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 of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.

                                                                                                                 Exodus 20:8-11 

The fourth commandment deals with God’s provision for a Sabbath day’s rest. Creation has a pattern and an order. The sun comes up over the horizon each morning and sets in the evening on the opposite horizon. The moon goes through its phases every month. Day and night, week after week, season after season, the world is a fascinating place.

For the Jews, the Sabbath is Saturday, beginning at dusk on the night before and continuing until the evening of the Sabbath. For Christians, Sunday is the most popular day for believers to gather for worship. But the fourth commandment is a pattern of work and then rest for mankind. We are designed to function in this pattern of work and then rest.

For the average person, eight hours of sleep a night is recommended. For some it is a shorter period of time while others it is longer. But studies are showing us that not getting enough quality sleep can lead to all sorts of physical issues. Likewise, not adhering to God’s design for work and then rest can lead to burnout and lower productivity. It seems logical that if we were to work seven days a week that we would accomplish more. But just like the rest of God’s design, His ways are higher than ours. Adhering to six days of work and then one day of rest will actually yield more productivity and will assist us in maintaining a healthy balance in our lives. There are three aspects to this command:

1. The instruction of only working for six days a week

Not everyone has the kind of job that requires a six-day workweek. But that is not at all the thrust of this command. The focus is on limiting our work to no more than six days. In other words, we should not be working every single day of our lives with no respite. Some people do shift work. Others maintain a regular Monday through Friday schedule. But the important thing in understanding God’s provision for work is that there be a balance between work and rest.

2. The instruction of resting on the Sabbath

Resting can take all shapes and forms. The idea behind a Sabbath day’s rest is that we cease from doing the things that are work related and treat this day differently. When we see that the Sabbath day is to be kept holy, we are being instructed to set aside this day to be different from the rest. When all of our days look exactly the same, we are not setting aside a day to be used in a different manner.

We do not want to get legalistic about the Sabbath however. Some people work in law enforcement, or as first responders, or as physicians. These and other jobs do not always yield the opportunity for the individual to set aside the same day as their day of rest (such as Sunday). But these people can still obey the fourth commandment by making sure that every seven days, there is a day set aside as their day of rest. As we will see later, Jesus makes it perfectly clear that this commandment is actually a provision for our wellbeing and productivity (Mark 2:27-28). We should not make the same mistake that the Pharisees made regarding the Sabbath and work. To do so would be to fall into the same trap of misunderstanding its actual purpose.

3. These instructions are patterned after Creation

The instructions for working six days and resting on one, is patterned after God’s creation of the world. Interestingly enough, those who would deny a literal six-day creation of the world will run into difficulty in the fourth commandment. Here, God is affirming that duration of time as a pattern for us to repeat weekly. The world operates on seven days a week. This is in harmony with the patterns of the celestial bodies (sun, moon, stars). To deny a literal six-day creation would greatly distort God’s instructions on our proper adherence to a six to one ratio of work to rest.

The fourth commandment was not given as a means of instituting destructive restrictions over the church. Those who handle this commandment in the most legalistic way are actually doing more harm than good. As we first properly understand its purpose, we will then discover the goodness and benefit that can come from our adherence to this command of God.