The Ten Commandments. Today's verses are Ex 20:8-11

 

 

 I have added a few resources to my Bible Study.  The IVP  Bible Background Commentary, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary and the AMG Concise Bible Commentary.  I will check the IVP Background Commentary before answering my questions and summarizing but AFTER all Scriptural Cross-Referencing.  (I am already seeing how beneficial the IVP Background Commentary will be for study!  Great Resource)  The other two more general commentaries will only be checked after all study is complete.  I will look to them for any additional insights and to make sure I have not gone off the rails!  :)

 

We continue our look at The Ten Commandments with an in-depth look at Ex 20:8-11

 

You can find the posts on a few of the Scripture passages that precede The Ten Commandments at the following links:

The observational overview of Ex 19:3-11 can be found HERE

And the in depth look at Ex 19:3-6 can be found HERE.

The in depth look at Ex 19:7-11 can be found HERE.

The concluding thoughts on Ex 19:3-11 can be found HERE. 

 

The initial overview of Ex 20:1-17 can be found HERE.   

 

The in-depth look at Ex 20:1 can be found HERE. 

 

 The in-depth look at Ex 20:2-6 can be found HERE.

 

The in-depth look at Ex 20:7 can be found HERE.

 

I do encourage everyone to look at all the prior posts in this series as the preceding context helps us to a deeper understanding of the Ten Commandments.

 

You can hover your pointer over any verse reference to read the corresponding verse(s).  (Scriptural cross-references are THE most important resource!)

Exodus 20:8-11 (NASB)

⁸ "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
⁹ "Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
¹⁰ 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.
¹¹ "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.

Grammatical and other Considerations:

• This commandment (to keep the Sabbath holy) comes with an explanation. God rested on the seventh day, therefor He blessed the day and made it holy. That is really all we need to know.

• We are not to do any work.

My Questions:

• Why a sabbath day?

Verse Cross References:

• Ex 20:8 -- Ex 31:13-16 Lev 6:2 Ex 23:12 Dt 5:12 Ex 16:23-30 Gen 2:3 Lev 19:3 lev 23:3 Isa 56:4-6 Heb 4:9 Isa 56:1-8 Isa 58:13-14 Jer 17:21-27
• Thoughts -- It is interesting that God says that gave us the sabbath ex 16:29 He also commands us to keep it holy! I think one of they keys to entire commandment is to be found in Isa 58:13 The sabbath is not for doing our own pleasure. Whether it be work or play!! It is a day made holy by the Lord. Which means it has been set apart! We need to treat it as such. Not to do so is to put our own selves before what God wants, and that is not right. Which brings Jesus' comments in Mt 12:10-12 even clearer. Jesus tells the people that it IS lawful to do good on the Sabbath. Because helping someone for no gain (as Jesus healed the man with the hand) is NOT the same doing our own pleasure! Interesting..... needs more looking at.
• Ex 20:9 -- ex 34:21 Dt 5:13
• Thoughts -- We ARE to work and to labor all the rest of the week.! But we are also to rest and we are also keep the Sabbath day holy.
• Ex 20:11 --Ex 31:17 Mk 2:27 Mk 2:28 Gen 2:2-3
• Thoughts -- This is the explanation. Really all we need. God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. So therefore it is holy because He is holy!

Important terms:

Sabbath:

• WORDSearch concordance search -- Ex 16:23 Ex 16:25-29 Ex 35:2 Lev 16:31 Lev 23:3 Lev 23:32 Dt 5:12 Isa 58:13 Jer 17 Mt 12 Mk 2:27 Lk 6:5 Lk 6:9 Heb 4:9 Eze 20:12 Eze 20:20 Isa 56:4
• Thoughts -- I really think that Isa 58:13 and Mt 12 are really important. As is Jesus' statement in Mk 2:27 In Isa 58:13 God is commanding us to turn away from our OWN pleasure and to not speak our own words! It is HIS holy day. We are to delight in His holy day and not follow our own wants. So then Jesus' point makes sense that healing on the Sabbath is good! It is doing something for others, loving others, that IS honoring God. Selfless works on the sabbath are not turning to our own pleasures! I will say that I want to spend more time with what Jesus says in Mk 2:27 --- Eze 20:12 and other parts of Eze 20 bring a little light to this statement. God says in Eze 20:12 that He gave the Israelites the sabbaths as a sign between Him and them that they might know He is the Lord who sanctifies them! God gave them (us) a holy day set apart because He had set the Israelites apart as holy and now we are set apart as well as we believe in and follow His Son Jesus Christ! There is more here!
• Definition -- day of atonement. According the the AMG Complete Word Study Dictionary the basis for the Sabbath was in God's rest on the seventh day of creation AND in Israel's historic experience of forced labor! Dt 5:15
• Vine's mention that by resting on the sabbath man is giving witness to his trust in God to give fruit to his labor. It is also entering into God's rest.

