IV

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Exodus 20:8-11

[Note: GodsTenLaws does not hold fully to the interpretation of Matthew Henry's commentary on the fourth commandment, though the application has some merit. For additional information on the Sabbath day commandment please see the Sabbath Day .]

The fourth commandment concerns the time of worship. God is to be served and honoured daily, but one day in seven is to be particularly dedicated to his honour and spent in his service.

Here is, (1.) The command itself (v. 8): Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; and (v. 10), In it thou shalt do no manner of work.

It is taken for granted that the Sabbath was instituted before; we read of God’s blessing and sanctifying a seventh day from the beginning (Gen. 2:3), so that this was not the enacting of a new law, but the reviving of an old law.

[1.] They are told what is the day they must religiously observe—a seventh, after six days’ labour; whether this was the seventh by computation from the first seventh, or from the day of their coming out of Egypt, or both, is not certain: now the precise day was notified to them (ch. 16:23), and from this they were to observe the seventh.

[2.] How it must be observed. First, As a day of rest; they were to do no manner of work on this day in their callings or worldly business. Secondly, As a holy day, set apart to the honour of the holy God, and to be spent in holy exercises. God, by blessing it, had made it holy; they, by solemnly blessing him, must keep it holy, and not alienate it to any other purpose than that for which the difference between it and other days was instituted.

[3.] Who must observe it: Thou, and thy son, and thy daughter; the wife is not mentioned, because she is supposed to be one with the husband and present with him, and, if he sanctify the Sabbath, it is taken for granted that she will join with him; but the rest of the family are specified. Children and servants must keep the Sabbath, according to their age and capacity: in this, as in other instances of religion, it is expected that masters of families should take care, not only to serve the Lord themselves, but that their houses also should serve him, at least that it may not be through their neglect if they do not, Jos. 24:15. Even the proselyted strangers must observe a difference between this day and other days, which, if it laid some restraint upon them then, yet proved a happy indication of God’s gracious purpose, in process of time, to bring the Gentiles into the church, that they might share in the benefit of sabbaths. Compare Isa. 56:6, 7. God takes notice of what we do, particularly what we do on Sabbath days, though we should be where we are strangers.

[4.] A particular memorandum put upon this duty: Remember it. It is intimated that the Sabbath was instituted and observed before; but in their bondage in Egypt they had lost their computation, or were restrained by their taskmasters, or, through a great degeneracy and indifference in religion, they had let fall the observance of it, and therefore it was requisite they should be reminded of it. Note, Neglected duties remain duties still, notwithstanding our neglect. It also intimates that we are both apt to forget it and concerned to remember it. Some think it denotes the preparation we are to make for the Sabbath; we must think of it before it comes, that, when it does come, we may keep it holy, and do the duty of it.

(2.) The reasons of this command.

[1.] We have time enough for ourselves in those six days, on the seventh day let us serve God; and time enough to tire ourselves, on the seventh it will be a kindness to us to be obliged to rest.

[2.] This is God’s day: it is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, not only instituted by him, but consecrated to him. It is sacrilege to alienate it; the sanctification of it is a debt.

[3.] It is designed for a memorial of the creation of the world, and therefore to be observed to the glory of the Creator, as an engagement upon ourselves to serve him and an encouragement to us to trust in him who made heaven and earth. By the sanctification of the Sabbath, the Jews declared that they worshipped the God that made the world, and so distinguished themselves from all other nations, who worshipped gods which they themselves made.

[4.] God has given us an example of rest, after six days’ work: he rested the seventh day, took a complacency in himself, and rejoiced in the work of his hand, to teach us, on that day, to take a complacency in him, and to give him the glory of his works, Ps. 92:4. The Sabbath began in the finishing of the work of creation, so will the everlasting Sabbath in the finishing of the work of providence and redemption; and we observe the weekly Sabbath in expectation of that, as well as in remembrance of the former, in both conforming ourselves to him we worship.

[5.] He has himself blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it. He has put an honour upon it by setting it apart for himself; it is the holy of the Lord and honourable: and he has put blessings into it, which he has encouraged us to expect from him in the religious observance of that day. It is the day which the Lord hath made, let not us do what we can to unmake it. He has blessed, honoured, and sanctified it, let not us profane it, dishonour it, and level that with common time which God’s blessing has thus dignified and distinguished.

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