The Necessity to Remember the Sabbath

When God gave His moral law in the ten commandments (Ex.20:1-17), it is very peculiar and significant that only the Sabbath command is mandated by the call to "remember". "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy..." (20:8a). The obvious question is, why does this command begin with "remember"? There are two primary reasons: in the first place, God is saying, "Don't forget it or neglect it." The Old Testament writers often use this word "remember" in this way. For instance, in Exodus 13:3 Moses reminds the people not to forget the historical act of their redemption and liberation by God: "Remember this day in which you went out from Egypt, from the house of slavery, for by a powerful hand the Lord brought you out."

In the New Testament, Jesus uses a similiar term when instituting the Lord's Supper: "Do this in remembrance of Me" (Lk.22:19). The point is, we are not to forget nor neglect what God has called us to observe. And certainly the implication behind the call to "remember" in these examples, is that we are fully capable as God's people to by-pass such commands either by omission or commission. Think about it: we have enough residual sin despite our redeemed natures to overlook, ignore, or rebel against what God has commanded us to do (e.g., Rom.7:14-23). Hence, when God says we are to "remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy", we should beware of our own hearts' potential to disregard the Lord's holy day.

The second reason we are commanded to "remember" the Sabbath, is because God is calling us to both observe it and celebrate it. In other words, we are to remember this day above all others by virtue of the fact that God has commanded us to observe it in a special way. The outworking of this observance is to keep this one day set apart (holy) from the other six days by resting from our usual routine of activity, and engaging ourselves in both the private and public worship of the Lord (Ex.20:8-11; Isa.58:13,14; Eph.5:18-19; Heb.10:24-25). Commenting on the blessing of Sabbath celebration and observance, Matthew Henry observed:

"God did design it to be an advantage to us, and so we must make and improve it...He had much more regard for our souls. The sabbath was made a day of rest, only in order to its being a day of holy work, a day of communion with God, a day of praise and thanksgiving; and the rest from worldly business is therefore necessary, that we may closely apply ourselves to this work, and spend the whole time in it, in public and private."

Therefore, it is deeply necessary that when it comes to the observance and celebration of the Lord's day, we must be commanded to "remember" this day! There are far too many traps and distractions propagated by the world, the flesh, and the devil to work hard at our disowning of this day God has set apart for His worship. So Christian, remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy!