The Lord instructed Moses to tell the people, “You shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, given in order that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you” (Exodus 31:13).

Surely we ought to have an uneasy conscience for the cavalier way we disregard the Sabbath in the church today. We know that Jesus recognized that certain emergencies required labor on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:1-12); yet we have extended that recognition into a dismissal of Sabbath-keeping altogether. It is quite unusual for Christians today even to ponder on the idea of Sabbath – let alone to make the conscious definition to refrain on the Sabbath from a particular activity that would be fine on some other day.

Yet Sabbath-keeping is established as part of the Ten Commandments; and the requirement is reiterated throughout the Old Testament. Today’s text goes on to say this: “You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you; anyone who profanes it will be put to death; whoever does any work on it shall cut off from among the people” (Exodus 31:14). Because we are so dismissive of the Sabbath, we are quick to shrug this off for its absoluteness, saying that such harsh penalties cannot be applicable for us today. Yet at the least we should allow the severity of the text to speak to us: we should let it tell us of the seriousness with which the Lord intends the Sabbath.

Notice the reason for the Sabbath listed here: so that you will “know that I, the Lord, sanctify you” (31:13). Better-known reasons for the Sabbath are listed in other places: so that we will remember the ordinance of creation (20:11), for example, or to make sure that not only the boss but all the laborers get a day off (Deuteronomy 5:14). The reason given in today’s text offers this additional insight: the Sabbath is part of the way that we come to know that the Lord is in the business of making us holy. But when we have become so dismissive of the Sabbath, it will be hard for us to learn the lesson of holiness: or to experience the sanctification that God would work in our hearts through keeping the Sabbath.

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You are the Lord, and we are your people: yet we are so stubborn, so slow to keep Sabbath, so unwilling to interrupt our own schedules to take time, week by week, to devote ourselves to knowing and following you. Grant us repentance, O God: change our hearts!