The Fourth Command

What is the fourth command?

The fourth command is found in Exodus 20:8-11 Remember the day of Sabbath to sanctify it. Six days you will labor and do all your work but the seventh day is is a Sabbath to YHWH your God. You will not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male slave or your female slave or your cattle or the sojourner who is in your gates. For in six days, YHWH made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything which is in them, and He rested on the seventh day wherefore YHWH blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. This command is also repeated in Deut 5:12f.

In Hebrew:

Exod 20:8 זָכֹור אֶת־יֹום הַשַּׁבָּת לְקַדְּשֹֽׁו׃

Exod 20:9 שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּֽעֲבֹד וְעָשִׂיתָ כָּל־מְלַאכְתֶּֽךָ׃

Exod 20:10 וְיֹום הַשְּׁבִיעִי שַׁבָּת ׀ לַיהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לֹֽא־תַעֲשֶׂה כָל־מְלָאכָה אַתָּה ׀ וּבִנְךָֽ־וּבִתֶּךָ עַבְדְּךָ וַאֲמָֽתְךָ וּבְהֶמְתֶּךָ וְגֵרְךָ אֲשֶׁר בִּשְׁעָרֶֽיךָ׃

Exod 20:11 כִּי שֵֽׁשֶׁת־יָמִים עָשָׂה יְהוָה אֶת־הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֶת־הָאָרֶץ אֶת־הַיָּם וְאֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר־בָּם וַיָּנַח בַּיֹּום הַשְּׁבִיעִי עַל־כֵּן בֵּרַךְ יְהוָה אֶת־יֹום הַשַּׁבָּת וַֽיְקַדְּשֵֽׁהוּ׃ ס

Why does this command begin with “remember?”

This implies that the Israelites were already acquainted with this command. The word itself can be taken two ways.

• It can mean to remember as in to recollect something that you were taught previously.

• Or it can mean "remember to do" as when we say "remember to turn out the lights when you leave the house."

If it means the first of these, then this is a command to Israel to recall what God had taught them previously about the Sabbath and to continue to do it. If the latter, then it is simply a command to sanctify the sabbath. The word "remember" is then similar to what we find in Eccl. 12:1 "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth…"

Edersheim writes: "The fourth word, which implies a previous knowledge of the Sabbath on the part of Israel..." source I would suggest that both ideas are represented here. The emphasis, however, in light of the verses which follow, is on the "remember to do or to celebrate" idea.

Why does this command begin with an infinitive?

The word זָכֹור is an infinitive absolute which is sometimes used to give an "emphatic imperative." See §113bb here.

Is there any reference to this command prior to God giving it to Israel on Mount Sinai?

Yes, knowledge of this obligation is assumed in Exodus 16:22f.

What is meant by "sanctifying" the sabbath?

This means that the day was set apart for a special use and purpose. The following verses spell this out in the prohibition of work on this day.

What kind of work was forbidden?

Some examples are given in the OT as:

• the kindling of a fire in one’s house (Ex. 35:3),

• cooking (Ex. 16:23; Num. 15:32),

• marketing and public trade (Neh. 10:31; 13:15, 16), and

• traveling on the Sabbath (Ex. 16:29).

What is a sojourner here?

This refers to a person who was not an ethnic Jew and yet lived among the Israelites for a period of time.

What is meant by the sojourner who is "in your gates"?

This means the sojourner who is in your city. (Driver on Exodus)

What is the meaning of the word "Sabbath"?

This word comes from a like sounding Hebrew word meaning "to cease," or "to rest." See here.

What reason does God give for setting aside one day for this purpose?

Two reasons are given.

1. In Ex. 20, God exhorts His people to follow His own example when He created the world in six days and rested the seventh.

2. In Deut. 5, God gives, as a reason for observing the Sabbath, that man and beast may have a time of rest from their physical labors.

What does the text mean by saying that God "blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it"?

This means that God singled out the Sabbath day as a special day and set it apart for a special purpose.

What additions does the version in Deuteronomy 5 provide?

This passage gives a further hint as to how the Israelites should observe the Sabbath; i.e. by remembering and celebrating God’s mighty deliverance of Israel from Egypt.

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. (Deut 5:15)

Did anything like a Sabbath exist in any of the other cultures of the ANE?

This commandment has no parallels in ancient Near Eastern religions. Ewald writes:

What Moses created out of the last day of the week, was something quite new, which had never before existed among any nation, or in any religion. Kalisch, Commentary on Exodus, chp 20 on the fourth commandment.

