Freedom is Good News Part 108
/We have taken a look at the first three Commandments in our previous articles and so we come to the fourth. When we consider these first four we see that they all pertain to our worship of God and that is an important observation. God does indeed, come first in everything.
I have my bible open to Deuteronomy 5, which is where we find the second entry of the 10 Commandments (the first being in Exodus 20). The first thing that grabs my attention is that this fourth Commandment is the longest of all the ten. Our God does not waste words. Words are of great importance to Him. Remember in the gospel of John chapter one it is written, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the word was God.” Two things are to be understood here. First: this is a reference to the Son of God, who in the book of Revelation 19:13, is referred to as the “Word of God” and second: we see in the book of Genesis that it was with the use of words that God created all things – “And God said, ‘Let there be light and there was light’” etc.
Our God does not waste words! Deut. 5:12, “Observe the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.” In the book of Exodus it is written, “Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.” One version tells us to “remember the Sabbath” and the other tells us to “observe the Sabbath”.
The version in Exodus is calling us to remember. What does it want us to remember? The idea of this day of rest is not something new. It is not something that was given to the Israelites after their exodus from Egypt. God established the Sabbath at creation!! “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He ceased from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He ceased from all the work of creating that He had done.” (Gen. 2:1-3) It was God who gave to His created ones, a day of rest and because the Israelites had been slaves to the Egyptians for over 200 years, He wanted to remind them of this extremely important day.
As slaves, they most likely had been working seven days a week – no time off. God reminded them of this wonderful gift and commanded that they cease form their labor and spend one day out of seven, worshiping Him. What a beautiful gift for God’s people. Are you one of God’s people?
Just as we saw in considering the importance God places on words, we see a similar concept here in the Sabbath day, a day of rest. When God began to create, He used words and when He refers to His Son he calls Him “the Word”; so, when we consider His Sabbath, we remember this creation and when we ponder His Son we find in Him the true rest for our souls, “Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) There is more on this topic to come!!