"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

We are working our way through the fourth, and longest, of the Ten Commandments. This time let’s consider God’s words regarding the Sabbath as He reminds us (from Genesis 2:1-3) that He not only established the Sabbath day at creation, but that He symbolically observed it Himself as the Supreme Example, showing us the importance of this commandment.

God’s Sabbath day commandment dates back to creation. Let those words sink in when considering the importance of the Sabbath.

God symbolically observed the fist Sabbath day. I say symbolically because God needed no rest! God’s creative power by which “He created everything that exists out of nothing at all,” is infinite. Yet He expended no power, meaning, He needed no rest. Therefore, His initial observance of the Sabbath was symbolic—that is, it was for our benefit not His!

Which of the other commandments did God keep as an example to us? That matters!

Further, God’s observing the first Sabbath day (albeit symbolically) is a powerful example that we, who do need a Sabbath rest, best not neglect it. May God have mercy on those who say it doesn’t apply to us!

In the next few blogs (yes, there will be more!), we will consider the blessings and the holiness of the Sabbath day, and why the Christian Sabbath is not the seventh day, but the first day of the week.