Exodus 20:8

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. By abstaining from all servile work and business, and from all pleasures and recreations lawful on other days, and by spending it in religious exercises, both internal and external.

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

This word remember is here very emphatical; and, 1. It reminds us of a former delivery of the substance of this command, to wit, . 2. It insinuates the great necessity of consideration and preparation for the sabbath before it comes, 3. It shows the singular importance of this command, which is therefore placed in the heart and centre of the rest, to show that the religious observation of this is the best way to secure our obedience to all the rest, and that the neglect of this will bring in the violation of all the other, as common experience shows. To keep it holy, i.e. to use it holily, by a careful abstinence from servile works or worldly business, and by a diligent employing of the day in holy thoughts, words, and exercises, in the worship of God in public and private, and the celebration of his works, and the furthering of our own and others’ sanctification and salvation. See .

Exodus 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.Ver. 8. Remember the Sabbath day.] He saith not, The seventh day from the creation, but the day of religious rest; such is now our Christian Sabbath, called a "Sabbath day" by our Saviour, who is "Lord of this Sabbath," called therefore the Lord’ s day, as one of our sacraments is called "the Lord’ s supper," and "the table of the Lord," because instituted by him. Pope Sylvester presumed to alter the Christian Sabbath, decreeing that Thursday should be kept through the whole year; because on that day Christ ascended, and on that instituted the blessed sacrament of his body and blood. And generally Papists press the sanctification of the Sabbath as a mere human institution in religious worship; an ordinance of the Church; and do in their celebration more solemnly observe the festivals of the saints, than the Lord’ s Sabbaths, making it as Bacchus’ s orgies, &c., that, according to what their practice is, it may more fitly be styled, Dies daemoniacus quam Dominicus, the devil’ s day than God’ s. To keep it holy.] Let every one of us keep the Sabbath spiritually, saith Ignatius, - μελετη νομουχαιρωνουσωματοςανεσει, - rejoicing in the meditation of Christ’ s law, more than in the rest of our bodies. The ox and ass must rest; we must consecrate a rest: as God on the seventh day rested not from his works of preservation. Hospin, De Fest. Christ. Epist. 3, ad Magnesian.

(8) Remember the sabbath day.—It is pertinent to remark that this command is introduced differently from any other by the word “remember.” But we cannot, therefore, conclude that the Sabbath was a primitive institution, which the Israelites were bound to have held in perpetual remembrance, since the reference may be merely to the injunction recently given in connection with the gathering of the manna. (Exodus 16:23). The Sabbath had certainly been at that time solemnly instituted, if no earlier. (See Note on. Exodus 16:25.) To keep it holy.—It had been already noted that the rest of the Sabbath was to be a “holy rest” (Exodus 16:23); but it is not quite clear what was intended by this. For the most part, the Law insists on abstinence from labour as the main element of Sabbath observance (Exodus 16:23-30; Exodus 20:9-11; Exodus 23:12; Exodus 34:21; Exodus 35:2-3; Deuteronomy 5:12-15, &c.); and it can scarcely be said to prescribe anything positive with respect to the religious employment of the day. That the morning and evening sacrifice were to be doubled might indeed suggest to a religiously-minded Israelite that his·own religious exercises and devotions should also be augmented; but the Law made no such requirement. His attendance at the morning and evening sacrifice was not required nor expected. No provision was made for his receiving religious teaching on the day; no special offerings were required from him upon it. The day became one of “languid bodily ease, relaxation, and luxury” to the bulk of the later Jews (Augustin. Enarr. in Psalms 91); but probably there were always some whom natural piety taught that, in the absence of their ordinary employments, it was intended they should devote themselves to prayer and communion with God—to meditation on “high and holy themes,” such as His mercies in past time, His character, attributes, revelations of Himself, government of the world, dealings with men and nations. Thus only could the day be really “kept holy,” with a positive, and not a mere negative, holiness.

THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT Against profanation of the Sabbath, and idleness on the other days of the week. Verse 8. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.] See what has been already said on this precept, Genesis 2:2, and elsewhere. See Clarke on Genesis 2:2. As this was the most ancient institution, God calls them to remember it; as if he had said, Do not forget that when I had finished my creation I instituted the Sabbath, and remember why I did so, and for what purposes. The word שבת shabbath signifies rest or cessation from labour; and the sanctification of the seventh day is commanded, as having something representative in it; and so indeed it has, for it typifies the rest which remains for the people of God, and in this light it evidently appears to have been understood by the apostle, Heb. iv. Because this commandment has not been particularly mentioned in the New Testament as a moral precept binding on all, therefore some have presumptuously inferred that there is no Sabbath under the Christian dispensation. The truth is, the Sabbath is considered as a type: all types are of full force till the thing signified by them takes place; but the thing signified by the Sabbath is that rest in glory which remains for the people of God, therefore the moral obligation of the Sabbath must continue till time be swallowed up in eternity.

8–11. The fourth commandment. The observance of the Sabbath.

THE FOURTH , Exodus 20:8-11. 8. Remember the sabbath day — The word remember here cannot properly be pressed to mean the recalling it to mind, as if something old, and, for that reason, liable to be forgotten.