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Just What is the Fourth Commandment?
Jack M. Lane
There are a number of Sabbath keeping churches and
congregations around the world. At times the only
discernible difference between people who go to church
on Sunday and those who go to church on Saturday is the
Sabbath doctrine.
The Sabbath observers' point to the fourth commandment,
showing that it says the seventh-day is the Sabbath of
Yahweh. The Sunday observers follow the teaching that
the church (specifically, the Roman Catholic Church) had
the authority to change the Sabbath from the seventh day
of the week to the first day of the week, even enforcing
the change by the edge of the sword. Many "Sunday
keepers" and "Sabbath keepers" alike have inaccurately
learned the fourth commandment. It seems most
church-going people are confident that the commandment
says, "Keep the Sabbath." As just mentioned, we speak
about "keeping the Sabbath" as opposed to "keeping
Sunday."
What does it mean to "keep" one day or the other? Does
it mean to "keep" the day in a certain way? Does it mean
to observe the day, or hold onto the day? How does one
"keep the Sabbath"? Whether we favor Saturday or Sunday
as our Sabbath day, perhaps it's time to examine this
oft-used phrase, "keeping the Sabbath," more closely, so
we can gain a better understanding of what it is God
wants us to do with one specific day out of seven.
The Fourth Commandment
Let's begin by examining the commandment, as given in
the King James Version of the Bible. It begins,
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Exodus
20:8). Notice first of all that the commandment is not
"Keep the Sabbath," but rather, "Remember the Sabbath."
The opposite would be to forget the Sabbath; we don't
want to forget it, we want to remember it. Why do we
remember it? In order "to keep it holy."
This commandment is comprised of eight words in English,
but only four words in Hebrew. "Remember," "Sabbath,"
and "day" are each represented by a Hebrew word, but the
final phrase, "to keep it holy" is from the one word
qadash (pronounced kaw-dash', Strong's #6942),
which means to set apart as sacred, to observe as
holy. Perhaps a better translation would be, "Remember
the Sabbath-day to sanctify it" (Young's Literal
Translation), or "Remember to observe the Sabbath as a
holy day" (The Living Bible).
If this is the case, then it may not be accurate to
think of the fourth commandment as telling us to "keep
the Sabbath." We have historically said that one of our
distinguishing features is that we "keep" the Sabbath
and holy days, while other groups "keep" Sunday,
Christmas and Easter. Perhaps it's time to realize that
this may not be appropriate biblical phraseology, after
all.
What about Deuteronomy chapter 5, the other location
where the Ten Commandments are listed? There, the
Israelites were told to "Keep the sabbath day to
sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded
thee. ... And remember that thou wast a servant in the
land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee
out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out
arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep
the sabbath day" (Deuteronomy 5:12, 15).
In verse 12, "keep" is translated from the Hebrew word
shamar (shaw-mar', Strong's #8104), which means
to guard, to observe and celebrate, to protect and
preserve -- to "keep" something in the sense of having
custody of it. In effect, God is telling us, "Remember
the Sabbath day to observe it as holy, for I have
charged you with the job of protecting it. It's in your
custody."
In verse 15, however, "keep" is translated from another
Hebrew word, 'asah (aw-saw', Strong's #6213),
which means to do, to make, to act. This verse is
reminding the Israelites that God had brought them out
of slavery by His mighty hand and outstretched arm, and
this is why they were to do the Sabbath day.
Here we can see that, while the two English language
verses say "keep the Sabbath day," we have missed some
important understanding by not knowing what was really
said. There is more to Sabbath observance than many of
us had thought! God has placed His Sabbath day into our
custody, and has commanded us to remember it.
Other References
This same word "keep" is used in other contexts in
scripture. As an example, in Nehemiah chapter 13,
Nehemiah is recounting how he stood up to those who were
buying and selling on the Sabbath day, and how he
threatened them with legal action if they did not stop
doing business on the Sabbath. He even had the city
gates closed on the Sabbath to prevent merchants from
coming in and setting up shop!
"And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse
themselves, and that they should come and keep
[shamar, #8104] the gates, to sanctify
[qadash, #6942] the Sabbath day. Remember me, O
my God, concerning this also, and spare me according to
the greatness of thy mercy" (Nehemiah 13:22).
