His Hardest Covenant: to Remember that Sabbath (seventh) day to keep it holy and set apart, dedicated to God. Exodus 20:8-11

Exodus 20:8-11 Amplified Bible

“Remember the Sabbath (seventh) day to keep it holy (set apart, dedicated to God). Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath [a day of rest dedicated] to the Lord your God; on that day you shall not do any work, you or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock or the temporary resident (foreigner) who stays within your [city] gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested (ceased) on the seventh day. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy [that is, set it apart for His purposes].

Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

What does God mean when he says “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy”?

The word Sabbath comes from a Hebrew word that means “to rest from labor.”

The word holy means something that is sacred or dedicated to God.

God covenants with us to make His Sabbath day, feel different from all other days of the week by resting from our normal daily routine and dedicating our thoughts and time to Him.

What does Exodus 20 verse 8 mean?

This verse firmly establishes the Sabbath as law, a command to be kept.

Yet, it is very clear that this law has its first roots in Genesis 2:1-3, for there, God set the example in what He did. He rested, and He blessed the seventh day. God could have rested at any time. Or, we might say, He needed no rest, naps, at all.

How do you and I honor the Sabbath and keep it holy?

The Bible requires that we observe the Sabbath day with gathered worship, but that is not all we should do. 

Prayer, solitude, journaling, reading and reflection are all crucial ways that we replenish our inward resting in Christ and his work alone for our salvation.

What does “honor the Sabbath” mean?

How are any of us to honor the Sabbath in our smart phone, internet, social media, satellite, fiber optic, technology driven times – How should any of us keep ourselves from perpetually, ritually, looking down at the phone, risking bodily injury versus establishing, practicing, disciplining ourselves to look up at God the Creator, Author and finisher of our faith?

A few suggestions …

  • Rest: Avoid work and allow the whole family to rest
  • Worship: Attend church, read scripture, pray
  • Enjoy: Delight in God’s gifts and enjoy life with God
  • Set apart: Make a distinction between the Sabbath and the rest of the week
  • Sanctify: Dedicate the Sabbath to the Lord

The first Four Words of the Ten Commandments are calls to worship. 

  • The First Word commands the proper object of worship: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
  • The Second Word commands the proper manner of worship: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image.”
  • The Third Word commands the proper attitude of worship: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”
  • The Fourth Word commands the proper time of worship: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” 

We must worship God exclusively, correctly, reverently, and regularly. If you are not careful, life will crowd God out. But redeemed people must never forget to make proper time for the God who created us, sustains us, and redeemed us. Ray Pritchard said: We give 1 day in 7 to God because 7 out of 7 belong to him!!! 

A man was approached by a beggar on the street. The man reached into his pocket to see what he had. Finding seven dollars and feeling sorry for the beggar, he held out six bills and said, “Here you go.”

Not only did the beggar take the six dollars, but with his other hand he struck his benefactor across the face and grabbed the seventh dollar, too. 

As terrible as that story may seem to you, many of us should hear the prophet Nathan saying to us at this point, “You are the man!” God has graciously given us six days. In arrogant ingratitude, we snatch the seventh day, as well!

We must learn to make time for God. If you are too busy to make time for God, you are too busy. Consider the principle, prescription, practice of the Sabbath. 

The Principle of the Sabbath 

  1. The Fourth Word charges us to be faithful stewards of the gift of time.

It teaches three ways to sanctify our time. 

A Call to Worship. Exodus 20:8 commands: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” 

This command to remember the Sabbath indicates Israel already knew about it.

After God delivered Israel from Egypt, God provided manna for them to eat.

When the Israelites woke up each morning, manna was on the ground.

The Israelites collected manna to feed their household for the day.

On the sixth day, the Israelites were to collect twice as much, because God provided no manna on the seventh day. 

Exodus 16:23 says, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.’” 

Now God commands Israel: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

The word “holy” means to set apart for the purposes of God.

In scripture, certain people, places, and things are called holy.

The Fourth Commandment teaches certain times are also holy.

The Sabbath was to be remembered so keep it holy. 

  • It is a call to worship.
  • It is a call to seta side time for God.
  • It is a call to schedule time for God’s sake.

Matthew Henry wrote, “The Sabbath was made a day of holy rest so that it might be a day of holy work.”

