"Remember" the Sabbath Day

An Andrews student tells how his African tribal background and his Mother's parting advice enriched his understanding of the Sabbath.

When I became a Christian, years ago in Ghana, West Africa, I often wondered why the fourth commandment was fraught with seemingly unnecessary wordiness. Why is it that, in contrast to the other nine commandments, all of which are comprehensive even in their brevity, the wording of the Sabbath commandment seems so lengthy?

Why didn't God simply say, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work" (NIV)? Why instead did He choose to go on and on, giving a registry of living things that could possibly live under a person's roof---"you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates"? The other nine commandments are clear enough without such a detailed listing. It is understood, for example, that "You shall not steal" means that you and your son, daughter, manservant, maidservant, cattle, and guest are all not to steal. Why then is the Sabbath commandment characterized by this unique particularity and minuteness in detail?

Why does the fourth commandment alone employ the personal name of God ("the LORD," i.e., Jehovah/Yahweh) more times than any of the other commandments? And why did God take pains to use the second-person pronouns, you and your, a total of twelve times in the fourth commandment? Was there no way He could have economized His words?

In my country, Ghana, West Africa, many indigenous tribes refer to Saturday as Memeneda, literally, "The day of the I AM."

I have been puzzled not only by the wordiness of the fourth commandment but also by two assumptions apparently inherent in it. For one, the commandment assumes that everyone has a job. It doesn't say, "Six days you must labor and do your work, if you have a job." Instead, it reads, "Six days you must labor and do your work," making no room for unemployment. Second, it assumes that everyone is in some privileged situation. It doesn't say, "If or when you are of age, married, have children, many servants, and a big home, and are thus able to entertain strangers, then you must keep the Sabbath." It simply assumes such qualifications. Why?

These questions puzzled me every time I read or recited the fourth commandment. Was the lengthy wording of the fourth commandment merely an attempt to avoid obscurity or misunderstanding? Or does the Sabbath commandment's call to "remember" entail more than a mere reminder of the what, how, and why of Sabbath keeping?

My questions about the excessively long wording of the commandment were not provoked by the skeptical attitude of critical scholars who deny the divine inspiration of the Scriptures. My strong belief in the trustworthiness of Scripture, as well as my background in a Sabbath-keeping African culture, made it unthinkable for me to accept the doubtful hypotheses advanced by critical scholarship to explain these peculiarities of the Sabbath commandment.1 Let me explain briefly.

The Sabbath in My African Culture. In my country, Ghana, West Africa, many indigenous tribes refer to Saturday as Memeneda, literally, "The day of the IAM." Being historically a special day assigned to the worship of God (Onyame), it is also called Memeneda Dapaa, "The good or precious day." Since God's day is Saturday, and since every male child who is born on this day is called Kwame, God is often called Onyame Kwame "the God whose day is Saturday."

On Memeneda, personal and mundane activities, including markets and even funerals, are discouraged, and wars can neither be declared nor waged.

This practice of Saturday observance was in existence long before the birth of Prince Henry the Navigator, the Portuguese explorer who brought Roman Catholic priests and missionaries to Ghana in the fifteenth century. But ever since the arrival of those white missionaries with their peculiar day for worship, all white people have been called Kwasi Broni, "Sunday whitemen."2

Evidently, it was God Himself who kept the truth of the Sabbath alive in the non-Christian culture of Ghana.

Saturday worship, as a symbol of the religion of Onyame Kwame, and Sunday worship as a mark of the white man's religion, helped me, when I became a Seventh-day Adventist, to understand how the Sabbath is the "sign" or "seal" of God in contrast to the "mark of the beast." Because the Sabbath commandment, like all other ancient authoritative documents, identifies the name, position, and dominion of the Lawgiver ("Lord God, Creator, Heaven and Earth"), it was also very logical for me to accept the whole Decalogue, of which the Sabbath is a part, as God's eternally authoritative Law, binding on all human beings living in every culture and age (Ex 20:3-17; Matt 5:18-20).

Given the Saturday keeping in my cultural background, you can understand why, when I became a Seventh-day Adventist, the fourth commandment assumed a unique significance to me. For the first time I understood clearly that when the Akan people of Ghana designated Saturday as a special day for the worship of God, their action was not so arbitrary as one might think. From the Bible I discovered that as soon as there was a seventh day, it was claimed by the great I AM as His own; it was He who "rested," "blessed" and "sanctified" this day (Gen 2:1-3; Ex 3: 13, 14). Evidently, it was God Himself who kept the truth of the Sabbath alive in the non-Christian culture of Ghana, reminding the world that there never was a time when the seventh day of the week, Memeneda, did not belong to God.

The realization that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment was the same day as that on which the Akan people of West Africa worshiped Onyame Kwame was to me very exciting. Proclaimed within the context of the three angels' messages (Rev 14:6-12; 18:4), this truth fueled my earnest desire to understand how "remembering" relates to the seemingly long wording of the fourth commandment. Of what relevance is the fourth commandment to those who already know that Saturday is the Sabbath?

