Ten Commandments (1972)_b.pdf - Herbert W. Armstrong

The Fourth Commandment
61
The Sabbath Is a BLESSING
Certainly this insight into the background of the Sabbath
gives added meaning to God's command: "Remember
the sabbath day to KEEP it holy." Through Jesus Christ,
God MADE the seventh day of the week holy - and on His
authority as our Creator He commands us to keep it that
way!
The Sabbath, then, is HOLY time. Yet, it was made for
man - as a great BLESSING to all mankind!
Our Creator knew that we would NEED a period of rest
and worship every seventh day, and this is the basic purpose
for which the Sabbath was created. Each of us tends
to become overly absorbed in our daily cares and work and
pleasure during the week. Our Creator foresaw this, and
set apart His Sabbath days as a consecrated time when we
can completely forget our daily routine and draw closer to
the Creator God in study, meditation and prayer.
Modern man desperately NEEDS this period of time in
which to have real communion with his Maker and God.
Taking time to think upon God and to worship Him, to
pray, to study and meditate upon the purpose for human
existence, and upon God's revealed laws of life, all this
adds great STRENGTH and meaning to man's life the other
six days of the week.
The Sabbath is one of the greatest BLESSINGS that has
ever been bestowed upon the human family!
A Special Covenant
The command to keep the Sabbath is the only one in
which we are enjoined to "remember." Yet it is the one
command which many ministers and religious people seem
most anxious to forget! Many have reasoned that since the
Sabbath was contained in what is called the "Book of the
Covenant" in Exodus 20 through 24, therefore it is no
longer binding on us today who are, under the New Covenant
of Christ.
Such people seem to forget that, as we have already
shown, God made the Sabbath day holy back at creation
- long BEFORE there were any Jewish people, and before