"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. Exodus 20:8-11
As previously promised, in this post, we will provide a biblical argument that the fourth commandment was not exclusively for Israel but that it is also for Christians.
First, God’s plan for the Sabbath day was established long before the Ten Commandments were given—and even before Israel existed. The Sabbath Day was established on the seventh day of creation (Genesis 2:1-3). Attesting to this, the text in which the Ten Commandments were given refers to God’s establishment of the Sabbath Day, and the fact that God (in Genesis 2) symbolically observed the Sabbath Day. The fourth commandment is the only one of the Ten Commandments in which God refers to Himself (at the time of creation) as an example to be followed.
Second, in Exodus 16, also before the Ten Commandments were issued (in Exodus 20), God gave Israel instructions regarding the gathering of manna, the “bread from Heaven” (v.4). In verses 5 and 22-30, God warned Israel to gather the manna for six days, but not on the seventh because the seventh day was a “holy Sabbath to the Lord” (v.23). As mentioned, this was before Exodus 20, the giving of the Ten Commandments.
Third, the first word of the fourth commandment (v.8) is “Remember.” This indicates that this is not the first time the Sabbath was known, having been established by God at creation, and mentioned again when giving instructions about the gathering of manna. The people of God were to “remember” what God had already established. We too are now to “remember the Sabbath Day” not to forget it, whether by neglect, or by wrongly dismissing it is irrelevant.
God’s Sabbath was established at creation, known by the people of God before the Ten Commandments were given, and therefore it is not to be dismissed by God’s people in the New Covenant any more than we dare dismiss the other nine of the Ten Commandments.
Next time: We will begin unpacking the fourth commandment one phrase at a time.