{"id":461,"date":"2016-09-26T13:32:54","date_gmt":"2016-09-26T12:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=461"},"modified":"2016-09-26T13:32:54","modified_gmt":"2016-09-26T12:32:54","slug":"keep-sunday-special-exodus-208-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=461","title":{"rendered":"Keep Sunday Special Exodus 20:8-11"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are looking at the Ten Commandments which God gave to Moses written on two tablets of stone on the top of Mount Sinai. And today we come to the Fourth Commandment.
\nExodus 20 8 \u201cRemember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.
\nThe Fourth Commandment is all about the Sabbath day. The root of the word Sabbath means to cease or desist, and therefore to rest. The Bible speaks of rest or resting 370 times and nearly fifty of those occasions are talking about the Sabbath. The Sabbath is about making one day different by ceasing from the work of the other six days.
\n\u201cOn it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.\u201d
\nThere are at least three purposes for this day of ceasing from work.
\nFirst purpose \u2013 a day of rest and refreshment \u2013 spelled out later on in Exodus 23
\nExodus 23 12 \u201cSix days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed.
\nThe Sabbath is set apart to be a day for physical and mental and spiritual refreshment. A day not spent in the usual activities of the week. Not doing a job to earn money. Not doing housework or chores. It is unusual to find that kind of different day even among Christians today. But a hundred years ago, even fifty years ago, most churchgoers would not have done their daily work on Sunday. Many wouldn\u2019t have played games, some wouldn\u2019t have even cooked their meal on a Sunday. They wouldn\u2019t have travelled by car or bus except to go to church. In England so much of our pattern of life changed when Sunday trading laws were relaxed in the 1980s. So much of what Sunday as a day of rest used to be like has been lost, for everybody. We have been on holidays in parts of Europe where it is still the case that none of the shops open on Sundays. And that in itself is very refreshing!
\nSecond purpose of the Sabbath \u2013 a day for family and community
\nSo many people are too busy for family and neighbours and community today. God\u2019s plan is for us to have one day a week when we give priority to relationships \u2013 to people. God within Himself is community, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And human beings created in God\u2019s image are designed to be in community. We are designed to be in relationships with each other as well as with God. To Jews even today the Sabbath is very much a time to be together in family. As Christians we also need to demonstrate the importance of family and friendships and community to a world which is becoming ever more isolated, individualistic, impersonal and self-centred.
\nRest and recreation: recharging our batteries. Family and community: reinforcing our relationships. These first two purposes of the Sabbath are not just for Christians. They are for the whole of humanity. This is made very clear in the reason which God gives for the Fourth Commandment in Exodus 20. The Sabbath is a way of celebrating Creation. In a world which is trying so hard to forget God, God gave one day in seven as a Sabbath as a way for all human beings to remember that God is our Creator.
\nExodus 20 8\t\u201cRemember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 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.
\nSo one day in seven is set apart for rest. That pattern did not begin with the Ten Commandments. Earlier than that, Exodus 16 tells us that God sent manna from heaven to feed the Israelites miraculously in the wilderness.
\n22 On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much\u2014two omers for each person\u2014and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. 23 He said to them, \u201cThis is what the LORD commanded: \u2018Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.\u2019 \u201d
\n24 So they saved it until morning, \u2026. 25 \u201cEat it today,\u201d Moses said, \u201cbecause today is a Sabbath to the LORD. You will not find any of it on the ground today. 26 Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.\u201d
\nSo the pattern of a Sabbath day one day in seven came before the Fourth Commandment was given. In fact, it was there from God\u2019s very act of Creation. Exodus 20:11 repeats Genesis 2:2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
\nThe command to keep the seventh day special is rooted in Creation. So it applies to all peoples in every place and in every age. Sabbath is a pattern built into creation. Some people describe that as \u201ca creation ordinance.\u201d All human beings are created in the image of God. God worked for six days and rested on the seventh and so human beings are designed to do the same. Not just believers, but all human beings. We are called to a pattern of work and then rest because we were made by the God who works and then rests. By resting for one day in seven we follow the example of our Creator. Genesis 2 tells us that God blessed the Sabbath day. So people who ignore the principle of a Sabbath Day are rejecting God\u2019s blessing. And at the same time, God set apart the Sabbath Day and made it holy. People who ignore the Sabbath are trampling on what God has declared to be holy. The point is that setting apart the seventh day is not just for believers. Setting apart one day in seven is God\u2019s pattern for health and well-being for all human beings, because that is the way we are all made. In passing, this gives us good reason for believing that all of the Ten Commandments are for all human beings everywhere. But specifically with regard to the Sabbath. Rest and recreation: recharging our batteries. Family and community: reinforcing our relationships.
\nThat is God\u2019s pattern for all people everywhere \u2013 whether they choose to worship God or not. And it really works. When I was a student, and when I was working as a school teacher, and then when I went to Bible College, I made it a point of principle never to do any work on Sundays. That often meant rearranging work and missing out on fun things I would have liked to do on Friday evenings and Saturdays to fit everything in. When I was teaching it meant I had to give up playing sport on Saturdays because I had too much school work to catch up with. But I never, ever, worked on Sundays \u2013 and that pattern was a real blessing to me!
