Sermon Tone Analysis

The Fourth Commandment

Exodus 20:8-11

Introduction

In the four or five centuries before Jesus came, the Jewish religious teachers debated at length about what observances should be made as regards the Sabbath.

Thirty nine articles were formulated prohibiting all kinds of agricultural, industrial and domestic work.

A Jew must not carry on the Sabbath even so much as a pocket handkerchief, except within the walls of the city.

If there are no walls it follows, that he must not carry it at all.

Even the preservation of life was a breaking of the Sabbath.

A man could not peel a fruit.

A woman could not kneed her dough.

A boy could not wash his dog.

A girl could not plait her hair.

An old man could not tie a knot in a string.

No one could write or cross out what had been written.

All was forbidden, except that a man could go to the help of a bogged cow or a trapped sheep.

A Sabbath Day's journey was about seven-eighths of a mile.

One could not light a fire, or put it out, forbidding even any fire to be kindled on the Sabbath, even for culinary purposes, but not probably the use for warmth.

The Commandment (Exodus 20:8-11)

20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day to set it apart as holy.

20:9 For six days you may labor and do all your work, 20:10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, or the resident foreigner who is in your gates.

20:11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, and he rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

1. Sabbath Origins

• The word Sabbath has come to us from the Hebrew and is a direct transliteration.

• Throughout history and even today it has come to signify a day or period of rest from everyday labor.

• The Sabbath was more than just a day set aside each week but also was a term used for other periods of rest from work such as festivals like festival of Weeks or the day of atonement.

• It also applied to working the land-you could plant and harvest a field for six years but in the seventh it would be put into fallow.

• The word has generally come to mean ‘rest’ but it is used often to mean ‘cease’

• This works well with the intent of the Sabbath as a day in which labor is ceased.

• The beginning of the Sabbath goes all the way back to Genesis 2:2 where God after taking six days to create the universe takes a break from his exertion to rest.

• This action on the part of God as we all know has nothing to do with God needing to take a day off because he was tired.

• God does not get tired and so what would be the reason for him taking a rest?

• God’s plans and purposes are well thought out and exercised.

• So the best answer that I have discovered is that God was putting into place a special emphasis on the rest taking place on the seventh day.

• He wanted it to be part of the initial account of the creation of the world.

• It would have its purpose with the covenant with Israel but he wanted to establish its prominence back in Creation.

• A day of rest is not something that humanity began but something God established and there was a very clear purpose for it.

• God makes an example in part from Creation that says that labor is to be done in six days.

• He himself could have created the world in an instant but choose this duration to state that work was normal and expected.

• But with work also comes rest and the need to break up the routine, he set the example here as well.

2. Purpose of the Sabbath

• When we think of the Sabbath we may think of several things.

• If we are familiar with Jewish practice we may understand that it is a period of time from Friday around six pm to Saturday at six pm.

• We may see it as a day that most people take off.

• We may see it if we are a little older as a day when all the stores are closed and you spend time with your family.

• Obviously for Christians we may relate it to going to church on Sunday and we even may know that we do not actually keep the Sabbath day.

• But do we know why the Sabbath exists?

• On a very practical point it is for the rejuvenation of a person or working animal.

• Ex. 23:12:

For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you must cease, in order that your ox and your donkey may rest and that your female servant’s son and any hired help may refresh themselves.

• Very simply put we and everyone else gets tired, if you work for six days at the various tasks of taking care of your family, doing business, establishing commerce the body and the mind become taxed and weary.

• God is saying, ‘I did not make you to go non stop everyday, take a day to recover from your work and be refreshed.

• Our passage in Exodus 20 signifies that another reason for the Sabbath rest is simply because God took a break.

• And in taking a break he made the day special, blessed it and declared it holy.

• It was to be set aside as different from the mundane and the ordinary.

• All the things that occupied a persons mind all week long were to end for just a short time and the focus was to shift to their relationship with God.

• Isa.

58:13:

You must observe the Sabbath

rather than doing anything you please on my holy day.

You must look forward to the Sabbath

and treat the Lord’s holy day with respect.

You must treat it with respect by refraining from your normal activities, and by refraining from your selfish pursuits and from making business deals.

• God allow his people much of the time in a given week to their own pursuits and endeavors but he demands one day as his own.

• The emphasis on that day is to be on God and not all the other things that occupy our minds.

• When the Decalogue was given to Moses it was established as a point of the covenant.

• This establishment was closely linked to the series of events that brought Israel out of Egypt.

• The relationship between God and Israel was one of redemption and that is one of the primary purposes of the Sabbath.

• Deut.

5:15:

Recall that you were slaves in the land of Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there by strength and power.

That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

• In Egypt there was no rest, each and everyday they were under the tyranny of the Egyptians to make bricks for construction.

• They did not get a day off but were constantly under the control of their slave masters.

• The Sabbath was to be a weekly reminder just as the festivals and ceremonies that are called Sabbath Festivals were.

• They were to recall in the minds of every generation of Jew that God had elected and delivered them from bondage and had set them free.

• It also, closely tied to this was a declaration each week of their dependence on God and independence from other people and powers.

• The Sabbath was not particularly holy because Saturday was a special day, it was the significance of what they day was supposed to represent that set it apart.

• Each and every week the people of God were to remember the goodness of God in their redemption

• Keeping the Sabbath was no small matter, God viewed as extremely important.

• Ex. 35:2:

In six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there must be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord.

Anyone who does work on it will be put to death.

• The covenant with Israel was to be one where God had no equal, he was to first in the lives and hearts of those he choose.

• Israel struggled throughout its history to keep the Sabbath and it is one of the reasons that they went into exile.

• They tended to want to work more, neglect their focus on God and forget him all together-the Sabbath was there to help prevent this from happening.

• It is not because the day is so significant but that it represents the dedication that God requires for a relationship with him.

3. New Testament on the Sabbath

• When we get to the New Testament we have a picture of the Sabbath that was quite different than the establishment with Moses.

• The desire to keep the day had spiraled from remembrance and worship to rule keeping.

• The intent was to add rules in order that breaking it would be impossible but in the process they neglected to make it a day of worship and remembrance but rather a day of rule keeping.

• With Jesus came the shaking of the established order.

• On several occasions he was confronted by Pharisees as to his conduct on the Sabbath.

• In Jn. 5 he healed a man on the Sabbath, in Lk. 13 he heals a woman on the Sabbath, in Lk. 14 he heals another man on the Sabbath.

• In other places he picks grain on the Sabbath and travels on that day.

• All of these things created a great rift between Jesus and the established religious order.

• In fact in Mt. 12:8 Jesus declared that he was Lord of the Sabbath in response to the religious leaders adding many rules to the observance of the day.

• They had distorted it to the point that a person could not even help another person on that day.

• It is in this Matthew passage after this confrontation he enters the Synagogue and heals a man.

• Jesus may have aggravated the system but he still kept the day.

• What he did not do is bow to the establishment but kept the original intent made by God.

• Mk. 2:27:

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.