Insight from a Mother's Parting Words. The breakthrough in solving this perplexing problem came to me following a meeting with my mother a short while before I left Ghana for overseas. My 85-year-old mother has greatly influenced my life. Although she is illiterate and owns very few earthly goods, she has a substantial wealth of the kind of experience that cannot be acquired by formal education or earthly riches. Several times in my childhood she sat me down and narrated the account of her painful adult life and the circumstances leading to her conversion. Each time she recounted those personal experiences, she concluded by saying, "If Jesus never gave up on me, He will also never give up on you; and neither should you give up on anyone." After she said these words, she would pray for me.

The most recent time that she sat me down to advise me in this manner was several years ago, around 3:00 a.m. on the last day of a visit I made to our home village. I was there to break the news to my mother that the Lord had opened a way for me to canvass in Sweden, and that if all went well, I would go from Sweden to the United States for advanced studies.

After spending a full day with my mother, during which she retraced our family history and called my attention to individuals to whom she owed a great debt of gratitude for their kindness and support at critical times in her life, I finally retired around 10 p.m. By village standards, we had stayed up late---and I needed to get up early to catch the first bus out in the morning. But my mother awakened me thirty minutes before the time we had agreed on. I supposed she had made a mistake, not having either watch or alarm clock.

But she had not made a mistake. She wanted to talk to me some more. She wanted to give me some final advice before I left for Sweden and possibly for the promised land of America.

"My son," she began, "in a few days you will be leaving our country. You will not be the first person from this village to travel abroad, and you certainly will not be the last. It is not my intention to give you a lot more advice this morning, for whatever I need to tell you about life I have already told you in the past. But since it is possible that you will not again see me alive, I want to offer you three final pieces of advice. If you heed them, the journey you are about to embark upon will be prosperous. Here they are: 'As you go away, remember that you are not like any other person, remember your past, and remember the home you come from." Then she prayed for me.

"Remember" Regulates One's Mental Conduct. Those words, "Remember that you are not like any other person, remember your past, and remember the home you come from," may not mean much to you. But those very unusual parting words meant a great deal to me then, and still do. Mother did not offer me advice regarding how I should conduct myself physically in foreign lands. She did not enjoin upon me an obligation to send money home for her upkeep or for urgently needed repairs for her leaking roof and for her mud house, which was being eroded by heavy rains. Instead, she called on me to recognize my unique identity and to take a retrospective look at my life and family background.

"As you go away, remember that you are not like any other person, remember your past, and remember the home you come from."

Her call to "remember" assumed that there existed a certain relationship between us, that I knew certain things already, and that this relationship and knowledge could become the basis for my mental outlook throughout my overseas journey. It was not merely a cognitive proposal. The word "remember" suggested the kind of mental disposition that I should carry with me and which she hoped would translate itself into right conduct.

Those parting words from my mother have helped me to view in a new light the fourth commandment's call to "remember the Sabbath day." It now seems to me that in the Sabbath commandment the loving Father who once gave a parting message to the people of Israel on the eve of their journey into the promised land (see Deut 5) is the same God who is also offering parting advice to His new Israel as they make their way into the heavenly Promised Land. If this is so, it may suggest that in this message God is calling upon us to adopt a particular frame of mind.

The Sabbath and Our World View. Unlike the other nine commandments, whose "You shall" and "You shall not" explicitly command and forbid us to perform certain activities with regard to God or human beings, the fourth commandment, with its call to "Remember," appears to advance a world view counterpoised to the naturalistic and evolutionary world view of our day. It seems to require an all-year lifestyle established by the biblical world view.

Since we are what we think (see Prov 23:7), if either our mental dispositions or our world views are faulty, our lifestyles will also be faulty.3 There can be no lasting changes in our lives unless those desired changes first take place in the chambers of our minds. The Sabbath is specially set aside by the Creator to enable us to adopt, to renew, or to heal our mental attitudes. The repeated references in the fourth commandment to the LORD God may be intended to remind us of God's willingness to help bring about this supernatural change and heal our distorted attitudes.

The Sabbath Reminds Us of Human Worth. In a world in which people are lost in the crowd, a world in which personal identity has been submerged by mass culture, and in which personal names have so often been replaced by a string of computer numbers (social security, credit card, driver license, etc.), it is not uncommon to find people cherishing feelings of worthlessness, self-pity, self-indulgence, and self-centeredness. The wording of the fourth commandment counteracts such feelings by reminding us of our true worth.

The fourth commandment's emphasis on "you" and "your" suggests not only that "you" are unique and important, but also that you have a rightful place in this world, whether you are poor or rich, young or old, sick or healthy, male or female, ethnically privileged or disadvantaged, and so on. By affirming your value and dignity as a human being, God bids you rise above all artificial barriers erected against you on account of your unique situation. But so that "you" do not think that you are the center of the universe, the Sabbath commandment immediately shows that you are in the midst of other human beings---"your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, your stranger." As Guy Robbins has observed helpfully, "Your place among them is certainly legitimate but no more so than theirs."4

An understanding of these truths militates against the pervasive "me-ism" of our age, whether expressed at the personal, family, tribal, or national level. Think of the difference this knowledge can make when people begin to believe that indeed, in God's universe, everyone of all races and both genders is of equal value. The Sabbath commandment, in essence, rejects the "quality of human life" ethic which treats certain groups as inferior to others or even sub-human----the chronically ill, the physically handicapped, the mentally retarded, criminals, and unwanted babies.

