While the Israelites were still at Mount Sinai, God told Moses to remind them: “Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep” (Ex 31:13). Matthew Henry insists that “where no conscience is made of [the Sabbath], farewell both godliness and honesty” – when the Sabbath is forgotten, it becomes less likely that there will be obedience to the other commandments, and especially that there will be true godliness. The words just quoted from Scripture follow instructions about the construction of the tabernacle. Henry notes that “though they must hasten the work, yet they must not make more haste than good speed; they must not break the law of the Sabbath in their haste: even tabernacle-work must give way to the Sabbath rest; so jealous is God for the honour of His Sabbaths”.
Sabbath-keeping was something the Israelites would very easily forget; they needed to be reminded of it. So the Fourth Commandment reads: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, 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, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
This command has just as much authority today as the rest of the Ten Commandments but, in practice, it is almost entirely forgotten, in spite of that emphatic first word, remember. This call to keep the Sabbath takes account of the fact that the human memory has been seriously affected by sin and, apart from grace – or, at least, a conscience influenced by Scripture or by community feeling – Sabbath-keeping is universally rejected.
But the Sabbath is intended to be “a Sabbath of rest” (Ex 31:15), a day of rest from ordinary, worldly activity, as far as is possible. It should go without saying that the Sabbath rest may be interrupted for reasons of necessity and mercy – for instance, for looking after the sick and preparing food (though it would be in the spirit of Scripture to keep such preparation
to a minimum). Now, though the Fourth Commandment points us in a positive direction – we are to remember the day to keep it holy – most people view every call for Sabbath-keeping as negative, feeling that others are trying to stop them from doing what they really want to do.
We should bear in mind that this commandment, like all the others, is given for our good. Nehemiah refers in prayer to God giving His people “right judgements” – the Ten Commandments were right; they were what they ought to have been, especially because they reflected the nature of God. Nehemiah also described the right judgements as “good statutes and commandments”; they were for Israel’s good. Among these were, Nehemiah continues, “Thy holy Sabbath” (Neh 9:13,14). Yet it is beyond the power of a fallen mind to recognise that it is good for us to confine our activities on Sabbaths, as far as possible, to what is spiritual.
Yes, a fallen mind can recognise that it is good for us to have a change of activity on at least one day in the week – a “rest”, or a change, from one’s ordinary work on other days. But the fallen mind cannot understand that it is good for us to devote ourselves to spiritual activities – for instance, to prayer, reading the Bible, public worship, meditation on spiritual realities, and reading books that are spiritually profitable. That is “because the carnal mind is enmity against God”; the unconverted cannot enjoy the things of God, unless they find a degree of interest in some outward aspect of them. Thus unconverted people could never be happy in heaven, where all activity is spiritual; so there is nothing that could conceivably interest them there.
Jesus did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil it; He kept the whole law: all the commandments, in all their implications. We have the example of His Sabbath-keeping. In Nazareth, “as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day”, for public worship (Lk 4:16). In the course of that service, He read a passage from the Scriptures and gave an address on the words He had read.
We today follow the pattern of synagogue worship, so our services include a reading from Scripture and a sermon. We do not have the Saviour physically present to read and to speak, but He has promised, “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18:20). Preaching, by Christ’s ambassadors, is the special means that God has chosen to use in enlightening the minds of sinners so that they come to a saving knowledge of Himself. It is foolish to stay away when it is possible to attend the sound preaching of the gospel. Can we imagine that those who despise opportunities to hear the Word of God faithfully proclaimed are, in other respects, spending the time of public worship in the spirit of Sabbath rest?
It was otherwise with David, who sang, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord”. There, sinner that he was, David could see vividly set before him the fact that God had made provision for sin to be put away through sacrifice. Whatever other offerings were being made at any particular time, David and every other worshipper would see the smoke arising from, at least, the morning or the evening sacrifice. And whatever else we might hear when we attend the preaching of the gospel, we should be able to hear something about Christ Jesus, who is made known as the Lamb of God that was offered to take away the sin of the world. Should such a declaration not lead us also to say, “I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord”?
The Old Testament Sabbath was kept on the seventh day of the week to commemorate God’s “rest” after the six days of creation. But because Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week, the New Testament Sabbath is to be observed on that day. This is reflected in John’s statement, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day”, when the Lord Jesus spoke to him. Among the reasons James Durham gives for the day being so called is: it points out “not so much God’s ceasing from the work of creation, as our Lord’s ceasing from the work of redemption; as the Lord’s Supper is for the remembrance of His death until He come again, so is this day for remembering the work of redemption and His resurrection till He come again.”1
It is noteworthy that the one day of the week on which we are told that the Saviour met with His disciples was the first. On the evening of the first Christian Sabbath, Jesus stood “in the midst” of the disciples to encourage them; He said, “Peace be unto you”. He was wishing them well in every way, and especially He was authoritatively expressing His will for the well-being of their souls. Then “He showed unto them His hands and His side”; He was pointing them to the evidence of His sufferings, the foundation for their spiritual well-being. As they looked on His pierced hands and feet, their souls would have gone out to Him in faith as their Saviour, who had died and risen again, for “then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord” (Jn 20:19,20). How often since then the Lord Jesus has appeared in the preaching of the Word on a Sabbath and His children have looked to Him by faith! Again it could be said: “Then were the disciples [true followers of Christ in another generation] glad, when they saw the Lord”.
The Sabbath has been appointed as a rest, but it ought by no means to be a day of spiritual idleness. Far from it! It is by resting as much as possible from the activities of other days that we obtain the greatest opportunity to benefit from the day God has especially appointed for our spiritual welfare.
1Durham, A Commentary on Revelation, Old Paths Publications reprint, 2000, p 35.