Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 5:12

Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee.

12. Observe ] A.V. keep, instead of remember, Exo 20:8. In D remember is used almost exclusively of historical facts, e.g. Deu 5:15, Deu 7:18, Deu 8:2, Deu 9:7, Deu 15:15, Deu 16:3; but once with God, the giver of wealth, as the object, Deu 8:18. Observe or keep, used of the feast of unleavened bread by E Exo 23:15, by J Exo 34:18; the Sabbath by P Exo 31:13 f., 16, Lev 19:3; Lev 19:30; Lev 26:2 (H); the month Abib by D Deu 16:1. In Psa 103:18 keep His covenant and remember His precepts are parallel.

as the Lord thy God commanded thee ] not in Exo 20:8; cf. Deu 5:16, here and there a needless expansion, for it cannot refer to some previous institution of the Sabbath.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12 15. The Fourth Commandment as in Exo 20:8-11 with the following differences:

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Deu 5:12-15

Keep the Sabbath day.

The Fourth Commandment

I. Here is resting from ordinary employments. When a man does his work, his thoughts and tongue and hands are engaged in it. Consequently, on this day of rest, there must be not only a ceasing frown the actual labour of the hands, but neither the tongue nor thoughts may be engaged upon our worldly matters and affairs. Examine what your Sunday thoughts have been. Have you always in thought and mind been in heaven that day, having left your worldly cares and affairs out of sight behind you? Then again, have you not spoken your own words on this day? Look back and see if there be no records against you in the book of God of worldly affairs negotiated on the Sabbath day.

II. I go on to help you in the farther inquiry whether, supposing you have rested from worldly affairs, you have also sanctified that rest. According to the interpretation which common practice puts on this commandment, the words might run thus, Remember the Sabbath day to take thy pleasure therein. In general, the Sabbath is sanctified when it is spent with God in humble and thankful acknowledgments of His love in creating us, and of His infinite mercy in redeeming us by Jesus Christ, who is gone into heaven to prepare a place for us. Then we should be examining our hearts and lives, humbling ourselves for our sins, stirring up the grace that is in us, exercising repentance, faith, hope, and charity; above all looking forward to the rest that remaineth for the people of God (Heb 4:9). And think you, is not one such day better than a thousand? Oh, what do they lose who make the Sabbath a day of carnal pleasure? But more particularly the sanctification of this rest lies within the compass of those three things.

1. Public exercises.

2. Private exercises.

3. Religious communication.

III. The third thing contained in a due observance of the Lords day is a right aim in ceasing from worldly labours, and in exercising the religious observances just mentioned. Now the righteousness of the aim is when there is a correspondence between our design in keeping and Gods design in instituting the Sabbath.

1. Has, then, our design in the observance we have paid to the Sabbath principally been to glorify God?

2. Has your aim in sanctifying the Lords day been the sanctification of your own soul? (S. Walker, B. A.)

The Sabbath was made for man

Herbert Spencer says, Ask how it happens that men in England do not work every seventh day, and you have to seek through thousands of past years to find the initial cause. Ask why in England, and especially in Scotland, there is not only a cessation from work, which the creed interdicts, but also a cessation from amusement, which it does not interdict; and for an explanation you must go back to successive waves of ascetic fanaticism in generations long dead. Let us consider this initial cause, and inquire whether this great thinker is correct in his statement in regard to what he calls the creed, and its relation to amusement. There are some who say that the Jewish Sabbath, or the Puritan Sabbath, ought to be observed now. There are others who affirm that all distinctions of days have passed away; that all days should be spent in the fear of God. What would a friend think of your treatment of him if, when he visited you, you gave him one room in your house, and promised to see him an hour or two in the week, but would not let him come to your shop, to your office, to your family? It is thus many men treat God. The Sunday is one room in the house of life, into which they come professedly to commune with God for an hour or two; and then they leave Him for the whole week. All days are to be spent in His service. Ellicott says, The Sabbath of the Jews, as involving other than mere national reminiscences, was a shadow of the Lords day; that a weekly seventh part of our time should be specially devoted to God rests on considerations as old as the creation; that that seventh portion of the week should be the first day rests on apostolical, or perhaps, inferentially (as the Lords appearances on that day seem to show) Divine usage and appointment. Whether this is, as Alford says, transparent special pleading, or not, and whether it is right to call the Jewish Sabbath the shadow of the Lords day, I stay not to inquire; but there is nothing in the apostles language that is inconsistent with the Divine institution of the day of rest. The law was a shadow, Christ is the substance: He has fulfilled the law. We obtained salvation, not by obeying the law, but by receiving Christ; and then the law that was written on tables of stone is written on our hearts, and love is the fulfilling of the law. A seventh portion of time for rest and worship is a right thing not merely because we find it commanded in the law, but because our nature demands it. Idolatry was sinful before the lightnings of Sinai played around its granite cliffs; profanity was sinful, perjury was sinful, theft was sinful, before the voice of God was heard from that tabernacle of darkness. If no law had been written it would have been wrong to worship images, or bear false witness against a neighbour. And Christians observe the Lords day, not simply or chiefly because this law of the Sabbath was given on Sinai, but because the law of love is written in their hearts; and they know they honour Christ and benefit themselves by such religious observance. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. The word remember must, I think, imply the previous existence of the institution. We have, however, no account of a Sabbath in the times of the patriarchs: the name is not mentioned; and the only reference to it, if we may take it as such, was in the special sacredness attached to the number seven, and in the custom of dividing time into weeks of seven days. But the name appears before the delivery of the law, and in a connection that makes it probable that the observance of the seventh day was already practised by the Israelites. In the account of the gathering of the manna, Moses speaks of the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. And Moses said, Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath unto the Lord; today ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. The reasons assigned for the institution were–

1. To commemorate the rest of God after His work of creation. This rest does not, of course, imply anything like fatigue or exhaustion; but it denotes that Gods purpose was fulfilled, that His work in creating the universe was finished.

2. It was intended, also, to remind them of their deliverance from Egyptian bondage. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, etc.

3. And the Sabbath was also given as a pledge of the covenant between God and His people. I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth them. Such was the Jewish Sabbath: its object and the manner in which it was to be kept were distinctly stated; and through many centuries, despite the periods of apostasy and judgment, it was a delight, holy to the Lord, honourable. But before the advent of Christ the scribes had added to the law innumerable explanations and enactments, which were deemed as binding as the original; and we find that the Pharisees again and again submitted to Christ the question of Sabbath keeping. They would not for much travel beyond the limit of a Sabbath days journey, and yet their feet were swift to shed blood; they kept the Sabbath, but they passed over the judgment and the love of God, and they persecuted the Holy One and the Just. What did Christ say in regard to the Sabbath? He said that it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath day; He said also, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Man was made to serve and glorify God; and all institutions that help him in the pursuit of this end are his servants. Man, with his two hands for labour, with his mind that can think of God, and his heart that can love God, is greater than all material nature, greater than forms of government, greater than religious ordinances. They are good, as they minister to him. The laws of the family are intended for the welfare of the family; the laws of the school for the welfare of the school: they are important as such. But the child is greater than the rules; they are meant to serve him, and are appointed for his sake. The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath day. The Representative Man, the Head of humanity, the King of the race, is Lord also of the Sabbath day. He does not say anything about the repeal of the Sabbath. His followers should meet on the first day of the week, to contemplate a greater work than creation, to celebrate a more glorious redemption than that of Israel from Egyptian slavery. On the first day of the week He rose from the dead, according to the Scriptures. On that day tie manifested Himself to Mary Magdalene, to the other women, to Peter alone, to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, and to the assembled apostles in the upper room; and, a week later, to the apostles again, when the doubting Thomas was present, was convinced, and constrained to say, My Lord and my God. Then the day of Pentecost in that year fell on the first day of the week, when the promise of the Father was fulfilled. Here, then, is the authority, the only authority, we have for the observance of the first day of the week.

