Passage: Exodus 20:8-11

The Big Idea

The Sabbath command claimed one day in seven for God: a day of rest, dependence and waiting on Him. Like any test, it reveals what’s really in our hearts, including how much we want to run our own time. Jesus doesn’t shrink the reach of God’s law; He deepens it. Under grace, God doesn’t just get one-seventh of our time. He gets all of it. And living wholly for Him turns out to feel less like endless work and more like entering His rest, trusting the finished work of Jesus.

The Command (Exodus 20:8-11)

God told Israel to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days they were to work, but the seventh day was a Sabbath to the Lord: no work for them, their children, their servants, their animals or the foreigners living among them. Why? Because in six days the Lord made heaven, earth, sea and everything in them, and rested on the seventh. So He blessed the Sabbath and made it holy.

A few quick questions

What day is the Sabbath? The seventh day, Saturday, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.
Do Christians have to keep it? Paul says no one should judge us about food, festivals or Sabbaths, because those were a shadow, and the reality is Christ (Colossians 2:16-17). Early believers gathered on the first day of the week, the day of the resurrection (Acts 20:7). The principle of rest is God’s good gift, but our true Sabbath is Jesus Himself (Matthew 11:28; Hebrews 4:9-10).

With that settled, let’s get to the heart of the fourth command: time.

The Timing of Worship

Look at the progression:

Who we worship: God only.
How we worship: not through images we can see and touch.
How not to worship: in vain.
When we worship: on the Sabbath.

What time do we owe God? Which parts of our lives does God get to direct?

This command works like a test of where our hearts really are. Do we belong to God, or do we really serve ourselves?

A Test That Reveals

A few years ago, people across Hawaii got an emergency alert on their phones on a Saturday morning: a ballistic missile was incoming. This was not a drill. For about thirty-eight minutes, until a correction went out, people believed the end might be minutes away. It turned out a worker had mistakenly sent a live alert during a drill.

Those thirty-eight minutes were a very effective test, precisely because everyone thought it was real.

The test didn’t make people panic. It revealed what was already inside. Some people cried, prayed, kept playing golf, sped through red lights, called loved ones. Most were afraid. Some trusted God. But everyone was tested. The light shone on every heart.

Let’s let the fourth command do that today: shine the light of truth into our hearts. With some honest self-examination, maybe we’ll see the love and grace of Jesus more clearly when we’re done.

One Day in Seven

This law claimed one-seventh of Israel’s time. And we don’t like that.

That day belonged to God, to do only what He wanted.
And what He wanted was rest. Not work.
Thinking, not doing.
Abiding, not acquiring.
Waiting, which we hate.

God commanded Israel to spend one day a week in total dependence on Him: learning to wait on Him, meditating on His faithfulness, power and greatness, resting in His promises and provision.

Resting in someone else isn’t popular. In our culture, handing over control feels like giving up. We talk about “my time” and “me time.” “Don’t tell me what to do or what to believe. You’re not the boss of me.” Popular songs have celebrated that attitude for decades: “This is my life; leave me alone.”

Our hearts want to make our own decisions and be our own boss. That’s exactly what Adam and Eve chose when they rejected God’s authority in exchange for deciding for themselves.

Jesus Raises the Bar

The Sabbath was the minimum requirement: one day in seven.

But Jesus intensified the reach of the law. “You’ve heard it said, ‘Don’t murder.’ But I tell you, don’t even harbor hatred” (Matthew 5:21-22).

So as followers of Jesus, we don’t shrink the law’s message. Jesus deepens it.

The law said our time belongs to God. The way of Christ says it’s not one-seventh of our time.

It’s all of it.

“My time hasn’t come” (John 7:2-8)

When the Feast of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers told Him to go to Judea and show off His miracles publicly: “No one who wants to be known works in secret. If You’re doing these things, show Yourself to the world.” Even His brothers didn’t believe in Him. Jesus said, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world can’t hate you, but it hates Me because I testify that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I’m not going yet, because My time hasn’t fully come.”

Jesus was showing the difference between how He saw time and how they did.
In essence: if life is short and eternity is long, live for eternity every moment.
Billy Graham once wrote that when he was young, days seemed plentiful and cheap, like penny candy he spent carelessly; in old age, each day had become precious gold.
Jesus never lived on a human timetable. He worked as a carpenter for about thirty years and ministered about three, and at the end He could tell the Father He had finished the work He was given (John 17:4).
“Your time is always ready.” His brothers could go whenever they liked, because they weren’t living on God’s timetable at all. They didn’t yet believe in Him. They thought in human terms: what would get Jesus noticed?
But Jesus was completely submitted to God’s timetable. He didn’t look to people, or even to Himself, to decide what to do or when. He looked to His Father alone.

