A young boy was visiting his uncle on a Sunday when a
new neighbor knocked at the door. When he answered it,
and learned that he wanted to borrow the lawn mower, he
conveyed the message to his uncle. The uncle said, "If he
mows his lawn on the Sabbath he'll be breaking the Ten
Commandments. So go and tell him that we have no lawn
mower." When a man will lie and break the Ten Commandments
in order to keep someone else from breaking them, one
suspects the compelling motivation is not a humanitarian
heart, but a selfish one. Besides breaking the law of God
himself, the uncle did not prevent his neighbor from doing
so, for one does not keep the Sabbath by the mere negative
fact of lacking a lawn mower. Obedience to the fourth
commandment is a matter of one's attitude and relationship
to God. No amount of legislation and coercion can give to
men the essence of the value of the fourth commandment.
Law and force can retrain a man from doing many things,
but it cannot compel him to keep the Sabbath holy as a day
of rest and worship.
One of the perpetual problems of our nation is the
problem of the church and state in relation to the law. This
was no problem in Israel, for the church and state were one.
A crime against God, which we would call a sin, was a crime
against the state. It was an act of treason against the ruler of
the land, and, therefore, punishable as a crime.
In America a sin is not necessarily a crime. Over half of
the Ten Commandments can be broken, and it is of no
concern to the state as far as the law goes. We feel it is not
within the jurisdiction of the state to legislate on matters of
religion. The New Testament makes it clear the Pharisees
legislated the blessings of the Sabbath right out of existence,
and made it a burden. Jesus refused to be bound by man
made laws for this day. He said the Sabbath was made for
man, not man for the Sabbath. It was a gift of God for man's
benefit, and so He threw overboard the legalistic
legislation, and used the Sabbath for teaching, healing, and
doing good. They, of course, hated and despised Him for His
lawlessness. They sought to kill Him as a Sabbath breaker,
but Jesus refused to be bound by legalism.
The Puritans were also infected with this germ of
legalism, and in some ways, in spite of their greatness, and
powerful influence for good in our nation, were just like the
Pharisees in their strictness for details. Richard Brathwaite
wrote,
To Brandbury came I, O profane one!
Where I saw a Puritane one
Hanging of his cat on Monday,
For killing of a mouse on Sunday.
Whether this is fact or fiction, we have many actual laws
on record that show they meant business when it came to
keeping the Sabbath. One of the Pilgrim fathers drew up a
code of laws for the state of Massachusetts, and this was one
of them. "Whosoever shall profane the Lord's Day by doing
any unnecessary work,
by unnecessary traveling or by sports and recreation, he or
they who so transgress shall forfeit forty shillings, or be
publicly whipped; but if it shall appear to have been done
presumptuously, such person or persons shall be put to
death, or otherwise severely punished at the discretion of the
court."
If such laws were in force today, America would be a different
nation, especially on Sunday. But Christians would
be the first to protest such legislation, and they should be,
for this is not the purpose of government to legislate religious
conviction. The state has no right to impose the conviction of
any group on the rest of the citizens. We would not want the
Seventh Day Adventist conviction imposed on us, forcing us
to worship on Saturday. Nor do they want ours imposed on
them. It is true that forcing people to take a day off for rest
and worship would be good for them, but so would it be
good if they got to bed early, drank a lot of juice, and ate
lettuce, but who would want these to be matters of
legislation? To get the full value of what God intended by
this fourth commandment one must chose to obey it with a
free and committed will.
This is one of the two commandments that is stated
positively, but it also has a negative aspect which we want to
look at briefly before looking at the positive. The negative
aspect-
I. PROHIBITS PERPETUAL LABOR.
It is important that we see the limitation of what is
prohibited. Pleasure, laughter, and recreation are not
prohibited. It is the labor of life that is to halt on this day.
It is to be a day off for everyone, even the slaves, so that it is
a day of rest and happiness for all. By prohibiting work one
day in seven God made all men in the community equal in
their dignity before Him. All had the equal right to rest and
worship. All had the right to have time to develop their souls,
and maintain the health of their body. This
commandment was God's greatest gift to man in the Old
Testament, for it alone gave every man equal freedom to be
what God wanted them to be.
The Sabbath is God's testimony to, and preservation of,
the dignity of man. H. Cohen, a Jewish author, writes, "The
Sabbath became the most effective patron-saint of the
Jewish people. The ghetto Jew discarded all the toil and
trouble of his daily life when the Sabbath lamp was lit. All
insult and outrage was shaken off. The love of God, which
returned to him the Sabbath each seventh day, restored to
him also his honor and human dignity even in his lowly
hut." Another Jewish author said, "There is no Judaism
without the Sabbath." The Sabbath played a major role in
the preservation of Israel in her exile.
