A The Baptist Deacon

Commandment 4

deaconfarley | July 23, 2008 10:00

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  9Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10But 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: 11For 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. Exodus 20: 8 – 11

As we continue with this study we will now turn our attention to the fourth commandment. This continues to go hand in hand with what we have studied so far and I believe is still practical for today.  Do not stop reading even if you are afraid I am going to get on your toes, after all it is not necessarily me because it is in the Word of God.

To start with what does the word Sabbath mean? Wikipedia defines it as a weekly day of rest and/or time of worship that is observed in any of several faiths.

For the majority of Christian people the Sabbath is now observed on the first day of the week. I’m not sure exactly when we changed from the seventh to the first day of the week, but does it matter? We have set aside one day as our Sabbath in order to serve God or have we?

This commandment plainly states thou shalt not do any work, ect… For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. It goes on to say the Lord blessed the Sabbath and hallowed it. God intended for us to rest as he blessed the Sabbath day.

The form of the fourth commandment, "Remember," shows that it was not now first given, but was known by the people before. One day in seven is to be kept holy. Six days are allotted to worldly business, but not so as to neglect the service of God, and the care of our souls. ~ Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

I can remember a time in my youth that if you traveled to town on Sunday you could only find a few businesses open. It was mostly filling stations (they were not convenience stores yet) and maybe a place you could get an ice cream cone.  There was a time in my parent’s lives that if they had traveled to town on Sunday they would not have found one place of business open.

So let’s fast forward in time to today. When we travel to town on Sunday now there are only a few businesses that are closed. The big box stores certainly can’t miss out on a sale (this takes me back the First Commandment with a reference to having other gods). Everyone, you and I even our children it seems, lives his or her life at a breakneck pace, constantly racing here and there to get everything done. Technological advances that once promised more leisure time now seem only to push us further and further behind, making it extremely difficult to catch up.

Employers require deadlines to be met which require more and more people to work on Sunday.  Have we come so far in our world that we cannot take time out to rest?  I am thankful that I am not in that situation. I have been required on occasion in the past to work on Sunday, but no longer. God blessed and fixed it so I could have my day of rest.

And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Mark 2:27 Here we have an example given by Jesus. We should take our day of rest, we should honor or Lord and Savior by taking time for Him in worship and in rest. The Sabbath was made for us. The Sabbath is a gift from God. Do you use your gift of rest from God? Does it even matter to you?

God Bless You.

To be continued…

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