Genesis 2

What is the earliest mention of the concept of Sabbath in the Scripture?

The idea is first mentioned at the close of the creation week where we read that on the seventh day, God finished the work He had been doing. 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. (Gen. 2:2-3)

What is the significance of this?

God’s action here of setting apart the seventh day as sacred and as a day of rest provides a divinely ordained pattern that all men are to follow.

How do you know that all mean are to follow God’s pattern of working and resting when it appears from the above text that only God rested?

This is taught us in the book of Hebrews, chapter 4 where the author writes:

For we who have believed do enter into that rest; even as He hath said, As I sware in my wrath, they shall not enter into My rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He hath said somewhere of the seventh day on this wise, and God rested on the seventh day from all His works. (Heb 4:3-4)

How does this chapter teach that God’s action of sanctifying the seventh day provides a divinely ordained pattern that all men are to follow?

Because the author of Hebrews is here teaching that God is offering this privilege to all who hear. The privilege here offered is entering into the very rest of God. Now this offer which God has made has been a standing offer ever since the creation of the world. The author of Hebrews quotes Gen 2:2 to establish this point.

How does the above text make this point?

Let me explain the text line by line.

For we who have believed do enter into that rest;

The author is asserting a general truth for all times and places. That truth is this: only believers in Christ actually enter into God's rest.

even as He hath said, As I sware in my wrath, they shall not enter into My rest:

The author here quotes Ps 95:11 as a prooftext for his point that only believers enter into God's rest.

although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

The point here is that God finished his work of creation long ago and has already entered His rest. This means that the rest of God has been available ever since the foundation (or creation) of the world, and all who believe in Jesus have an unfailing promise that one day they will enter into God's rest.

For He hath said somewhere of the seventh day on this wise, and God rested on the seventh day from all His works. (Heb 4:3-4)

Here is the prooftext of the previous assertion. This text shows that God has entered into His rest at the close of the creation week. Now it remains for us to believe in Jesus and thus to have this unfailing promise of entering into God's rest (v1) at the end of the age. Clearly, if God has entered into His rest then we should follow His example and also enter into God's rest by faith in Jesus. This is why I said previously that God’s action of setting apart the seventh day as sacred and as a day of rest provides a divinely ordained pattern that all men are to follow.

What is meant here by God's rest?

This refers to the rest which God will give to all believers in heaven.

Why is this text referenced in Exodus 20 in the fourth command?

Genesis 2 is quoted in Exodus 20 as a reason why the sabbath command should be carefully observed. The point is the same as in Hebrews; we should follow God's example of keeping sabbath as given us in Genesis 2.

Exodus 16

What is the next mention of Sabbath in Scripture?

In Exodus 16, God sends manna and quails to satisfy the Israelite’s hunger. God tells Moses that the Israelites are to gather only enough manna as will last them one day. On the sixth day, however, they are to gather twice as much. Then Moses announces,

Exod 16:23 He said to them, “This is what the LORD commanded: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.’ ” 24So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. 25“Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a Sabbath to the LORD. You will not find any of it on the ground today. 26Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”

What is the significance of this text?

It shows that the command to keep sabbath was not first given to Israel on Mount Sinai.

When did God first give Israel the law to keep Sabbath?

We do not know. Certainly God's resting in creation laid the basis for this law. Sometime after Israel left Egypt, however, it would seem that God gave Israel further instructions on how He wanted them to keep Sabbath.

Might not God have given the Sabbath law to Israel for the first time here in Exodus 16?

This is possible but the language does not lend itself to this understanding. God tells 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 test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” This double provision on the sixth day is just mentioned without any explanation as to why a double portion might be needed on the sixth day. It very much appears that everyone already knew why it was needed.

But later, the rulers do come to Moses and ask him to explain why the people were collecting twice as much on the sixth day. Does this not imply that they did not yet know about the law to keep Sabbath?

True, but when all the leaders of the congregation came and to ask Moses, he tells them “This is what the LORD meant: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the LORD.” Now when did the LORD say this? We do not know, but it's not recorded for us in Exodus 16, so we conclude that it was on some previous occasion that God gave them this command, and it was not recorded for us.

Isaiah 58

What mention is made of the Sabbath in Isaiah 58?

The last two verses of this chapter read:

“If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word. Then you will take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth, and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”