The Fourth Commandment (Exodus 20:8-11)

This sermon was preached on Thursday, 30/12/2010

As we have observed in previous studies in this series, the first four commandments have to do with worship and the other six with witness – or to put it another way, the first four are about loving God and the other six are about loving our neighbour. With regard to the first four, the first commandment deals with the object of worship (God alone), the second with the means of worship (no visible representations of God), the third with the manner of worship (reverently), and the fourth with the regular time for worship.

The fourth commandment begins with the word ‘remember’. This word could indicate that the Sabbath was recognised before the Decalogue was given at Mount Sinai or it could suggest that the children of Israel were liable to forget it. Without denying the validity of these two suggestions, I suspect that there is another reason, which is that a proper observation of the fourth commandment is crucial for an appropriate keeping of the entire moral law. For example, if we do not worship when God tells us to do so, how can we assume that he will be pleased with our worship, even if it is focussed on him, free from idolatry, and marked by a sense of seriousness?

No doubt it is easy to see how the fourth is crucial for the preceding three. But does its absence affect how we keep the remaining six? Take the fifth commandment. If my parents wanted me to keep the fourth commandment, and I decide not to keep it, how can I claim that I am honoring them by rejecting their instruction which they taught me because they wanted me to fear God. A lapsed Sabbath is often testimony to a broken fifth commandment. We could go through the other five and make applications from each to the Sabbath.

I think it is safe to say that a person who keeps the first four will not break the second six. Joseph feared God and therefore did not break the seventh commandment when enticed to immorality by Potiphar’s wife. Similarly, a person who fears God will not steal, murder or tell lies. But if he ceases to fear God, then he can break any of the second six, and can often do so without a thought, merely hoping that he will not be caught. The standards of our society indicate this. With the decline of respect for God there has been an increase in sin and crime.

Survey of the Sabbath in the Bible

The first mention of the Sabbath is in Genesis 2 when God instituted the Sabbath as a creation ordinance (he also instituted the ordinances of marriage and work). He set it apart and rested from his work of creation. Of course, he did not rest because he was tired. Instead he rested in order to rejoice in what he had done.

The next mention of the Sabbath is in Exodus 16 in connection with the provision of manna. God did not work on the Sabbath (in the sense of providing manna) and he did not want the people to work either (by gathering manna). Several Israelites ignored his instructions, but they did not find any manna on the Sabbath. Their response reminds us that the presence of regular miracles will not bring about obedience to God’s Word. This incident is a reminder that the Sabbath was kept by Israel before they were given the ten commandments (which suggests it had been practised throughout their history), and that part of keeping it involved cessation from ordinary work.

The third mention of the Sabbath is in Exodus 20 when God commanded the heads of families in Israel to set it apart and cease from work, with care to ensure that domestic animals also rested from their labours. From this special occasion, subsequent references can be traced, whether in rebuke for not keeping it, or in attempts to restore it. The Sabbath became a sign of Israel’s special relationship with God (Exod. 31:12ff.), and therefore to break it was a statement of rebellion that received severe penalties, including death. In Deuteronomy 5:12-14, Moses instructed the Israelites to regard the Sabbath as a day to celebrate their redemption from Egypt.

Indeed breaking of the fourth commandment was one of the reasons why the nation went eventually into exile. The message of Isaiah in Isaiah 58 is both an encouragement and a warning to the returnees: the way for continued success is a proper keeping of the Sabbath.

As far as I can gather, there are two types of occasion in Israel when activities were allowed on the Sabbath. The first was participating in war – this can be deduced from the siege of Jericho when the Israelites marched round the city for seven days, so they marched round the city on the Sabbath. The second was provision for the needy – this is taught in Isaiah 58 when the prophet outlined what true Sabbath-keeping should involve.

In the New Testament, Jesus kept the Sabbath by worshipping God in the synagogues each Sabbath and by acts of kindness to the needy. He also disagreed strongly with the additional requirements of the Pharisees regarding Sabbath observance. The Sabbath is mentioned in the Book of Acts (the apostles usually went to the Jewish synagogues, at least initially, when they began a mission in a new place). It is mentioned a few times in the epistles of Paul, although they are probably not references to the weekly Sabbaths but to additional Sabbaths found in the ceremonial law.

