"Remember
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy
work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt
not do any work" (Exodus 20:8-10).
This
commandment denotes that God is the sovereign Lord of our time, which is to be used and improved
by us just as He has here specified. It is to be carefully noted that it
consists of two parts,
each of which bears directly upon the other. "Six days shalt thou (not "mayest
thou") labor" is as Divinely binding upon us as "Remember the
Sabbath day to keep it holy." It is a precept requiring us diligently to
attend unto that vocation and state of life in which the Divine providence has
placed us, to perform its offices with care and conscience. The revealed will
of God is that man should work, not idle away his time; that he should work not
five days a week (for which organized labor once agitated),
but six.
He who
never works is unfitted for worship. Work is to pave the way for worship, as
worship is to fit us for work. The fact that any man can escape the observance
of this first half of the Commandment is a sad reflection
upon our modern social order, and shows how far we have departed from the Divine
plan and ideal. The more diligent and faithful we are in performing the duties
of the six days, the more shall we value the rest of the seventh. It will thus
be seen that the appointing of the Sabbath was not any arbitrary restriction
upon man’s freedom, but a merciful provision for his good:
that it is designed as a day of gladness and not of gloom. It is the Creator’s
gracious exempting us from our life of mundane toil one day in seven, granting
us a foretaste of that future and better life for which the present is but a
probation, when we may turn wholly from that which is material to that which is
spiritual, and thereby be equipped for taking hold with new consecration and renewed energies upon the work of the coming days.
It
should thus be quite evident that this law for the regulation of man’s time was
not a temporary one, designed for any particular dispensation, but is
continuous and perpetual in the purpose of God: the Sabbath
was "made for man" (Mark 2:27) and not simply for the Jew; it was made for man’s
good. What has been pointed out above upon the twofoldness of this Divine
statute receives clear and irrefragable confirmation in the reason given for
its enforcement: "for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea,
and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day" (v. 11). Observe well the twofoldedness of this: the august Creator deigned to set an example before His
creatures in each respect: HE worked for "six days," He "rested
the seventh day!" It should also be pointed out that the appointing of
work for man is not the consequence of sin: before the Fall, God put him
"into
the garden of Eden to dress and to keep it" (Genesis 2:15).
The
lasting nature or perpetuity of this twofold Commandment is further evidenced
by the fact that in the above reason given for its enforcement there was
nothing which was peculiarly pertinent to the nation of
Israel, but instead, that which speaks with clarion voice to the whole human
race. Moreover, this statute was given
a place not in the ceremonial law of Israel, which was to be done away when
Christ fulfilled its types, but in the Moral Law, which was written by the
finger of God Himself upon tables of stone, to signify to us its permanent
nature. Finally, it should be pointed out that the very
terms of this Commandment make it unmistakably plain that it was not designed
only for the Jews, for it was equally binding upon any Gentiles who dwelt among
them. Even though they were not in covenant with God, nor under the ceremonial
law, yet they were required to keep the Sabbath holy—"thou shalt not do
any work... nor thy stranger that is within thy gates" (v. 10)!
"The
seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God". Note well it is not said (here, or anywhere in
Scripture) "the seventh day of the week," but simply "the seventh day," that is, the day following
the six of work. With the Jews it was the seventh day of the week, namely, Saturday, but for us it is—as the "another day"
of Hebrews 4:8 plainly intimates—the first day of the week, because the Sabbath
not only commemorates the work of creation, but it now also celebrates the yet
greater work of redemption. Thus, the Lord so worded the fourth Commandment as
to suit both
the
Jewish
and the Christian dispensations, and thereby intimated its
perpetuity. The Christian Sabbath is from midnight Saturday to midnight Sunday:
it is clear from John 20:1 that it began before sunrise, and therefore we may conclude it starts at
Saturday midnight; while from John 20:19 we learn (from the fact it is not
there called "the evening of the second day") that it continues
throughout the evening, and that our worship is also to
continue therein.
But
though the Christian Sabbath does not commence till midnight on Saturday, yet
our preparation
for it must
begin sooner, or how else can we obey its express requirement, "in it thou
shalt not do any work"? On the Sabbath there is to be a complete resting
the whole day, not only from natural recreations and doing
our own pleasure (Isaiah 58:13), but from all worldly employment. The wife
needs a day of rest just as much as her husband, yea, being the "weaker
vessel," more so. Such things as porridge and soup can be prepared on the
Saturday and heated on the Sabbath, so that we may be entirely free to delight
ourselves in the Lord and give ourselves completely to His
worship and service. Let us also see to it that we do not work or sit up so
late on the Saturday night that we encroach on the Lord’s day by staying late
in bed or making ourselves drowsy for its holy duties.
This Commandment
makes it clear that God is to be worshipped in the home, which, of course, inculcates the
practice of family worship. It is addressed more specifically than any of the
other nine Commandments to heads of households and to employers, because God
requires them to see to it that all under their charge shall observe the
Sabbath. To them, more immediately, God says, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." It is to be strictly set apart to the
honor of the thrice holy God, spent in the exercises of holy contemplation,
meditation, and adoration. Because it is the day which He has made (Psalm
118:24), we must do nothing to unmake it. This Commandment forbids the omission
of any duties required, a careless performing of the same, or a weariness in them.
The more faithfully we keep this Commandment, the better prepared
shall we be to obey the other nine.
Three
classes of works, and three only, may be engaged in on the "Holy
Sabbath." Works of necessity, which are those that could not be done on the preceding day and
that cannot be deferred till the next—such as tending to
cattle. Works of mercy, which are those that compassion requires us to perform toward
other creatures—such as ministering to the sick. Works of piety, which are the worship of God in public
and in private, using with thankfulness and delight all the means of grace
which He has provided. We need to watch and strive against the very first
suggestions of Satan to corrupt our hearts, divert our
minds, or disturb us in holy duties, praying earnestly for help to meditate
upon God’s Word and to retain what He gives us. The Lord makes the sacred
observance of His Day of special blessing; and contrariwise, He visits the
profanation of the Sabbath with special cursing (see Nehemiah 13:17, 18), as our
guilty land is now proving to its bitter cost.
"A Sabbath well spent, brings a week of content And
strength for the toils of the morrow; But a Sabbath profaned, whate’er may be
gained Is a certain forerunner of sorrow."