Notice that the Levites weren't coming to "keep the
Sabbath," but to "keep the gates"! The NIV uses more
Modern English in this verse: "Then I commanded the
Levites to purify themselves and go and guard the gates
in order to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember me for
this also, O my God, and show mercy to me according to
your great love." From this we can see that the fourth
commandment tells us to remember the Sabbath day, and
guard it!
But what about other scriptures that talk about keeping
the Sabbath? Let's examine those passages and see if the
English is translating the Hebrew appropriately. "Ye
shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto
you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to
death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul
shall be cut off from among his people. ... Wherefore
the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to
observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a
perpetual covenant" (Exodus 31:14, 16).
In both instances here, "keep" is translated from
shamar (#8104), to guard and protect. It is becoming
clear that God's people are instructed to guard the
Sabbath!
On another occasion, Moses was telling the people about
the holy days of the seventh month: "Also in the
fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have
gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast
unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a
sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath"
(Leviticus 23:39).
In this case, the word "keep" is translated from the
Hebrew chagag (khaw-gag', Strong's #2287), which
means to hold a feast, to celebrate, to make a
pilgrimage, to dance and reel -- even to stagger! In
today's vernacular, party! The holy days are special
times of joy and celebration.
Later on, God tells Moses, "Speak unto the children of
Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land
which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath
unto the LORD" (Leviticus 25:2). Can land -- real estate
-- keep a sabbath? Here "keep" is translated from a
variation on the word "Sabbath" itself, the Hebrew word
shabath (Strong's #7673), which means to cease,
to rest -- in effect, the land shall rest a rest, or
sabbath a sabbath. From what we have seen, there is more
to "keeping the Sabbath" than many of us had thought!
Breaking the Sabbath
If our common expression, "keeping the Sabbath," is not
biblically accurate, then what about another much-used
expression, "breaking the Sabbath"?
When we first decided to observe the Sabbath, there were
many questions we needed to have answered, such as, "How
do I keep the Sabbath?", and "How do I avoid breaking
the Sabbath?."
Many of us spent years learning how to walk the fine
line (or the narrow path to the strait gate, Matthew
7:14) of Sabbath observance. We observed strict lists of
do's and don'ts, fearing lest we offend God or man. On
the whole, that wasn't a bad idea, but did we ever look
to the Bible to see if there was a place that mentioned
"breaking the Sabbath"?
In fact, there is only one place, and it is a false
accusation against the Messiah: "Therefore the Jews
sought the more to kill him, because he not only had
broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his
Father, making himself equal with God" (John 5:18).
Had He done those things? Here's what happened: Yeshua
had healed a man at the pool of Bethesda, and had told
the man to take up his bed and walk (John 5:1-9). Of
course, this wasn't a huge four-post bed with a canopy
he was struggling with, but more likely a small,
lightweight mat of some kind. But the Jews, who were
very physical in their Sabbath observance, saw the man
carrying this bed-roll, and reminded him that it was the
Sabbath. The man told them that the One who had healed
him had told him to carry it. "Oh, really," they
responded. "And who was this man?" They wanted to find
out who had encouraged this fellow to carry his bed
around on the Sabbath day. When he found out it was
Yeshua, he told the Jews, who then began to persecute
Yeshua (verses 10-16). All the Jews could see was a man
carrying his mat around. They couldn't see the bigger
picture, that a crippled man had been healed! Instead of
rejoicing, they accused the Messiah of Sabbath-breaking!
Then, to make matters worse, Yeshua answered their
accusations about working on the Sabbath with this
response: "'My Father is always at his work to this very
day, and I, too, am working.' For this reason the Jews
tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he
breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his
own Father, making himself equal with God" (verses
17-18, NIV).
What about these serious charges? Was He the Son of God?
Well, yes, He was! But from their standpoint, He was
claiming something that was utterly impossible.
Had He broken the Sabbath, or encouraged someone else to
break the Sabbath? To our manner of thinking, the
healing of the crippled man would have been so much
greater in value that it would make carrying his mat
around simply proof that the man had been healed! But
the Jews (to whom the Sabbath had been entrusted, both
by God and by Nehemiah) were jealously guarding the
Sabbath! Their way of guarding it, though, was purely
physical, and as a result they missed many spiritual
lessons along the way.
