"Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days a week are set apart for your daily duties and regular work, but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any kind of work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; then he rested on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy. ––Exodus 20:8-11 (NLT)
The story is told in Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography of a clergyman who was ordered to read the proclamation issued by Charles I, bidding people to return to sports on Sundays. Many clergymen refused to read the proclamation in church. This pastor, to his congregation’s horror and amazement, did read the royal edict in church. But he followed it with the words, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," and added: "Brethren, I have laid before you the commandment of your king and the Commandment of your God. I leave it to you to judge which of the two ought rather to be observed."
The choice given in this story from Franklin’s autobiography is still relevant today. When the Commandments of God come into conflict with our culture, which they often do, we must always choose to obey God. It is interesting that the same pressures that existed in Franklin’s day still exist in ours. Often, the Commandments of God fly in the face of contemporary man, and he must choose whom to obey.
The Fourth Commandment is interesting because it is both misunderstood and misapplied. Is this day supposed to be a holiday or a holy day? Are we really expected, in light of our busy schedules, to take off one day in seven? Is this Biblical injunction applicable today?
Significant figures in history have certainly felt that keeping the Sabbath had great significance. Voltaire said, "I can never hope to destroy Christianity until I first destroy the Christian Sabbath." Gladstone said, "Tell me what the young men of England are doing on Sunday, and I will tell what the future of England will be." This Fourth Commandment may be far more important than some of you realize. Perhaps it holds greater significance for your personal lives than you ever imagined. Perhaps your spiritual welfare depends on it.
So, what are the implications of the Fourth Commandment for your life? Do you know whether you are keeping the Fourth Commandment? The Fourth Commandment instructs us that there is a time when …
We Must Avoid WorkIt should be apparent from a reading of this Commandment that God makes a great deal out of avoiding work. Beginning at verse 9, it says: "Six days a week are set apart for your daily duties and regular work, but the seventh day is a day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any kind of work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you." God emphasizes, then emphasizes again, and then emphasizes once again that we should do no work on this special day. Why does God make such a big deal out of this?
A limo driver was asked how many miles he was expected to get out of his limo. He said that he had driven his previous vehicle over 400,000 without a single major engine repair, and that he fully expected to do the same with his current one. When he was asked how he could possibly put that many miles on a car, he replied with a single word: "Maintenance." Now that should not come as a surprise to any of us. The importance of proper maintenance to the life of any vehicle is a well-known fact. For our cars to last, we must periodically change the oil, rotate the tires, lubricate the undercarriage, tune the engine, and replace worn parts. If we do, the car will last much longer than if we don’t. But this truth applies to more than just cars.
There is a great truth here for all of us as well. Just as our automobiles need periodic maintenance, so also do we. There is a "maintenance law" for cars, and there is a "maintenance law" for people too. It is more than simply a tune-up, however. It is a plan for our total welfare. This maintenance law is found in the Fourth Commandment.
The truth God is communicating to us is that there is more to life than labor. God modeled this truth through His own behavior in Creation. Verse 11 tells us, "For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; then he rested on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy." Now why do you think God rested on the seventh day? Was it because He was tired? If God is God, how could He be tired? Why would God even need six days in which to create the world? Surely God could have created everything with one word! He did not need six days in which to create the world. And he did not need to rest on the Sabbath. No, God did these things in order to give us an example. He wanted to show us that there is a time for work, and a time for rest from work. In fact the word Sabbath in Hebrew comes from a root that means "rest." God’s commandment and His own example indicates to us that there is more to life than labor.
It is amusing to me that people are only recently "discovering" what God said over 3,000 years ago. Production analysts have concluded only recently that reasonably spaced work breaks clearly increase productivity. The medical community gives statistics which indicate that workaholics top the list in work related disorders such as high blood pressure and premature heart attack. God knew this before all the doctors and analysts. He knew that our bodies need a break.
Our emotions need a break as well. By the end of a long workweek we can be emotionally exhausted. Our nerves are on edge, our stress level is way up, and we are in desperate need of a change of pace. If we continue working at that point, we will inevitably begin making mistakes. We will make bad decisions, and do sloppy work. We need a break. By the end of the week, we have grown weary of the phone calls, memos, printouts, appointments, interviews, presentations, reports, problems, classes, meetings, forms, and deadlines. Too many people and too many demands take their toll. We need a break, but that break is for more than just rest. The Fourth Commandment instructs that on the Lord’s Day we must not only avoid work, but also on the Lord’s Day . . .
We Must Accent WorshipThere is a flip side to this Commandment. God gave the Commandment for two very important reasons. The first is that we might be benefited by an absence of work. The second is that we might be blessed by an accent on worship. God not only wants us to stop working on the Sabbath, He wants to start worshipping.