First, that the assemblies of Christians in the days of the apostles took place on this day. Secondly, the confirmation afforded by tradition and usage ever since. This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

1. It is to be observed, then, as a day of rest from all unnecessary labour. The seventh day may be exchanged for the first; the minute details relating to its observance may pass away with the Mosaic economy; but it will remain forever true that a seventh portion of time is to be employed as a Sabbath. Man the worker needs one day in the week for rest. Life is like a lamp; keep the light low, do not burn all the oil too soon.

2. It is also to be observed as a day of spiritual refreshment. The Sabbath was made for man, for the whole man; not only for bones and muscles, but also for mind, and heart, and soul. I was in the Spirit on the Lords day; there are many who could say, I was in bed on the Lords day. But the soul cannot sleep, and provision should be made for its necessities. There is a religious instinct in man: it is not the result of education, it is not the creation of priestcraft, for the very existence of the priest proves that there was beforehand a religious element in the minds of the people. Our spiritual nature cries out for God, and God gives us a Sabbath to save us from becoming slaves of toil, and from burying our noblest thoughts and aspirations in a grave of materialism and lust.

3. And it is to be a day of gladness. It is to be a Sun-day, a bright day, and a day of holy gladness and rejoicing. What signal triumphs of the Gospel have been won on this day. It has often brought healing to the wounded heart, and joy to the sorrowful spirit, and succour to the tempted and timid. Its light has been as the light of seven days, and it has always come with healing in its wings. (James Owen.)

Observance of the Lords day instead of the Sabbath

1. That it does not in the least derogate from the honour of God to change the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week. It would, indeed, derogate from the glory of God, if He should take away one Sabbath and not institute another; for then He would lose the honour of that public worship, which He has appointed to be performed to Him, on that day. Moreover, if there be a greater work than that of creation, to be remembered and celebrated, it tends much more to the advancing the glory of God to appoint a day for the solemn remembrance thereof, than if it should be wholly neglected. And to this we may add that if all men must honour the Son, even as they honour the Father, then it is expedient that a day should be set apart for His honour, namely, the day on which He rested from the work of redemption, or, as the apostle says, ceased from it, as God did from His.

2. It was expedient that God should alter the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week; for–

(1) Hereby Christ took occasion to give a display of His glory, and in particular of His sovereign authority, to enjoin what time He would have us set apart for His worship under the Gospel dispensation.

(2) We, in the observation thereof, signify our faith, in a public manner, that Christ is come in the flesh, and that the work of our redemption is brought to perfection; and, consequently, that there is a way prepared for our justification and access to God, as our God, in hope of finding acceptance in His sight.

3. All the ordinances of Gospel worship have a peculiar relation to Christ; therefore it is expedient that the time in which they are to be performed, under this present Gospel dispensation, should likewise have relation to Him; therefore that day must be set apart in commemoration of His work of redemption, in which He finished it, and that was the first day of the week. (Thomas Ridglet, D. D.)

How the Lords day is to be sanctified

I. That we are to prepare our hearts and, with such foresight, diligence, and moderation, to dispose and seasonably to dispatch our worldly business, that we may be more free and fit for the business of that day. That leads us to consider the duties to be performed preparatory to the right observing the Lords day; and, in order hereunto, we ought, the evening before, to lay aside our care and worldly business, that our thoughts may not be diverted or taken up with unseasonable concerns about it. This is a duty very much neglected. Thus many keep their shops open till midnight, and by this means make encroachments on part of the morning of the Lords day. And to this we may add that all envyings, contentions, evil surmising against our neighbour are to be laid aside, since these will tend to defile our souls when they ought to be wholly taken up about Divine things. Moreover, we are to endeavour to bring our souls into a prepared frame for the duties of the Lords day the evening before, by having our thoughts engaged in those meditations that are suitable thereto.

II. We are now to consider what we are to rest and abstain from on the Lords day, namely, not only from things sinful, but what is in itself lawful on other days.

1. As for those things which are sinful on other days, they are much more so on the Sabbath.

2. We break the Sabbath by engaging in things that would be lawful on other days, and that in two particular instances here mentioned.

(1) When we engage in worldly employments.

(2) The Sabbath is violated by recreations, which we are therefore to abstain from.

III. When it is said, in this Fourth Commandment, that thou shalt do no manner of work on the Sabbath day, there is an exception hereunto in works of necessity and mercy.

1. Let the necessity be real, not pretended; of which God and our own consciences are the judges.

2. If we think that we have a necessary call to omit our attendance on the ordinances of God on the Sabbath day, let us take heed that this necessity be not brought on us by some sin committed.

3. If necessity obliges us to engage in secular employments on the Lords day, as in the instances of those whose business is to provide physic for the sick, let us, nevertheless, labour after a spiritual frame, becoming the holiness of the day.

4. As we ought to see that the work we are engaged in is necessary, so we must not spend more time therein than what is needful.

5. If we have a necessary call to engage in worldly matters, whereby we are detained from public ordinances, we must endeavour to satisfy others, that the providence of God obliges us hereunto; that so we may not give offence to them, or they take occasion, without just reason, to follow their own employments, which would be a sin in them.

IV. We are to sanctify the Sabbath by spending the whole day in the public and private exercises of Gods worship, and herein to maintain a becoming holy frame of spirit from the beginning of the day to the end thereof. Therefore–

1. In the beginning thereof, let not too much sleep make intrenchments on more of the morning of the day than what is needful, particularly more than what we allow ourselves before we begin our employments on other days. And let us be earnest with God in prayer, that He would prepare our hearts for the solemn duties we are to engage in. Let us consider the Sabbath as a very great talent that we are entrusted with; and that it is of the greatest importance for us to improve it, to the glory of God and our spiritual advantage.

2. While we are engaged in holy duties, especially in the public ordinances of Gods worship, let us endeavour to maintain a becoming reverence and filial fear of God, in whose presence we are, and a love to His holy institutions, which are instamped with His authority. Let us, moreover, watch and strive against the first motions and suggestions of Satan, and our corrupt hearts, endeavouring to divert us from or disturb us in holy duties. Let us also cherish, improve, and bless God for all the influences of His Holy Spirit which He is pleased at any time to grant to us; or lament the want thereof when they are withheld.

3. In the intervals between our attendances on the ordinances of Gods public worship we are to engage in private duties, and worship God in and with our families.

4. The Sabbath is to be sanctified in the evening thereof, when the public ordinances are over; at which time we are to call to mind what we have received from God, with thankfulness, and how we have behaved ourselves in all the parts of Divine worship in which we have been engaged. (Thomas Ridglet, D. D.)

Sanctify the Sabbath

I. The sins forbidden.

1. The omission of the duties required. This is a casting away a great prize put into our hands.

2. The careless performance of holy duties; that is, when our hearts are not engaged in them, or we content ourselves with a form of godliness, denying the power there of.

3. When we profane the day by idleness.

II. The reasons annexed.

1. It is highly reasonable that we should sanctify the Lords day, since He is pleased to allow us six days out of seven for the attending to our worldly affairs, and reserves but one to Himself.

2. Another reason annexed to enforce our observation of the Sabbath day is taken from Gods challenging a special propriety in it: thus it is called the Sabbath day of the Lord thy God, a day which He has consecrated or separated to Himself, and so lays claim to it. Therefore it is no less than sacrilege, or a robbing of Him, to employ it in anything but what He requires to be done therein.

3. God sets His own example before us for our imitation therein.

4. The last reason assigned for our sanctifying the Sabbath is taken from Gods blessing and sanctifying it, or setting it apart for a holy use. To bless a day is to give it to us as a particular blessing and privilege; accordingly we ought to reckon the Sabbath as a great instance of Gods care and compassion to men, and a very great privilege, which ought to be highly esteemed by them. Again, for God to sanctify a day is to set it apart from a common to a holy use; and thus we ought to reckon the Sabbath as a day signalised above all others with the character of Gods holy day; and as such, it is to be employed by us in holy exercises, answerable to the end for which it was instituted. (Thomas Ridglet, D. D.)

