In the last pastor’s message, we began our analysis of the Fourth Commandment by recognizing God “blessed” the Sabbath day and “sanctified” it. He made it holy! We definitively determined “when the Sabbath begins and ends” as being from “evening to evening”. We also saw how Sunday—the first day of the week— became a false substitute for the seventh day Sabbath.
Again, as we begin, I think it’s critical to remember that God's Word clearly states that "the mind-set of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit itself to God's law" (Romans 8:7, Holman Christian Standard Bible) and that the Sabbath is a test commandment (Exodus 16:4). In this pastor’s message we will again look specifically at this commandment and proceed with the analysis.
Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it”.
The word remember can have different meanings. In this passage it does not refer to "remembering" as opposed to "forgetting." It refers to having a daily awareness that the Sabbath is coming so that our work can be planned out and accomplished in such a way that we have completed it before the Sabbath arrives Friday “evening”. The Jewish Soncino commentary makes an interesting observation about the instruction to remember the Sabbath day: "The verb is infinitive and so is not limited in time. Always keep the Sabbath in mind during the week, so that if, for example, you come across a special article of food, set it aside for the honoring of the Sabbath... A person should so order his affairs during the week that his mind is completely free of them on the Sabbath" (The Soncino Chumash, page 460).
The obvious focus of this passage (Exodus 20:8-11) is upon the Sabbath day and maintaining its holiness. We honor God by honoring His holy day and keeping it holy; or we disrespect God by profaning His holy day. There are three fundamental elements of holiness. 1) It means to set apart from all other items that may be similar. 2) It is set apart for a specific purpose. 3) And finally, for it to be holy, God must be intimately and actively involved in the setting apart.
God reveals several important points about the Sabbath day in Exodus 31:13-17: "Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death . . . "Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed."
One of the inditements against Ancient Israel was that they profaned the Sabbath. God is very concerned about the way things are done. Twice in Isaiah 56:1-7 He uses the word "defile". "Do not defile My Sabbath."
So, it is critical here in this analysis to look at the word profane. What do we mean by that? When we think of profanity, in our culture; it's an evil or negative thing. However, in the biblical sense, the word doesn't carry negativity with it. It's not intended to convey something evil; basically, what it means in the biblical sense is, it's the opposite of holy.
As holy is set apart, profane means it is not set apart. It's just normal, common, everyday. The Hebrew root word for profane is chalal, and it often means something which is defiled or stained or torn. According to Gesenius, the primary idea behind the verb is simply to lay open or give access to. In other words, to say that you have profaned something that is holy means, here is something that is set apart by God, it's supposed to be protected and preserved as something holy and, instead, you have allowed access to it, so it becomes defiled in that sense. So, it's that sense of giving access to it in a way where one is treating it as ordinary, or common.
Through ignorance, failing to remember or neglect we can defile—profane the Sabbath! In Nehemiah 13:17 he asks, “What evil thing is this that you do, by which you profane the Sabbath day?” Notice also in Exodus 31:13-17 the purpose God gave for keeping the Sabbath: "that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you." God says keeping the Sabbath holy is a reminder to those He calls that He is the One who has sanctified them, setting them apart and establishing a special relationship with them as His people. This passage also tells us that the Sabbath is a two-way sign.
To those keeping the Sabbath, it identifies the true God—YHWH (the Self Existent One) "the Lord [who] made the heavens and the earth"— as the One they worship. His people rest on that day, as He did, in acknowledgment that He is their Creator.
To God, His Sabbath distinguishes those who believe in keeping His commandments from those who rely on their own reasoning for determining how they should live and relate to Him.
Those who keep holy His Sabbath day—the only day of the week God has ever set apart—proclaim, by their actions, their acceptance of Him as the supreme authority over how they should live, think and worship. They grow in understanding God’s Sabbath was “made to benefit man” (Mark 2:27-28, The Living Bible). It is a precious day for—reverence and rejuvenation—a day to strengthen faith and family, a day for extra fellowship with God and God’s people. God’s people recognize the commandments (including the Sabbath) as the “law of liberty,” the very opposite of a “yoke of bondage” (James 1:25; 2:12).
