The Fourth Commandment (CB073)

The paper The Ten Commandments (No. CB017) is the summary paper which should be reviewed prior to this series on each of the commandments. It includes a general overview of the purpose of God’s Laws and a brief description of each of the commandments.

Introduction

God the Father has always existed. He alone created the spiritual host/angels, and the universe. He knows the end from the beginning which means He knows all things. He is also in charge of all things and nothing happens without His knowledge. As we have been learning in this series on the Ten Commandments, God’s Laws have always existed and they were told to physical Israel on Mount Sinai. The Fourth Commandment is a reminder that we are to keep the Sabbath holy. As we have reviewed in the paper God's Holy Days (No. CB022), God’s Sabbaths and Holy Days explain God’s Plan of Salvation to us on a yearly basis. The Fourth Commandment encompasses much more than just keeping one day a week holy. It helps us to better understand God’s overall Plan and why we keep all of His days holy.

The Two Great Commandments

The Ten Commandments fall under two “Great” Commandments which are summed up in Matthew 22:37-40.

Matthew 22:37-40: Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’40On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

This above text is the answer Christ gave when He was asked which was the great commandment in the Law. So we can see that these two summarize the entire Law. For more information see Lesson: Law at our Doorposts (No. CB080). The first four Commandments fall under the “First Great” commandment and show us how to love God. The last six, beginning with the Fifth Commandment, fall under the “Second Great” Commandment and teach us how to love others.

The Fourth Commandment

The Fourth Commandment is the last commandment that falls under the “First Great” Commandment. The Fourth Commandment is found in Exodus 20:8-11.

Exodus 20:8-11 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. ⁹Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ¹⁰But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. ¹¹For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it. (RSV)

The Fourth Commandment helps us to focus on when we worship the One True God. It also gives us instruction to not cause others to break the Sabbath on our behalf. God clearly tells us which day is set apart from creation and he has made it a sign between Him and His people.

Exodus 31:15-18 Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall be put to death. ¹⁶Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the sabbath, observing the sabbath throughout their generations, as a perpetual covenant. ¹⁷It is a sign for ever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.'" ¹⁸And he gave to Moses, when he had made an end of speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, the two tables of the testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

The Sabbath Day is a sign, or distinguishing marker for God’s people. The Sabbaths are special times that are set apart for us to draw closer to God and fellow believers. Many other religions of the world mistake the first day of the week or Sunday as their “Sabbath” or day of worship. They don’t understand that God set apart the seventh day of the week and commanded that we rest on Sabbath (Saturday). Those that keep the Sabbath day become a sign to others by their example.

Significance of the word Remember

When we start reading Exodus 20:8, the first word we encounter is: ‘remember’. In Hebrew remember means to remind, recall, keep in mind, bring to mind, bear in mind, to make a memorial. So in other words, the Sabbath has always been holy time and physical Israel was reminded of the need to keep it holy.

During the time of the exodus, prior to the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai, God reinforced the need to keep the Sabbath through the miracle of the manna.

Exodus 16:4-5 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or not. 5On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily." (RSV)

It says the Sabbath was a test to see if they would keep God’s Laws. They were being reminded that the sixth day of the week is the preparation day when they were given a double portion of manna, and the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath, was a time for rest.

The word “remember” can also imply looking forward. We can remember that the Sabbath is coming and we need to prepare for it. The aspect of remembering the Sabbath involves thinking of the past and present and future.

What Does Holy Mean?

In addition to remembering the Sabbath, we are to keep it holy. The word ‘holy’ (SHD 6942) means: to be set apart, sanctify, hallow, dedicate and keep sacred. This is a special time our Father has set apart for man.

Mark 2:27 And he said to them, “The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath;” (RSV)

In His infinite wisdom, God knew that mankind would need time to draw closer to Him through prayer, study, and meeting with others that hold similar beliefs.

Isaiah 58:13-14 "If you turn back your foot from the sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; ¹⁴then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." (RSV)

The Sabbath should be seen as a delight, something we eagerly look forward to. We can learn to appreciate the Sabbath day and desire to keep it as one of God’s blessings He has given us. When we learn that the Sabbath is not an obligation, but rather a delight, we can see it is a gift that God has given to us to freely use as we see fit to draw closer to Him and help our fellow man.

Are there times other than the weekly Sabbath that God ordained as holy times or Sabbaths that are included in the Fourth Commandment?

Sabbaths other than the weekly Sabbath

Remembering and keeping the Sabbath holy is not confined to Saturday, or the seventh day of each week; this commandment also includes the Holy Days, Annual Feasts and New Moons. Any day that the Bible shows us that God has set apart as holy is considered a Sabbath and falls under the Fourth Commandment.

