Monday
Monday
Commandments 3 and 4
You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God…. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
Exodus 20:7–8
By bracketing these two commandments, we see that both the Lord’s name and the Lord’s Day are to be treated with great respect. What kind of misuse of God’s name is envisaged? The commandment certainly forbids blasphemy and profanity. It will also include false swearing, that is, taking an oath and breaking it. It is better, Jesus taught, not to swear at all. Honest people do not need to make promises by oath; a simple yes or no should be enough (Matt. 5:33–37). Then there is a yet more serious misuse of God’s name. It arises from the fact that a name is more than a word; it is a person and that person’s character. We then misuse God’s name whenever our behavior is incompatible with his character. To call God “Father” and mistrust him or to call Jesus “Lord” and disobey him: this is to misuse his name.
Moving on from the third to the fourth commandment, and so from the Lord’s name to the Lord’s Day, we notice that it begins, “Remember the Sabbath day.” This indicates that it was already being observed. Indeed, as we have seen, it goes back to the beginning of Genesis. So, being a creation ordinance, it is God’s provision for everybody and not only for his covenant people. It was also extended to your manservant and maidservant, the reason being that the Israelites themselves had been slaves in Egypt until the Lord delivered them (Deut. 5:15).
Luke tells us that it was Jesus’s custom to attend the synagogue on the Sabbath day (Luke 4:16). But he was entirely free from the traditional rules and regulations that had encrusted the law of Sabbath observance (a grand total of 1,521 according to Rabbi Johanan and Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish). In contrast, Jesus insisted on the principle that “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).
For further reading: Matthew 5:33–37