God works. The devil is busy. But the devil cannot out-busy God. 

  • God never takes a break.
  • God never calls in sick.
  • God never takes a vacation.
  • God is always at work.
  • God works the night shift.
  • God finishes the work he begins.

God is both a white-collar executive and a blue-collar laborer.

God speaks and it comes to pass.

God moves and things happen. Our God works. And God commands us to work. To be godly is to work. Arthur W. Pink wrote, “He who never works is unfit for worship. Work is to pave the way for worship, as worship is to fit us for work.”  

Exodus 20:9-10 “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work.” 

This commandment is not restrictive.

In sovereign authority, infinite wisdom, and unchanging goodness, our heavenly Father commands us to rest.

It is a personal call to rest.

God knows you cannot make it without rest, refreshment, and rejuvenation.

So he gave us this human maintenance schedule. 

  • God calls those who will not work lazy. 
  • God calls those who will not rest disobedient. 

It is a communal call to rest.

Verse 10 says: “On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.” 

There are seven categories listed here.

This all-inclusive call to rest affirms equality and justice for all, the precious nature of creation, and the dignity of people from foreign lands. 

Our family, coworkers, and possessions belong to God.

Every person is a person of value created in the image of God.

The Lord affirmed this by calling the entire community – including cattle – to rest on the Sabbath. 

It is a spiritual call to rest. 

Exodus 20:11 explains: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath and made it holy.” 

God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh day.

God did not rest because he was tired. 

Isaiah 40:28 says, “He does not fair or grow weary.” 

God rested to set a pattern for us to follow.

The Lord blessed and sanctified the seventh day to remind us he alone is our  Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer.

Our lives do not depend on our work.

It depends on God’s work. 

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Pray …

Psalm 29 Amplified Bible

The Voice of the Lord in the Storm.

A Psalm of David.

29 [a]Ascribe to the Lord, O [b]sons of the mighty,
Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name;
Worship the Lord in the beauty and majesty of His holiness [as the creator and source of holiness].


The voice of the Lord is upon the waters;
The God of glory thunders;
The Lord is over many waters.

The voice of the Lord is powerful;
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
Yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
And Sirion (Mount Hermon) like a young, wild ox.

The voice of the Lord rakes flames of fire (lightning).

The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

The voice of the Lord [c]makes the doe labor and give birth
And strips the forests bare;
And in His temple all are saying, “Glory!”

10 
The Lord sat as King at the flood;
Yes, the Lord sits as King forever.
11 
The Lord will give [unyielding and impenetrable] strength to His people;
The Lord will bless His people with peace.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

https://translate.google.com/

Unknown's avatar

Author: Thomas E Meyer Jr

Formerly Homeless Sinner Now, Child of God, Saved by Grace.

2 thoughts on “His Hardest Covenant: to Remember that Sabbath (seventh) day to keep it holy and set apart, dedicated to God. Exodus 20:8-11”

  1. Howdy Thomas, impossible to obey the 4th commandment if you do not know the difference between מלאכה from עבודה. Your NT Greek, that original language does not discern this fundamental distinction.

    An Israeli perspective of Arab dhimmi racism and its impact on the post Shoah guilty European bias which hates the continued existence of Jews; as expressed through classic church/new Israel replacement theology; Romans 10:12–13 – “For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, since the same Lord of all is rich to all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Monotheism violates both the first and second Sinai commandments.

    Israel “recaptured” Samaria from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War. After 1948 “Palestine” ceased to exist. Jordan, named its illegal – according to the UN condemnation – “occupation” of its “West Bank”; only Pakistan and Britain recognized the Jordanian nationalization of its “West Bank”. Never once from 1948 – 67 did Jordan validate a “Palestine” of its illegally occupied “West Bank”. The UN did not pass a single resolution titled “Condemnation of Jordan,” it refused to recognize the annexation. Even Yasser Arafat’s PLO Charter did not view Jordan’s illegal occupation of its ’48 “West Bank” as “occupied Palestine”. In international law, non‑recognition of an annexation is the mechanism for declaring it invalid. No different from the UN rejection of Indonesia’s ‘East Timor’, Turkey’s ‘Northern Cyprus’, Russia’s ‘Crimea’. The PLO Charter of 1964 likewise did not view Egyptian rule over Gaza as “occupied Palestinian territory”. The collective UN position was unmistakably that Jordan had no sovereignty over the West Bank; but starting with the purposely vague language of 242 “territories occupied in the recent [1967] conflict”, perfectly clarified by 2334 the UN declares sovereignty to Palestine; despite the cold hard fact that Israel – not a protectorate mandate territory and that Arab Israeli wars determine its borders! Therefore, the post‑1967 terminology is a political invention, not a continuation of pre‑1967 legal reality.