Remember the Sabbath

The word remember is set in the beginning of the Fourth Commandment, from whence we may observe the great proneness, through worldly business and Satans temptations, to forget the Sabbath. We may also learn from hence the importance of our observing it, without which irreligion and profaneness would universally abound in the world. And to induce us hereunto let it be considered–

1. That the profanation of the Sabbath is generally the first step to all manner of wickedness, and a making great advances to a total apostasy from God.

2. The observing of it is reckoned as a sign between God and His people. It is, with respect to Him, a sign of His favour; and with respect to men it is a sign of their subjection to God, as their King and Lawgiver, in all His holy appointments.

3. We cannot reasonably expect that God should bless us in what we undertake on other days if we neglect to own Him on His day, or to devote ourselves to Him, and thereby discover our preferring Him and the affairs of His worship before all things in the world. (Thomas Ridglet, D. D.)

The Fourth Commandment

Now you will observe that the Fourth Commandment is a two-fold commandment of labour and of rest. There is nothing Judaic about it; it is a command for the whole race of man. Six days shalt thou labour, but that thy labour may not be degradingly and exhaustively wearisome; that the man may not become a mere machine, worn by the dust of its own grinding; that the thread of sorrow, which runs through all labour, may never wholly blacken into despair; that the thread of joy entwined with it may be brightened into spiritual intensity and permanence–therefore, The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt do no manner of work. I need scarcely touch on the change from the seventh to the first day of the week; but whether we keep the Sabbath or Sunday, the Fourth Commandment, in its eternal and moral aspect, bids us to keep one day in the seven holy. And how are we to keep it holy? Let us look, first, at the Old Testament. Search it through, and you will find two rules, and two only, of Sabbath observance–rest and gladness. In it thou shalt do no manner of work, and This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. The Christian Sunday, then, like the Jewish Sabbath, is primarily Gods gift to us of rest and joy. We need both. Blessed is drudgery; but blessed, too, is rest when work is done. The man that works seven days a week instead of six will pay the penalty in peevishness and enfeeblement, and will break down sooner and enjoy life less. Many a brain worker has sunk into a premature grave or died wretchedly by his own hands because he despised Gods law of rest. But, if we are agreed that Sunday should be a day of rest, it is still most necessary for us to understand that it must be a holy rest and not an ignoble rest. Let not ours be the Puritanic Sunday of gloomy strictness, for This is the day the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it; let not ours be the foreign Sunday of frivolity and pleasure seeking; let not ours be the pharisaic Sunday, with petty rules and restrictions, for God has bidden us to stand fast in the liberty wherewith He has made us free. Bishop Hackett was content with this wise, beautiful, and only rule: Serve God, and be cheerful, Yet, if you ask for further principles, not details, I will offer four plain and simple ones which yet include everything–three negative and one positive. Negatively: Let not your Sunday be slothful. If to many Sunday only means a heavier sleep and a more gluttonous dinner than usual, it is not only wasted but desecrated; it becomes less holy than even continuous labour, clogging instead of expanding the wings of the soul, and strengthening instead of controlling the lower passions of the body. Next: Let not our Sunday be merely frivolous. In Liverpool the result of a religious census, taken very recently, showed that out of 600,000 of the population scarcely more than one in a hundred attended the service of any Christian religion. And among the more educated classes, if novels be any indication of modern society, as I suppose they are, I find in a recent novel no less than three Sundays described, and they are all spent in indolent pleasure, without a hint that any one of the characters, whether the hero or heroine, so much as thought of entering a place of Christian worship. Is it the Sunday of Gods children and fellow labourers, or the Sunday of worldlings in a decadent civilisation? Is it the Sunday of Christian men and women, holy to the Lord and honourable, or of creatures who have no duties to perform, no souls to save? Thirdly: Let not our Sunday be purely selfish. We come then to the positive principle. Let our Sunday rest be gladly spiritual, a day of Christian worship and Christian thought, a day not only to rest us but also to ennoble, a day to remind us whence we come and whither we go, and who we are. Beside us and around is the world with its pomps and vanities; before us is virtue, is duty, is eternity. The Sabbath is to be a bridge thrown across lifes troubled waters, over which we may pass to reach the opposite shore. For, as the Sunday calls on the worldly to give place to the spiritual, to lay aside the cares and labours of earth for the repose and holiness of heaven, so it is but a type of the eternal day when the freed spirit, if true to itself and to God, shall put on forever its robe of immortal holiness and joy. (Dean Farrar.)

Sunday aids moral vision

One day, writes a traveller, as I was passing a Pennsylvania coal mine, I saw a small field full of mules. The boy who was with me said, Those are the mules that work all the week down in the mine, but on Sunday they have to come up into the light, or else in a little while they go blind. It seems to me that what is necessary for mules is no less necessary for men. Keep men buried in this worlds business for the whole seven days, and they would soon lose the very faculty of spiritual vision, having no eye, ear, or heart for Divine things. Make Sunday a working day, and you degrade man into a mill horse, and that a blind one. (J. Halsey.)

Brought up to keep the Sabbath

About thirty years ago a Girvan shoemaker emigrated to British Columbia, on the Western shores of North America, to try his fortune on the Caribou diggings, then attracting many people. After passing through his own share of hardships, he arrived at the diggings, and wrought hard though unsuccessfully till he had spent his money, and became, in miners phraseology, broke. Being a Scotchman, however, he had provided for this eventuality, by bringing with him a few tools with which he resolved to start shoemaking at the diggings. Next day, being Sunday, he was lying in his tent despondent enough, when a tall miner entered with a pair of long boots slung over his shoulder. Is the shoemaker here? asked the new arrival. The reply was that he would be hero on Monday. If I am not mistaken you are the shoemaker yourself. Well, said our friend, what though I be? Now, look here, said the miner with an oath, I have travelled five miles to come here, and I wont leave this tent till you mend my boots. The cobbler looked up for a moment, and thought of turning him out by force, but all at once the recollection of the Sabbath day came to him, and so, dropping his eyes, he replied: You see, sir, I come from Scotland, where the Sabbath is respected; and I have never wrought on the Sabbath yet, and please God I dont mean to begin new. The miner made no answer, and the cobbler looked up, when, to his amazement, he saw the big tears dropping over his cheeks. All at once the man flung the boots on the ground with these words: God help. Me! I was brought up to respect the Sabbath too, but nobody respects anything in this God-forsaken country. Take the boots, and mend them when you can; whereupon he left the tent. The shoemaker ultimately started a store in Victoria, British Columbia, called the Scotch House, where he prospered exceedingly. He is now dead, but the business is still carried on by his son, who was in that district not many years ago.

The Sabbath as a spring tide

Coleridge looked forward with great delight to the return of the Sabbath, the sacredness of which produced a wonderful effect on the temperament of that Christian poet. To a friend he said, one Sunday morning, I feel as if God had, by giving the Sabbath, given fifty-two springs in every year.

A worthy example

We have all heard of Jenny Lind, the famous Swedish singer. Here is a good story, which shows her faithfulness to God. On one occasion, when she was in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, the king was going to have a musical festival at his palace on the Sabbath day. He sent an invitation to this great singer to come and take part in these exercises. But she declined the invitation. Then the king waited on her in person, and commanded her to come to his entertainment. This was a very high honour for a king to show to one of his subjects. Most persons would have gone under these circumstances. But Jenny Lind still begged to be excused. And when the king asked for her objections she said, Please, your majesty, I have a greater King in heaven to whom I must be faithful. I cannot do what your majesty desires without breaking the commandment of my heavenly King, and offending Him. So please excuse me for declining to do what your majesty wishes. That was noble. Few persons would have had the courage to show their faithfulness under such circumstances as Jenny Lind did.

