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.

Here is the fourth of the Ten Commandments.

It is the longest of them all, and the one that is most often referred to in the rest of the Old Testament.

However, unlike the others it does not appear to have been explicitly re-affirmed in the New Testament.

So, what is the status and meaning of the Fourth Commandment for us today?

Here are some notes, prepared as background to a small group Bible study.

1. Sabbath and creation

Daily, monthly and annual cycles are deeply and universally embedded in our lives.  These are based respectively on the earth’s rotation, the orbit of the moon around the earth, and the orbit of the earth around the sun.  The weekly pattern has a completely different origin.

The fourth commandment harks back to:

Genesis 2:2–3 (NET) — 2 By the seventh day God finished the work that he had been doing, and he ceased on the seventh day all the work that he had been doing. 3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he ceased all the work that he had been doing in creation.

Various things follow:

(a) the image of God, which means that God is, in this and other respects, a model for us (Bruckner: ‘to rest is to share in the life of God, who also rested’);

(b) this pattern is reflected in the prayer, ‘Your will be done, on earth as in heaven’;

(c) God certainly did not rest because of any weariness on his part: and so we cannot claim to ‘not need’ a weekly day of rest.

(d) If this commandment requires resting on the seventh day, then working on the other six days is implied.

Enns:

‘The pattern of six days of work followed by one day of rest is to be maintained by the Israelites because this is the pattern of creation. Their “work week” is a reflection of the original work week. Whatever else we might glean from this pattern, one thing is striking especially in light of the author’s use of the creation theme throughout Exodus: Israel’s day-to-day life is a re-creation. God saved Israel to be a new creation community whereby all things would become new.’

Enns adds:

‘This is a reconnection with the Garden of Eden as Israel sits poised to enter the land of Canaan, the new garden. As God ordered the universe in Genesis 1, he is now giving Israel order in its existence amid the chaos of the world around them.’

Again:

‘By resting on the seventh day, Israel is not just following God’s command, but actually following God’s lead. They are doing what he himself did first. This pattern, therefore, is not a burden but a delight and high honor.’

2. Sabbath and redemption

In Deuteronomy, a different reason is given for the Sabbath commandment:

Deuteronomy 5:12–15 — 12 Be careful to observe the Sabbath day just as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13 You are to work and do all your tasks in six days, 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. On that day you must not do any work, you, your son, your daughter, your male slave, your female slave, your ox, your donkey, any other animal, or the foreigner who lives with you, so that your male and female slaves, like yourself, may have rest. 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.

The Sabbath was rooted not only in creation, then, but also in redemption.  According to Deut 5:15, the Sabbath commemorates the ‘rest’ that God’s people experienced when they were freed from slavery in Egypt.  According to v14, this prompts the opportunity of rest to Israel’s own slaves.

Willing and joyful Sabbath observance as part and parcel of spiritual restoration and blessing:

Isaiah 58:13–14 (NET) — 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. 14 Then you will find joy in your relationship to the Lord, and I will give you great prosperity, and cause crops to grow on the land I gave to your ancestor Jacob.” Know for certain that the Lord has spoken.

In the New Testament

From one perspective, we might regard OT teaching about this commandment as addressed to the people of God in their infancy.  Mohler envisages two tables of morality that children frequently experience:

‘On the one table, the dos: obey parents, walk silently in line to class, sit still, eat your vegetables, be nice to your sister. On the other table: do not run into the street, stick not thy finger into the electrical outlet, do not pull your sister’s hair, do not pull the dog’s tail, do not make fun of your teacher. These tables are clearly understood, formally delineated, strictly applied, and consistently reinforced.’

For many, adds Mohler, Sunday is:

‘the day on which there can be no fun…If you enjoy doing [something], then you probably are not supposed to be doing it on Sunday.

But Mohler would agree, I think, that the teaching of Jesus and the apostles is addressed to the people of God in their maturity.  They are given principles and guidelines, rather than rules and regulation.  They are invited to consider the spirit of the law that underlies its letter.

But a legalistic, hair-splitting approach to law-keeping had become prevalent in Jesus’ day.

Matthew 23:23 (NET) — 23 “Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You give a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, yet you neglect what is more important in the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness! You should have done these things without neglecting the others.”