That’s what we’re called to as well.

Grace Claims Every Day (Romans 6:13-14)

Paul tells us not to offer the parts of our bodies to sin as tools of wickedness, but to offer ourselves to God as people brought from death to life, and our bodies to Him as tools of righteousness. Sin won’t be your master, because you aren’t under law but under grace.

I’m not the boss anymore.
Offering ourselves to God means He’s Lord of our time.
He gets to decide what we do on Saturdays. And Tuesdays. And Thursdays. And birthdays.
The one-in-seven law doesn’t command you anymore. Grace equips you to live seven days a week for God.

Labor to Enter Rest (Hebrews 4)

Hebrews urges us to be diligent to enter God’s rest, so none of us falls into the same pattern of disobedience as Israel in the wilderness (Hebrews 4:11).

Living for God looks very different from what we first expect.
We assume it’ll mean piling on more work.
But actually, it looks and feels much more like resting in a work already finished.
We keep remembering the work Jesus did on the cross.
And grace flows from that finished work into our hearts, which leads us to work harder than anyone, but it doesn’t feel like work. It’s love-powered, grace-powered, Spirit-powered.
Paul said he was what he was by God’s grace, and that grace wasn’t wasted: he outworked all the other apostles, yet it wasn’t really him, but God’s grace working with him (1 Corinthians 15:10).

Hebrews says it’s disobedience not to make every effort to enter that rest.

How do we enter? By faith: trusting the finished work of Jesus on the cross, looking to it again and again in every situation, trial and challenge. Looking to Jesus over and over in faith is what “making every effort” means.

“But I Want My Own Way”

“Can’t I just become a Christian once and be set for life, without saying no to my own ways?”

Jesus called the crowd and His disciples and said, “Whoever wants to follow Me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me” (Mark 8:34).

Disciples follow Jesus daily.
Disciples deny themselves.
Disciples say “death to self.”
There’s no other option.

“But if I give up all my own plans and my own time, won’t life be boring? I’m just a slave.”

Paul says he has been crucified with Christ, so it’s no longer he who lives, but Christ living in him, and he now lives by faith in the Son of God who loved him and gave Himself for him (Galatians 2:20).

If having the life of the risen Son of God poured into you moment by moment sounds boring, well, okay.
But what we actually experience is the love and sacrifice of Jesus being poured out on us, day after day.
I get more of His love. I experience more of what His sacrifice purchased. As I die to my own ways.

All of You (Romans 12:1)

“So what are you asking us to do?”

Paul urges us, in view of God’s mercies, to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. That’s our reasonable act of worship (Romans 12:1).

Not one-seventh of your body. All of it.
Not one-seventh of your time. All of it.
Anything else is waste. It’s taking time from the One who owns it.

“I can steal time from God? How does He own my time? I thought He gave me life to live it.”

Paul asks: Don’t you know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who lives in you, whom you received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. So honor God with your body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

Think about the temple. It was used for nothing except God’s glory.

They weren’t throwing parties there at night.
They weren’t holding yard sales.
They weren’t building investment towers or saving for retirement.
They weren’t focused on hobbies, technology or entertainment.

Instead:

They remembered sacrifice, the blood of the sacrifice.
They sang, praised and prayed.
They were open to teaching whomever God sent, at any time.
They served the poor and needy.
They counseled the lost and confused with love and truth.

You are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Don’t close for business when He wants to be at work.

Instead of one temple in Jerusalem, God has “franchised” His ministry to the whole world. He supplies the Spirit and power; you supply the building, your body and soul.

Grace Takeaway

The Old Covenant claimed one day in seven. The New Covenant of grace claims all seven, not as a heavier burden, but as a deeper rest. As we abide in Jesus in humble dependence, God fulfills this command in us. Jesus is actively calling disciples, inviting the weary to come and find rest for their souls. Whether you’re coming to Him for the first time or diving in deeper, respond to His call today.

← The Third Command: Don't Take His Name in Vain | All Exodus notes | The Fifth Command: Honor Your Parents →

The Fourth Command: Rest on the Sabbath