One Day, One Focus – The Fourth Commandment

The fourth commandment

Exodus 20.8; Deuteronomy 5.12

“Remember, observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

Isaiah 58.13, 14

“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

God sets one day apart for Himself; do we?

The two verbs associated with keeping the Sabbath – the Lord’s Day, in this, the era of grace – convey different but complementary meanings. “Remember” is a very active and attentive word. It doesn’t simply refer to not forgetting something; rather, its intention is to urge us to take care to attend to the Lord’s Day with clear purpose and great interest. “Observe” is literally, “guard,” so that we are called to protect the Lord’s Day from being infringed upon by anything that detracts from its single focus. The Lord has set one day of each week aside, and He is determined to be the focus of it. He knows that we need this; we need one day to devote all our attention to the Lord, our Creator and Redeemer, and to keep out every outside influence that would rob us of the delight of being in the Lord’s presence in a concentrated manner for one full day (Ps. 16.11). But, as in so many other areas of our lives – particularly where the Law of God is concerned – we tend to think we know better than God what we need. So the Sabbath gets, at best, a portion of our attention, then it’s off we go to our various interests, activities, and diversions. In the light of the command to remember and observe the Sabbath, what message are we sending to the Lord?

How do you “remember” and “observe” the Lord’s Day? Is your practice successful in keeping this one entire day holy unto the Lord?

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.