Sabbath… The Forgotten Commandment and Still in the Top 10

What if they remade the Charlton Hesston classic Ten Commandments and re-named it to Nine Commandments leaving out one of the commandments (you pick whichever one you want). Would Christians support it like we did The Passion of the Christ? Would we turn out in droves of people and see it time and time again? Would churches book entire viewings and give away tickets for free to the viewing?

Of course not, we would cry “foul!” We would decry the liberal media bias that we see so often today, at work again trying to reshape history by removing a commandment from the ancient list. After all, weren’t these commandments written by the hand of God? Remember? You saw the movie… there was a terrible storm cloud on Mt. Sinai and God’s finger of fire began to spark out the list of commands that he wanted his people to live by. And, remember Charlton Hesston… ur, I mean, Moses turned his head away because he couldn’t bear what he was seeing?

We hold the list so holy and dear (a judge in Alabama was removed from his office because of this sacred list) defending the list at whatever chance we have, yet we – by our life application – take one of these commandments and with the white-out brush of life wipe it forever off the stone tablets. I’m speaking of the commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it” (Exodus 20:8). Then, in Deuteronomy it says, “Keep the Sabbath day to guard it” (Deut. 5:12).

To the Jewish reader of the Bible this slight semantic difference between “remember” and “guard” is significant. “Guard” to them means to adhere to the myriad restrictions imposed by Jewish laws that ensures one doesn’t work or create on the Sabbath. Remembering the Sabbath, by contrast, means to take positive action to increase the joy and peacefulness in your life. But, Christians disregard both “remembering” and “guarding” altogether being sure to do neither. Why is that? And, should we remember or guard the Sabbath or both?

When Christ came he said he came not to do away with the Law, but to fulfill the Law. Some Christian sects guard the Sabbath and commit to Hell all those who do not. They rent time on billboards near interstates to preach their message that Saturday is the true Sabbath and all who disregard it are sinners and wicked. Are they correct? Well, let’s look…

Christ said to keep ever day holy and regard each day as sacred. Christians are to remember the Sabbath, but not for the sake of making oneself righteous. Let me explain. This past Saturday my family – wife and four children – observed Sabbath. Now granted the orthodox, or observant, Jewish community would not recognize our Sabbath because we “created”. What this means is we did things that Jews did when constructing the holy sanctuary in the wilderness – this is where observant Jews derive their restrictions for Sabbath. Whatever they didn’t do during construction on the Sabbath is what they don’t do today. For instance we cooked, turned on lights (which is building a fire) using electronics (we only did this limitedly as we restricted ourselves from watching TV… we did however play the Wii together). So we didn’t guard the Sabbath as we didn’t adhere to the many restrictions.

One of the primary reasons observant Jews do this is out of fear of violating the Law of God. And, if you violate the Law you are violating the holy God who wrote the Law. This is where Christ comes in. Look at this text…

Colossians 2:15-17 (New American Standard Bible)
15When He [Christ Jesus] had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
16Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day--
17things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

Paul here defines why we don’t guard or observe the Sabbath any longer as they did prior to the coming of Christ. These observances were but mere shadows of that which is to come… Jesus, the son of God.

Observing the Sabbath does wonders for refreshing oneself both physically and spiritually. In our honoring of the Sabbath we stayed in our pajamas all day, we ate together, we talked together, we prayed together, we rested together taking naps with the kids and read books both together and separately. The entire day was transcendent for us. We transcended the rat race and busyness of the culture to reflect on family and the things God has given us. This is why Christians should observe the Sabbath. We run ourselves to death. We need a day to reflect and refresh.

However, to resign someone to Hell over not observing the Sabbath is in violation to Paul’s statement in the preceding text where he says, “therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food, drink, etc…”. The Sabbath rest is a benefit for humanity - which actually preceded Judaism and Christianity in that God rested from His work of creation. It’s a Godly principal pre-dating the Law and is not just a religious observance where one religion or another corners the market on it and how to honor it.

We should be so wise to follow in our Father’s steps, not as a work of righteousness, but as a work of wisdom allowing us time to refresh, refocus and refrain from being like the world. I challenge each that may happen to read this to find your Sabbath, don’t just find it… make it. Your inner and outer man will thank you.