burn out for God than rust out." That's foolish. For some reason over working has become considered a noble or godly thing, but it's not. And since God knows our frame, He knows our thinking, He knows that we need to be commanded to take a day off.
The sabbath is Saturday, but the sabbath law also included other special days throughout the year. It was once a week, and also other special days throughout the year. But there was also a sabbath year. The children of Israel were told to work for six years and take the seventh year off. The Lord says in Leviticus 25:3-5 - "Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. Your harvest’s aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year." There are some people who think that they are keeping the sabbath because they go to church on Saturday instead of Sunday, but there is a lot more involved in keeping the sabbath law than simply attending church on one day as opposed to another, like this sabbath year for instance.
The children of Israel never obeyed the Lord in taking the seventh year off. This is one of the reasons that the Lord allowed them to be taken into captivity by Babylon. We read in 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 - "Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete." The children of Israel lived in the land for 490 years and never kept this sabbath year. So Israel was in bondage to the Assyrians for 70 years in order for the land to have it's sabbaths. So what does it mean to "remember the sabbath"? It means to call it to mind in order to elicit the proper response. And what is the proper response? Vs.8 - "to keep it holy." God wants us to take one day of the week and keep it holy, keep it separate for a specific purpose, because He cares about us.
By the time that Jesus walked on the earth the Jews had complicated the sabbath law so much that keeping the sabbath was a burden. Gods law gives certain details about what can and cannot be done on the sabbath day, but the Jewish people added their own interpretations of these details and also added some more rules, and it got to the point that you would almost need a vacation after keeping the sabbath because it was so difficult. The pharisees were constantly trying to find grounds of accusation against Christ in regard to this commandment. Think of it, Gods creatures accusing Him of breaking the law which He Himself carved in stone with His finger thousands of years before. One of these incidents is recorded in Matthew 12:1-14 which says - "At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.” But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone? Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent? But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘ I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Departing from there, He went into their synagogue. And a man was there whose hand was withered. And they questioned Jesus, asking, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”—so that they might accuse Him. And He said to them, “What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand!” He stretched it out, and it was restored to normal, like the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, as to how they might destroy Him." In Marks account we're given additional information. Jesus says in Mark 2:27 - "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." God gave the sabbath in order to give us a day of rest, but the pharisees and Jewish leaders had made it work. The sabbath was given to keep us, not so that we could keep it.
God cares about us enough to give us a commandment to relax. Nine of the ten commandments are reinforced in the New Testament, this is the only one that's not. Does that mean it's no longer valid? From what I read in Scripture, I am convinced that the Lord still wants us to take one day of the week and set it apart as a day of rest. But He doesn't want us to be burdened down with rules about it like what happened in Israel. We read in Colossians 2:16-17 - "Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day— things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ." The sabbath day is a shadow of something that is to come, an eternal rest which is spoken about in Hebrews chapter 4. God doesn't want us to become so taken up with the shadow that we miss the substance.
There are all sorts of different opinions concerning the sabbath day, but we are not to judge one another based on our opinions. Some people think you should meet together and worship God on Saturday, some on Sunday, others have different opinions about the details of this commandment. But Paul says in the verse above that no one is to act as your judge in regard to a sabbath. By the way, this is the only commandment that we're told this about. It doesn't say "let no one act as your judge in regard to murder" because this is straight forward, as most of the commandments are. But with this one, we're not to let anyone be our judge in regard to the sabbath. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. We can't become so taken up with the sabbath, the shadow, that we forget about what it represents. That future day of rest.
Hebrews 4:9-11 - "So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience."
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