Foreword:
The following exerpt is taken from The Ten
Commandments by Arthur W. Pink
(BAKER BOOK HOUSE, 1994 GRAND RAPIDS, MI)
In this blog series I will work through this very
important article a paragraph at a time – asking my reader comprehension style
questions at the end. I have been much convicted by the writings of Pink and I
pray your walk will also be strengthened meditating on his teaching of
scripture …
THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT PART I
"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" (Ex. 20:8-10). This
commandment denotes that God is the sovereign Lord of our time, which is to be
used and improved by us just as He has here specified. It is to be carefully
noted that it consists of two parts, each of which bears directly upon the
other. "Six days shalt thou (not "mayest thou") labour" is
as Divinely binding upon us as "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it
holy." It is a precept requiring us diligently to attend unto that
vocation and state of life in which the Divine providence has placed us, to
perform its offices with care and conscience. The revealed will of God is that
man should work, not idle away his time; that he should work not five days a
week (for which organized labor once agitated), but six.
He who never works is unfitted for worship. Work is to pave
the way for worship, as worship is to fit us for work. The fact that any man
can escape the observance of this first half of the Commandment is a sad
reflection upon our modern social order, and shows how far we have departed
from the Divine plan and ideal. The more diligent and faithful we are in
performing the duties of the six days, the more shall we value the rest of the
seventh. It will thus be seen that the appointing of the Sabbath was not any
arbitrary restriction upon man's freedom, but a merciful provision for his
good: that it is designed as a day of gladness and not of gloom. It is the
Creator's gracious exempting us from our life of mundane toil one day in seven,
granting us a foretaste of that future and better life for which the present is
but a probation, when we may turn wholly from that which is material to that
which is spiritual, and thereby be equipped for taking hold with new
consecration and renewed energies upon the work of the coming days.
1) God is sovereign over your time. How much of your time
do you think you owe him? How much of it is he sovereign over? How much does he
actually demand you give him?
2) "Six days shalt thou (not "mayest
thou") labour". How does this statement rail against benefit fraud
and sloth? The purposefully unemployed not only drain the country’s resources
but add nothing to industry and growth. Is there any doubt that the state of
the economy is a judgement against a country that allows people to avoid
“diligently attending that vocation and state of life in which the Divine
providence has placed them, to perform its offices with care and conscience?”
3) I confess that I am most tempted and fail miserably
more often when I am on holiday with a lot of free time than when I am working.
Idle hands are the devils playthings. Has this also been your experience? What
practical steps can we take to keep busy even when we are relaxing and on
vacation?
4) “The more diligent and faithful we are in performing
the duties of the six days, the more shall we value the rest of the seventh.”
How will this truth be even more fully realised in the Kingdom to come? What
are you most looking forward to in Heaven?
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