I cant afford it

Just come and work awhile in my garden on Sunday mornings, will you, Jim? said a working man, with his pick-axe over his shoulder, to an old hedger, who was working by the side of the road. Jim took off his cap and made a bow to the speaker, and then said, No, master, I cant afford it. Oh! I dont want you to do it for nothing. Ill pay you well for the work. Thank you, master, but I cant afford it. Why, man, it will put something in your pocket, and I dont think you are too well off. Thats true; and thats the reason why I say I cant afford it. Cant afford it! Why, surely, you dont understand me. Yes, I do; but Im not quick of speech. Please dont snap me up, and Ill tell you what I mean. Its very true, as you say, that Im not well off in this world. But Ive a blessed hope of being better off in the world to come. My Lord and Saviour has said, I go to prepare a place for yon, that where I am there ye may be also. I learned that text more than twenty years ago, and it has been a great comfort to me. Well, but whats that got to do with your saying in answer to my offer–I cant afford it? Why, no offence to you, sir, but its got all to do with it. If I lose my hope in that better land, I lose everything. My Saviour says I must keep the Sabbath day holy. If I break His command I shall not be prepared for the place He is preparing for me. And then all my hope is gone. And this is what I mean by saying, I cant afford it.

The Sabbath before Moses

Does the law of gravitation depend upon the tradition that Newton saw an apple fall to the ground? Does the law of electricity depend upon the tradition that Franklin drew the lightning from the clouds with a Kite? as little does the law of rest and refreshment for one day in seven depend upon anything that was said by Moses or to Moses three thousand years ago. The Sabbath law of rest and refreshment is written in the needs of the human race. God did not first command it then; is still commanding it now. All human experience points to this law. All life interprets it. The body cries out for it, the mind cries out for it, the soul cries out for it, the very physical organisation of the animals cries out for it. (Lyman Abbott, D. D.)

Six days shalt thou labour.

Labour: its dignities and problems

How often has this Fourth Commandment been misinterpreted as dealing only with the question of rest, as inculcating the sanctity of worship and the beauty of Sabbatic peace! Does it not also lay down the universal law of labour? Does it not set forth the sanctity of toil and the beauty of holy activity?

I. First, let us think of the great fact of the universal necessity of labour. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work: that is the one supreme, inexorable law for all the sons of men. In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread, said God to Adam, and He has been saying it ever since to all the generations of men. There is no method by which life can be sustained, developed, ennobled except by the method of toil–either by hand, or foot, or brain. There is no endowment of Nature which ever brings anything to fruitfulness in human life without labour. Nature works; but when she works for man she only works with man. She will only minister to him when he, through constant toil, seeks to minister to himself. The general good of humanity–as well as the meeting of the wants of humanity–is effected by the labour of each individual. This necessitates at once not only division of labour, but degrees and diversities of labour. There is, first of all, the labour which is termed bodily labour, which tends to provide and then to distribute the resources of the world we live in. But we must add to this another sort of work–the work of the mind–ingenuity, thought, mental exertion, invention, before the organisation and progress of society can be effected. To ascertain and interpret the great vital and spiritual forces which this world half discloses and half conceals, is the work of the mental powers of men. The world of today, as we see it, and enjoy it, and use it, is the fruit of the labours of those who have lived in it in the past; and its beauties, its utilities, its wonderful ministrations to mans varied and increasing wants will only be maintained by the labours of those who live in it now, and who shall succeed us when we pass out of it and are no more.

II. I would speak now of the dignity of labour. And I base the term dignity of labour upon the fact that all labour is of Divine appointment. Not only has God laid upon us the necessity of labour, but He has so constructed us that without labour we fail to find any satisfaction in life. Like the strings of the harp and the lute, our capacities and powers only make music when they vibrate. The active man is not only the useful man, but if he is working on right lines and by right methods he is the happy man. We hear a great deal in low-class newspapers about the degradation of toil and the hard lot of the working man. No toil is of itself degrading; no work ought to be the producer of hardships. Nothing is low; nothing is mean if it be useful. Talk of degrading toil–there is no such thing. If there is one man more degraded than another it is the man who does nothing for the world but stare at it and suck the sweetness out of it. There is a common impression abroad that a gentleman is a man who has sufficient means to live without working. A gentleman is the man who does his duty in that sphere into which natural fitness has led him, or circumstances drawn him, honestly, purely, devotedly, and in the fear of God. It is a case of character, not of possession; of attainment, not of inheritance; of qualities of soul, not of a luxurious environment. Character is the crown of life. Deeds are the pulse of time. The sweat of honest toil is a jewelled crown on the brow of the toiler.

III. I pass now to consider, in the light of what I have been stating, some of the problems connected with the lower phases of labour in our modern life. I say lower phases of labour, because, fortunately, the higher phases tend more and more to settle their own problems. In the law, in medicine, in art, in the great world of science, labour is not harassed, circumscribed, and hindered by the thousand and one questions that are keeping the labouring classes in the lower phases of labour in perpetual turmoil. There are three problems affecting the labour market at the present moment, on which I will endeavour to throw some light.

1. There is first the great problem of how to keep the labour market full at the bottom. Every man has a right to choose the calling in which he thinks he can best minister to his own and others good; but the false notions as to the qualifications of elementary education, and the imaginary stigma which is attached to rough labour, are ruinous alike to the towns which they are filling, and to the country which they are emptying. There is no stigma attached to honest and useful labour; there is necessarily no disqualification for society, or for enjoyment in any occupation that is a source of benefit to the world. An honest, enlightened, educated farmer is equal to a man of the same qualities in any of the professions. These facts, if apprehended by the so-called lower classes, would go far to solve one of the great problems of the labour question of today.

2. The second problem is that connected with the hours of labour. You know that there is a loud cry for an eight hours day; and mere are some who think that Parliament ought to pass a Bill forbidding employers of labour in collieries, mines, and certain manufactories to work their employees more than eight hours out of every twenty-four. I do not so think. The remedy is to be found in fair combination and honest cooperation on the part of the men, and in a just and equitable temper on the part of employers. If you once employ, legislation in this matter, where are you to stop? Will you give an eight hours day to the clergyman–who oftentimes has to work (at least, I speak for myself) twelve and fifteen hours? Will you forbid the doctor to visit his patients, and to give medical advice for more than eight hours? Legislation, moreover, implies a certain amount of equality. But, as a matter of fact, there is nothing more unequal than mens capabilities for labour. What positively wearies one man to work at for six hours, another can stand cheerfully and unweariedly for twelve hours. An Act of Parliament compelling the lazy in all classes of the community to do some useful work every day would he of far greater benefit to humanity than any Government restrictions on the hours of labour.

3. There is one other problem which I will mention–the subject of livery; the badge of servitude. There is a strong feeling possessing certain classes of the community that humble labour ought not to he stamped with the regalia of its character; that a domestic servant, e.g., ought not to be compelled to dress in a manner which proclaims her a domestic servant. What does it mean? Just this. If it is a disgrace to be a servant no honest man or decent woman ought to engage themselves as such. If it is right, if it is honest, if it is consistent with ones freedom and all those things that pertain to manhood and womanhood, why object to be known as what you are–a servant There is nothing more degrading in a servants cap than in a judges wig. A respectable servant is as worthy of respect as her mistress. Service is no disgrace. (W. J. Hocking.)

The healthful tendency of work

Physical work promotes the circulation of the blood, opens the pores of the skin, gives tone to the respiratory organs, helps the functions of digestion, strengthens the muscles, adds suppleness to the joints, enlivens the senses, quickens the nerves, regulates the passions, and benevolently tends to build up the general constitution. Mental and moral work clears the understanding, empowers the will, keens the perception, awakens the conscience, informs the judgment, enlarges the memory, rectifies the affections. In one word, the tendency of work is to promote and sustain the mental and physical organisation in an uninterrupted action of health, until by the fiat of nature, or as the result of accident, or by the ravages of disease, it shall be broken up and dissolved in death. Man is kept in life by work, and dies either because he will not or because he cannot work.