Leviticus 23:1-44 describes God’s Feasts and Holy Days. They consist of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, the Day of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths, and the Last Great Day. These are all described as holy convocations, just as the Sabbath is described as a holy convocation.

Leviticus 23:3-4 RSV - Six days shall work be done; but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work; it is a sabbath to the LORD in all your dwellings. ⁴"These are the appointed feasts of the LORD, the holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them.

In addition, just as God set apart one day each week as holy, He also set apart one day each month as holy which the Bible refers to as the New Moon.

Amo 8:5 saying, "When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great, and deal deceitfully with false balances (RSV)

Although the New Moon is not listed in Leviticus 23 with the other holy days, Ezra 3:5 references the offerings for the new moon and appointed feasts and Ezekiel 46:1 tells us that the gates to the inner court of the temple were opened on the Sabbaths and New Moons. Sometimes the teachings from God are “here a little, there a little” in the Bible and we need to search the scriptures for a full understanding.

God does not give each New Moon a special name; rather He refers to them as the first New Moon, second New Moon etc. The New Moon at the conjunction is the first day of every month according to the biblical calendar.

For more information on God’s Holy Days and the New Moon refer to the papers God's Holy Days (No. CB022); The New Moon Sacrifices (No. CB134) and their corresponding lessons.

The Jubilee System and the Years of Rest

God continues to expand and build on His special times. When sin entered the world, God also initiated the jubilee system. A Jubilee is fifty years and is composed of seven cycles of seven years (or 49 years), plus the 50th year. Every seventh year is considered a Sabbath Year and is a year of rest, just like the Sabbath Day is a weekly day of rest.

Leviticus 25:2-7 After you enter the land that I am giving you, it must be allowed to rest one year out of every seven. ³You may raise grain and grapes for six years, ⁴but the seventh year you must let your fields and vineyards rest in honor of me, your LORD. ⁵This is to be a time of complete rest for your fields and vineyards, so don't harvest anything they produce. ^{6 -7}However, you and your slaves and your hired workers, as well as any domestic or wild animals, may eat whatever grows on its own. (CEV)

The fiftieth year, the Jubilee year, is also a year of rest.

Leviticus 25:10-12 And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family. ¹¹A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be to you; in it you shall neither sow, nor reap what grows of itself, nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. ¹²For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you; you shall eat what it yields out of the field. (RSV)

So every seventh year and every 50th year we are to give our land rest. In the fiftieth year we see property being returned to the family. There are also other scriptures (Deut. 15:1-3 and Deut. 31:10-13) that teach us we forgive debt, we read the law of God at Tabernacles and we give offerings instead of tithes.

For additional information regarding the weekly Sabbath, the seventh year Sabbath and the Jubilee Sabbath, see the papers The Sabbath Days of the One True God (No. CB133), Lesson: The Sabbath Days of the One True God (No. CB133_2).

Did Christ Keep the Fourth Commandment?

Jesus Christ was the Angel of the Presence in the wilderness that spoke God’s Laws to physical Israel. He kept God’s Laws during his time as a man, and he has instructed us that we will keep them in the future.

Jesus Christ kept the Sabbaths, Holy Days, Feasts and New Moons. During his lifetime on earth Jesus kept the Sabbath day. He also kept all of God’s Holy Days from his youth and even stayed behind in Jerusalem after the Passover to teach God’s way of life when he was only twelve (Luke 2:41-47).

He regularly taught in the synagogues on the Sabbath day (Matthew 4:23; 9:35; Mark 6:2; Luke 4:31; 6:6; 13:10), and routinely went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day to read the law (Luke 4:16). Jesus not only taught on the Sabbath, but he helped others on the Sabbath, healing those that were in need as an example for us (Mark 3:1-6, Luke 13:10-17).

We also see in Ezekiel 45:17 the temple will again be built and we will once again have a temple in Jerusalem where worship will take place on the Sabbaths, New Moons and Feasts after Jesus Christ returns to earth and the temple system is again set up.

We know from Hebrews that Christ remains the same and continually keeps the Commandments of God.

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Summary

As we have learned, keeping the Sabbath day holy is a commandment of God, but the Sabbath is also a gift God gave to all people. The Sabbath is a sign and a test for God’s people. We are given the instructions of how and when to keep all of God’s Sabbath days, yet it is up to each one of us how we want to use the gift of the Sabbath, weekly, monthly and annually.

We are to remember and keep the Sabbath holy and be a light to the world through our actions and words. We see from Matthew that Jesus said that not one bit of God’s Laws would change until all things were accomplished. That’s how we know that God expects us to continue to follow the example of Jesus Christ and keep all of God’s Commandments.

Matthew 5:18 For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. (RSV)

John 10:15 "I have kept my Father's commandments".

Every one of us has a responsibility to God to keep His Sabbath Days holy.

The Fourth Commandment

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