The Sabbath: Day of Rest.

Established B.C. 1,446 (3,400+ yrs ago).

..... but the seventh day is a Sabbath, remember to keep it holy.

..... and then some 1,750 years later: Christian and Govt. leaders change God's Sabbath to Lord's Day, in AD 321 (1,700+ years and counting)

As with the other 9 Commandments it was important enough for God to write it out once and even a second time, after Moses broke the first copy in anger over the people's quick fall back into idolatry.

Fourth of Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:8-11 (*see notation below).

Exodus 

20:8. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 

9. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 

10. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

11. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Please notice:

Verse 8 is the Commandment itself. 

Most of the 10 Commandments are stated without an explanation.  So, it is important  to note that verses 9-11 go on to explain WHY the Sabbath Commandment was being instituted.

This single Commandment 

Is repeated several more times in the bible. Plus:

Our Lord Jesus honored the Sabbath (in life and death). The Apostles kept the Sabbath. Messianic Jew & Gentile believers in the first 360+ years of the New Testament church, also kept the Sabbath. Until Constantine and the lust for power within the Church of that day changed God’s Holy Last Day/Saturday Sabbath into a ‘new’ Pagan Sunday carryover of Roman culture. Importantly, Ezekiel  (45:17) describes how Jesus will re-implement His, (currently despised) Sabbath during His millennial reign. It’s coming back and Jesus is going to be in charge of it, not any church.

What is the Sabbath? 

We have a very long history of what it is. The Lord sent Moses up Mt. Sinai to receive his words for the newly freed Jewish nation. God wrote those words on tablets of stone. Then Moses brought them down to the people who, after just days were already worshiping a golden calf instead of the God who had just freed them from 430 years of Egyptian bondage. Moses in anger, broke those tablets of stone in front of them. So, God sent him back up the mountain again and traced out the same Ten Commandments again for Moses to carve out of the mountian. Which Moses put into the ark of the covenant. Religious Jewish adherents have been keeping the Sabbath ever since. For more than 3400 years now that weekly appointed Sabbath time for the Jews has been from Sunset Friday To: Sunset Saturday in Synagogues all over the world.

A thought  for you to contemplate: 

At the end of the Crucifixion and for three ‘days’ Jesus was in Calvary’s ‘Belly of the Whale’. Only the Sabbath day (Saturday) was a FULL 24 hours in the grave, as he atoned for humanity’s Sins. If that’s not an example of God resting on the Sabbath in the New testament as in the Old testament, then I don’t know what is. Jesus' work was done (‘it is finished’) and the only full day spent in the grave was the Sabbath day of rest. Making it just as important now, as it was in Moses’ time and even much farther back, to the beginning when God rested on the last day of Creation. The 'seventh day' which we named 'Saturday' but it could have been named 'Caboose' and it would still be the last day of the week, which God established as the weekly 'Sabbath, Day of Rest'. 

Many people say we are not under the Law anymore. However, Yeshua himself said he did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill the Law. Fulfillment did not destroy. Oddly, ‘they say’ the other 9 Commandments still apply today* but only the 4th Commandment* regarding the Sabbath has for some reason,  seemingly been undone by the New Covenant. Now as in Old Testament times, it is better to obey God than to present sacrifice. Obedience rather than law-keeping is our new quest as Christians to God’s unchanging commands. 

Some say New Testament  verses changed God’s Fourth Commandment*. 

In the New Testament book of Acts is a single verse (20:7) that  talks about  Believers gathering together on the ‘First day of the week’ to worship. Which in some people’s minds established this ‘new’ Sunday worship on the Lord’s Day. Only one problem with that, When God gave us the Ten Commandments, (and as noted above). He specifically associated the 4th Commandment regarding the Sabbath day of rest, to His Creation account of the Seventh day of rest. And NOT to the Lord’s Day. If you want to remember the Lord’s Day then feel free to worship God on that day or any other day by taking communion together while ‘remembering Yahshua’. However, the Sabbath ‘day of rest and keeping it holy’ is different than any other day of worship. The Creation account has not changed and so the Sabbath day of Rest has not changed either and we should be obedient in remembering it and keeping it holy. Sunday may be the Lord's Day but it is also simply, the first work day of the week not the Sabbath Day of Rest.

Another verse in Romans (14:5)  talks about one man regarding one day as better than another man does. This verse does not put God in any kind of  box. God can, did, and still does, regard the Sabbath as His Divinely established and special (Holy) 'Day of Rest'. Also, if you think about it, it was man who decided to regard Sunday as better than Saturday, not God. We are just so used to the defiled Sabbath we don't even realize (62 years for me) that it's not the God sanctioned Sabbath Day of Rest.

God honors His word and never changes it. 

Unless perhaps, in response to repentance, then it's out of His mercy, and kindness. 

We change His word, but He doesn’t.

Matt 5:18 ‘For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.’

What to do?

...when the worldwide ‘Christian Church’ is disobeying God in unison?

Just like every other sin that  we as Christians do. Recognize the problem and ask forgiveness. Start remembering the Sabbath  hallowing it on your own with time off, prayer and bible reading. I think most of all, stop calling Sunday the Sabbath Day of Rest.

Or, better?

Start a home church meeting with like minded believers, on God’s ordained Sabbath, Saturday. One less prayer of repentance needed! (I know only to well, there’s plenty of other repentance needed). 

Home Church is not a panacea. Humans are still involved but it is an option for like minded believers to gather.

We wonder.

Why does God seem so quiet, so far removed from our needs. Could it be that the Sunday Church has led us into a spiritual wasteland not recognizing the Sabbath anymore? Where the Ten Commandments can be changed and deleted at their whim. So much so, that no one even notices anymore? Perhaps we should be glad He is quiet with us… for now.

Don’t regard one day as better than another... 

...keep the one that God appointed.