The Fourth Commandment:Part – 6

May 27, 2015

 The Sabbath is given as a sign

The Sabbath was a sign as the Lord said, "Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you." (Ex. 31:13).

So, the Sabbatherians say: As long as the Sabbath is a sign, it should not be changed or replaced! But we reply to them "Circumcision was also a sign, and it is replaced by baptism." Circumcision was certainly a sign as it is written, "This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you." (Gen.17:10-11).

These two signs then; the circumcision and the Sabbath were distinguished but were also symbols replaced in Christianity by the things symbolized for.

Circumcision was the removal of a part of the body to make it die, which symbolized mortifying the body and its lusts. This was a symbol of baptism which is death with Christ (Rom. 6:3,4) and so was replaced by it. The Sabbath was a sign for rest, bodily rest, and it was replaced by the rest of the spirit when we rested from sin and death. Thus, it was replaced by Sunday on which the Lord took real rest as we explained before. What is the Sabbath but the Lord’s Day which we should keep holy? In its essence it is not abolished; for we still honor the Lord’s day, but in a more powerful way.

The Sabbath was a sign. But of what? The Lord says, "A sign between Me and you… that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you." On Sunday we feel this actually; for we remember how the Lord sanctified us with His Holy Blood, putting an end to sin and death. But on the old Sabbath, I wonder how they felt the Lord had sanctified them!

When we keep the Lord’s Day holy, we remember that He sanctified us with His death and resurrection. You may ask: We know that the Lord sanctified us when He exterminated sin by His death. But how did He sanctify us when He overcame death by His resurrection?

Death in the Old Testament was a punishment, the wages of sin, and whoever touched a dead body was defiled because the dead died with his sin. But now, as the Lord Christ died for us and paid off the wages of our sins, He sanctified our dead. Thus, death became just departure and whoever touches a dead body is not defiled any more since the Lord exterminated the power and sting of death by His death.

They say also that the Sabbath was a sign of delivery from servitude as the Scriptures say, "And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD   your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day." (Deut.5:15).

This servitude was a symbol of the servitude of sin, while coming out of the servitude of Pharaoh was a symbol of coming out of the servitude of Satan which has been realized when the Lord Christ overcame death on Sunday.

 To be continued …

Source: H.H. Pope Shenouda III, 1997.Contemplations on the Ten Commandments: The fourth Commandment, Volume I.

The Fourth Commandment

May 16, 2015

Part – 5
Rest for all people because He knows our nature:


Moses the prophet said, "See, the Lord has given you the Sabbath". Great! It is then a gift or a reward from God, not a burden or a heavy load. Because God created us, He knows our nature and that it needs one day’s rest every week. So, keeping the Sabbath is useful for you; you cannot work every day. Your body is like a machine which has a certain capacity; if you run it at a greater capacity it will be damaged. Your body is the same, its capacity is to work six days a week. If you make it work seven days, it will be damaged. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ said, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. " (Mark2:27).

Many people work continually… weeks pass without their taking any rest. Some are taken by heart failure, others by angina, pectorals or nervous breakdown. So, God gave you the Sabbath as a gift for rest, and you should thank Him for it. "you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, … And remember that you were a slave … " (Deut. 5:14-15).

Here the spirit of mercy and equality is clear in the Law. It is not proper that the master takes rest while the servants go on working. It is not proper that the old take rest while the young go on working. All must take rest as the Scriptures say, "… that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you." (Deut. 5:14). Even the livestock need rest because they have bodies as well.

Some may think that the donkey, for example, does not get tired and they say, "Donkey work"! But the Scriptures say something different, "Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.” (Ex. 23:12). How merciful God’s heart is!

 Even the solid land takes rest:

God gave rest even to the solid land, He said: "Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow.” (Ex. 23:10-11).

 In our days, we complain that the crops are weak. There are many reasons among which are that the land takes no rest. God created the earth with its land and knows its nature; so He commanded that it should take rest every seven years, to enjoy its Sabbath as well. We are not wiser than God!

We cultivate the land unceasingly and it does not yield all its power. You may say, "I cultivate it for seven years to have yield?" But I say to you: Even if you cultivate it for six years only, it will give you much more yields. “We should not forget that when God ordered to rest the land the seventh year, He gave His blessing in the sixth year so that the land yielded a crop for three years" (Lev. 25:20-22).

This is God’s way in giving rest to someone or something. He gives more fruit. By this He teaches us that coveting for worldly matters destroys us spiritually, physically and financially. Take, for example, a person who works the whole week; his health gets worse, his nerves and spirituality break down. He cries to the Lord, but the Lord replies, "I have given you the Sabbath, but you did not obey!!"

Blessings of Keeping the Sabbath:

If you keep the Lord’s day, you will benefit physically and spiritually and moreover you will have a blessing according to the Lord’s promise, "Who keeps from defiling the Sabbath,… and hold fast My covenant, these I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of Prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar… I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off, …" (Is. 56:2-7), and also, "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable, …Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth,…" (Is.58:13-14).

To be continued …

Source: H.H. Pope Shenouda III, 1997.Contemplations on the Ten Commandments: The fourth Commandment, Volume I.