The fourth of the Ten Commandments is:
"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:8-11)
The Sabbath: A "Wedding Anniversary"
I see this commandment as an instruction to set aside the Sabbath day and make it different from the other six days of the week. I also see this as a commandment to emulate Him, to "do the works which [we] have seen [Him] do". (3 Nephi 27:21) In this commandment, the Lord asks us to suspend labor for profit - referred to in the Bible as "servile labor" - on the Sabbath day and focus on the things of God. The prophet Moses further prohibited his people from doing "[any] manner of work" on the Sabbath day. (Leviticus 23:31) Note that He also reminded us that, after six "days" of creation, on the seventh "day" He rested. In other words, our observance of this commandment is in similitude of Him.
In my own experience, I don't feel I've kept the sabbath day unless I've made some kind of sacrifice for the Lord in an effort to commemorate it. Did we make a point of spending some time together as a family? Did I study my scriptures or maybe do some family history work? Additionally, I don't feel I've kept the Sabbath day if I've justified allowing myself to do things I wouldn't normally do on the Sabbath, or things that could be either done in advance on Saturday, delayed to Monday, or just plain done without on Sunday out of deference to my Heavenly Father. I believe this to be in keeping with Moses' teaching his people to "afflict their souls" on the Lord's "day of rest". (see Leviticus 23:32) I've noticed that the difference between making that sacrifice and not making it is a matter of increasing the distance between our Heavenly Father and decreasing it. There is no middle ground. Either I keep the sabbath day holy and feel more of the Father's loving guidance and influence strengthening my effort to live my faith, or I feel the fact that my disobedience and sabbath-day selfishness have pushed Him further away.
Both the scriptures and the Church have been somewhat ambiguous about what is expected of us on the Sabbath day, with Isaiah giving us only a description of the kind of spirit of obedience that we should carry in hearts, as we'll see in a moment. I think of the commandment to keep the sabbath day holy as a sort of "blank check" commandment. Rather than tell us exactly what He expects of us and then measure our love for Him by our obedience, He leaves room for us to decide what we think compliance with this commandment is and show our love for Him by the way we define and then carry out sacrifices appropriate for observance of the Sabbath Day. Do we love Him and everything He stands for enough to shift our minds and hearts out of "green gimmie monster mode" and into "sacrifice mode" on the Sabbath day?
By teaching us to do this, the Lord's commandment to honor the sabbath day and keep it holy gives us what may well be our best protection against temptation: a desire and commitment to sacrifice for Him and for what we know to be good and true and right in His sight.
To me, loving the Lord by keeping the Sabbath day holy is no different than loving my wife by remembering our wedding anniversary. Any spouse would feel hurt and know there is trouble in the relationship when they find themselves or their partner forgetting their wedding anniversary. Many times in an effort to teach us the loving relationship He would have with us, the Lord likened himself to a bridegroom, with the body of the members of the Church as His bride. The Sabbath Day is the wedding anniversary, and our observance of it is very indicative of the kind of relationship we have with our living, loving God.
The Lord himself puts it this way:
"[The Sabbath] is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever... " (Exodus 31:17)
To the Lord, our remembering the sabbath day and keeping it holy is a sign that we are still striving to sacrifice for him. The covenant is still in force - in our hearts, where it counts.
The Most Powerful Thing We Can Do for Our Nation
The keeping of the sabbath day doesn't just bless individuals though; it also blesses nations as a whole. Keeping the sabbath day holy is perhaps the most powerful thing citizens can do for their country. In return for their keeping the sabbath day holy, the Lord made the Jews this promise:
You can argue over the political causes all you want to, but the fact is, since our society stopped remembering the Sabbath Day, we've seen a general increase in immorality, violence, and instability. We've seen the economic might of these great United States stymied by taxes and regulations that stem in no small part from the violation of our Constitution and of gospel principles. We've seen our military might and our place in the world go from that of a superpower that once defended freedom all over the globe to that of a non-power that either oppresses others at its whim or fails to confront real enemies when such course is appropriate. I don't believe this to be any small coincidence. A society that doesn't love God enough to keep the Sabbath day holy doesn't love Him enough to live the principles that build a happy, stable, peaceful society.
