Exodus 20:8-11 (NKJV)

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 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.”

Moses has been super busy since the moment God called him. The scrolls of the Torah are far from done. At this time the details of creation are, at most, an oral tradition.

Thus, when Moses announces this commandment, it’s the first time some folks have heard of God creating the universe in six days and resting on the seventh. They’ve had a Sabbath from collecting manna every week, but may have wondered why.

Now God explains it. The Sabbath is part of the structure of reality. There is a link between what the universe is and how it was created.

God wants this celebrated and honored.

From a secular point of view, this is completely arbitrary. Secularists like weekends too much to complain, but they don’t really buy it. To them, weekends have no meaning.

This mentality infects Christianity in America. Many of us go to church on Sunday but don’t make the whole day special. That’s a bigger mistake than we realize. God wants the Sabbath to be honored and it’s so important to Him that this commandment precedes all but the most foundation ones. It’s a big deal.

If you go to church and then hit the stores and start projects, you might want to rethink that. Pray and meditate on this. Devise a plan for how to keep the Sabbath Holy and stick to it.

Praying about how to honor the Sabbath is generally a longer effort than a single quiet time. Just get this started. Whether your Sabbath keeping is minimal or excellent you can ask the Holy Spirit to shine a light on the weaknesses. Ask Him to convict you and open your eyes.

To be honest, my plan needs work too. I avoid doing anything strenuous on Sunday, because science defines work as force times distance. No exercise, no moving anything heavy, no chores that cause me to break a sweat.

But that’s it. Amazingly, God has blessed this small commitment. Still, I wouldn’t recommend my method for keeping the Sabbath to anyone but an absolute beginner. I need a better plan.

Please email me suggestions at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Iron sharpens iron.

The weekly study guides, which include discussion questions, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies