God commands solemn rest for His people, times when they are to withdraw from their normal practices of work to be with Him in worship, meditation, giving, and remembering. We are carefully to guard and observe these times of rest, so that we may remember the sovereign power and redeeming grace of our God, and give Him the worship and obedience which are His due.

Exodus 20.8-11

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 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, 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. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

The first giving of the fourth commandment is distinct from the second in two ways. First, the commanding verb in our text is “remember.” In Deuteronomy 5 it is “guard.”

“Remember” means more than simply to “bear in mind.” When we are told that God “remembers” His covenant with Israel, the meaning is something more akin to “active attention.” We are to “remember” the Sabbath, not merely to keep it in mind (so we don’t forget to go to church?), but to “attend actively” to it. We are remembering the Sabbath as the Lord intends we get our minds around what this day is, what it means, and what it’s for, and when we apply ourselves diligently to making the most of the Sabbath according to the Lord’s intentions.

It will be difficult to “remember” the Sabbath in this way if we allow all manner of worldly diversions to crowd in – boisterous, frivolous, and amounting to nothing – to keep us from the business of actively attending to the day God has set aside for us to rest in Him.

This series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.MyParuchia.com and click on our Book Store.