The Ten(der) Commandments: “THE HOLINESS OF SUNDAY”
Exodus 20:8-11
“REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY, TO KEEP IT HOLY...”
When I was growing up, Sunday meant several things to me. It meant I could sleep later than I could on school days, but not as late as on Saturday. It meant that no matter how tall the grass was or how thick the leaves were, I wouldn't have to mow or rake. I wouldn't even be
allowed Sunday meant big meals at lunch time, and afternoon naps if I wanted them. Most of all Sunday meant church. It meant starting off with Sunday School, then morning worship, then coming back later for choir practice and UMY and sometimes evening services or potlucks. Sunday was different, a day set apart, and while I might not have always appreciated that, I at least grew up accepting it as fact. Today as we continue our study of the Ten Commandments, it is time to look at the fourth commandment to see why we treat Sunday as different from the rest.
You will find it in Exodus 20:8-11.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
“Holy” is a word that literally means “set apart” or “different.” We call God “holy” because God is set apart from all else. We call ourselves a “holy” people because we are supposed to be different from the world. In the same way, too, the Sabbath is to be “holy.” One day in seven is to be a day set apart, different from the rest. The question is, how do we do that?
In this passage, at least, we are told to keep the day holy by making it a day of rest.
“Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work...”
One day in seven is to be a day of rest for all people and even for the animals, a reward, if you will, for our labors.
From the beginning the Sabbath (which by the way comes from a Hebrew root word meaning “rest”) was seen not as a day on which people gathered to do certain things (like worship), but rather as a day to stop doing what they did on other days. That was fundamental. It might have been the height of harvest time, the sun may have come out after days of rain so that farmers could finally work, but when the Sabbath came, it was always a day not to do the ordinary, but to rest.
The truth God is communicating to us is that there is more to life than labor. God modeled this truth through his own behavior in Creation. Verse 11 tells us,
“For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; then he rested on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.”
Now why do you think God rested on the seventh day? Was it because he was tired? I doubt it. I think God rested in order to give us an example. He wanted to show us that there is a time for work and a time for rest from work. God’s commandment and his own example indicates to us that there is more to life than labor.
As simple an idea as this is, it is not so easy to apply.
“Six days you shall do your work... but on the seventh day you shall do no work....”
Religious leaders soon felt the need to define “work,” laying down rule after rule concerning what people could or could not do on the Sabbath, forcing the people to rest in a prescribed way. For instance, the
law was laid down that it was all right for a parent to pick up a child on the Sabbath (for surely picking up a child is not work to a parent), but not if the child was carrying a rock, for a rock was a burden, and that meant work. Of course, they then had to decide what size rocks they were talking about. On and on it went.
Soon what had originally been intended to enrich life was now complicating life. The Sabbath was intended to serve us, not the other way around. This is what Jesus meant when he said in Mark 2:27, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
Today we run the same risk of distorting what the Sabbath is about as the people did so long ago. Legalism can still get in the way. Rest for one person may not be rest for another. Rest is not necessarily cessation from all activity. For people who don’t do much physical work during the week, a day a rest may be a time to exercise the body. Some may think it is wrong to mow a yard, water plants, wash cars, etc., on Sunday, and others may not. Understand, however, that this is not primarily a religious issue! What is important is whether or not Sunday is for us a day set apart, a day to refresh us, a time of rest. If you are doing these things on Sunday because that is the only day you have to do that work, you are too busy. You need to find a time for rest.
Others today have to wrestle with the question of whether it is right or wrong to work on Sunday. For some, the only work they find might be, for instance, a store job on Sunday afternoon. Health care, preaching, security, so many jobs must continue on Sunday as every other day for society to function. Even the people in Jesus’ day understood that. I don’t know where or how to draw the line, but I would caution you to make sure that the work you do is truly necessary and to make sure that you still set aside time for your rest on a regular basis.
While Exodus 20 teaches us that the Sabbath is to be a time of rest - a holiday - if you will, Deuteronomy 5:12-15 teaches us that the Sabbath is also to be a time of worship - a holy day! “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 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 ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. 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.”
God gave this commandment for two very important reasons. The first is that we might be benefited by an absence of work. The second is that we might be blessed by an accent on worship. The Sabbath is not just a time to rest. It is also a time to remember, a time to remember who God is and to remember all that God has done for us. This is the heart of worship. Recreation and family fun should certainly be included on Sunday, but not to the exclusion of worship and Christian fellowship.
Good people, we have so little time left for God. Our time is so full and yet our lives are so empty. We leave little room for God in our thoughts, in our schedules, or in the fabric of our lives. We work night and day. We’re busy, busy, busy, with no time for God, no time to evaluate our heart and life. We think that if we don’t cram every excess hour with work or entertainment, we will somehow miss out on life and be the loser. The Sabbath principle, however, teaches the exact opposite! Time set aside for God is never lost time.
Is the Sabbath to be a holiday or a holy day? At its best it is both. The Lord’s day is to be a day of rest, but rest as interpreted according to the needs of the individual. It is also to be a day set aside to worship God and to realize his presence in our lives so that we may better live through the rest of the week. Listen to what God said to his people in Isaiah 58:13:
“If you treat the Sabbath as sacred and do not pursue your own interests on that day; if you value my holy day and honor it by not traveling, working, or talking idly on that day, then you will find the joy that comes from serving me.”
“Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” said God. For our sake, we should.
Amen