Is this day a holy day or holiday? This Commandment begins by God saying, "Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy." Throughout history, people have worshipped on the Sabbath day. God’s people, Israel, gathered together for worship on the Sabbath: first, at the tent of meeting, later, at the temple, and finally at the local synagogue. Jesus Himself worshipped on the Sabbath, "as was His custom" (Luke 4:16). The Early Church continued this pattern. Later the day of worship was changed from Saturday, the last day of the week, to Sunday, the first day of the week. Jesus had risen on the first day of the week. Sunday was the day of Resurrection. The early Christians, therefore, began meeting on Sunday to commemorate the Lord’s Resurrection. Sunday became known as the "Lord’s Day."
This special day then is a blessing for us in several ways. We are blessed physically, emotionally, and spiritually. In this Fourth Commandment, God established the priority of a special day for our blessing and benefit. The writer of Hebrews commands us that we should not neglect the corporate meetings of the church. God knows what we need. He knows that we not only need rest, but we also need the special communion from Him, which only comes from worship.
We must not neglect it. There may be some emergencies or other situations that cause you to miss the gathering of the church. But those should be the exceptions, not the rule. Billy Graham once said, "Jesus spoke about the ox in the ditch on the Sabbath. But if your ox gets in the ditch on every Sabbath, you should either get rid of the ox or fill the ditch."
When we gather together in Jesus’ name, we must remember that God is here. Sometimes we can loose sight of that. After attending church with his father on Sunday morning, before getting into bed that evening, a little boy kneeled beside his bed and prayed, "Dear God, we had a good time at church today. I wish you had been there." I hope that was not true about this little boy’s church. Jesus has promised us His special presence when we gather in His name. I believe that this is something more than His indwelling presence in our lives daily. There is a special presence reserved for the corporate gathering of His people. When we come together for worship, God visits us in a special way. There is a certain anointing of the Holy Spirit that is reserved for God’s people when they gather.
Our bodies need rest. But more desperately than our bodies need rest, our spirits need worship. That does not mean we do not worship during the week. But there is something especially refreshing and dynamic about corporate worship. It is a time in which we can, together with God’s people, singularly devote ourselves to the most noble task of exalting the name of our God. In so doing, our lives are changed.
In corporate worship, Jesus touches us spiritually. He pours into our weary spirits a fresh revelation of Himself. He sustains us with spiritual nourishment. Our spirit communes with His Spirit, and we are revived. What begins in our spirit, quickly moves to our emotions. Discouragement and despair are replaced with hope and joy. As we take a break from living in this world, our frayed emotions can have the time to rebound. And the touch of God, which begins in our spirit, and moves to our emotions, will also affect us physically. Though we are spirit, soul, and body, we are one person. What affects one aspect of our being also affects the others. When you are spiritually and emotionally refreshed, your physical being responds. We need this special day.
How can we keep the Lord’s Day a special holy day? There are several things we can do. The first is to set the Lord’s Day apart as a priority day. Treat the Lord’s day as a special day. Block it out on your calendar and don’t let anything or anyone interfere with it. You have an appointment with God on that day. Steve Zeisler, one of the teaching pastors at Peninsula Bible Church in Palo Alto, California, said in a message on this commandment:
If the same command were given to us today it would mean one day every week we should not be thinking about getting prepared for the Monday sales meeting. It would mean that we do not pay our bills on that day. It would mean that on that day we do not train our children in any kind of worldly skill. It would mean that we do not do home repair. The call to the Israelites was that one day of every week they would deliberately cease from their labors and enjoy the world as they found it while learning the words of God.
There is no less a need to do this today than there was then. We must make our time with God a priority.
Discipline your life to be faithful in corporate worship. Ask God to show you the importance of corporate worship as a unique time in which the special presence of Jesus is manifest. Determine that you will be faithful, not simply because of what you can get out of it, but because gathering together with the saints of God is a testimony of God’s grace to the world and the people of God. But make no mistake, there is a special blessing God gives to those who honor Him by taking the time to make corporate worship a priority. Listen to what He said to His people in Isaiah 58:13:
If you treat the Sabbath as sacred and do not pursue your own interests on that day; if you value my holy day and honour it by not travelling, working, or talking idly on that day, then you will find the joy that comes from serving me. (GN)
Don’t allow the demands of work to crowd out the important with the urgent. The urgent is seldom important, and the important often does not seem urgent. Don’t capitulate to the "tyranny of the urgent." Many times people fall into the trap of becoming so exhausted by work that they then feel they must get away at every opportunity. Those opportunities often fall on Sunday. Soon they are absent from worship often as well. They return from these "get-aways" not refreshed at all, because they have gotten their priorities wrong. It is not that we should not occasionally get away. We should. But we should never get ourselves into the situation where we feel we must get away because we refuse to take enough regular time for rest and the family. We must discipline our lives to give time each week to our families. The slogan is true for more than drugs, it applies sometimes to the demands of work . . . "Just say no."
Renew your commitment to obey God. God has made us so we will only function properly as we obey Him. If you are willing to obey Him, you will experience rest, joy, peace, and blessing. If you will not, you will reap in your own life the fruit of your refusal: stress, weariness, confusion, and death. Obey God and find the special blessing His day brings. Remember the words of Jesus:
Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. ––Matthew 11:28-29 (NLT)
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