8 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 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. 11 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."

Does It Still Apply?

Some claim that Jesus was attempting to lessen the law of the Sabbath, where in all other cases, He had strengthened the Law, and pointed out its spiritual intent. I would contend that He did no differently here. Why? Because it had been taken to ridiculous extremes, to the point of doing harm by neglect. He pointed out that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.

Mk 2:23-28
23 And it came about that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to Him, "See here, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" 25 And He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and became hungry, he and his companions: 26 how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he gave it also to those who were with him? " 27 And He was saying to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 "Consequently, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

The Jews had made the Sabbath a matter of extreme efforts to avoid all work at all cost. While our rest was certainly a prime concern of the commandment, it was not intended to so restrict our actions as to have us stressing over how to comply. Nor was the sole intent of the commandment to cease our labors. The intent was to set aside a day to be totally devoted to God, as no other day would allow. Jesus, in attacking the minute details that the Pharisees had burdened the day with, was not revoking the Law, but returning it to its original intent - rest and holiness.

Paul declared that the Christian's freedom included the freedom to observe certain days as special or not, as they saw fit. Slowly, the Church moved from maintaining the Jewish tradition of the 7th day to observing the first day.

"Sunday was distinguished as a day of joy by the circumstances that men did not fast upon it, and that they prayed standing up and not kneeling, as Christ had now been raised from the dead." (ISBE)

Why Sunday?

The concept of the Sabbath was established in creation; God making the 7th day a memorial to the creative power that had made such good. As a memorial to the creation, the Sabbath is a memorial to the Christ who created. The deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt is another echo of this redemptive work of Christ, and it is not coincidence that the Jews were commanded to observe a Sabbath in memorial to that great work.

It is by His creative workmanship that we are now a new creation (2Co 5:17). For us, then, the Sabbath remains a memorial to the creative power of God, as shown through our recreated being. Because the Sabbath is thus most importantly a sign of Christ's work on our behalf, it has come to be celebrated on the first day of the week, the day of the Resurrection which is the sign and seal of our deliverance. Because it memorializes the new creation, it has not only moved to the day that sealed that creative act, but it has been called the Lord's day, rather than the Sabbath.

The Lord made the Sabbath holy. This is one reason He gives us for observing it. The Lord, in choosing the first day to be resurrected, made that day holy. As He established the goodness of creation in the day of rest, He established the goodness of the new creation in the day of resurrection. How can we but remember? How can we but be joyful to recall what He has done?

God Is Not Fooling

Holy is Holy

Nu 15:32-35
32 Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. 33 And those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation; 34 and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done to him. 35 Then the LORD said to Moses, "The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp."

God is not fooling. He fully expects His people to take His commandments seriously. He does not expect us to render lip-service. He does not expect us to obey for fear of reprisals. He expects heartfelt, loving compliance. If we love Him, we will keep His commands.

Establishing the House of Prayer

Isa 56:4-7

To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths,
And choose what pleases Me, And hold fast My covenant,

To them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial,
And a name better than that of sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.

Consider this: God had precluded all who suffered from physical deformities from serving in His temple. He was not even willing that such things as were sacrificed to Him be defective in any way. A eunuch is, by definition, deformed from his created state. The Gentile is, by most definitions, unclean - so inappropriate to worship that he was not even allowed in the Temple. Yet God declares that this is a means to their being made acceptable. This is a means for their joining the family of God. This is the way that leads to God's house becoming once more a house of prayer!

Consider this as well: God does not accept deformed or imperfect sacrifices, and we know that we are called to be living sacrifices. We know perfection is beyond us in this flesh, yet we are called to it. We know God does not ask of us what He does not empower in us. Where is that power? It's in God Himself. It's in Christ atoning for our sins. It's in the Holy Spirit working within us. It's in the Father who called us to Himself, to be His children.

Blessings in Delightful Rest

God promises great blessing on those who keep His Sabbath, those who maintain the holiness of the holy. But notice! It's not a matter of fulfilling an obligation, it's a matter of delight. God loves a cheerful giver. God loves a cheerful worshiper. God loves a cheerful student of His word. God loves a heart that moves in love.

Which do you find more joyful: the things your spouse or child or friend does begrudgingly, or that which is done without your so much as asking? Why would we expect God to be any different? We're created in His image! We are His reflection. In our own feelings and attitudes we are given a glimpse of His - an imperfect glimpse to be sure, but one most easily understandable by such as us.

Redemption Found in Rest

Jer 17:24-25
24 "But it will come about, if you listen attentively to Me," declares the LORD, "to bring no load in through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to keep the Sabbath day holy by doing no work on it, 25 then there will come in through the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city will be inhabited forever.

To me, this is stunning. The covenant established with David, God says, will find its fulfillment when His people come to obey this one commandment. No mention is made of all our other duties to God, nor those duties we owe to our neighbors, except this one thing: that we will rest from our labors on God's chosen day, and devote our attention to keeping it holy! Stunning!

Where to Draw the Line

What does this mean to us? Well, it means that the Sabbath is not an excuse not to assist a brother in need, but that its general purpose is to our good. Look at the parallel verses: It is a day for us (and those with us) to refresh ourselves in rest, this is for our needs.