The rabbis argued endlessly about what was, and was not, permitted on the Sabbath.  Mohler offers some examples of Jewish casuistry:

‘If an egg is found under a hen on the Sabbath morning, may it be eaten? It is a technical question. When, after all, is the labor performed? The hen is not available for interrogation. If the egg was the product of labor on the Sabbath, it is not to be eaten. If, however, the labor was done on some other day and it just appears on the Sabbath, then it is a gift….Which egg can you scramble, and which must you destroy?’

‘What if the elderly woman of the family, the matriarch, should fall in the field and needed to be brought back to the house? Could you take a litter to her in order to bring her out of the field? The rabbis debated this back and forth, some saying yes and some saying no. Some said no because it was too dangerous, for in taking out the wooden stakes, the poles that would be a part of the litter might drop and dig a furrow in the ground, and one would have plowed and desecrated the Sabbath. Was it better to leave Granny in the field than to desecrate the Sabbath by plowing?’

According to the Mishnah (3rd century AD), the following 39 labours are forbidden:

‘Sowing, plowing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, selecting, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, shearing wool, bleaching, hackling, dyeing, spinning, weaving, the making of two loops, weaving two threads, dividing two threads, tying and untying, sewing two stitches, tearing in order to sew two stitches, capturing a deer, slaughtering, or flaying, or salting it, curing its hide, scraping it [of its hair], cutting it up, writing two letters, erasing in order to write two letters [over the erasure] ,building, tearing down, extinguishing, kindling, striking with a hammer, [and] carrying out from one domain to another.’

But the rabbis were not alone in their quest to cover every possible infringement of the fourth commandment.  In the days of the Pilgrim Fathers in New England, there were 39 pages of Sabbath laws!

Jesus and the Sabbath

In the Gospels, Jesus is found dutifully observing the Sabbath, while bringing it back to its original intention as a blessing, not a burden.

Jesus’ teaching: ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath’:

Mark 2:23–3:5 (NET) — 23 Jesus was going through the grain fields on a Sabbath, and his disciples began to pick some heads of wheat as they made their way. 24 So the Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is against the law on the Sabbath?” 25 He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions were hungry—26 how he entered the house of God when Abiathar was high priest and ate the sacred bread, which is against the law for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to his companions?”27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. 28 For this reason the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” 1 Then Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2 They watched Jesus closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they could accuse him. 3 So he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Stand up among all these people.”4 Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or evil, to save a life or destroy it?” But they were silent. 5 After looking around at them in anger, grieved by the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

Jesus’ teaching here, constitutes, of course, not only a radical correction of attitudes towards the Sabbath (“The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath”), but also a forthright statement of his own (divine) authority (“The Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath”).

(Also Mt 12:1–13; Lk 6:1–10)

D.A. Carson comments on Jesus’ statement in Mt 12:8 –

‘That Jesus Christ is Lord of the Sabbath is not only a messianic claim of grand proportions, but it raises the possibility of a future change or reinterpretation of the Sabbath, in precisely the same way that His professed superiority over the Temple raises certain possibilities about ritual law.’ (From Sabbath to Lord’s Day)

DeYoung notes::

‘In Mark 2 Jesus approves of his hungry disciples picking heads of grain, noting that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (v. 27). In Mark 3 Jesus heals a man with a shriveled hand, suggesting that we ought to do good on the Sabbath. In Luke 13 Jesus restores a woman with a disabling spirit, suggesting that the Sabbath is a day of freedom (v. 12). In Luke 14 Jesus heals a man suffering from dropsy, suggesting that the Sabbath is a day for mercy.’

Ryken notes:

‘Consider the women who wanted to prepare the body of Christ for burial: went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment” (Luke 23:56b)…Taking spices to the tomb of Christ was a noble act of piety. So why not go ahead and do it? The answer was, because God had commanded a day of rest.’

In Acts, it is recorded that Paul would regularly attend the synagogue on the Sabbath as part of his missionary strategy:

Acts 13:14 (NET) — 14 Moving on from Perga, they arrived at Pisidian Antioch, and on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.

Acts 13:42 (NET) — 42 As Paul and Barnabas were going out, the people were urging them to speak about these things on the next Sabbath.

Acts 13:44 (NET) — 44 On the next Sabbath almost the whole city assembled together to hear the word of the Lord.

Acts 16:13 (NET) — 13 On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate to the side of the river, where we thought there would be a place of prayer, and we sat down and began to speak to the women who had assembled there.

Acts 17:2 (NET) — 2 Paul went to the Jews in the synagogue, as he customarily did, and on three Sabbath days he addressed them from the scriptures,

Acts 18:4 (NET) — 4 He addressed both Jews and Greeks in the synagogue every Sabbath, attempting to persuade them.

