Meditations on the Fourth Command and the Sabbath

"Observe the Sabbath day... Six days you shall labor and do all your work." (Deut 5:12-13)

 The question of Sabbath rest, the observing of the Sabbath (or Sunday), and the meaning and purpose of such rest has been thoroughly contemplated for millennia.  Thus, these thoughts are not presumed to be original or novel, in fact some of them have been drawn from various portions of Calvin's Institutes. 

  As I've been browsing my way through Deuteronomy, the expression of the Ten Commandments here have been very thought-provoking.  The Fourth Command is particularly interesting since the reason for observing/remembering the Sabbath given here is different from the one in Exodus 20.  In Exodus 20, the meaning of the Sabbath is rooted in the post-Creation rest of God (Gen 2).  In Deuteronomy 5:15, the meaning of the Sabbath is further rooted in God's people's deliverance from Egypt (Ex 1-15).

You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

 Here the reasoning seems to be that those who were enslaved had been freed to serve a better Master. Their former master had no care for their well-being; their new Master cared deeply for them and would provide a rest for them.  They were to use this rest to remember their former wretched condition, the freeing from that burdensome toil, and the fact that they were to trust their new Master for every provision and protection.  Thus, they would observe each Sabbath "to the LORD." Worshipful remembrance...

 Now, for the people of God who live after the fulfilling of the Mosaic Law in Christ, what does the Sabbath mean?  Certainly, given its significance in the Israelites' lives, it cannot be without theological importance for the followers of Jesus.  Paul made a vital point in this discussion regarding the dogmatic observation of days in Romans 14:5-6a:

 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.

 However, the fact that the observation of (OT, ritual) days is neither required nor forbidden for the NT believer does not answer the question of what the significance of these days is.  What are we to learn from the Sabbath instructions written in former times?

 Calvin considered the Sabbath to be obsolete for the Christian, because Christ is our Rest, our Sabbath.  Thus, he finds the ultimate significance of the Sabbath to be the fact that believers have laid aside their works and they now rest in Jesus' work on their behalf.  While this point does not address the question of whether we should take a day of rest (which Calvin does address), if we combine this observation with the consideration of Deut 5:15, a helpful point emerges.  It will be beneficial, and is actually necessary, in our Christian lives to take time regularly to ponder the miserable condition we formerly were in, the great deliverance that God has given us, and that such deliverance has come with the guarantee that every need will be supplied.  The One who did not spare His Son will never hesitate to give us every good gift!  Will not this provide a rest for our souls? 

*Scripture citations from ESV