Work, a law of nature

The law of nature is, that a certain quantity of work is necessary to produce a certain quantity of good of any kind whatever. If you want knowledge you must toil for it; if food you must toil for it; and if pleasure you must toil for it. (J. Ruskin.)

The Lord thy God brought thee out thence.–

The moral exodus

Look at this change as an emblem of that great moral revolution which has taken place in the soul of every genuine Christian, and which is essential to the spiritual well-being of every man.

I. It is a blessed change.

1. A wonderful emancipation.

2. Wrought by the Almighty.

3. Through human instrumentality.

II. It is a memorable change. Remember.

1. To inspire with gratitude to Deliverer.

2. To promote spirit of contentment.

3. To establish confidence in God. (Homilist.)

Remember Egypt

We are prone to remember the palaces and pleasures of Egypt; God admonishes us to remember its slavery. The memory of our former state should be–

I. An antidote to discontent. Though the labours and trials of the Wilderness were many, yet in Egypt we had more. If we labour, it is not to make bricks without straw–not for another, but for our own profit.

II. A stimulant to zeal. Remembering Egypt, let us press on toward Canaan; give no advantage to our enemies.

III. A reason for obedience. He who graciously delivered us has right to our service. If we made bricks for Pharaoh, what shall we render unto the Lord? If fear produced activity, how much more should love!

IV. Wings for faith and hope. Remember that the God who could deliver from Egypt can bring to Canaan. He who has begun the work will complete it.

V. A call to humility. I was but a servant, a slave; I owe all to my Deliverer. Without Him I were a slave again. (R. A. Griffin.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Keep the sabbath day, to wit, in mind and memory, as it is Exo 20:8. As God hath commanded thee, to wit, in

Exo 20, whither he directs them, and therefore he here omits the argument of the creation, which is urged there.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

12. Keep the sabbath day to sanctifyit, as the Lord thy God hath commanded theethat is, keep it inmind as a sacred institution of former enactment and perpetualobligation. [See on Ex 20:8].

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Ver. 12,13. Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it,…. Or observe it, by setting it apart as a time of natural rest, and for the performance of holy and religious exercises; see Ex 20:8, where the phrase is a little varied, “remember the sabbath day to keep it holy”; it having been instituted before:

as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee; not at Sinai only, for the same might then have been observed of all the rest of the commands, but before the giving of the law, at the first of the manna; see Ex 16:23.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(12-15) The language of this commandment is identical with the form it takes in Exodus only so far as the 13th and 14th verses are concerned; and even here the special mention of the ox and the ass is confined to Deuteronomy. The introduction and the close of the command, which gives the reason for it, are different here. The reason drawn from the creation is not mentioned; the reason drawn from the exodus is. This fact illustrates the observation that in Deuteronomy we find the Gospel of the Pentateuch. If for the exodus of Israel we substitute here the exodus of Christ, which He accomplished at Jerusalem, not so much by His death as by His resurrection, we have a reason for keeping not the Sabbath, but the Lords Day.

It is worth while to observe that the Israelites had express authority given them to enforce the observance of the Sabbath upon Gentiles, when these could be regarded as strangers within their gates. The words Isa. 56:6 seem to show that strangers who took hold of the covenant of Jehovah were expected to keep His sabbath from polluting it. For an example of its enforcement, see Neh. 13:16; Neh. 13:20-21.

If any difficulty is felt at the variation of the form of the commandment from that which we have in Exodus, it should be observed, first, that the command itself is not altered, as appears by Deu. 5:13-14, compared with Exo. 20:9-10; and secondly, that in this exhortation Moses calls Israel to hear the statutes and judgments which he, as their mediator, commands them, and that he is free to enforce them by such reasons as may seem to him best.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

12-15. In Exo 20:11, there is reference to creation in connexion with the requirement for the observance of the Sabbath. In this passage the deliverance from bondage in Egypt seems to be mentioned as the occasion for the grateful remembrance of Jehovah in keeping the Sabbath. When Moses, in Exo 20:11, says God blessed the Sabbath, because he rested on that day, he does not conflict with the statement here, that he commanded Israel to keep it for a special reason.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

XVI

THE DECALOGUE FOURTH COMMANDMENT

Exo 20:8-11 ; Deu 5:12-15

We now study the Fourth Commandment. I take up the questions in their order.

1. What is the relation of the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Commandment?

Ans. In the First Commandment we are commanded to worship Jehovah and none other; in the Second Commandments we are commanded to worship directly and not through intervention of anything; in the Third we are commanded to worship Jehovah sincerely, not falsely; and in the Fourth Commandment we are directed to worship Jehovah, as to time, in the regular period set apart. The four enjoin worship, direct, sincere, and when.

2. Repeat the Fourth Commandment.

Ans. 1 quote three accounts. In Exo 20:8-11 , it reads: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a sabbath unto Jehovah thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Deu 5:12-15 , where Moses recapitulates: “Observe the sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Jehovah thy God commanded thee. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a sabbath unto Jehovah thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and Jehovah thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore Jehovah thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.” The other account is in Exo 16:22-26 , preceding both of these others; “And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which Jehovah hath spoken, To-morrow is a solemn rest, a holy sabbath unto Jehovah: bake that which ye will bake, and boil that which ye will boil; and all that remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not become foul, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that to-day; for to-day is a sabbath unto Jehovah; to-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.”

In these three scriptures the sabbath is connected with the creation, with the manna and with the deliverance from Egypt.

3. Considering subsequent legislation and history, give an analysis of the Fourth Commandment, and explain and give an answer to each item of the analysis.

Ans. This ends the questions, but this third question has twenty-four subquestions in it, and each is a big one. We will give the analysis and then discuss it: (1) Its name; (2) Its authority; (3) Its sanctity; (4) Its duties; (5) Its reasons; (6) Its commemorations; (7) Its anticipations; (8) Its time; (9) Its signification; (10) Its cycle; (II) Its festivals and offerings; (12) Its exceptions; (13) Its rewards for observance; (14) Its penalties for nonobservance; (15) Its preparation; (10) Its profanations (notable cases of weekly sabbaths) ; (17) Its remarkable judgment case of land sabbaths; (18) Its song; (19) Its cessation in prophecy; (20) Its abrogation in fact; (21) Its Christian successor; (22) Its successor the argument for, scriptural and historical; (23) Its enemies today; (24) Its final antitype. That is the analysis; and it takes into account subsequent sabbatic legislation and subsequent sabbatic history. We take:

4. Its name and meaning?

Ans. “Sabbath,” which is merely an English translation of the Hebrew word sabbaton and that means “rest,” a period of rest.

5. Its authority?

Ans. Jehovah appointed it, preceded both by example and by precept.

6. Its sanctity?

Ans. Jehovah blessed and hallowed it. Its holy nature comes from God’s blessing and hallowing. Therefore in many of the scriptures the name of it is the “holy sabbath.”

7. Its duties?

Ans. These are (a) to work six days. It is impossible for me to magnify the dignity of labor. It is a great misconception to hold that work comes from sin; it preceded sin. When God made man and gave him his commission, he gave him a working commission, viz.: to subdue the earth; when he put Adam in the garden before sin he told him to dress the garden and to keep it, keep it in trust. So that labor is one of the things that comes from the other side of the fall of man; that is the first duty work. It drives a spear through the heart of the lazy man; it drives the nonworker away from the table. Paul said, “If a man won’t work, neither shall he eat.” (b) The second duty is rest on the seventh day. Labor on that day was to be suspended; it is suspended for you, your wife, your sons, your daughters, your servants, and your cattle. There is a reason for this which we will consider under the next head. The (c) third reason is for religious instruction. God commanded Moses that on each one of the cycle of sabbaths when they got over into the Promised Land, the whole nation should come together, men, women, and children, and that they should be instructed in all the teachings of God’s Word. (d) The next thing is worship, which is a different kind of rest; a cessation from physical labor gives rest to the body, worshiping God gives rest to the soul. No man has soul rest that does not worship God. Another (e) duty is that of offerings. I have not time to discuss these; you will find in Numbers and particularly in Leviticus the offerings that are to be made on the sabbath day, and on the whole cycle of sabbaths; there they are specified. So that you now see what are its duties: work, rest, instruction, worship, and offerings.