It is to remind us that God sanctifies. How are we reminded? By spending that resting time in contemplation of Him, in His Word, in His presence. It is His command, and as we see so often in the letters of John, to love Him is to obey His commands. It is supposed to be an act of our love for God that we keep the day holy.

Of course, as Calvin has noted in the Institutes, every day we ought to be contemplating God, spending time in His Word and presence, and being about His work. In that respect, every day ought to be a Sabbath to us. On the other hand, this is not a call to being a sluggard when it comes to doing our own work.

We cannot spend all of every day doing nothing but contemplating God, for our daily needs are part of the work He assigns to us, too. He calls us to give a good day's work to our employer, to be worthy of our wage. He calls us to be families and communities, which requires real effort from us. He calls us, also to serve His kingdom in more recognizable ways. In all these things, we can and should continue to keep Him in mind.

It is possible to continue to praise and honor God as we go through the mundane tasks of the day. It is not easy, but it is possible. Type J. I want to be a Type J personality! Always contemplating Jesus - the image and the Word of God - no matter what I am doing. God, it's going to take some work from both of us for me to reach that point. I pray that You would find me willing, for I know You are willing.

From the Westminster Shorter Catechism:

• The fourth commandment requires the keeping holy to God such set times as he hath appointed in his Word; expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy Sabbath to himself.
• From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath; and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath.
• The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God's worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.
• The fourth commandment forbids the omission or careless performance of the duties required, and the profaning the day by idleness, or doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words, or works, about our worldly employments or recreations.
• The reasons annexed to the fourth commandment are, God's allowing us six days of the week for our own employments, his challenging a special propriety in the seventh, his own example, and his blessing the Sabbath day.

This last seems most telling to me. God has given us six days to do with what we will, to be industriously pursuing our needs and interests. He asks only one to be devoted to His interests. Is it too much for us to give? We have [hopefully] learned to tithe of our increase, of our financial gains. To keep the Sabbath holy is but to tithe the time God has graciously allowed us to be alive.

There are 168 hours in the week. On average, we are awake 16 hours on any given day. Are we pressed for time? Overwhelmed by all the duties that cal for our attention? Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness. Test Him in this matter of tithing, and see if He will not cause you to overflow in an abundance of time and energy for all those things He has given you to do!

From Calvin's Institutes:

The commandment points out that we ought to be dead to our own desires, and meditating on God's kingdom instead. The establishment of the Sabbath served to give the people rest from their work so that God could work in them, to give them a specific day given over to sacred assembly to hear and meditate on God's works, and to allow their workers a rest as well.

The Sabbath is a sign of God being our sanctification, and correlates to our task of fully subjecting our will to His. To this end, we must cease all our striving and learn to rest in Him. The Jews kept the seventh day in imitation of God's example. As the seventh day is the perfection of the week (being the day God rested from His works), so the Sabbath itself will not be perfected (we will not rest in Him perfectly) until the Last Day.

The Sabbath consists not solely of a break from physical labors, but must also consist in meditating on the Lord. Christ, as the embodiment of truth, fulfilled the ceremonial part of the commandment, and so abolished it, as His arrival in truth set aside all foreshadowing ceremonies. He is our Sabbath. There remains for us a need for a regulated schedule by which to meet in assembly. Scripture requires it, and experience supports it. A day on which to assemble is a necessary part of doing things decently and in order. While it would be great spiritual good to meet for such purposes daily, the rule of love requires us to consider those weaker brothers among us and keep to the Sabbath example.

The keeping of days which is condemned in Scripture is that meticulous keeping from work on particular days in hopes of being thereby holy. In the Church, the Sabbath serves rather an ecclesiastical purpose, providing a fixed day for people to gather on. We ought always to meditate on the everlasting Sabbath to come, and ought to apply our leisure time to meditation on God's Word. We ought to come together regularly in assembly, whether on the seventh day or another. We ought not to oppress our workers by insisting on seven days of work from them. In sum, "we should diligently frequent the sacred meetings, and make use of those external aids which can promote the worship of God."

From McClintock & Strong:

To sanctify this day, we should consider it --

1. a day of rest; not, indeed, to exclude works of mercy and charity, but a cessation from all labor and care;
2. as a day of remembrance; of creation, preservation, redemption;
3. as a day of meditation and prayer, in which we should cultivate communion with God; (Rv 1:10 - I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard a voice like a trumpet.)
4. as a day of public worship; (Ac 20:7 - On the 1st day of the week, we gathered to break bread and Paul talked to them until midnight. Jn 20:19 - At evening on that 1st day of the week, the disciples were behind closed doors for fear of the Jews, yet Jesus came and stood among them, saying, "Peace be with you.")
5. as a day of joy (Isa 56:2 - How blessed is the man who does not profane the Sabbath. Ps 118:24 - This is the day that the Lord ahs made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
6. as a day of praise (Ps 116:12-14 - How shall I repay the LORD for all He has done? I will lift up my salvation and call on His name. I will pay what I have vowed to Him in the presence of His people.)
7. as a day of anticipation, looking forward to that holy, happy, and eternal Sabbath which remains for the people of God.