Is the Sabbath Commandment Moral Law?
Yes. As specified in the 4th Commandment the Sabbath is moral law. Not only is the Fourth Commandment moral law, but it is also the most broad and comprehensive of all the commandments. However, most people never get past the first phrase which reads “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” But the Sabbath day, although an important part of the Fourth Commandment is not all of the commandment. To the dismay of many it also commands us to work on the other six days of the week.
But when you fully unpack all that is contained in the Fourth Commandment you will discover that it contains so much more. Fully unpacked you will find that the Fourth Commandment also condemns discrimination by nationality, gender or social status. It lays the foundation for civil rights and religious freedom. And it promotes animal rights and environmental protection.
Thus, it is no accident that God placed this commandment in the very heart of the Ten Commandments.
So, let’s unpack this commandment and take a close look at what is saying.
Remember
Exodus 20:8 Remember the Sabbath day.
First thing, first word, REMEMBER. This is the only commandment that God asks us to remember. Consequently, that means this is the one commandment above all others that God want to make sure that we do not forget. Why? Because if this commandment is forgotten, eventually all the others will be forgotten also. That will become clearer as we go through this study.
To Keep it Holy.
Exodus 20:8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Note carefully the last phrase. “To keep it holy.” God does not tell us to make the Sabbath day holy, because we cannot. In fact, man cannot make anything holy. The incantations of tens of thousands of priests. The reverence, the adoration, the veneration of countless billions of people for a thousand generations cannot bestow a single particle of holiness to something that God has not made holy. Likewise, the neglect, the rejection, the contempt by the same for a thousand generations cannot detract a single particle of holiness from something God has made holy.
So, what does it mean to keep the Sabbath day holy? How do you do this? To find out how the Sabbath is to be kept/observed we must look to the Bible. But we cannot look to the Jews for our example, because for most of their history they have been Exhibit “A” on how not to keep the Sabbath. We must instead look to the example given to us by Jesus.
How Jesus Kept the Sabbath Day Holy
When we look to Jesus the first thing that stands out is that although the Sabbath is to be a day of rest, it is not necessarily to be a day of idleness.
Wherever He was, Jesus made it a regular habit to go to the local synagogue to worship. It is written of Him that “as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read” (Luke 4:16).
In the Old Testament God had declared the seventh-day Sabbath to be “a holy convocation” (Leviticus 23:3). A convocation is by definition a large formal assembly of people, in this case presumably to worship God, for Jesus both read from the Scriptures and taught the people in the synagogue.
But Jesus did much more than that. Jesus also healed the sick and afflicted on the Sabbath day. This activity on the part of Jesus was not a violation of the fourth Commandment but was in keeping with its true spirit. At one point Jesus asked the question, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy?” (Luke 6:9). The implied answer is that it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath day. It was lawful to save life on the Sabbath day. The question also implied that the refusal to do good works, the refusal to save life on the Sabbath day, would be a transgression of the fourth Commandment. (Jesus and the Sabbath)
When the religious leaders refused to answer His question, Jesus answered it by healing the withered arm of a man in the synagogue that Sabbath day, thus giving His endorsement to doing good works on the Sabbath day.
Six days you shall work
Exodus 20:9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
The fourth Commandment is not just the Sabbath Commandment. It is also the Six Days You Shall Work Commandment. And yes, this is a command. To work for six days is every bit as much a command as the part that says “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” This is a point that is often overlooked. The Bible has much to say on this point. In the book of Proverbs, we read the following words of wisdom.
Go to the ant, you sluggard!
Consider her ways and be wise,
Which, having no captain, overseer or ruler,
Provides her supplies in the summer,
And gathers her food in the harvest.
How long will you slumber, O sluggard?
When will you rise from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to sleep-
So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler,
And your need like an armed man.
(Proverbs 6:6-11)
We are not to Live a Life of Idle Leisure
The great desire of multitudes today is to be able to live a life of idle leisure. But that is not God’s desire for us. Even in Eden God gave man work to do. A person who is able to work and who has opportunity to work but will not work on the six days God has given us to do our work on is as fully in transgression of the 4th Commandment as the person who willfully works on the Sabbath day.
The apostle Paul in his travels encountered those who, refusing to work, sought to live off the charity of others. Of these Paul says;
2 Thessalonians 3:10-12 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread.
When is the Sabbath Day?
Exodus 20:10 But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God.
Just in case somebody had any question about which day is the Sabbath and which are the six working days, God spells it out. The Sabbath is the seventh day. Not just a seventh day or just one day in seven, but THE (definite article) seventh day. This takes us back to Creation Week and the origin of the Sabbath. On that day when God had finished the work of creation, He rested on, blessed and sanctified the seventh day. (Genesis 2:2-3).
Do no Work on the Sabbath Day
Exodus 20:10 In it you shall do no work.
That is, do no ordinary work, such as that by which you make your day to day living. But as Jesus showed by example, good works to relieve the sick and injured, and to provide for the real necessities of suffering humanity, is always in keeping with the spirit of the law and is no transgression.
The Religious Freedom Commandment
Exodus 20:10 In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, … nor your stranger who is within your gates.
Note the outward progression in this text. It goes from you to your family to your employees to the random stranger who happens to be living among you. When we unpack this, we find that the Fourth Commandment is the Anti-Discrimination/Civil Rights Commandment.