    But post ’67, BBC propaganda screamed “occupied Palestinian territories” – inclusive of both Samaria and Gaza! Britain had no mandate, and therefore no legal claim to make this condemnation of Israel. The same equally applies to the UN through its 242 “all States” propaganda; which serve as the foundation for UN condemnations of Israeli “illegal” settlements of “Palestinian lands”; UN 2334 and the UN open recognition of the “Palestinian State” – proof of propaganda. Never in all human recorded history has their ever existed a “land of Palestine” – not under Ottoman or Arab empires.

    The characterization of land as “occupied Palestinian territories” by both the UN and BBC and French propaganda evokes strong reactions, particularly among those who view this language as delegitimizing Israel’s claims, primarily based upon the 1923 British establishment of Trans-Jordan bordering “Israel” at the Jordan river. The application and interpretation of resolutions, such as UN Resolution 242, initiated to “international claims”/”competing narratives” by foreign outside States regarding “land rights and statehood” with a pro Arab bias which fundamentally rejects dhimmi Jews equal rights to achieve self-determination in the Middle East post the 1917 Balfour Declaration which served as the basis for the League division of Lebanon and Syria awarded to France and Palestine, Trans-Jordan awarded to Britain – based upon the secret accords known today as Sykes-Picot.

    No Israeli-Palestinian “conflict” exists in reality because post the declaration of Jewish national Independence in 1948 the UN “protectorate” over “Palestine” ceased to exist. No different than this mandate ceased to exist as a “British mandate territory” officially ended after it turned that “mandate territory” back to the UN in 1948. From that moment on the British Crown had no more say in the determination of Israeli Independence than it does to determine the Capital of Austin Texas. This equally applies to the post WWII established UN.

    Post-1948, no separate national entity represented as “Palestine” in international law or governance, particularly under Jordanian control of its illegally occupied West Bank and Egyptian control of Gaza – until 1967. The phrase “recaptured” to describe Israel’s actions during the 1967 Six-Day War reflects a perspective that emphasizes a historical and religious connection to the land. This contrasts with views that describe the action as an occupation of land that was already controlled by Jordan — which the UN itself condemned as illegal in 1950.

    UN Resolution 242 and consecutive resolutions employed as Foreign State imperialism propaganda rhetoric which seeks peace. War the result of all British two state solutions! India/Pakistan, Iraq\Kuwait, and two Koreas and two Vietnams glaring examples of ‘great power’ foreign national interests imposed upon “conquered” lands. Great Power international “diplomacy” – the British labelled as “maintaining the balance of power” – which suited British [לאו דווקא] strategic interests.

    The UN’s later recognition of a Palestinian state a further attempt to rewrite historical claims and narratives that do not acknowledge the complexities of sovereignty and self-determination in the context of this region. The framing of successful Israel national Independence by media outlets – such as the BBC and other organizations – have promoted wars not peace. Shalom requires “trust”, peace simply a propaganda “label” of rhetoric. The success of Allied propaganda during WWI which unilaterally declared the Germans as “the Hun barbarians at the gates” produced profound effects on public perception. Critics argue – propaganda rhetoric language that injects “occupation”, aligns with Arab narratives which switched the term Nakba from Arab disastrous military defeat unto Arab stateless Palestinian refugees. No Arab country has yet to end or terminate the refugee status which UNWRA promotes and serves this particular political foreign ‘Great Power States’ imperialist agendas.

    Propaganda that Israel repeatedly violates “international law”, simply another gross example of UN Great Power manipulations expressed through BBC and MSM propaganda arms of foreign states attempts to ‘control the narrative’ through words. Israel as an independent nation – its international borders determined through wars and the diplomacy its establishes with regional state powers. Neither the Parliament of London or any other distant foreign power determines where Israel establishes its Capital much less its international borders with other nation states which share common borders.