Another aspect of the Sabbath found in the Sabbath Command is also found in Genesis 2:2-3 (emphasis added): God “ended His work” and “rested from all His work.” What “Sabbath rest” primarily means for us as we consider keeping the Sabbath holy is that we cease working and stop participating in materialistic and non-essential mundane activities. Use God’s holy time to rest our minds from “things on the earth” so we can set our minds “on things above” (Colossians 3:2).
When a person is new to Sabbath-keeping, a common question is, “What is permissible to do on the Sabbath?” Some will find this answer vague or frustrating however a lot depends on one’s attitude and Isaiah 58 is a good primer on our attitudes toward keeping the Sabbath. Here we find that we are not to seek our own pleasure and that we should look upon the Sabbath as a "delight."
God created the Sabbath for man as a wonderful inheritance and reward for those who keep His Sabbath and call it a delight. Isaiah 58:13-14 says, “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 a time to honor God instead of doing our normal activities, or simply the things we find pleasing. “Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy” must be our driving motivation. God is the perfect Judge of what we do. He knows our hearts and takes into account all relevant factors, circumstances and attitudes. God holds each person accountable according to his level of spiritual understanding (Luke 12:47-48; Romans 2:11-13; 3:20; 7:7; James 4:17). God expects you to never act against your conscience (Acts 24:16; Romans 2:15; 9:1; 13:5; 14:22-23). Of course, we need to continually educate our consciences by studying the Bible
It is a common temptation of human nature to “add to” or “take away from” God’s laws even though God forbids this (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Revelation 22:18-19). The Pharisees added a myriad of restrictive rules for Sabbath-keeping, perverting the day that symbolizes freedom into a new form of slavery. Consider this question: “Should we be strict Sabbath-keepers?” If we mean “zealous” and “faithful” Sabbath-keepers, the answer is yes! But if we mean strict in the Pharisaical sense—restrictive and constrictive with a Talmud of dos and don’ts—the answer is no. We are not to profane the holy Sabbath, above all, sincere Sabbath-keeping is a major component of strong spiritual growth.
The prolific religious writer N.T. Wright described the Sabbath this way in his book Simply Jesus: “The sabbath was the day when human time and God’s time met, when the day-to-day succession of tasks and sorrows was set aside and one entered a different sort of time, celebrating the original sabbath and looking forward to the ultimate one.
“This was the natural moment to celebrate, to worship, to pray, to study God’s law. The sabbath was the moment during which one sensed the onward movement of history from its first foundations to its ultimate resolution. If the Temple was the space in which God’s sphere and the human sphere met, the sabbath was the time when God’s time and human time coincided. Sabbath was to time what Temple was to space” (2011, p. 136, emphasis in original).
Those who understood that a holy God had given a holy people a holy day for a holy purpose would understand that the seventh-day Sabbath was an identifying symbol of a relationship between the God of creation and a called-out and delivered people. They would embrace the power and wonder of Exodus 31:13, where God told Moses, “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.’”
Let’s quickly consider some commonly misunderstood scriptures from the foundation that we are to remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. Exodus 35:3 says: “You shall kindle no fire throughout your dwellings on the Sabbath day.” How are we to understand this? Weren’t they allowed to start and maintain fires for warmth? Yes they were! Most Bible scholars are certain this refers to fires used for construction purposes, like shaping metals and smelting ores. God foresaw that some people would be tempted to get their work fires started and blazing hot so as soon as the Sabbath ended at sunset, they could immediately begin to do their productive work. The lesson here in this scripture is that God forbids using any part of the Sabbath for preparations for work. Profaning any part is profaning it all.
The same principle explains why “a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day” was committing a serious sin (Numbers 15:32-36). This was not a matter of picking up a few sticks for a campfire. He evidently was gathering firewood in preparation for work to be done immediately after the Sabbath, apparently excusing his actions as not being the creative “work.” Clearly God wants us to avoid planning, preparations and worrying about our jobs during the Sabbath!
