but the seventh day is the sabbath of Jehovah thy God thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy bondman, nor thy handmaid, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy sojourner that is within thy gates; that thy bondman and thy handmaid may rest as well as thou.
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And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in the land of Egypt, and that Jehovah thy God brought thee out thence with a powerful hand and with a stretched-out arm; therefore Jehovah thy God hath commanded thee to observe the sabbath day.
When the ten commandments are repeated here, the fourth one is given a different motive than the one it carried at Sinai. Instead of pointing back to the six days of making the world, Moses points back to slavery and rescue.
The motive here is not that God rested on that day. It is that they were to remember they were servants in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD had brought them out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm: "Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." … In the one case there was a remembrance of creation; in this case, of symbolic redemption, the bringing out of Egypt. Redemption, even as a picture, is a stronger motive to obedience than creation itself. … Nothing maintains obedience so much as redemption. If that was true when the deliverance was only outward, how much more when it is eternal?
Two different reasons for one command could look like a contradiction.
In repeating the law, Moses does not limit himself to quoting God's words exactly. This is clear above all in the fourth commandment. The ground for keeping the Sabbath is here not the six days' making of heaven and earth, but the redemption of the people out of Egypt. Of course, the one reason does not conflict with the other; and indeed the latter is a needed supplement to the former. Man is God's creature. Only grace can now keep him in this place, and at rest.
Israel did not escape Egypt. God brought them out, and that is what the word "therefore" rests on.
That blood had separated them from Egypt and brought them, in picture, to God. God also put out mighty power to bring them out. These two things are the ground on which God says, "Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." If God had made His Sabbath known to all men and given it to them, this wonderful connection with a complete redemption would have had no meaning. … Only those who have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, can know the real rest of God. The Sabbath was strictly a sign between God and His redeemed Israel.
Israel had known slavery without rest. Now they had to pass rest on to those who served them.
God ordained the Sabbath in connection with creation rest. But He gave it as a memorial, to remind them of the grace of deliverance from Egypt, and so of rest for servants.
Murder and theft are wrong whether anyone writes them down or not. The Sabbath is not like that.
About the Sabbath, we must remember that it rests wholly on the direct authority of the word of God. Other commandments set out plain moral duties. Every man knows it is morally wrong to kill or steal. But no one could have recognised the Sabbath as a duty unless God had clearly appointed it. So its importance and interest are immense.
The day also pointed forward — to a rest on firmer ground than the first one.
The Sabbath, or rest of creation, had long been lost. So God set out the Sabbath of redemption. It can never be lost while God is faithful to the claims of the redemption-blood of His Lamb.
Does this command bind a Christian to the seventh day?
We must remember that God gave the law to Israel, not to the nations outside Israel. No one is to judge them about Sabbath days (Col. 2:16). Under grace no law demands the keeping of any special day. But those who have valued the grace of God are glad to give the Lord's Day, the first day of the week, a place of special importance. It was on this day that the Lord rose from the dead.
- Remember the slavery. The command starts where Israel started: as servants who could not free themselves.
- Remember the rescue. God's mighty hand and outstretched arm, not their own effort, are the "therefore" behind the command.
- Redemption outweighs creation. The first reason for the day was God's rest after making the world. Here it is rescue — and rescue moves the heart to obey more than creation does.
- Pass the rest on. Those who once had no rest must pass rest on to those who serve them.
- Look ahead to the lasting rest. The creation rest was lost. The rest built on redemption holds while God stays faithful to the blood of His Lamb.