The Ten Commandments: Three

Martin Luther recommended daily meditation on the Ten Commandments, using each Command to Instruct, to provide inspiration for Thanksgiving, to reflect upon in Repentance, and to conclude with Praise to God.

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Third Commandment

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  What does this mean?  We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.  By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.   Genesis 2: 1-3

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.  On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.  Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.  Exodus 20: 8-11

Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.  Exodus 34: 21

Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them, “These are the things the Lord has commanded you to do:  For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord.  Whoever does any work on it must be put to death.  Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”  Exodus 35: 1-3

There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly.  You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the Lord.  Leviticus 23: 3

This is what the Lord says:  “Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed.  Blessed is the man who does this, the man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps his hand from doing evil.  Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.”  And let not any eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.”  For this is what the Lord says:  “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant—to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.  And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.  The Sovereign Lord declares—he who gathers the exiles of Israel—“I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.”  Isaiah 56: 1, 2

If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”  The mouth of the Lord has spoken.  Isaiah 58: 13 – 14

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath.  His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain an eat them.  When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look!  Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”  He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?  He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests.  Or haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent?  I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.  If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.  For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.  Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there.  Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”  He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not lift it out?  How much more valuable is a man than a sheep!  Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.  Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.”  So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.  But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.  Matthew 12: 1-14

Then he [Jesus] said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”  Mark 2: 27, 28

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.  There was a violent earthquake, for an angle of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.  His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.  The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.  The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.  He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.  Come and see the place where he lay.”  Matthew 28: 1-6

They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to breaking of bread and to prayer.  Acts 2: 42

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.  These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.  Colossians 2: 16, 17

Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.  For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard it did not combine it with faith.  Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”  And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world.  For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words:  “And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.” And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”  It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience.  Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time late he spoke through David, as was said before:  “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”  Hebrews 4: 1-7

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened up for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who is promised is faithful.  And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.  Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.  Hebrews 10: 19-25

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On the seventh day, God rested from His creative work and declared the Sabbath holy, a day of rest for all people.  God grants His people earthly rest; He knows our weaknesses and He gives us all that we need, daily bread and rest from our labors.  On the seventh day, Christ Jesus rested in the tomb after His redemptive work—His sacrificial death on the cross for the sins of the world.  On the first day of the week—on the eighth day of the new creation—Christ was resurrected from the dead.  By His death and resurrection, He won forgiveness of sins and holiness for all who believe, opening the way to the presence of God for all eternity.  The command to honor the Sabbath day remains as a privileged call to come before the presence of God with confidence.  Only One intermediary remains, our great high priest Jesus Christ.  We are blessed with the word of God, incarnate in Christ Jesus and written for us in Holy Scripture.  We are blessed by Christ’s dual command to celebrate His holy supper, consuming His body and blood for our spiritual nourishment and forgiveness; and His command to baptize and teach, making disciples and bringing forgiveness in His name.  And the command to rest remains, to honor God by honoring our bodies with rest—with sleep and stillness and silence—and to honor God by coming into His presence to receive the blessings of forgiveness, peace and spiritual rest which He so graciously gives us.

Heavenly Father, You created the world with the breath of Your mouth and with Your eternal, unlimited power and creative energy. You established all that is out of nothing, and Your power is manifest in all of creation.  Yet even out of Your omnipotence, You chose intentionally to rest; You model for us the beauty of rest and You bless our humanity with the ability to rest—we thank You for the restoration of sleep, for the consolation of stillness, and for the respite of silence in this world of labor, chaos and noise.  As we honor the bodies which You have given us with physical rest, bless us with healing, with comfort, with renewed energy, hope, and confidence.  As we honor the bodies You have given us with mental rest, bless us with creativity, with clear thinking and planning, with joy and hope.  We thank You for the regenerative power of rest for our bodies and minds, and we pray also for the regeneration of our souls.

Lord God, we confess that we have not always kept Your Sabbath holy.  We have not devoted ourselves to reading, hearing and studying Your holy word; we have not committed ourselves to prayer, praise and thanksgiving; we have rejected the fellowship of all believers, failing to worship with the Church on earth and failing to honor Your call to remembrance in your Supper.  We have allowed the worries and cares of life, the deceitfulness of wealth and work, and the desire for and prioritization of other things to cause us to neglect Your rest, Your word and Your worship.  We have failed to acknowledge our constant need for Your restoring Spirit and for the wisdom of Your Word.  For the sake of Jesus Christ Your Son, the blessed One, the first fruit from the grave Who tore the temple curtain and brings us by His blood into Your holy presence, forgive our sins. Do not cast us from Your presence eternally, but credit Your righteousness to us for Jesus’ sake.  Cause our hearts and minds to long for You; bless us to hunger and thirst for You, to find our rest only in You.  

Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we praise You for Your great glory and we long to be in Your presence in eternal rest and peace; we long for the rest promised to all saints, a rest from sorrow and tears, a rest from the ugliness of sin and the brokenness of this world.  We praise You for the promised renewal of all creation, bought with the blood of Christ Jesus and held in eternity until Your return in Glory.  We praise You for the gifts You left to comfort and sustain us—Your Word, Baptism and Your Supper which grant us the restoration of forgiveness from sin, the strengthening and renewing of our faith.  You are worthy to be praised for Your blessed providence to those whom You created and did not abandon; let us never abandon You, never forsake You, never forget You.  Remind us always of Your presence, and keep us always in Your rest in this world and in the next.  In Jesus name we pray, AMEN.