If we in the Body of Christ do have the Holy Spirit, as
these ancient Jews did not, we should meditate on the
spiritual lessons of the Sabbath, so we don't fall into
the same ditch of looking only to physical fulfillment
of the Sabbath. We of all people should have a better
grasp of God's spiritual Sabbath rest for His people.
In the eyes of the ancient Jews, Yeshua healed on the
Sabbath day, then commanded the healed man to pick up
his bed-roll and do what he could not do before -- walk!
To top it off, He then claimed that God was His Father,
and that both He and His Father work on the Sabbath day!
As far as the people there could tell, Yeshua was,
indeed, a Sabbath breaker and a blasphemer! But we, in
the retrospect of history, can see the bigger picture.
Let's apply that lesson in our lives.
As for "breaking" the Sabbath, this word is from the
Greek luo (Strong's #3089), which means to loosen
or dissolve, in the sense of loosening the bands that
tie up something. The Jews were accusing Yeshua of
loosening the Sabbath, or "breaking" the bonds that held
people to the Sabbath!
Actually, He was doing things they would never do,
because their teachers had created these bonds of
slavery to the Sabbath for the very purpose of
protecting them from violating the Sabbath!
In effect, the Sabbath had become a master to the
people. As a result, they were conditioned to think only
in the physical realm of observing the Sabbath, by doing
physical things and following physical rules to "keep
the Sabbath day holy." One of those rules was to not
lift a finger to do any physical exertion.
On that basis, the man carrying his mat around was
definitely violating the Sabbath day. However, he wasn't
violating any biblical command, but one of the many
rules and regulations with which the teachers had
saddled the people.
Sabbath Breaking Today
When we are afraid we might be "breaking" the Sabbath
day, we should ponder if we are violating the spirit of
the Sabbath, or possibly just a man-made rule we picked
up along the way.
The commandment isn't "Don't break the Sabbath," it's
"Remember the Sabbath"! If you bring the meaning of the
Sabbath day to mind, you will better be able to guard it
and keep it in its original intent, both physically and
spiritually.
When we were babes in the faith, we had pastors and
elders, teachers and preachers, and we could go to them
with our questions about how to properly observe the
Sabbath. Now, many of us are on our own, meeting in
little groups or spending Sabbaths alone, reading
literature and listening to tapes.
Today, there are thousands of people who must rely on
their Bibles and on God's inspiration to help them know
how to observe the Sabbath day the best way. The
responsibility is on each of us to guard the Sabbath in
our own lives, and in what we do.
The Sabbath is a Sign Between God and Israel
God didn't give the Sabbath to mankind as a harsh bond,
but rather to be the identifying sign between Himself
and His people.
From the top of Mount Sinai, God commanded, "Speak also
to the children of Israel, saying: 'Surely My Sabbaths
you shall keep [shamar, guard], for it is a sign
between Me and you throughout your generations, that you
may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. You
shall keep [guard] the Sabbath, therefore, for it is
holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be
put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that
person shall be cut off from among his people. Work
shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the
Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work
on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to
death. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep
[guard] the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout
their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign
between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in
six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on
the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.' And when
He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai,
He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of
stone, written with the finger of God" (Exodus 31:13-18,
NKJV)
In a later age, God told Ezekiel: "Also I gave them my
Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I
the LORD made them holy" (Ezekiel 20:12, NIV).
A prevailing theme of New Testament scripture is that
when one is called into the Body of Christ, he or she
becomes a child of God and an heir of the promises to
Abraham. We refer to the New Covenant ekklesia as
"spiritual Israel," in contrast to "Israel in the flesh"
(1 Corinthians 10:18).
"Remember that at that time you were separate from
Christ, excluded from citizenship in [national or
physical] Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the
promise, without hope and without God in the world. But
now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been
brought near [into "spiritual Israel"] through the blood
of Christ" (Ephesians 2:12-13).
"Consider Abraham: 'He believed God, and it was credited
to him as righteousness.' Understand, then, that those
who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture
foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,
and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: 'All
nations will be blessed through you.' So those who have
faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of
faith. ... If you belong to Christ, then you are
Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise"
(Galatians 3:6-9, 29).
"Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may
be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's
offspring -- not only to those who are of the law but
also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the
father of us all. As it is written: 'I have made you a
father of many nations.' He is our father in the sight
of God, in whom he believed -- the God who gives life to
the dead and calls things that are not as though they
were" (Romans 4:16-17).