This gift of one day in seven free from labor was not just
for the good of the Jews, but for the good of all men. Jesus
said it was made for man, and just for Israel. The Jews
recognized this also, and Cohen writes again, "Had Judaism
brought into the world only the Sabbath, it would thereby
have proved itself to be a producer of joy and a promoter of
peace for mankind. The Sabbath was the first step on the
road which led to the abrogation of slavery." By prohibiting
perpetual labor God guaranteed that every person would be
free from the tyranny of materialism, and free to give a
portion of his life to develop his eternal soul, and the higher
faculties of manhood.
Life has changed a great deal from Biblical days, and we
do not put in the hours of toil to earn a living as men use to,
but the fact remains, we can still be so busy,
even if we only work five days a week, that we are slaves to
the flesh, and servants of the tyrant of materialism. We are
not to worry about the letter of the law, for life is too
different for that to have meaning today, but the spirit of the
prohibition of perpetual labor is still relevant and essential
for the Christian life. It is wrong to be so busy that our
physical health and spiritual life is neglected. God demands
that we take time off from the business of making a living in
order to live. An old Negro spiritual captures the idea.
Slow me down, Lawd, I'se agoin too fast,
I can't see my brother when he's walkin past,
I miss a lot of good things day by day,
I don't know a blessing when it comes my way.
We must slow down and obey this negative aspect of the
commandment which prohibits perpetual labor if we ever
hope to gain the benefits of the positive aspect which we
want to consider next, and which,
II. PROMOTES PROFITABLE LEISURE.
You will notice that nothing is said about worship. That
comes in as a logical consequence, but the essence of the
command is for relaxation. To keep it holy does not mean to
worship. It means to keep it separate and distinct, and
different. It means to keep it a day dedicated to God. This
includes worship, but all the emphasis is on rest. You might
think that all this fuss about relaxation is majoring on a
minor. Why should one of the Ten Commandments, and the
longest one at that, be a command to relax?
God made us, and He happens to know what is essential
to the well being of our body, mind, and spirit. Many tests
have been taken that prove relaxation must balance out
exertion if one is going to have a healthy life. Man's whole
system rebels against continuous monotony and endless
repetition-what we call being in a rut. God built the need
for diversity and variety into our very being. Then He gave
the gift of the Sabbath that we might satisfy that need.
Neglect of this leads to the inability to relax, and the result is
we become irritable and depressed. A problem that could be
handled with ease ordinarily becomes a major calamity
when we are exhausted. We become sarcastic and
pessimistic about life. Women easily cry, and men easily lose
their temper, and if you could add up all the sorrow that
comes to life due to lack of relaxation, you would realize the
importance of this fourth commandment to all of society.
Man needs a day of rest from toil and release from
tension. He needs a day on which he can renounce the
temporal and be receptive to the eternal. An English doctor,
George Newman said, "Most people stand in greater need of
rest than of movement. There is an excess of noise, clatter
and meaningless activities." Thousands of quotes from
authorities in many fields demonstrate, beyond a shadow of
a doubt, that one day of rest in seven is a must for those who
are interested in good health. God is concerned about our
bodies. Jesus spent a good many of His Sabbaths healing the
bodies of people. We should be concerned also, and practice
God's prescription for good health.
A day of rest is not only essential for the body but for the
mind as well. Doctor Crichton Browne said, "We doctors
are now constantly compelled in the treatment of nervous
diseases to prescribe periods of absolute rest and complete
seclusion. Some periods are, I think, only Sundays in
arrears." If we do not take periodic rest, or if we do not
grant God one day in seven on the installment plan, we may
have to pay it all in one lump sum by enforced rest through
illness. For example, the people of Israel spent four hundred
and ninety years in the promise land and neglected to obey
God's law of letting the land rest one in seven years. They
let seventy Sabbath years pass by unheeded, but they only
hurt themselves, and gained God's judgment, for they were
carried away into captivity for seventy years, and the land
got its seventy Sabbath years of rest. II Chron. 36:20-21
says, "He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped
the sword......To fulfill the Word of Lord by the mouth of
Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed it's Sabbaths. All the
days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy
years.
God takes the need for relaxation very seriously.
