Chapter Six – The Fourth Commandment — “Remember the Sabbath…”

Next Part The Sabbath as a Covenant That Identifies

The FOURTH COMMANDMENT completes the grouping of the commandments that instruct man in his relationship with his Creator—love toward God.

Carefully read this longer command: “REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY, TO KEEP IT HOLY. Six days shall you labour, and do all your work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger that is within your 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” (Ex. 20:8-11).

This commandment is controversial to most professing Christians. God instructs to observe it. But most simply choose to ignore it. Yet, the Fourth Commandment is the all-important test commandment. How we keep it demonstrates to God our willingness to honour Him and walk in His ways. God’s Word describes it as a sign identifying the people who seek to obey God.

Long Running Debate

The subject of which day is the Christian Sabbath is one of the longest running debates about any Bible teaching. Theologians and ministers of every background and theology have offered their opinion about the “Saturday or Sunday” question.

The Fourth Commandment is the only command upon which a covenant was made. The two commandments that are the most lengthy and detailed—the second and the fourth—are the ones that most Christian churches have chosen to alter for their own convenience. As we saw, they “combined” the Second Commandment with the first, effectively removing it from their bibles. In regard to the Fourth Commandment, they claimed the authority to effectively change the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week to the first. We will see why Satan has gone to great lengths to deceive the world on the importance of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath From Creation

The book of Genesis—the name means “beginnings”—speaks almost immediately about the subject of the Sabbath—the seventh day of the week. It is as though God wanted this issue clearly established in the minds of the Bible’s readers from the outset of their study of Scripture.

Near the book’s beginning, immediately after the “Creation chapter” concludes, the Bible states this: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He RESTED on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God BLESSED the seventh day, and SANCTIFIED it: because that in it He had RESTED from all His work which God created and made” (Gen. 2:1-3).

While no one should have missed, or misunderstood, the weight of this passage, almost everyone has. And rather than examine it, and the many others on the subject, most merely swallow popular thinking without resistance because it is easy.

The first word in this commandment in Exodus, “remember,” shows Israel had previously known about the Sabbath. The Ten Commandments existed and were in force before Moses (as explained in Chapter One).

God made the Sabbath as a time for man to rest from the previous six days of work. He knew that man would need this rest, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. The Sabbath is a time to break away from the daily routine, commune with God, and reflect on our purpose for being.

The Sabbath begins at sunset on Friday evening and ends at sunset on Saturday evening. God blessed and sanctified this time, making it holy. When God confers such honor upon anything, we should take special notice! Many scriptures make clear why He set the Sabbath apart from the rest of the week.

Recognize that God commands man to work six days. He wants man to provide for himself (and his family) and manage his life and finances in accordance with His laws. Many verses, such as John 5:17, 36, show that both God the Father and Christ work—so should we.

Who Was the Creator?

Who was the Creator God who brought the Sabbath into being? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:1-3). The “Word” (Greek: Spokesman) was the Member of the God Family who did the creating. Jn 1:14 confirms the identity of the Word:

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.” This verse, and those following, point to none other than Jesus Christ. He was the One who created, sanctified (set apart) and ordained the Sabbath. The account of the revealing of manna (bread from heaven) is closely related to the Sabbath. This occurred before Israel reached Sinai and received the law.

Before the manna was given, some important instructions for gathering it were given, in Exodus 16:4-5: “Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in My law, or no. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.”

Israel was further instructed to gather only enough for each family’s daily needs. Any manna left overnight would rot and breed worms. The only exception was that the double portion given on the sixth day would not deteriorate the following Sabbath morning. This miracle was intended to prove to Israel that God would provide for their needs on the Sabbath!

Ex 16:4 shows that God used the Sabbath as a test command: “…that I may PROVE them, whether they will walk in My law, or no.” This was to test the Israelites’ response to God’s instructions. The Sabbath is also a test for God’s people today.

Notice: “And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD has said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which you will bake to day, and seethe [boil] that you will seethe; and that which remains over lay up for you to be kept until the morning” (Ex. 16:22-23). Besides showing that God provided extra manna on the sixth day, this also shows the preparation day was always the time to physically prepare for the Sabbath. This includes the bulk of major cooking.

Israel was told that no manna would appear on the Sabbath. They were not to gather any on that day. Yet some went out to find it anyway. God chastised Israel for this: “How long refuse you to keep My commandments and My laws? See, for that the LORD has given you the Sabbath, therefore He gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide you every man in his place, let no man go out of his place [to work by gathering manna] on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day” (Ex 16:28-30).

This account teaches an extremely important lesson. Only God controlled these factors, not Moses or any other human being. The Being who blessed and set apart the Sabbath as holy time proved that He could provide for those who observed and kept it. This event also emphasizes that the seventh day was sanctified—set apart—as the Sabbath before the Ten Commandments were officially given to Israel. People who keep God’s commandments today will find that God will provide for them as well!