8. What are its reasons?

Ans. It could not be a moral law unless there was a reason underlying it. (a) On account of its relation to God. Man is related to God; he is God created, and after redemption be is God’s redeemed one. Now it is essential that the man should always be sensible of that highest relation, that paramount relation. But if there be no particular time when that relation is to be considered, that man is a wreck. Whenever you find a man that has no sabbath, you find a man that has no sensibility of his relation to God. (b) In relation to the man upon whom the commandment rests. In the nature of the physical man, inherently, there is a necessity for periods of rest. That this relation is inherent is evident from the testimony of people who are not considered themselves witnesses for religion. They say of it: “If the mind just keeps right on, work, work, work, and does not stop, that man will snap, break.” It is not only true of the mind, but it is true also of the body; it is not only true of the body, but it is true of the ax with which you cut down a tree. Take a steam engine and engineers will tell you that the engine which is run every day, and is not laid off, will not last. Even a steam engine calls for a sabbath day. The reason, I say, is inherent in the man, and means a different relation, which is highest of all relations, the paramount relation that man should be kept close to God. Suppose that he never gets more than six days from him, you can always call that fellow back; but where he gets a year away, or twenty years away, then it is very hard to ever get him back. Another reason is, (c) toward his fellow men is a relation; we are related to our fellow men. For instance, if I own a factory and employ my fellow men to work in that factory, I have no right to take advantage of their necessity and make them work on Sunday. The laborer must rest; the slave must rest; and God says, “Remember that you were under taskmasters in Egypt; that then you knew no sabbath, and how hard that made your bondage. Now let the thought of your fellow man come into your mind when you remember this day; that servant needs rest; that ox which you are working to the wagon, and that horse that you are ploughing with six days needs a rest.” So that the reasons of the sabbath arise from relations to God, to man, and are inherent in our fellow man and in the lower creatures, (d) Included in the idea of our fellow man comes the social idea, or relation to society, since man is made a social being. Now, if society becomes so corrupt that it rots, then it becomes a stench to heaven; this is true wherever there is no sabbath. The whole body politic becomes corrupt. In his Colonial history, Bancroft describes a certain community in Vermont. It is the most remarkable historical testimony I ever read. He says that a visit to the community would impress forever any man that was susceptible to impression as to the observance of the sabbath; the godliness of the community, the respect that the children have for their parents; the absence of jails, the needlessness of sheriffs; a little paradise, (e) As I have shown, we sustain a relation to lower creatures.

9. Its commemorations?

Ans. From the three scriptures I read, you will notice (a) God’s rest after the creation of the world, Gen 2:2 ; (b) God’s giving of the manna, which was to be the food of his people, Exo 16:25-31 ; (c) God’s deliverance of his people from bondage, Deu 5:15 . These three stupendous thoughts of the past would rise up like mountain peaks whenever they took a retrospective glance. God wrote that “in six days he created the heavens and the earth, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day.” When his people were in bondage he gave them freedom. He delivered them. When they were in the wilderness and hungry he gave them bread, bread from heaven, a miracle that lasted forty years.

10. Its anticipation?

Ans. It not only commemorates past events, but it looks forward to a great event, viz.: Rest in the Promised Land. On their pilgrimage and in the wilderness they looked back at the creation and the deliverance, and anticipated the end of their pilgrimage, where, in the Promised Land, they should have rest and peace.

11. Its time?

Ans. The seventh day: hebdomos. The seventh day does not necessarily mean the sabbath: sabbaton means sabbath. Hebdomos was the time, the seventh day.

12. Of what is it a sign, or what does it signify?

Ans. In Exo 31:13 ; Exo 31:16-17 , and Eze 20:12 ; Eze 20:20 , the sign is brought out very clearly. “This sabbath shows the covenant between you and me, as a sign to you that you are with Jehovah under covenant relations.” The seventh day sabbath was the God-appointed sign of the national covenant with Jehovah.

13. Its cycle?

Ans. There were seventh day sabbaths, or weekly sabbaths; lunar, or monthly sabbaths; annual sabbaths, i.e., sabbaths that came only once a year, e.g., the Passover, Pentecost, and the Tabernacle sabbath; the land sabbaths, or the seventh year sabbaths. Every seventh year the land must rest. They were not to put a plow in it all during that time; if anything was produced voluntarily they took that, and they took that seventh year, which would have been devoted to business, and came up to Jerusalem and spent it there entirely, with all the men, women, and children; and if they were afraid to leave their homes from the most distant parts of the territory of the Promised Land, then they were to remember that as they left, Jehovah would be its guard, and solemnly assured them that if they in faith left that field uncultivated and went up to spend an entire year in a great big Bible study, that he would keep the enemies off and the wolf of starvation from their door. But the cycle is not complete yet. There was the fiftieth year sabbath, called the Jubilee:

Blow ye the trumpet, blow:

The Jubilee has come. When seven times seven years have passed away, and you have given God a seventh of the week, and the thirtieth of the month, and a part of the year, and the seventh year; when you come to the end of the forty-ninth year, which is a land year, the whole land must give another year, called Jubilee year; and the object of that Jubilee is to hedge against alienation of title to property, restoration of bond-servants to freedom, to prevent land monopolies. You could not sell a piece of land, you could only give a lease on it, till the end of the forty-ninth year; and if you were within six months of the Jubilee, you could not lease it for more than six months. But when the Jubilee comes, it reverts back to the original owner. What a pity the politicians could not look at this thing in avoiding the land laws! What a tremendous gang of greedy men, that according to Isaiah, sins against God, by adding land to land, house to house, until there is no room for the people. What then is the cycle? Weekly sabbaths, monthly sabbaths, annual sabbaths, the land sabbath, or every seventh year, and the Jubilee, or fiftieth year sabbath. That is the cycle.

14. What are its festivals and offerings?

Ans. In connection with the sabbath there was a feast, the weekly festival; it means a time for a feast; there was a weekly feast, a monthly feast, three annual feasts, lasting quite a while, e.g., the Passover feast. They had the Passover day and then had the Passover feast, which lasted a week; and they had the Pentecost proper, followed by the Feast of Pentecost. All these things you learn in Leviticus, but we will come to that later.

15. What are its exceptions?

Ans. The law says that on the seventh day thou shalt do no work, neither thyself, thy children, thy servants, nor thy beasts. Is that law absolute, or has it exceptions? Among the exceptions are certainly the following, which are referred to repeatedly by our Lord and discussed in the subsequent legislation. We take up first the sheep and the ox. It is the sabbath day. You are to do no work; and you hear a sheep bleating or an ox bellowing, and you go out and find the ox or the sheep in a ditch. There is a commandment: “Thou shalt do no work,” forbidding you to take that poor suffering sheep out of the ditch. But in mercy and kindness to animals you take him out. Next you bring your old plowhorse up on Saturday night and hitch him in the stall; it is a quarter of a mile to the tank and it is Sunday. “Water my horse today? No, I must do no work on the sabbath day.” Jesus says, “You go, take that horse and water it on the sabbath day.” That is a necessity to him; the other was a mercy. Next, “thou shalt do no work.” Shall not the priest that offers the sacrifices work in getting these sacrifices ready? Yes; that does not alter it. Jesus said, “Do you not see that the priests work on the sabbath day?” which is the hardest workday the preacher has; he is working as he ministers to God’s people. We take up another case: The law of circumcision says that on the eighth day this child shall be circumcised. So if that comes on the sabbath day, you circumcise it. Another exception is the sabbath day’s journey. The camp of Israel is afterward described as being in such a position that the farthest tribe, if you measure from the center where the tabernacle stood to the most distant corner, it amounted to as much as about one-eighth of a mile; that is a sabbath day’s journey. In other words, you may travel from your place to your appointment, your sabbath day’s journey may be 100 miles, but don’t you go on business on Sunday. So that we have found quite a number of exceptions touching mercy and necessity and the performance of duties otherwise required like circumcision and the work of the priests.