The Fourth commandment does not allow religious discrimination regardless of gender, social status, race or nationality. Thus, it is also the Religious Freedom Commandment, a freedom that cannot truly exist where there are no civil rights. In other words, other people besides yourself have rights that must be honored. You are not to discriminate against anyone, whoever they happen to be. All are to be treated equally. Even the strangers, those people who are a “them” rather than an “us,” are to be allowed the right to worship God on the Sabbath day. The Bible also implies that no one could be compelled to worship. This is a principle that generally has not be understood and often neglected, yet it is found throughout the Bible. God desires only willing service.
1 Chronicles 28:9 Serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts.
1 Chronicles 29:5 Who then is willing to consecrate himself this day to the LORD?
2 Corinthians 8:12 For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.
Compulsory worship is compulsory hypocrisy. And the guilt of hypocrisy falls on the one doing the compulsion.
Also by this commandment you cannot compelled others to do the work that you are not to do on the Sabbath. God placed this provision in the 4th Commandment because He knew that there would be a temptation to either compel or hire others do the work that you could not do on the Sabbath. But the Fourth Commandment forbids you to require any member of your family, son or daughter, or any in your employ, male or female, or any foreigners (the strangers among you) to work on the Sabbath in your behalf.
The Anti-Discrimination/Civil Rights Commandment
When the Forth Commandment speaks of the “stranger who is within your gates” it makes it clear that the strangers among us cannot be compelled to do the work that we are not to do on that day. And it makes it clear that that prohibition applies regardless of the social status (free or slave) or the sex (male or female) of the stranger within the gates. And as the strangers among the Israelites were generally not worshipers of Israel’s God, this prohibition also applied regardless of their religion or lack thereof. The phrase “within your gates” refers to the homes, the businesses, the towns, the tribal territories, the nation. In other words, it applies to all that concern the people of God.
Amplifying this principle as to how you are to treat others, including the strangers among you, God has said;
Exodus 22:21 You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him.
Leviticus 19:33-24 And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him. The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself.
In all this Fourth Commandment hearkens back to Creation when God created man. All humanity, every race, every nationality, all come from the one man (Adam) who God created. Hence here in the Fourth Commandment we find the truth that God “has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26). All belong to God by Creation.
The Animal Rights/Environmental Protection Commandment
Exodus 20:10 In it you shall do no work: … nor your cattle.
The Fourth Commandment is also the Animal Rights and Environmental Protection Commandment.
Even the rights of our animals to have a Sabbath rest was to be respected. It really does matter to God how we treat animals.
Luke 12:6 Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God.
Consequently, inhumane treatment of animals is a transgression of the Fourth Commandment.
Proverbs 12:10 A righteous man regards the life of his animal, But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
When God created man, He gave him the task of tending to and caring for all the plants and animals He had created. “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). God has a care for His creatures, and humans were to be the caretakers, not the exploiters, of God’s creation. This also means that they were to be the protectors of the environment.
Man was to take care of the earth and all the creatures of God’s making. That implies that man was also to be a caretaker of the environment. A task that humans have signally failed to do. Instead of caring for the environment, man seems to be determined to destroy it. Speaking of this God say in Revelation 11:18 that in the last days He would “destroy those who destroy the earth.”
God is our Creator
Exodus 20:11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
The Fourth Commandment is also a perpetual reminder that God is our Creator, and not only is He our Creator, but He is also the owner of all things. He owns time itself, as well as all the material things of this world. By keeping the Seventh-day Sabbath holy we acknowledge that all that we are and all that we have, including time itself, are gifts given to us by God. We owe all to God, even life itself.
In Revelation 14 God’s end-time people are commanded to worship God as Creator.
Revelation 14:6-7 Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth–to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people– saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.”
“And worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water” (Revelation 14:7). This is a direct quote from the Fourth Commandment. It points God’s end-time people to the Seventh-day Sabbath, God’s declared memorial of Creation. And so, yes, in addition to everything else, the Fourth Commandment is still the Seventh-day Sabbath Commandment.
The Sabbath was Made for All Mankind
Why this allusion to Creation in the Fourth Commandment? To show that this commandment is not what many would characterize it, the Jewish Sabbath. The Bible never calls it the Jewish Sabbath or ever even implies it. The Sabbath dates from Creation. The first Sabbath would have been Adam and Eve’s first full day of existence. From Adam and Eve all humanity derives. Hence the Sabbath cannot be restricted to any one nationality or race. The Sabbath is for all humanity.
Mark 2:27-28 And He [Jesus] said to them, The Sabbath was made for man [mankind], and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath
God in the Old Testament declares the Sabbath to be “My holy day” (Isaiah 58:13). Thus, scripture declares the Seventh-day Sabbath to be the Lord’s Day.
How could Jesus say that He was the Lord of the Sabbath? He could say that because He was the Creator, the maker of heaven and earth. Jesus is the God of the Old Testament. He is the I AM who spoke to Moses from the burning bush on Mt. Sinai.
John 8:57-58 Then the Jews said to Him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.
John 1:1-3, 10-11 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. … He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.
Thus, to remember the Seventh-day Sabbath to keep it holy is to worship Jesus as both Creator and redeemer.
And so, is the Sabbath Moral Law? The answer is a resounding Yes.