labor:

• WORDSearch concordance search -- Ge 2:5 Ge 2:15 Ge 3:23 Ge 29:18 Ex 1:13 Ex 5:9 Job 7:1 Psa 104:14 Pr 14:23 Pro 13:11 Ecc 2:11 Ecc 2:18 Ecc 2:24 Ecc 4:8 1Co 3:8
• Thoughts -- The Hebrew word is translated many ways besides the word labor. Labor is seen as a good thing in Proverbs, vanity in Ecclesiastes, and often associated with slavery in Exodus. The word is pretty far ranging.
• Definition -- A verb meaning to work or to serve.

work:

• WORDSearch concordance search -- Ge 2:2-3 Ge 5:29 Ex 7:9
• Thoughts -- Why use both labor and work in the same sentence?
• Definition -- work or occupation or business. Something made.

rest (rested):

• WORDSearch concordance search -- Ge 2:2-3 Ex 16:30 Heb 4:10 Lev 23:32 Lev 16:31 Lev 23:3 Ps 22:2 Ps 37:7 Ecc 4:6 Eze 34:15 Mt 11:28-9 Ex 33:14
• Thoughts -- Rest is something important. What Jesus says in mt 11:28-9 relates to Eze 34:15
• Definition -- to repose, to pause for rest after laboring.

blessed:

• WORDSearch concordance search -- Gen 2:3 Gen 5:2 Gen 9:1 Gen 24:1 Gen 35:9 Dt 12:7 Ps 72:18
• Thoughts -- What makes this important is that it is God who blessed the sabbath day!
• Definition -- a verb meaning to bless.

holy:

• WORDSearch concordance search -- Ex 3:5 Ex 15:13 Ex 16:23 Ex 29:37 Ex 31:14 Lev 23:3 Gen 2:3 ex 13:2 Ex 19:14 Ex 19:10
• Thoughts -- It is interesting that this word can be translated as holy and sanctified. It is the same word we saw as consecrate in ex 19:10
• Definition -- a verb meaning to be set apart. Vine's clarifies it as to be set aside for use in the worship of God. In this state the thing or person is to be withheld from workaday use and to be treated with special care as a possession of God.
• Further thoughts -- So if God declared it holy then we are to declare it holy..set it apart from everyday use....so that we can worship God! And not pursue our own pleasures! The day is set apart for God.

Further information from Study Helps:

Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary:

• Further exposits that the term holy has to do primarily with God's separating form the world that which He chooses to devote to Himself!

Bible Background Commentary:

• Tells us that observing a Sabbath has no known parallel in any of the other cultures of the ancient Near East. The Sabbath as stated in the Decalogue is also independent of any patterns of nature! A similar term was used in some of the Babylonian texts but it was not a work-free day!

Answering My Questions:

• Why a sabbath day? -- The end of Ex 20:11 answers this question: "..therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy." Coupled with mk 2:27 and Ez 20:12 we have a pretty clear answer. God set apart a holy day for His chosen people who He has set apart as holy! There need be no other reason. The fact that it is good for us as it allows us physical, and mental rest and also allows us to spend time, really spend time, with God once a week is even better.

Summarizing:

• We could spend a lot of time trying to decipher the reasoning of the sabbath but the fact it that God Himself, set it apart as holy. He did it for us as Jesus states in Mk 2:27 God wants a day where we do not pursue our own pleasurs but instead seek Him! Isa 58:13-14 The fact that God set apart the day for us should be enough for us to keep the sabbath!

Commentaries:

Wycliffe Bible Commentary:

• Reminds us that the Sabbath is a cessation of labor.

Topics for further study:

• The Sabbath
• Mt 12:10-12 What is doing one's own pleasure?
• work, labor
• Jesus and the Sabbath

 

Bibliography:

• Baker, Warren, ed. – The Complete Word Study Old Testament. Chattanooga, TN: AMG, 1994. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Baker, Warren and Eugene Carpenter. The Complete Word Study Dictionary – Old Testament. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2003. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Brand, Chad, Charles Draper, Archie England, ed. Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• God's Word: Today's Bible Translation That Means What It Says Holiday, FL: Green Key Books, n.d.. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• God's Word Application Index. Holiday, FL: Green Key Books, n.d.. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Holman Christian Standard Bible Nashville: Holman Bible, 1999. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Holy Bible, New American Standard. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Holy Bible, New American Standard La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Pfeiffer, Charles F. and Everett F. Harrison, ed. The Wycliffe Bible Commentary. Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, 1990. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Thompson, Frank Charles. Thompson Chain Reference Bible. Indianapolis, IN: B. B. Kirkbride Bible Co., 1997. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Torrey, R. A. The New Topical Textbook. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1897. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Vine, William E. Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old Testament and New Testament Words. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1940. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.
• Walton, John H., Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas. The IVP Bible Background Commentary – Old Testament. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000. WORDsearch CROSS e-book.