April 15, 2017 - The Fourth Commandment

The Fourth Commandment

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  On it you shall not work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.  Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

This very long commandment is about sanctification.  It is the last commandment that deals with our relationship to God.  The remaining six deal with our relationship do our fellow man.  Why is the setting apart of one day so important to God?  Like most of the commandments, it is misunderstood and has often been taken to an extreme God never intended.  So, let’s look at it.

The first thing I always noticed about this command is that it says “he (God) rested.”  It begs the question; does God get tired?  The word used here is sharvat in Hebrew, which is more accurately translated as abstain or stop.  God, of course, did not get tired, but by the end of the sixth day, His creation was complete.  Time, space, and matter, the intricacies of the universe, and complexities of DNA, the beauty that surrounds us, was complete.  In response to that, God ordained every seventh day to be set aside for us to remember God, the creator of the universe.

The day was set aside for us, not for God.  On this day, we are to set aside our normal routines, and formally worship God.  Of course, you don’t have to be in a building to worship God.  You can worship Him anywhere and at any time.  But corporate worship is important to the body of Christ and to individual Christians.  It is easy to sleep in.  I admit, I’ve done it.  It is not always exciting to go to church.  But we do it to remember God, the creator of the universe and Savior of our souls.

Isaiah beautifully explained it this way in chapter 58:13-14, “’If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob,’ the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

The Sabbath is intended as a time for us to delight ourselves in God, not ourselves.  Imagine how a marriage would work if one partner only did what he/she wanted and ignored the other.  That is not a real marriage.  Or imagine a parent who went shopping or played golf one day a week and left the kids at home to fend for themselves.  Just one day a week is meant for us to spend time with God.  It is our time to spend with Him.

At one time, in the not so distant past, stores were closed and only a few restaurants were open on Sundays.  The streets of the city were quiet.  After church, people went home and spent time with their families.  For years growing up, my mom and brothers, my uncle and his family, and my cousin Carol, all congregated at my Grandpa and Grandma Rosinbaum’s house on Sunday afternoons.  We ate a nice meal and spent quality family time together. 

But those times are no more.  A normal Sunday means escape to the country to hunt or fish.  That is when little league baseball schedules their games.  This is a time to go to Six Flags or Splash Kingdom.  Or this is when wives shop while their husbands watch football.

The teachers in Jesus day had made rules following the Sabbath so strict, that they condemned Jesus for healing the sick or the disciples from picking corn along the side of the road.  Jesus argued that the Sabbath was set aside for man, and not the other way around.  But that did not mean He was saying, “it’s your day, do what you want.”  He understood it was a necessary day for us to renew our relationship with God.  How often have you had a really tough week and wanted to sleep Sunday morning?  Once a week?  Probably.  And how many times did you go to church, exhausted, and come out feeling refreshed?  That is the key.  We stop what we are doing, worship God with our church family, and listen to a sermon God inspired our pastor to teach.  And that is what refreshes us.

I don’t think I have done a good job explaining this commandment.  I know in my own life, sanctification, drawing closer to God, is a problem.  The cares and concerns of the world are often too overwhelming.  But I know God wants me on this day.

See you in church this Sunday!