CHAPTER IV.
THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.
Exodus XX, 8-11: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, 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 man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, 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.
This is the last commandment of the first table of the law. As we have seen in the preceding pages, the first commandment relates chiefly to the inward veneration, love, and esteem which we are to cherish toward God. The second relates to the external expressions of this veneration and love in appropriate outward actions, as the prostration of the body, etc. And the third requires us to glorify his name in our speech by never using his name except with due reverence and solemnity. So this fourth commandment prescribes the time which God has been pleased to set apart for the more especial performance of acts of religious devotion and piety.
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." God enforces this command with great particularity, and gives us three to press its observance upon us. The first is taken from his own example: "The Lord rested the seventh day;" rest ye also. The second is taken from the liberal portion of time allotted for secular uses: "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work." Is it not reasonable that a seventh portion should be given sacredly to the Lord when he has so freely and so liberally given us the rest? The third is the fact that God has especially dedicated it to his own immediate service and worship. "The Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it."
Sabbath implies rest and cessation from labor—a temporal Sabbath. It signifies, also, a spiritual rest—a rest from the toil and drudgery of sin, the grievous exactions of Satan, and the burden of a guilty conscience. It is also used to signify the eternal rest of the blessed in heaven. "There remaineth a rest [or the celebration of a Sabbath] unto the people of God."
1. The Sabbath must be kept as a Day of Rest from Secular Work.
Ex. XX, 9. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work:
10. 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, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11. 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.