    From 1948-67 no recognized sovereign “Palestine” in international law. Jordan and Egypt did not treat their respective areas as “Palestine,” and the UN did not recognize their sovereignty there. Therefore, the later phrase “occupied Palestinian territories” — not a continuation of pre‑1967 legal language, but a post‑1967 political construction.

    UN SC 242 (1967) inserts the phrase “withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict,” not “all the territories” and not “Palestinian territories”; UN SC 2334 (2016) morphs into “occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem,” and labels Israeli settlements there as having “no legal validity.” This effectively retrofits a Palestinian sovereignty claim onto areas that, pre‑1967, had no recognized Palestinian state and no recognized Jordanian/Egyptian sovereignty either. 2334 and the UN’s recognition of “Palestine” as a non‑member observer state (2012) represent a political re‑narration, not a neutral continuation of Mandate‑era law.

    Post‑1967 BBC usage of “occupied Palestinian territories” mirrors the UN’s later terminology, not the earlier legal reality. Britain, having ended its Mandate in 1948, has no legal standing to define Israel’s borders or capital, yet its media and diplomacy still act as if they are arbiters of legitimacy; a continuation of Great Power narrative control—the same mentality that carved up the region under Sykes–Picot and Mandate arrangements. Language like “occupation,” “illegal settlements,” “Palestinian territories” is not neutral description; it’s weaponized vocabulary that encodes a particular political and historical judgment.

    The Abraham Accords invalidates European Middle East politics. In strict legal terms, the Middle East and North African conflict, while acknowledging both terrorist violence with its consequential suffering consequence domino-effect/impact, in strict legal terms, this ongoing-conflict most basically pits Israel against neighboring Arab states rather than Arab nationalist Palestinian nationalist movements. While the Romans renamed Judea unto Palestine, the Roman empire long since dead. The Arab empire uprooted the Roman empire – hook, line, and sinker. Therefore 19th Century French maps sold to the ‘sick man of Europe’, as empty as the deceased Ottoman empire. No different from the dead League of Nations “Palestine mandate”, and the dead British, French, Nazi, and USSR communist empires; their world order no long exists – even the flies not interested in the dry bones of their corps. The League of Nations, and how much more so the post WWII UN have no power to create pre‑existing sovereign “Palestine”. Despite the UN or Britain\French propaganda, continuous retroactive attempts to resurrect – like Jesus on the 3rd day – this dead Roman corpse from its grave.

    UNRWA and its permanent Arab refugee status of both ’48 and ’67 Arabs who sought to complete the Nazi Shoah by throwing the Jews into the Sea, such propaganda rhetoric – employed as a deliberate political tool, not a humanitarian necessity—sustaining statelessness to maintain a grievance narrative whose evil intent exploded on Oct 7th 2023 when UNWRA officials participated together with Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists in the massacre of 1200 or more Israelis; coupled with the Red Cross refusal to visit for some two years the captured Israeli hostages held under barbaric conditions. The League “Palestine Mandate” stood upon the foundation of the Balfour Declaration. Post ’67 UN declarations changed the goal-posts. Immediately after the declaration of Israeli Independence, the UN had no protectorate over “Palestine”; anymore than did Britain after it returned the League mandate back to the UN.

    The post‑Shoah European narrative toward Israel reflects a convergence of Arab dhimmi attitudes toward Jews, Christian supersessionist theology, and Great Power political interests. This convergence has produced a persistent bias that frames Jewish sovereignty as an anomaly to be corrected rather than a legitimate expression of national self‑determination. The language of “occupation,” “illegal settlements,” and “Palestinian territories” is not a continuation of pre‑1967 legal reality but a political vocabulary constructed after the Six‑Day War, retroactively projecting sovereignty onto a territory that—between 1948 and 1967—neither Jordan nor Egypt treated as “Palestine,” and which the UN itself refused to recognize as belonging to either state.

    The Abraham Accords further expose the obsolescence of European frameworks, demonstrating that regional peace emerges from regional actors—not from external powers imposing narratives rooted in outdated colonial assumptions. The UN’s and European states’ continued use of “occupied Palestinian territories” reflects not legal continuity but political reinvention, shaped by post‑colonial guilt, theological inheritance, and geopolitical interests.

    Like

Leave a reply to mosckerr Cancel reply