Remember the Sabbath Day

"A Sabbath well spent brings a week of content,
And a strength for the toils of the morrow;
But a Sabbath profaned, whate'er may be gained,
Is a certain forerunner of sorrow."

No other Commandment has been more attacked and undermined in recent years. The world resents it, and even some Christians dismiss it as having no place in this New Testament age. Many who would never dream of dishonouring their parents, slandering their neighbour's good name or committing adultery, seem to have no qualms at all about playing golf, reading Sunday newspapers, travelling on holiday, or watching secular TV programmes on the Lord's Day. Others, who would not do these things, yet seem happy even in their gatherings for fellowship, to spend much of their Sabbath talking about their work and pleasures. Those who would seek to keep the whole day sacred, are accused of being Sabbatarians or legalists. It is interesting that the word "legalistic" is rarely used in relation to any of the other nine commandments. Why should this be so and what should our attitude be to the Sabbath, or the Lord's Day as it is called in the New Testament? Rather than writing from any 'holier-than-thou' position we must begin by admitting our own failings in this area. Even when the spirit is willing, the flesh is often weak (Matt.26:4 1).
The Shorter Catechism provides a helpful explanation of this commandment in answers to Questions 58-62.
A58. The fourth Commandment requireth the keeping holy to God of such set times as he has appointed in his word; expressly one whole day in seven, to be a holy Sabbath to himself. A59. From the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, God appointed the seventh day of the week to be the weekly Sabbath; and the first day of the week ever since, to continue to the end of the world, which is the Christian Sabbath.
A60. The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a ho1y resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s w orship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.
A61. T'he fourth Commandment forbiddeth the omission or careless performance of the duties required, and the profaning the day idleness, or doing that which is in itself sinful, or by unnecessary thoughts, words, works, about our worldly employmens or recreations.
A62. The reasons annexed to the fourth Commandment are, God's allowing us six days of the week for our own employments, His challenging a special propriety in the seventh, His own example, and His blessing the Sabbath day.

1. The Divine Precedent
(1) Notice first of all that this is the only one of the Ten Commandments which is founded upon creation. I believe it is very important to begin here. ln the last hundred and fifty years, many scientists and theologians have sought to undermine the Biblical doctrine of creation. Some, who are otherwise Evangelical, do not believe that the six "days" of Genesis 1 and 2 were literal 24-hour days. It is not surprising, therefore, that the one commandment in the Decalogue which has this great truth as its foundation, is the one which some Christians consider to be no longer binding on us today. Once you undermine the foundation, then anything which is built on that foundation begins to crumble.
(2) This commandment begins with the word ''remember'', which shows that the Sabbath predates the Mosaic Law. It was not instituted at Sinai, nor was it abrogated at Calvary. Instead, the children of Israel were reminded that it already existed, and they were given instructions as to how they were to use it.
(3) The use of the word "remember" also draws attention to the fact that God "rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it" (Gen.2:1,2). This is given as the reason why we are to remember to keep the day holy (Ex.20:1 1). God is our example which we are to follow. God also set the precedent for the New Testament Sabbath by raising the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, by pouring out His Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and by calling His Church to worship on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7, 1 Cor.16:2).

2. The Divine Precept
(1) This precept is expressed in a positive way as a command, not a prohibition like so many of the others.
(2) When the Law was given for the second time, the Lord, with reference to this commandment, reminded the people of their deliverance from bondage in Egypt: "And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched-out arm therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day" (Deut.5:15). Here redemption is given as an additional basis for the Commandment. The children of Israel were to keep the day holy because they had been slaves in Egypt, under cruel taskmasters, and had been miraculously delivered. Their keeping of the Sabbath was to be an act of gratitude to God for that deliverance. While in bondage to Pharaoh, their toil had been hard and unceasing. How thankful they would surely have been for the Sabbath! They would not have regarded it as an imposition to be resented, but rather as a benefit to be gratefully received and enjoyed. And how they would have valued it during the early years in the Promised Land, until they began to forget the slavery!
Is there not a lesson here for us as Christians today? We have been delivered from a worse bondage than theirs, a spiritual bondage to sin, self, and Satan: we have been delivered by nothing less than the death of our Saviour on the cross. Is it then too much to ask that we keep one day in seven as a day entirely set apart for Him, especially as it reminds us of His triumphant resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week?

3. The Divine Provision
In one of His most often misrepresented and misapplied statements, our Saviour told the Pharisees that "the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" (Mk.2:27). By that, He meant that it was given to us for our benefit, as is confirmed indeed by the Mosaic Law itself: "Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest, that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed" (Exod.23: 12).
The Creator understands our frailty better than we do ourselves. As the Psalmist says: "He remembereth that we are dust" (Psalm 103: l 4). He knows that, whatever we are doing, we cannot give of our best if we are doing it seven days a week without a break. So He provided a day each week when our bodies, minds, and spirits could be refreshed, when we could, as it were, 'recharge our batteries', and clear our minds of the worldly cares which accumulate daily.
Our godless society thinks it knows better than the Creator and it does not want or welcome a day of rest. It rejects the Sabbath as restricting freedom and enjoyment. But a heavy price must be paid for that rejection. Our National Health Service is falling apart at the seams because of the demands which are being made on it; two out of every five marriages now end in divorce; thousands of working days are being lost each year through stress-related illnesses; the suicide rate is rising; and our whole society is on the verge of collapse.
But are we as Christians any better? What have we done with this provision? our Creator and Redeemer has provided us with an opportunity to "spring clean" our hearts once each week; to blow away the cobwebs, rid ourselves of the rubbish which has accumulated during the previous week, and to allow the fresh air of His Holy Spirit to prepare us for the week to come. But is it not the case that we so often cling to that rubbish, and spend much of the day thinking and talking about these very things from which He intended us to take a break? And are we also not paying a heavy price in terms of spiritual coldness?

4. The Divine Promise
There are many promises in Scripture attached to the keeping of the Sabbath: "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride on the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it" (Is.58:13,14). What happens when we delight ourselves in the Lord? The Psalmist tells us: "Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart" (Ps.37:4), or, as the Gaelic metrical version so beautifully puts it, "He shall give thee the full desires of thine heart for ever". This is indeed a wonderful promise, but do we have a right to claim it? Do we "call the Sabbath a delight"? Or do we rather look for excuses to find our own pleasure, and speak our own words on His holy day?

Conclusion
Does the Creator God mean so little to us that we resent being asked to follow His example? Does the "Lord also of the Sabbath" (Mk.2:28), who suffered so much for us on Calvary, mean so little to us that we regard those who seek to devote the whole day to Him as legalistic? Have we forgotten what we were delivered from, and how much that deliverance cost? And do the things of this world (even the legitimate concerns of every day) mean so much to us that we are unwilling to let go of them, even on one day of the week?
The prophet Jeremiah asked the Jews of his day: "If thou hast run with the footmen and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses?" (Jer. 12:5). If we find the keeping holy of one day a week burdensome or tedious, how will we cope with Heaven, which will be one long, unbroken Sabbath? What will you find to talk about, when there will be no politics, sport, or TV programmes to discuss? How do you view the Fourth Commandment? Do you regard it as restricting your enjoyment or do you see it rather as the gracious provision of a loving and wise Creator, who wants what is best for His children, and who realises your need of a day of rest?

Any comments or questions please E-Mail me or Rev William Macleod the editor.

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