From Sabbath Day to Lord’s Day

Notwithstanding these references to the Sabbath, when the New Testament mentions a special day of the week for Christians to gather, it is not the seventh day of the week, but the first day:

Note the following:

Acts 20:7 (NET) — On the first day of the week, when we met to break bread, Paul began to speak to the people, and because he intended to leave the next day, he extended his message until midnight.

1 Corinthians 16:2 (NET) — On the first day of the week, each of you should set aside some income and save it to the extent that God has blessed you, so that a collection will not have to be made when I come.

Revelation 1:10 (NET) —  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day when I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet,

This is very likely to have been in recognition of the day of Jesus’ resurrection (Mk 16:2; Mt 28:1; Lk 24:1; Jn 20:19).

Warfield:

‘Christ took the Sabbath into the grave with him and brought the Lord’s Day out of the grave with him on the resurrection morn.’

This pattern was quickly established in the early church.

Most Christians, then, believe that the Sabbath (Saturday) has, in some sense, been replaced by the Lord’s Day (Sunday).

However, this day is never related to the fourth commandment, nor spoken of as the ‘Christian Sabbath’.  Moreover, most of the early Christians would have had to work on the first day of the week; Sunday was not declared an official day of rest until the time of Constantine in AD 321.

The teaching of the New Testament would appear to be that the Lord’s Day is a day of opportunity, rather than of obligation.

See, for example, Col 2:16f –

‘Do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days— these are only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ!’

Here, it is suggested, Paul treats the Sabbath together with food laws and festivals, the observance of which is no longer mandated since the coming of Christ.  (Some, however, insist that the ‘Sabbath days’ referred to here are additional Sabbaths, not the weekly Sabbath of the fourth commandment).

See also Rom 14:5, where Paul says that such observances are a matter of personal conscience:

‘One person regards one day holier than other days, and another regards them all alike. Each must be fully convinced in his own mind.’

The suitability of keeping Sunday special

(a) For society generally

We all need to observe various cycles in our lives – daily, monthly and yearly.

If the Sabbath is rooted in creation, then it follows that it has universal and perpetual significance (if not obligation) both personally and corporately.

For some, setting apart one day of the week in this way would simply be a waste of time.  Ryken:

‘When billionaire Bill Gates was asked why he didn’t believe in God, he said, “Just in terms of allocation of time resources, religion is not very efficient. There’s a lot more I could be doing on a Sunday morning.”’

Jen Watkins points out that the development of safe and efficient lighting in the late 19th century meant that work was not limited to the daylight hours.  ‘Thomas Alva Edison invited humanity into a world that never sleeps.’

Between 1929 and 1931 the Soviet Union instituted a five-day ‘continuous week’.  The aim was to keep factories running every day.  Workers had different, staggered, days off.  It was strongly resented by workers, who often had different days off from other members of their families, and made religious worship almost impossible.

From 1931 to 1940 the policy was shifted to a six-day week, with five days of work and a day off for everyone every sixth day.  The was less unpopular than the previous system, but still proved unstainable in practice, with machinery suffering from lack of maintenance and over-use.

The experiment was abandoned in 1940, and the traditional seven-day week (with Sunday off) was reinstated.

The positive benefits of Sabbath rest are reiterated in Ex 23:12 –

‘…in order that your ox and your donkey may rest and that your female servant’s son and any hired help may refresh themselves.’

According to Chris Wright, the Sabbath is the ‘greatest worker protection act in history’.

As Wilkin puts it:

‘If I rest while watching someone mow my lawn or paint my toes or prepare my food, I am enjoying rest of a kind, but I may not be sabbathing….The community is at stake in the fourth command…Sabbath observance is not just a matter of personal leisure or self-care, but of justice. It is a social leveler, an interval during which the greatest and the least enjoy the same measure of favor. ‘

Modern pressures on the business of life generally, and on keeping Sunday special: work, sports, shopping, family, social media.

‘Keep Sunday Special’ campaign was established in 1985 as a secular civil alliance established in 1985 to protect the UK’s Sunday trading laws. ‘It advocates for the existing legal compromise to preserve shared time for families, safeguard small businesses, and protect shopworkers’ rights.  It believes that “time is the currency of relationships”. It argues that having a dedicated day of rest helps prevent the erosion of family life, allows for better child development, and supports community and voluntary activities.‘

(b) For Christians in particular

It is good and right for Christians to gather regularly:

Hebrews 10:25 (NET) — ‘…not abandoning our own meetings, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and even more so because you see the day drawing near.’

The Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 103 stresses the positive benefits:

‘What does God require in the fourth commandment? In the first place, that the ministry of the gospel and schools be maintained; and that I, especially on the day of rest, diligently attend church to learn the Word of God, to use the holy sacraments, to call publicly upon the Lord, and to give Christian alms. In the second place, that all the days of my life I rest from my evil works, allow the Lord to work in me by his Spirit, and thus begin in this life the everlasting Sabbath.’

Just as a doctor might ‘order’ a patient to rest for his or her own good, God knows that we might not rest unless he explicitly told us to.

Moreover, if Christians did not have an agreed day for rest and worship, what would happen to their corporate life?

DeYoung:

‘If the Sabbath principle is rooted in creation, taught in the Ten Commandments, and reasserted by Jesus, maybe we ignore the day at our peril. Not because God is frowning over us every time we break a sweat on Sunday, but because he means to smile over us with the blessing of worship and rest. After all, God made the Sabbath for man, not man for the Sabbath.’

J.I. Packer urges us to make our time count for God:

‘Not by a frenzied rushing to pack a quart of activity into a pint pot of time (a common present-day error), but by an ordered life-style in which, within the set rhythm of toil and rest, work and worship, due time is allotted to sleep, family, wage-earning, homemaking, prayer, recreation, and so on, so that we master time instead of being mastered by it.’ (Packer)

Wilkin:

‘The banner over the seventh day of creation is “It is finished” (Gen. 2:1–2). The banner over the believer at the cross as a new creation in Christ is “It is finished” (John 19:30). And the banner over the re-creation of all things is “It is finished” (Rev. 21:5–6).’

Sabbath rest in Jesus

Matthew 11:28–30 (NET) — “28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.”

Scott Hubbard (Desiring God) notes the teaching of Jesus in Mt 12:1-14 (“I will give you rest”).  In the light of the legalism he confronted, we could say the ‘rest’ we receive from Christ is the fulfilment of the Sabbath rest that had been so abused by the legalists.

Garrett:

‘The commemoration of Jesus’s resurrection on Sunday anticipates the new creation of all things, the new heaven and earth, for which Jesus’s resurrection is the “first fruits.”’

Hebrews 4 elaborates this idea of enterng into God’s ‘rest’.

Already we have tasted the goodness of resting in Christ and his finished work (Heb 4:3).  We ‘rest’ from our own labours, our need to be ‘good enough for God’.  We ‘rest in Christ and his finished work.  We find ‘rest’ here, in anticipation of that fulness of ‘rest’ that is promised to us in the hereafter.

According to Heb 4, Israel’s Sabbath day, the, pointed to the

‘ultimate Sabbath rest…, when God’s people will enjoy work without toil, hearts without sin, and an earth without thorns.’

Hubbard maintains that Christians are not obliged to observe the Lord’s Day.  But many blessings flow from doing so:

‘Every Lord’s Day, we come again to Jesus, weary and heavy laden (Matthew 11:28). We trace the shadow of the Sabbath to its substance (Colossians 2:17). We hear again in the distance the sounds of the future Sabbath festival; we glimpse again by faith the glow of “innumerable angels in festal gathering” (Hebrews 12:22). We look again into the empty tomb and hear Christ say, “Peace to you!” (Luke 24:36). In other words, we find rest — the kind of rest that remains long after Sunday has passed.’

Although Jesus challenged the traditions that had built up around the Sabbath, Jesus never challenged or violated the command itself (Mt 5:17f).

This is the only one of the Ten Commandments not repeated after the Day of Pentecost.

Paul, in Rom 14:5f, puts Jewish holy days in the category of ‘adiaphora’.  See also Col 2:16f.

Mohler aregues that the New Testament does not support the idea that the Lord’s Day is the Christian Sabbath.  Whereas the OT Sabbath was mainly about rest,

‘the evidence in the New Testament is that the Lord’s Day is mostly about worship, about gathering, about being confronted with the preaching of the Word, about coming together with mutual instruction, about the Lord’s Table, where the communion of the saints points to a meal which is yet to come. The Lord’s Day points not only back to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and His accomplished work, but it also points forward eschatologically to that rest we will enjoy on that day when we shall be with Him and there will be no more work. There will be no more evangelism. There will be no more missions. There will be no more works of mercy, no benevolent ministries in heaven, for there will be mercy in abundance. All will be well. Every eye will be dry and every tear will be wiped away.’