Change of day

The fourth commandment is disregarded throughout the evangelical church today. I have lost count of the number of times someone has said to me, ‘The other nine commandments are repeated in the New Testament epistles, but the fourth commandment is not repeated.’ That may be true with regard to specific references, although we must remember that valid inferences are authoritative as well. So are there passages that indicate the Sabbath still exists in the New Testament period?

The word ‘Sabbath’ does not mean seventh, although in the Old Testament period it occurred on the seventh day. Instead it means ‘rest’. So, there is no requirement in essence that the Sabbath day should be on the seventh. The choice of day was God’s and he can change it if he wishes. So are there evidences that a change was authorised?

1. The first day of the week was the day on which Jesus rose from the dead. On that first Lord’s Day he met with his disciples and did not meet with them as a group until the next Lord’s Day (John 20:19-29). His own example indicates that he no longer regarded the seventh day as the day for meeting with his disciples.

2. The early church gathered for worship on the first day of the week (1 Cor. 16:2; Acts 20:7). There must have been divine authority for changing the day of worship from the seventh.

3. One day in the week is called the Lord’s day (Rev. 1:10). John does not say which day it was, but evidently it is a special day – the title indicates it belongs to Jesus. It is difficult to imagine how another day could be more important than the day which was a weekly reminder of his resurrection from the dead.

Keeping the Sabbath

In order to keep the Sabbath, we must see the purpose of work (the fourth commandment indicates a connection). The Sabbath is not the contrast to a week of work, rather it is the crown of a week in which most of the days are spent in work. In our economic structure, we are liable to equate work with employment. It seems to me that work in the Bible is far more than a career. Instead it covers every area of life. A parent, for example, functions as a provider, a teacher, a companion, a servant of God and many other roles, and he does not abandon them when his time in the office is over. If a person is lazy on the work allowed on the six days, he will be lazy in engaging in the activities of the Sabbath.

The activities of the six days are often done on the horizontal level, but on the Lord’s Day we focus on the vertical. One of our problems when thinking on the vertical is concern about the horizontal. This concern comes from putting work too high (idolatry) or from putting it too low (inadequate attention during the six days, so that its concerns spread into the seventh). Instead we are to see work as a God-given opportunity suitable for six days of the week, but unsuitable for the Sabbath.

Keeping the Sabbath also requires practical preparation. This is indicated in the details here when instructions are given about the care of domestic animals. As much practical preparation that is necessary should be done beforehand. Sunday morning is not the time for doing what we should have done on Saturday night. We should anticipate with delight the approach of the Sabbath.

Keeping the Sabbath involves personal devotions (John on the isle of Patmos), family religion (the fourth commandment in Exodus 20), public worship (the early church in Troas and Corinth), fellowship with God’s people (the example of Jesus on the resurrection day) and performing acts of mercy (Isaiah 58). It is not a day for inactivity. Obviously we have to work out how we are going to do this, and God has not given a set of rules to follow. A single person has more free time than a married couple, a married couple without children have more time than those with young children.

Our behaviour on the Sabbath will inform us of four things: how much we value God, how much we care for our individual growth in grace, how much we love his people, and how much we care for the needy. Quite often, I say to myself, ‘I have so much to do today.’ Actually, we should say that every Sabbath. Murray McCheyne used to get up earlier and stay up later on the Sabbath because he wanted to profit from it as much as he could.

Keeping the Sabbath gives perspective on life. It enables us to look back to our creation, to our redemption by Jesus, to the coming of the Spirit (Pentecost was on the Lord’s Day), and ahead to heaven. We think about these things in our personal devotions, in times of fellowship, in applying the sermons to ourselves, and praying that God would bless his day to us.

The Puritans used to call the Sabbath ‘the market day of the soul’. At this market every thing is free. All that it costs us is our time – or is it God’s time? How much time did we have at the market this past year? Fifty-two Sabbaths is seven-and-a-half weeks. Most of us could do quite a lot in such a length of time. How much have we done for our souls?