\nI said there are three purposes for the Sabbath \u2013 and here is the third. The Fourth Commandment has a special significance for believers. Initially it was for the Jews, now it applies to Christians as God\u2019s redeemed people. In the Book of Deuteronomy the Ten Commandments are listed a second time. They are all exactly the same, except for the Fourth Commandment, where the reason given for keeping the Sabbath Day special is different.
\nDeuteronomy 5 15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
\nWhat is commanded is the same \u2013 but the reason given is different. This time the Commandment is not in order to remember God the Creator, but in order to remember God the Saviour. For believers the Sabbath is also given to celebrate the Exodus and all God\u2019s blessings of Salvation. For the Jews that mean giving priority to Temple or synagogue, to worship and prayers and teaching. So they had their laws restricting the kinds of work you were allowed to do on the Sabbath. \u201cWorks of necessity\u201d and \u201cworks of mercy\u201d \u2013 but nothing else. By making space for God in their busy lives, by what they did and what they would not do, God\u2019s chosen people would honour God and recognise His importance.
\nExodus 31 12 Then the LORD said to Moses, 13 \u201cSay to the Israelites, \u2018You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.
\n14 \u201c \u2018Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. \u2026. 16 The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. 17 It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever.
\nSo celebrating the Sabbath is a sign for God\u2019s chosen people, a way to remind each other, and at the same time to show to the world, that they belong to God. As Christians we are not bound by the dos and don\u2019ts of the Jewish Law. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. But the principle remains. We can show that God is the most important part of our lives by making Him our number one priority. And if God isn\u2019t the most important part of our Sunday for even one day a week, we can\u2019t pretend that He is Lord of the rest of our lives.
\nMany things changed when Christ died and rose again from the dead, and those included the significance of the one day in seven. The one day in seven which had been set apart to celebrate Creation and to celebrate the Exodus became the one day in seven when Christians celebrated the resurrection of Jesus.
\nVery early on in the Early Church and certainly well before the end of the first century Christians had stopped celebrating the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week and had begun celebrating the Lord\u2019s Day on the first day of the week, the day Jesus rose from the dead.
\nActs 20:7 On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people
\n1 Corinthians 16 2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.
\nNot the seventh day but the first day. And don\u2019t forget that until the fourth century the first day of the week was the first working day. So Christians would meet for worship early in the morning or late in the evening of a working day and still do a full day\u2019s work. Church was a priority for those early Christians even when they had their jobs to go to. They made time for worship and prayer and teaching. Between keeping the Lord\u2019s day as a day of rest and keeping it as a day for drawing close to God, the first Christians\u2019 priority was spending time with God and with each other. So the Sabbath Day became the Lord\u2019s Day setting apart the first day of the week to celebrate Creation and to celebrate Salvation and especially the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
\nSo what can we do to \u201cKeep Sunday Special\u201d in practice?
\nTry to make one day a week special: no work earning money, no housework, no homework;
\nKeep one day for relaxation: time to unwind, to enjoy hobbies;
\nKeep one day for the family: hospitality, visiting relatives;
\nAbove all, make worship and fellowship a priority. Some Christians think coming to church on a Sunday doesn\u2019t matter any more. I think that view is mistaken.
\nHebrews 10 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another\u2014and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
\nDuring the rest of Sunday, make some time for prayer and reading the Bible. Read a Christian Book. If you don\u2019t come to our evening services you can always catch up on evening sermons online on the blog. Some Christians don\u2019t have a choice about going to work on Sunday, but some have more choice than they think! And for Christians who do have to do their jobs on Sundays, remember those early Christians who gathered for worship and fellowship before or after their full day\u2019s work because they wanted to celebrate \u201cthe Lord\u2019s Day\u201d. Like them, we celebrate the Lord\u2019s Day to show God how much we love Him.
\nEzekiel 20 10 Therefore I led them out of Egypt and brought them into the desert. 11 I gave them my decrees and made known to them my laws, for the man who obeys them will live by them. 12 Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the LORD made them holy. \u2026 20 Keep my Sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.\u201d
\nGod invites His children to make one day in seven special as a sign between Him and us. By keeping The Lord\u2019s Day we celebrate creation and we celebrate salvation. We set apart one day for God, for worship and learning and fellowship and family and recreation. Recharging our batteries. Reinforcing our relationships. And above all honouring God and keeping our lives centred on Him, as a sign of our love and commitment to Him. And when we do that, the blessings that follow are enormous! Listen to God\u2019s wonderful promise in Isaiah 58.
\nIsaiah 58 13\t\u201cIf 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\u2019s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, 14 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.\u201d The mouth of the LORD has spoken.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are looking at the Ten Commandments which God gave to Moses written on two tablets of stone on the top of Mount Sinai.…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}