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“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.” – Exodus 20:8-10

The Hebrew word for ‘remember’ actually means to ‘mark’ or ‘set aside’.  The Israelites didn’t need to be told to ‘remember’ the sabbath, because all nations had been keeping time in weeks ever since creation.  “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.  By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.  Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” – Genesis 2:1-3.  (Also note the references to the sabbath in the sending of God’s manna, prior to the giving of this commandment [Exodus 16:23-29]).  But they did need to be reminded to mark it as a holy or rest day, as God had done in that first week.

The Hebrew word for ‘sabbath’ does not mean ‘Saturday’ any more that it means ‘Sunday’.  It means, simply, ‘rest’ or ‘intermission’.  The institution of the sabbath (that is, one day out of every seven days to be ‘set aside’ as a day of rest, worship and remembrance of the Creator) was ‘made for man’ and his good.  “Jesus said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.’ ” – Mark 2:27.  It was even of benefit to the animals used by man (note the mention of ‘cattle’ in the commandment).  It had been a pattern observed since the completion of God’s six days of creation and making all things at the very beginning of world history (note Genesis 2:1-3; Exodus 20:11).

It is still appropriate today, as well.  “So there remains a Sabbath rest [that is, a ‘sabbath-keeping’] for the people of God.” – Hebrews 4:9.  All men have a deep need to remember their Creator and His completed work of creation at least once each week, as well as His completed work of salvation – especially in these days when both of these finished works are so widely denied or ignored.

“Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.” – Deuteronomy 5:12

“You shall keep My sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary; I am the Lord.” – Leviticus 26:2

“For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation.  You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.” – Leviticus 23:3

credit: ICR, Days of Praise: July 28, 2018

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