Kootenai Church Sunday School

The fourth commandment might be the most debated of the ten. Lesson 37 launches a multi week study of the Sabbath, starting with the text itself before any application.

Teacher Dave Rich compares Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 side by side, showing that the shift from remember to observe reflects timing rather than any real difference in meaning, and that the two different rationales given for the command, creation in Exodus and redemption from Egypt in Deuteronomy, actually work together rather than in competition.

Rich then works through Genesis, the giving of manna, and a series of Old Testament examples, including the man stoned for gathering wood on the Sabbath and Nehemiah's confrontation with merchants trading on the Sabbath, to establish the two essential elements of the commandment, rest from ordinary work and worship through holy convocation. He also raises the long list of questions the class will eventually address, including how the Sabbath applies under the new covenant and what day, if any, Christians are bound to observe.

This lesson deliberately holds off on application, laying the Old Testament foundation before next week's look at what Jesus and the apostles taught about the Sabbath.