16. Its rewards for observance?

Ans. These are scattered over the Bible. We have some beautiful accounts of these rewards in Isa 46:2 ; Isa 46:4-7 , where it talks about the poor outlaw and the stranger; if he shall at heart enter into God’s covenant, shall keep God’s sabbaths, he goes on to tell then of the rewards that God shall give him; that if in his heart he desires to honor God by keeping that day for him; if he follows, if he shall observe that day, then God blesses him. As an old proverb has it: “A Sabbath well spent brings a week of content.”

17. Its penalty for nonobservance?

Ans. For nonobservance of the week day sabbath the penalty was death or other judgments.

18. The preparation of the sabbath?

Ans. A man cannot keep a day holy without making preparation for it. Suppose that fellow that went out to get sticks to make a little fire had gathered his sticks the day before. Now, whatever you can do the day before, you must; just think that the sabbath is coming tomorrow; therefore the gathering today of twice as much manna as they did on the ordinary day. Prepare your work.

19. Its profanations?

Ans. The book of Numbers tells us of a man who went out to gather sticks on the sabbath day and he was stoned to death for labor on the sabbath day. In Neh 10 we have an account of those who bought and sold on the sabbath day. They were expelled from the covenant, and excommunication was inflicted upon those guilty; and so was the penalty for the cycle of sabbaths like the lunar sabbaths and the annual sabbaths: “The soul that will not come up to the Passover shall be cut off from his people,” excommunicated.

20. Its judgment in case of land sabbaths?

Ans. Now we come to consider the penalty for the nonobservance of the land sabbath, which is recorded in 2Ch 36:21 . Jeremiah made a prophecy because for 490 years during the period of the monarchy they had disregarded this law. He says, “You have not given the sabbaths to the land; therefore you shall go into captivity for seventy years, and the land shall have its sabbath.” Amo 8 brings out a penalty on those who profane God’s sabbath, who draw a long breath and say, “Oh, when will this Sunday pass away? I want to get to business. I am tired of all this religious instruction; I want to go fishing, hunting, etc.”

21. Its song?

Ans. Psa 92:1-15 . This psalm was written expressly for the sabbath day.

22. Its cessation in prophecy?

Ans. The cessation of the whole cycle in prophecy is found in Hos 2:11 , yea, a dozen prophecies are made that the entire sabbatic cycle shall cease. God says, “I will cause to cease,” and mentions the weekly, lunar, and annual sabbaths, saying, “they shall cease.”

23. Its abrogation in fact?

Ans. You find proof of the abrogation of the Mosaic sabbaths in the letter to the Colossians (Col 2:14 ), where Paul says that all of them, and exactly those mentioned in Hosea weekly, lunar) annual they are all nailed to the cross of Christ, and taken out of the way. That is the abrogation.

24. Its Christian successor?

Ans. The first day of the week, or the Lord’s Day, not the hebdomadal, seventh day of the week.

25. What is the argument for its successor?

Ans. It is both scriptural and historical. Those of you who will read the last sermon in the author’s first volume of sermons will find my argument at length, but I will give the substance of it very rapidly. Jehovah says Jehovah of the Old Testament that he is Lord of the sabbath; that the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath. The sabbath was made for man as man and not for the Jew alone. The sabbath given on Mount Sinai was part of the national covenant with the Israelite nation, to one people, but long before Moses was the sabbath of the creation and rest; not long before Sinai the manna fell; long before Abraham was called, the fall came. God gave man, the first man, a sabbaton; the seventh day commemorated that; the seventh day commemorated the manna; the seventh day commemorated the deliverance from Egypt. Now Jesus is Lord of the sabbath. He does not change the sabbath; but he changes the day of the sabbath, which is substantially: Jesus is the antitype. Joshua was to give them rest; Joshua did not give them rest. Jesus gives them the rest. God created the world; the seventh day sabbath commemorated that. Jesus redeemed the world; the first day of the week commemorates that. As we learn from Heb 4 , Jesus also rested from his work, as God did from his. Therefore there remaineth a keeping of the sabbath to the child of God. Secondly, when Jesus had abrogated, nailed to his cross, the Mosaic sabbath, and rested, from that day instantly they began to observe another day. Five times we read that “on the first day of the week” he appeared to his disciples and in all of these to at least seventy people; on that day the Spirit came; on that day the disciples assembled break bread, to pray, to keep the Lord’s Supper, as you learn from Act 2 , on that day, according to the habit and custom of the churches, Paul gave commandment that collections should be taken; on that day, in banishment of the Lord’s Day, John was in the Spirit. The citations from history you will find in that volume of sermons.

26. Its enemies today?

Ans. The enemies today are indeed very formidable; they have allied themselves with so many things that are good. It is a good thing to have a stock show, a fair, but it is bad to have an open door on Sunday and things exhibited that are indecent to the eye and to the moral life, as horse racing and gambling. Such are the oppositions. I have not time to go into the discussion of the battles with these enemies.

27. What is its final antitype?

Ans. Let us labor to enter into that rest, not the promised land on earth with its metes and boundaries, but the Promised Land in heaven, where is no war and all is rest forever. Oh, land of rest, for thee I sigh, When will the moment come When I shall lay my armour by, And rest with Christ at home?

ADDED QUESTIONS Is it right for a man living five miles out of town to drive to church on Sunday with a horse used all the week?

Ans. We must consider two things: (a) Man greater than the beast; man must go to church. Can he and his family walk ten miles, or five and back, regularly? Some would have to stay at home. (b) I have never read of a horse dying while taking a family to church. They generally carry feed, tie him to a shady tree, water him, and drive him slowly back. You might have brought a question harder than this, viz.: The railroad matter. It is a law to excuse railroad employees or clerks working in the postoffice on Sunday. But I would not, as a Christian, enter any business that left me no Sunday privileges, no alternation. Employers regarding their fellow men should have done on Sunday only such work as concerns public necessity.

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Deu 5:12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee.

Ver. 12. Keep the Sabbath day. ] In this repetition of the law some things are transposed, and some words changed, haply to confute that superstitious opinion of the Jews, who were ready to dream of miraculous mysteries in every letter.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Deu 5:12-15

12Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. 13Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14but 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 or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.

Deu 5:12 Observe This VERB (BDB 1036, KB 1581, Qal INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE) means keep and is used repeatedly in Deuteronomy.

the sabbath See Special Topic below.

SPECIAL TOPIC: SABBATH

This term (BDB 992) means rest or cessation of activity. The usage as a day of worship starts with Gen 2:2-3, where YHWH uses His rest as a pattern for animals (cf. Exo 23:12) and mankind (humans need a regular schedule of work, rest, and worship). The first specialized use of this day by Israel was in Exo 16:25-26 in the gathering of manna. It then becomes part of the Ten Words (cf. Exo 20:8-11; Deu 5:12-15). This is one example where the Ten Words in Exodus 20 are slightly different from the Ten Words in Deuteronomy 5. Deuteronomy is preparing Israel for the settled, agricultural life in Canaan.

holy See Special Topic below.

SPECIAL TOPIC: HOLY

Deu 5:13 work Laws like Deu 5:13-14 caused the development of the Oral Traditions (cf. Mat 5:21-48) to be written because a question like, What is work? became crucial. The rabbis devised a definition so that the faithful Jew would not break the Law. The ambiguity of the written Law caused the legalistic Oral Law to be developed.