The promise Paul is referring to comes by faith. It is
the promise of spiritual blessings on those who come
into "spiritual Israel" -- the ekklesia of God.
Is It Our Sabbath?
Does it matter if we choose to celebrate Saturday or
Sunday -- or Tuesday, for that matter -- as a Sabbath?
Does it make any difference which day we choose to be a
day of rest? God isn't interested in our Sabbaths. He
proclaims His own Sabbath day, and commands us to
observe that one!
"There are six days when you may work, but the seventh
day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You
are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a
Sabbath to the LORD" (Leviticus 23:3).
"If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing
your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a
delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall
honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own
pleasure, nor speaking your own words, Then you shall
delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to
ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with
the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD
has spoken" (Isaiah 58:13-14, NKJV). "Then he [Messiah]
said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for
the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the
Sabbath'" (Matthew 2:27-28, NIV).
The Sabbath is special in that it looks backward toward
creation week: "By the seventh day God had finished the
work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested
from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and
made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work
of creating that he had done" (Genesis 2:2-3).
But the Sabbath is also special in that it looks forward
to the Millennium. There are a number of scriptures
suggesting that God is working out a 7,000-year plan on
earth with the human race, with the seventh 1,000-year
period to be a global "day" of rest -- the Millennium!
Notice how the Book of Hebrews likens both the weekly
Sabbath and the 1,000-year reign of Messiah on earth as
entering into His rest:
"Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still
stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to
have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel
preached to us, just as they [ancient Israel] did; but
the message they heard was of no value to them, because
those who heard did not combine it with faith. Now we
who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,
'So I declared on oath in my anger, "They shall
never enter my rest."' And yet his work has been
finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere
he has spoken about the seventh day in these words:
'And on the seventh day God rested from all his
work.' And again in the passage above he says,
'They shall never enter my rest.' It still remains
that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly
had the gospel preached to them [ancient Israel] did not
go in, because of their disobedience. Therefore God
again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long
time later he spoke through David, as was said before:
'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your
hearts.' For if Joshua had given them rest [by leading
Israel into the Holy Land], God would not have spoken
later about another day. There remains, then, a
Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who
enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as
God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort
to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by
following their example of disobedience" (Hebrews
4:1-11).
The reference in Hebrews 4:9 to "a Sabbath-rest" is
translated from the Greek sabbatismos (Strong's
#4520). It is a unique word, used only this once, and
is a verb form of the noun "Sabbath." It states, in
effect, that there remains a "Sabbath-ing," or a Sabbath
observance, for God's people. God created the Sabbath,
as a day of rest, as a sign, and as a way of acting out
the prophecy of the Millennium. It's more than just
resting one day out of seven!
Is Sabbath Observance All That's Required?
Is the Sabbath a sign to show the world that we are
God's people? We shouldn't misunderstand this vital
principle: To be children in whom God is well pleased,
to find favor with God, to truly be God's people,
requires more than simply observing the Sabbath! The
Sabbath is not a sign between God's people and the rest
of the world. It is a sign between God and His people!
"Sign" is translated from the Hebrew word 'owth'
(Strong's #226), which means a sign, a signal, or a
distinguishing mark.
When God looks down on His Sabbath day, he can see who
is observing His Sabbath day and who is not. He can
quickly discern among those who are observing the
Sabbath day, and everyone else in the world! However,
even though the Sabbath is a sign between God and His
people, it is not the only requirement. We must be
diligently striving to obey all Ten Commandments! There
are people who go to church on Saturday, but spend the
rest of the week doing wickedly. Our job is to make sure
we are following God in every way!
Several times throughout the gospel accounts, Messiah
showed His disapproval of many of the Jewish practices
of the time, including how they revered the Sabbath day
beyond anything God expected or demanded.
We are to revere God, and especially on the
Sabbath day. By keeping the principles in this article
in mind, we should be able to increase our joy on the
Sabbath, and increase our fellowship with our Father,
while avoiding some of the traps into which earlier
followers of God fell. As we trudge along the narrow
path toward the strait gate, which way do we go? Follow
the sign!
Dr. Lane is publisher of "The WAY," a quarterly
newsletter for the scattered church of God.
Subscriptions may be requested at no charge by writing
to "The WAY" Publications, P.O. Box 1976, Placerville,
CA 95667, or e-mail to theway@jps.net.
TSS
January - February 1999 The Sabbath Sentinel
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