The nation of Tonga and the Power of Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy
Riding Upon the High Places of the Earth
It has been by observance of the Sabbath day that I have had some of my greatest spiritual experiences. On the Sabbath day, my scripture study seems to be more fulfilling, my family history work more rewarding, and the time we spend as a family made all the sweeter. I consider this to be a fulfillment of a promise the Lord made through Isaiah concerning our attitude toward keeping the Sabbath day holy:
"If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob..." (Isaiah 58:13-14)
In my mind, the ultimate example of this promise in action is found in the life and ministry of Nephi:
"...as I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I never had before seen, and upon which I never had before set my foot." (1 Nephi 11:1)
Given that the Jews were often the only nation on the earth to work six long, hard days and not the seventh, I believe most of the revelation given to the prophets and subsequently recorded in scripture was given on the Sabbath day. After being thus caught up in the Spirit, Nephi was privileged to see his father's vision of the Tree of Life and many other prophecies concerning the life of the Savior and the founding of a free country in America in the latter-days. For me, after three hours of church, it takes half of what's left of a Sunday just to read those revelations, let alone receive them and write them down. Nephi spent the better part of a Sabbath day receiving some of the greatest revelations given in the whole Book of Mormon - all in no small part because of his observance of the Sabbath day and his "riding upon the high places of the earth". (see also 1 Nephi 12-15)
When we choose not to love the Lord and the things of God enough to keep the Sabbath day holy, we miss out on the neat, deeply personal things the Lord would reveal to us by the power of His Spirit if only we would seek Him out upon the Sabbath day!
"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:8-11)
The Sabbath: A "Wedding Anniversary"
I see this commandment as an instruction to set aside the Sabbath day and make it different from the other six days of the week. I also see this as a commandment to emulate Him, to "do the works which [we] have seen [Him] do". (3 Nephi 27:21) In this commandment, the Lord asks us to suspend labor for profit - referred to in the Bible as "servile labor" - on the Sabbath day and focus on the things of God. The prophet Moses further prohibited his people from doing "[any] manner of work" on the Sabbath day. (Leviticus 23:31) Note that He also reminded us that, after six "days" of creation, on the seventh "day" He rested. In other words, our observance of this commandment is in similitude of Him.
In my own experience, I don't feel I've kept the sabbath day unless I've made some kind of sacrifice for the Lord in an effort to commemorate it. Did we make a point of spending some time together as a family? Did I study my scriptures or maybe do some family history work? Additionally, I don't feel I've kept the Sabbath day if I've justified allowing myself to do things I wouldn't normally do on the Sabbath, or things that could be either done in advance on Saturday, delayed to Monday, or just plain done without on Sunday out of deference to my Heavenly Father. I believe this to be in keeping with Moses' teaching his people to "afflict their souls" on the Lord's "day of rest". (see Leviticus 23:32) I've noticed that the difference between making that sacrifice and not making it is a matter of increasing the distance between our Heavenly Father and decreasing it. There is no middle ground. Either I keep the sabbath day holy and feel more of the Father's loving guidance and influence strengthening my effort to live my faith, or I feel the fact that my disobedience and sabbath-day selfishness have pushed Him further away.
Both the scriptures and the Church have been somewhat ambiguous about what is expected of us on the Sabbath day, with Isaiah giving us only a description of the kind of spirit of obedience that we should carry in hearts, as we'll see in a moment. I think of the commandment to keep the sabbath day holy as a sort of "blank check" commandment. Rather than tell us exactly what He expects of us and then measure our love for Him by our obedience, He leaves room for us to decide what we think compliance with this commandment is and show our love for Him by the way we define and then carry out sacrifices appropriate for observance of the Sabbath Day. Do we love Him and everything He stands for enough to shift our minds and hearts out of "green gimmie monster mode" and into "sacrifice mode" on the Sabbath day?
