The Sabbath: Part One

Exodus 20:8 - Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

  I think I can justly say that this, is one of the most ignored, misunderstood and blantanly opposed texts in the bible. It seems like out of the whole bible the majority of christians choose to somehow ignore or ''do away with'' this text. But why? tradition? ignorance? conformity?
Well let us first establish the date and orgin of the sabbath, which takes us back to the beginning- the start of it all- Genesis. Most of us know the story of Moses and the wayward children of Israel in the wilderness (well, we should do) and how God with his own finger wrote the Ten commandments on a tablet of stone for man thus He (God) gave it to the people via Moses on Mount Sinai. We can establish that (Read Exodus 19) then what happened? Moses read the ten commandments to the people. (and we should know them)

NB- (taken from the Kings James Version) Exodus 20:3

1st-  (v.3) Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2nd- (v.4) Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: (v.5) Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; (v.6) And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
3rd- (v.7) Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
                                                     BUT
When we get to the fourth commandment, we skip over it? sad to say but many of us do.
4th- (v.8) Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

• Clear precise and to the point, so why do we ignore it? verses 9 & 10 give us the the conditions under which we are to keep it holy.

(v.9) Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

• Isn't God good! he gives us six days out of a seven day week for ourselves! Talk about reasonable!

(v.10) But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

• God asks us to be faithful in all things and he can only give according to our measure of faith. God went into so much detail for us because he knew that we would forget... verse eleven further explains why we should keep the sabbath day.

(v.11) For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

• The word ''hallowed'' means to make holy or sacred, to sanctify or consecrate- to set apart.

So why don't we keep the sabbath day?

In Numbers 23:19 it says ''God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?''  It also says in 2nd Timothy 3:16 that ''All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.''

So 1. God does not lie. and 2. the scripture is inspired by God- that's authenticity!