Exodus 20:8-11
The scripture for today is Exodus 20:8-11
Exodus 20:8-11 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor, and do all your work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day: therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
In Exodus chapter 20 we find a most amazing thing. God is talking in an audible voice to an entire nation of people. We must understand that when God speaks, the words that He is saying are not just mere words, they are everlasting words of life. Jesus said "the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:63 These are words of spirit and life that God is speaking. As He speaks, He gives His moral law, the Ten Commandments. These are instructions on how to live a life that reflects His character. He later amplifies the importance of these instructions by writing them in stone with His own finger. Think about it; God spoke these words audibly and then wrote them in stone. For anyone to have the audacity, the unmitigated gall, to propose that they have the authority to change a single word that God gave in such a unique and powerful way is indicative of satanic derangement. And at the heart of the fourth commandment (our text for today) is the recognition and worship of God and God alone as the creator of heaven and earth. It is that very position that Satan has tried to usurp in order to replace God as the object of man's worship. His strategy has been to turn the heart of mankind away from the Creator of heaven and earth to himself, the creator of lies. He has influenced the very people who call themselves by the name of the Lord to reject the very commandment that points to Him as the Creator and the memorial of His creation; the day that God created, blessed and hallowed and then gave as a gift to man for rest and fellowship with his Creator.
Instead of honoring the commandment spoken and written by God Himself, the devil has convinced most of the Christian world that they are at liberty to change that commandment into a version of their own choosing. They will say things like, "I keep every day holy" or "any day will do as long as you keep one day of the week." Is that what God said? No, it is not. God was very direct, clear, and specific. You actually have to have help to get it wrong. "Yes," they say, "we can see it right there in the Ten Commandments, but we do not have to keep that one. That one was done away with at the cross." And Satan is smiling at their complicity and rejection of God's Word which He gave with such unique and awesome power. If the fourth commandment was done away with at the cross, then all of the commandments were done away with at the cross. And if the moral law, the ten commandments, was done away with at the cross, then sin no longer exists because by Bible definition "sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4 This, the longest of the commandments, is so important to God that He took the time to give explicit instructions and clear identification of what is required. The day that He created and blessed at creation, at a time when there was no sin in the world, is a time to come apart from our normal work, unplug from the stress of business and labor and rest in Him, honoring and worshiping Him as the Creator. Satan has deceived most of the world into believing that it just doesn't matter. Jesus did not think that it did not matter. He honored the commandments of His Father and we should "follow in His steps." 1 Peter 2:21
God bless you as you continue in His service.
Tim