The suitability of having an agreed day on which we can gather as a church.  Teaching our children.  Do we claim that ‘Jesus is Lord’ but then declare by our actions that football is king?

What counts as ‘rest’ may vary from person to person, and from family to family.  A person with a sedentary job may benefit from being more physically active, whereas a labourer may need physical relaxation.  Either way,

‘To love God is not to have a lazy day one day a week; rather it is to focus on doing his will specially on one day a week—to worship, learn, study, care, and strengthen the spirit.’ (Stuart)

Additional note: Is this commandment binding on Christians today?

1. Some argue for strict observance of the Christian Sabbath.  Although the day has changed from the last day of the week to the first day (in recognition of Christ’s resurrection), it belongs to God’s moral law, and is a creation ordinance with universal and eternal validity.  The Puritans generally, Westminster Confession, Day One Christian Ministries (formerly Lord’s Day Observance Society) Brian Edwards.

According to the Westminster Confession of Faith:

‘[God] hath particularly appointed one day in seven, for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him: which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which, in Scripture, is called the Lord’s Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath.’

Aquinas took a similar view.

Sinclair Ferguson stresses the abiding significance of the Fourth Commandment, while noting both continuity and discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments in this matter.  Furthermore, he emphasises that observance of the Lord’s Day is intended to be a blessing and not a burden.

Seventh Day Adventists believe in strict observance of the Sabbath.  Of course, the most distinctive aspects of their teaching is that it is to be observed from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday.  They believe that there is no biblical warrant for Sunday observance; indeed, they regard such observance as ‘the mark of the beast’.  The very difficulty of seventh day observance (and the concomitant expectation of labour on each Sunday) is regarded by them as a badge of faithfulness.  (See Bauckham, ch.11 in From Sabbath to Lord’s Day)

2. Others teach that the commandment is no longer binding.  Unlike the other nine commandments, it is part of the ceremonial law, a sign of God’s covenant with Israel, and is therefore fulfilled in and made obsolete by Christ.  It is through faith in him that our ‘rest’ is found.  See Rom 14:5.  Whereas the other nine commandments are endorsed in the New Testament, the Fourth commandment is not.

According to Ex 31:12-18 , Sabbath observation was a sign of covenant relationship (like the earlier covenant sign of circumcision).  It might be argued from this that just as circumcision is not binding upon God’s New Testament community, so also with strict Sabbath observance.

Augustine taught that this command is a type of Christ, and fulfilled in him, and therefore abolished.

3. Between these two extremes, various mediating positions may be found.  For example, many think that the principle of devoting one day in the week to rest and corporate worship is sound, but that flexibility in practice is permissible.

It is sometimes argued that this commandment has both a ceremonial and an ethical aspect.  Ceremonially, it belongs to the old covenant, and as such is no longer binding.  Ethically, it reflects God’s own pattern of working and resting, provides for a healthful cycle of activity and rest, and protects against the exploitation of of workers.

The Second Helvetic Confession (1566) stresses voluntary observance:

‘We see that in the ancient churches there were not only certain set hours in the week appointed for meetings, but that also the Lord’s Day itself, ever since the apostles’ time, was consecrated to religious exercises and to a holy rest; which also is now very well observed by our churches, for the worship of God and the increase of charity. Yet herein we give no place unto the Jewish observation of the day, or to any superstitions. For we do not account one day to be holier than another, nor think that mere rest is of itself acceptable to God. Besides, we do celebrate and keep the Lord’s Day, and not the Jewish Sabbath, and that with a free observation.’

The Heidelberg Catechism takes a practical, rather than a prescriptive approach:

‘First, that the gospel ministry and education for it be maintained, and that, especially on the festive day of rest, I diligently attend the assembly of God’s people to learn what God’s Word teaches, to participate in the sacraments, to pray to God publicly, and to bring Christian offerings for the poor. Second, that every day of my life I rest from my evil ways, let the Lord work in me through his Spirit, and so begin in this life the eternal Sabbath.’

According to Bauckham:

‘Neither Luther nor Calvin held that the fourth commandment requires Christians to rest on Sunday, but both held that, as a matter of convenience and order, a weekly day of rest for worship was needed.’

Wilkin, J. (2021) Ten Words to Live By. Crossway.

Mohler, A. (2009) Words From the Fire.  Moody Publishers.