Everything needs rest, even land and animals. It is just a
basic principle of life, and not to obey God's command to
relax is to try and defy the laws that govern both physical
and spiritual reality. The only alternative to obedience is to
suffer the consequences. A Jewish author said, "This is the
meaning of the Jewish Sabbath, to give to man peaceful
hours, hours completely diverted from every day life,
seclusion from the world in the midst of the world."
This is essential for us as Christians. We can never be
in the world but not of the world if we never find seclusion
from the world. Vance Havner wrote, "It is high time we
learn that in this nerve-wrecking maddening modern rush,
we have let the spirit of the times rob us utterly of mediation,
devotion, and rest. There is no depth to us. A lot of our
Christian life and work is frothy, superficial, and thin.
We are growing mushrooms, not oaks. We spread ourselves
too thinly, striking everywhere and hitting hard nowhere.
We Christians often lead dissipated lives, squandering our
energies in a multitude of good things but becoming so
exhausted that none of it counts for much."
The Jews used one day in seven to develop their mind
and soul. It was their chance to read and grow in wisdom.
It was a day to let their spirit catch up with their bodies that
they might be whole men again. You would not find them
wasting the day in idleness. Philo, " Moses did not give the
name of rest to mere inactivity."
They were active, but in away that added variety to life, and
gave their inner man a chance for expression. Modern man
still has not learned what the Jews had to learn the hard
way. The result is increasing heart attacks, mental illness,
and ignorance of the Word of God. Body, mind, and spirit
all suffer where the fourth commandment is not obeyed.
Lord Dawson in a lecture on Some Varieties of Headache
said, "So often the day of rest sees the same strenuousness
and feverish activity as the day of work. It is relaxation that
is needed and its ark requires study."
One of the reasons Christians often have serious mental,
physical, and spiritual problems is due to the angelic fallacy,
as Dr. Bob Smith called it. It is the false idea that we are
angels rather then men, and that we do not have to obey the
laws of God concerning the limits of the human body. No
matter how spiritual you are, if you push yourself and do not
get adequate rest, you will be an irritable person. You will
not need a den in your house, for you will growl in every
room. You will be hard to live with, and a poor testimony
for the Lord. You will let Satan trick you with the angelic
fallacy. This is the very trick he tried on Jesus. He told
Jesus to jump off the temple and God would save Him.
Jesus knew that was tempting God for He had to live by the
laws of the flesh, and walk down the stairs like everyone else.
Satan says to us that we do not need to waste time in
relaxation, and when we listen and obey him we miss the
benefits of God's plan of relaxation.
The guy who says the devil never takes a vacation and so
why should I, is not being super spiritual, for that is the
angelic fallacy. Satan doesn't need a vacation, but we do, for
we have the limitations of flesh. If we do not obey the
limitations we suffer the consequences. Dr. David H. Fink in
Release From Nervous Tension says that the first step to help
is learning the technique of relaxation. Man is the only
creature that finds it so hard to relax that God had to make
it a command.
Worship goes hand in hand with relaxation, for it takes
us into a different world where we escape the tensions and
pressures of time. Worship has physical and mental, as well
as spiritual values. It aids the body in relaxing. William
James, the dean of American psychologists wrote and essay
on the Gospel Of Relaxation. He pointed out the folly of
men in trying to solve all life's problems by mental and
physical labor when the answer to many of them is found in
rest. He wrote, "The way to success, as vouched for by
innumerable authentic personal narratives, is
by...surrender...passivity, not activity--relaxation, not
intentness, should now be the rule." Studies show that
nearly all the discoveries in research laboratories come as
hunches during a period of relaxation.
It is a great paradox, but we will never get as far as God
wants us to go unless we stop. Standing still is the key to
moving forward. Those pioneers who traveled across the
country without a let up saw their animals and wagons
break down from over use, but those who took a day off to
rest, in obedience to the fourth commandment, were able to
press on and reach their goal. God's law applies to us today,
and either we learn to relax, or we will pay the penalty.
Rest is one of God's greatest gifts. Salvation is a form of
rest. Jesus said, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest." You don't have to
labor and work your way into favor with God. You need
only to surrender to Christ and rest on His finished work.
The peace and security of salvation is found in rest and not
labor. Just as the peace of sleep does not come by clinging to
the bed, but by surrender and relaxation upon the bed, so
salvation does not come by our striving, but by trust in
Christ and resting upon His promise. The Sabbath is a
symbol of our faith and rest in Christ. Obedience to this
fourth commandment is our way of saying we trust in Christ
and rest on Him, and not in our own labor.
