The fourth commandment
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. For six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; on it, you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male slave or your female slave, or your cattle, or your resident who stays with you. For in six days, the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; for that reason, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Exodus 20: 8-11 NASB
Why is the Sabbath important?
“The fourth commandment prescribes a weekly timeout during which God’s people were to abstain from work. The word Sabbath means “to cease from activity.” In ancient Israel, the Sabbath was a day set aside to rest from the toil of work and to worship God.” (West, 2010)
In Genesis 2:1-3, We read how God worked for six days and then rested from His work on the seventh day. From the beginning, God created a cycle of work and rest. Because God is omnipotent, this was a pattern for humanity, not because God needed the rest.
“Certain aspects of the Sabbath have been abolished. Strip away the cultural context and the case law, and the main takeaway from the Mosaic Sabbath is that we must rest from our labors and trust in God. This is the principle that we find fulfilled in Christ. Jesus showed us the fullest, deepest meaning of the Sabbath, namely, that we should trust in God to be our provider, sustainer, deliverer, and savior. The judicial penalties and ceremonial legalities of resting on Saturday have been eliminated.” (DeYoung, 2018)
It is a day for us as Christians to honor God through rest and worship. Resting allows us to be free to worship God, and rest demonstrates our trust in God to provide for our needs.
For Israel, keeping the Sabbath was tied to the moral and ceremonial aspects of the law. Because of Christ’s sacrificial death, the ceremonial law has been fulfilled. However, the principles of the Sabbath are still important for Christians today.
“The day of worship was changed. Since the early days of the church, Christians have gathered for worship on the first day of the week (Sunday, the day of the Lord’s resurrection) instead of on the seventh day (Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath). (See Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:1–2). In commemorating the day when Christ rose from the dead and appeared to His disciples (John 20:19), Sunday has been identified as the “the Lord’s Day” (Revelation 1:10). The early church fathers also testified to the change of day, as can be found in the Epistle of Barnabas (AD 120) and the writings of Justin Martyr (AD 140) and Clement of Alexandria (AD 194).” (West, 2010)
How to keep the Sabbath?
1.Take time to worship God.
The Lord is the Creator of all things. Therefore, we should set aside time to worship Him. Hebrews 10:25 tells us that our worship of the Lord should not be a solitary activity. We are to faithfully gather with other believers to worship Him.
2.Take time to rest.
Work was not a result of the fall of humanity back in Genesis 3. Work is a good thing. Yet, God calls us to step away from the business of life to rest. By resting, we learn to trust God for our needs. It reminds us that we can rely on Christ every day of the week.
Give yourself a break to worship and praise the Lord.
“Christ took the Sabbath into the grave with Him and brought the Lord’s Day out of the grave with Him on the resurrection morn.” B. B. Warfield
Bibliography
DeYoung, K. (2018). THE 10 COMMANDMENTS What They Mean, Why They Matter, and Why We Should Obey Them
West, R.M. (2010) “The 10 Commandments—Then and Now”
Everything listed is amazing but what sticks out to me the most is the following:
Give yourself a break to worship and praise the Lord!
It’s such a powerful sentence. There are so many things we do and think about but sometimes we forgot whose we are and who gives us the ability to simply be! For humans to simply be, that is a gift only JESUS CHRIST has, he has the ability to give it and take it away. We should honor and praise him everyday but especially on the Sabbath as we rest and draw closer to GOD!
Yes, I love this too!