By teaching us to do this, the Lord's commandment to honor the sabbath day and keep it holy gives us what may well be our best protection against temptation: a desire and commitment to sacrifice for Him and for what we know to be good and true and right in His sight.
To me, loving the Lord by keeping the Sabbath day holy is no different than loving my wife by remembering our wedding anniversary. Any spouse would feel hurt and know there is trouble in the relationship when they find themselves or their partner forgetting their wedding anniversary. Many times in an effort to teach us the loving relationship He would have with us, the Lord likened himself to a bridegroom, with the body of the members of the Church as His bride. The Sabbath Day is the wedding anniversary, and our observance of it is very indicative of the kind of relationship we have with our living, loving God.
The Lord himself puts it this way:
"[The Sabbath] is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever... " (Exodus 31:17)
To the Lord, our remembering the sabbath day and keeping it holy is a sign that we are still striving to sacrifice for him. The covenant is still in force - in our hearts, where it counts.
The Most Powerful Thing We Can Do for Our Nation
The keeping of the sabbath day doesn't just bless individuals though; it also blesses nations as a whole. Keeping the sabbath day holy is perhaps the most powerful thing citizens can do for their country. In return for their keeping the sabbath day holy, the Lord made the Jews this promise:
"Wherefore
ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye
shall dwell in the land in safety. And the land shall yield her fruit,
and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety." (Leviticus 25:18-19)
You can argue over the political causes all you want to, but the fact is, since our society stopped remembering the Sabbath Day, we've seen a general increase in immorality, violence, and instability. We've seen the economic might of these great United States stymied by taxes and regulations that stem in no small part from the violation of our Constitution and of gospel principles. We've seen our military might and our place in the world go from that of a superpower that once defended freedom all over the globe to that of a non-power that either oppresses others at its whim or fails to confront real enemies when such course is appropriate. I don't believe this to be any small coincidence. A society that doesn't love God enough to keep the Sabbath day holy doesn't love Him enough to live the principles that build a happy, stable, peaceful society.
The nation of Tonga and the Power of Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy
Riding Upon the High Places of the Earth
It has been by observance of the Sabbath day that I have had some of my greatest spiritual experiences. On the Sabbath day, my scripture study seems to be more fulfilling, my family history work more rewarding, and the time we spend as a family made all the sweeter. I consider this to be a fulfillment of a promise the Lord made through Isaiah concerning our attitude toward keeping the Sabbath day holy:
"If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob..." (Isaiah 58:13-14)
In my mind, the ultimate example of this promise in action is found in the life and ministry of Nephi:
"...as I sat pondering in mine heart I was caught away in the Spirit of the Lord, yea, into an exceedingly high mountain, which I never had before seen, and upon which I never had before set my foot." (1 Nephi 11:1)
Given that the Jews were often the only nation on the earth to work six long, hard days and not the seventh, I believe most of the revelation given to the prophets and subsequently recorded in scripture was given on the Sabbath day. After being thus caught up in the Spirit, Nephi was privileged to see his father's vision of the Tree of Life and many other prophecies concerning the life of the Savior and the founding of a free country in America in the latter-days. For me, after three hours of church, it takes half of what's left of a Sunday just to read those revelations, let alone receive them and write them down. Nephi spent the better part of a Sabbath day receiving some of the greatest revelations given in the whole Book of Mormon - all in no small part because of his observance of the Sabbath day and his "riding upon the high places of the earth". (see also 1 Nephi 12-15)
When we choose not to love the Lord and the things of God enough to keep the Sabbath day holy, we miss out on the neat, deeply personal things the Lord would reveal to us by the power of His Spirit if only we would seek Him out upon the Sabbath day!
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