That leads us to the last aspect of the Sabbath I need to cover. Each Sabbath there is a time for a “holy convocation” (Leviticus 23:2-3). The word “convocation” in Hebrew (miqra) means “convocation, sacred assembly … for religious gathering on Sabbath and certain sacred days, Exodus 12:16” (Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon). Implicit in the meaning of “convocation” is the gathering together and fellowshipping of God’s people on His Sabbaths and Holy Days.
A holy convocation and true Christian fellowship are intricately linked by God’s design. Probably the most famous words about Christian fellowship are in the book of Hebrews. Christians are commanded “to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” (Hebrews 10:24-25). Hebrews chapter 10 begins by talking about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and how His sacrifice made possible the forgiveness of sin. Animal sacrifice, offered by the priests of Israel, couldn’t truly forgive sin, and give us reconciliation to God.
In view of His sacrifice, we are told in verses 19-22 that we have a new High Priest and, because of Him, we can enter “the Holiest” (we can literally appear before the presence of God) with our sins washed clean. The apostle Paul then goes on to address our collective duty as Christians, and how we (individually and together) should conduct ourselves and how being together will bring about much needed benefits. Christians are urged to hold fast “without wavering” to the message and the hope brought by Jesus Christ. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).
Hebrews 10:25 follows and is a command for Christians to physically assemble together: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” So much is occurring, and I do see the day approaching. I recognize the challenges of the times we live; I also clearly recognize how desperately our adversary will work to prevent us from achieving our destiny.
The Greek word used for “assembling” in this verse is episunagogue, defined in Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary as “assembling, gathering.” Episunagogue as a noun is used only one other time in the New Testament. The other is in 2 Thessalonians 2:1: “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you. …” (This word used as a verb is used in Matthew 22:37; 24:31; Mark 1:33; 13:27; Luke 12:1; 13:34, in all which places it is rendered “gathered together.”)
A related word, episunago, is used to describe the gathering together of believers at the return of Christ in Matthew 24:31: “And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” The phrase “gather together” is translated from the Greek word episunago. And, in fact, when the author of Hebrews uses the word episunagogue in Hebrews 10:25, he admonishes Christians to continue to assemble together, always being mindful that the return of Christ (“the Day”) is approaching!
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary on the Whole Bible has the following observation on the use of the Greek word episunagogue in Hebrews 10:25: “The assembling or gathering of ourselves for Christian communion in private and public, is an earnest of our being gathered together to Him at His appearing” (revised edition, p. 1429).
We must use wisdom in determining whether we are able to physically attend or not; and additionally, how often we can do so. Health, age, distance, weather, even the price of fuel etc. are things that need to be considered in this regard. It is not my intent to “guilt” anyone into attending Sabbath services who can’t or shouldn’t—nor should any be pressured into not attending. My only intent is to convey God’s word faithfully, effectively, and honestly as is my duty. Each one of us must rightly divide the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15) and reason with His word to determine that decision. Each also will stand before the judgment seat to give an answer for their respective decisions (2 Corinthians 5:10). Again, the Sabbath (and I submit all aspects thereof) are a test similar to the test God was giving the Israelites when He revealed His Sabbath to them in Exodus 16 through the miracle of the manna to feed them in the wilderness. Unlike on other days, the people were not to go out to gather on the Sabbath, as there would be none. Rather, they were supposed to gather double the day before to prepare for the Sabbath. Notice carefully God's intent as the same principle applies to all we do or don’t do with regards to the Sabbath and our observance of that holy time. "That I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not" (Exodus 16:4). Indeed, the Sabbath was a test commandment then—and it remains so today.
Therefore, when, and as you are able, the holy scripture commands us; do not forsake “the assembling of ourselves together … and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” By attending Sabbath services when and as we are able, we show love for God and for God’s other children. We respect that it is indeed a holy convocation during holy time. Even that knowledge should affect all of our decisions from whether or not we are able to attend, through to what we wear, and even our conversations at services.
As I conclude this pastor’s message and review of the Fourth Commandment, once again Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it”.