Deu 5:14 seventh day is a sabbath The Sabbath was a day of rest (BDB 992). There are two origins given for the Sabbath: (1) Exo 20:11 orients it to Genesis 1-2, while Deuteronomy orients it to the Egyptian bondage (cf. Deu 5:15). It became a covenant marker (like circumcision) of YHWH’s people (cf. Exo 31:13; Exo 31:17; Eze 20:12; Eze 20:20). Obedience was mandated (cf. Isa 56:2; Isa 58:13; Jer 17:21-22).

Like the sun and moon (cf. Gen 1:14) the Sabbath provided a division of time for mankind’s activities (cf. Ecclesiastes 3). The seven day week became a way to mark special days and years (cf. Exodus 23 and Leviticus 23). Specifically, the Sabbath begins on Friday evening and goes through Saturday evening, because Israelites marked the day in Genesis 1 categories (evening and morning, cf. Gen 1:5; Gen 1:8; Gen 1:13; Gen 1:19; Gen 1:23; Gen 1:31).

Deu 5:15 You shall remember See note at Deu 7:18.

that you were a slave in the land of Egypt Moses uses this experience of slavery to motivate the Israelites to compassionate action toward underprivileged people in their society:

1. to allow servants (and animals) a day of rest – Deu 5:12-15; Deu 16:12

2. to freely release and empower Hebrew slaves – Deu 15:12-15

3. to be fair and just with the underprivileged and disenfranchised – Deu 24:17-18

4. to leave the corners of the field and the second gathering of crops for the poor – Deu 24:19-22

This phrase is also used numerous times to warn Israel to act appropriately in light of YHWH’s gracious gift of the land (e.g., Deu 6:10-15) and to obey the covenant (e.g., Deu 8:1-10) lest serious consequences come (e.g., Deu 8:11-20)

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

as = according as.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Exo 20:8-11, Isa 56:6, Isa 58:13

Reciprocal: Gen 2:3 – blessed Exo 16:30 – General Exo 31:14 – keep Exo 34:21 – Six Exo 35:2 – Six days Neh 10:31 – the people Neh 13:22 – sanctify Jer 17:22 – neither do Eze 20:12 – I gave

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Deu 5:12. Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it Dost thou do no work on this day, which can be done as well on another? Art thou peculiarly careful on this day to avoid all conversation which does not tend to the knowledge and love of God? Dost thou watch narrowly over all that are within thy gates, that they too may keep it holy? and dost thou try every possible means to bring all men, wherever thou art, to do the same?

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The fourth commandment 5:12-15

This is the most positively stated of the Ten Commandments. Only one other commandment appears in the affirmative, namely, the fifth. The fourth commandment is a charge to refresh oneself physically and spiritually. The Hebrew noun sabat, translated "Sabbath," is related to the verb translated "to cease" (cf. Gen 2:1-3).

Before God gave the Mosaic Law He told the Israelites to refrain from gathering manna on the seventh day of the week (Exo 16:22-30). Later God made abstinence from work on the Sabbath Day a law for the Israelites (Exo 20:8-11). The reasons were to memorialize God’s creation of the universe (Exo 20:11) and to memorialize His creation of the nation Israel (Deu 5:15).

"There are two versions of the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament, and both give different reasons for the observation of the sabbath. In Exo 20:11, the Hebrews are enjoined to observe the sabbath on the basis of God’s creation of the world. But in the second version, Deu 5:15, the sabbath is to be observed in commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt. At first sight the two reasons given for the observation of the same commandment seem very different, but the new understanding of the Song of the Sea [Exo 15:1-18], in its Canaanite/Ugaritic background [that I explained in my notes on Exodus], indicates just how close the two reasons are. The sabbath was to be observed, first in celebration of the creation of the world, and second in commemoration of God’s creation of Israel in the Exodus." [Note: Craigie, The Book . . ., pp. 89-90.]

"The principle theological truth to be seen here is the changing theological emphases of the unchanging God. For a people freshly delivered from Egyptian overlordship by the mighty exodus miracle, God as Creator is a central truth. Therefore it is most appropriate that the Sabbath focus on him as Creator and the cessation of that creative work, the very point of the Exodus commandment. From the perspective of the Deuteronomy legislation, some forty years later, creation pales into insignificance in comparison to the act of redemption itself. With the benefit now of historical retrospection and with the anticipation of the crossing of another watery barrier-the Jordan-and the uncertainties of conquest, Israel was to recall its plight as slaves and its glorious release from that hopeless situation. Sabbath now speaks of redemption and not creation, of rest and not cessation.

"All this gives theological justification for the observance by the Christian of Sunday rather than Saturday as the day set apart as holy. For the Christian the moment of greatest significance is no longer creation or the exodus-as important as these are in salvation history. Central to his faith and experience is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, a re-creation and redemptive event that eclipses all of God’s mighty acts of the past. Thus by example if not by explicit command Jesus and the apostles mandated the observance of the first day of the week as commemorative of his triumphant victory over death." [Note: Merrill, Deuteronomy, p. 152.]

God gave this commandment for the physical and spiritual welfare of His people (cf. Mar 2:23-28). The Pharisees later made Sabbath observance stricter than what God had intended (cf. e.g., Mar 2:18 to Mar 3:6).

God did not command Christians to observe the Sabbath (cf. Rom 10:4; Rom 14:5-6; Gal 3:23-29; Gal 4:10; Col 2:16-17). From the birth of the church on, Christians have observed the first day of the week, not the seventh, as a memorial of Jesus Christ’s resurrection (Act 20:7; 1Co 16:2). In Russian, the first day of the week is called "Resurrection Day." The reason for this Christian custom is that the Resurrection vindicated all Jesus claimed and did. It therefore memorialized God’s creation of the church. Even though God did not command it, resting and remembering God’s great acts have become customary among Christians down through the centuries. The Christian who works on Sunday is not disobeying God. The early Gentile Christians were mainly slaves who had to work on Sundays and met in the evening for worship. For them Sunday was not a day of rest but of work and worship.

To speak of Sunday as the "Christian Sabbath" as some do may be misleading. True, it is a day of rest for many Christians, but God has not commanded us to observe the Sabbath as He commanded Jews under the Mosaic Law. Seventh Day Adventists and other sabbatarian groups disagree. They believe that since this is part of the moral code of the Mosaic Law it remains in force for Christians. Some Christians appeal to Heb 4:9 for support that we should observe Sunday as the Sabbath. However the "rest" in view in that verse probably refers to our rest after we go to be with the Lord. Still other Christians argue for observance of the Sabbath because it was a creation institution that antedated the Mosaic Law. However, God did not command Sabbath observance until the Mosaic Law.

In short, most Christians observe Sunday as a special day devoted to spiritual rather than physical matters, and God’s interests rather than our selfish interests, because we choose to do so. We do not do so because God has commanded us to do so.

Nevertheless making Sunday special has two benefits at least. First, it contributes to public health. God made man in His image. God ceased His labor after working six days in creation. Man, likewise, constitutionally needs a refreshing change after six days of labor, including study. It is not healthy physically, psychologically, or socially to work seven days a week. Note that God made the Sabbath for "man," not just for Jews (Mar 2:27). Second, making Sunday special promotes civil liberty. It guards against the exploitation of workers. Sabbath observance was a symbol of freedom to the Israelites. Today ceasing from labor for one day enables people to rest and refresh themselves with friends and family, to enjoy a measure of freedom from "the daily grind." Failure to do so reduces life to the proverbial rat race in which people live as animals rather than as free human beings. People who have to work seven days a week fail to enjoy the rest God intended for them (cf. Mat 11:28).

This is the only one of the Ten Commandments that Jesus Christ or the apostles did not restate as a Christian obligation in the New Testament. New Testament references to the repetition of nine of the Ten Commandments as binding on Christians appear in my notes on Exodus 20.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)