The Sabbath is specially set aside by the Creator to enable us to adopt, to renew, or to heal our mental attitudes.

The Sabbath Reminds Us of Our Privileged Status. When the Sabbath speaks about "your" son, daughter, manservant, maidservant, cattle, and stranger, it should not be understood as speaking only to prosperous persons, those with a large home, fine property, substantial wealth, and so on. For it is obvious that the fourth commandment is still binding upon "you" even if, like Jesus of Nazareth, you cannot claim a house of your own, or servants, or children, or even a spouse. The thrust of the Sabbath commandment, in this respect, is to remind us that whatever our apparent status, we are privileged persons.

The thrust of the Sabbath commandment, in this respect, is to remind us that whatever our apparent status, we are privileged persons.

Evidently, God is hinting at the fact that "you"---whether you are a student or a teacher, a parent or a child, an American or an Arab, a physician or a homemaker, poor or rich----are deemed by God to be mature and responsible and are considered as having some authority and advantages over some other person. To cite Guy Robbins again, the Sabbath commandment makes an "attribution of seniority, authority and favorable fortuity to its every reader or hearer."5 It also assumes that you are capable of showing hospitality to "strangers." You do not need to be rich or belong to a privileged ethnic group. By creating you in His image, God has endowed you with ability to understand and to communicate and empathize with people who may at first be unfamiliar to you.

The Sabbath Reminds Us of the Importance and Value of Work. By saying, "Six days you shall labor," the fourth commandment asserts that work is a divine imperative; it is not to be frowned on or considered distasteful, wearisome, or monotonous. Work is a gift to be cherished (Gen 1:26, 28; 2:15). This mental attitude toward work not only militates against idleness and laziness (see 2 Thess 3:10; Prov 6:6-11; 24:30-34), it also challenges us to be resourceful. If we have no employment, we must look for it. If we lose one job, we must search for another. Thus, the fourth commandment is an antidote for the despair that often results from unemployment or underemployment.

Second, in the statement, "Six days you shall labor and do all your work," God seems to remind us of the need for time management. To rescue us from the frenzied pace of today's culture, in which deadlines, "emergencies," and frantic "last minutes" seem to be the norm, He has marked out six days in which you must do your work. It is your responsibility to plan ahead and have all secular work done within the divinely designated six days.

The Sabbath Reminds Us of the Importance and Value of Rest. While there is need to work, the fourth commandment reminds "you" that work is not the ultimate goal of life. Six days you must work, but on the seventh day "you shall not do any work." You may give reasons why you think you cannot work, or study, or even play, but you cannot give a credible excuse for not resting. Rest is one thing everyone can experience ---whether you are a child or an adult, physically disabled or healthy, rich or poor. In fact, rest is the birthright of everyone, not a privilege for an elite, and no one should wait till retirement or a holiday in order to rest.

Rightly understood, the fourth commandment strikes a blow against all forms of slavery, oppression and exploitation.

Although the decalogue does not explicitly state what activities are and are not appropriate to the Sabbath, the Bible elsewhere of fers some concrete suggestions. We remember the Sabbath by not gathering or preparing food (Ex 16:23, 29; cf. Num 11:7-9), by not plowing fields or harvesting crops (Ex 34:21), by not selling or buying (Neh 10:31 13:15-17), and by not carrying burdens (Neh 13:15, 19; Jer 17:21-22). On the other hand, we also remember the Sabbath by worshiping (Lev 23:3; Eze 46:3; Acts 16:13; cf. Heb 10:25), by reading Scripture (Acts 13:27; 15:21), by preaching (Acts 13:14-15, 44; 17:2-3; 18:4), and by doing deeds of mercy (Matt 12:12; Luke 13:10-16; John 9:14) or of necessity (Matt 12:1; Lk 13:15; 14:1-5).

In the absence of labor unions and advocates for human rights, animal rights, and ecological preservation, the institution of the Sabbath in Old Testament Israel was, as it still remains, a divine arrangement to promote and defend the rights of children, employees, animals, and the environment. By calling upon "you" and all living things under your roof to rest, the Sabbath challenges you to seek the well-being of those under your care. Rightly understood, the fourth commandment strikes a blow against all forms of slavery, oppression and exploitation.

But Sabbath rest---the "Divine Rest for Human Restlessness," as Samuele Bacchiocchi has termed it is not just physical; it is also spiritual. We stop our work so God can go to work in us. The Sabbath is special time for renewing our friendship with our Creator, as also with our families and fellow believers. In order for this to happen, we have to desist from the entanglements of our secular works.

The Sabbath Reminds Us Not to Be Anxious. But what the Sabbath really forbids is not merely our work as such, but trusting in our work, as if our working somehow earned us privileged status before God. The Sabbath bids us trust God for our daily sustenance, future security, and eternal happiness.

Sometimes a loving obedience to God affects believers adversely. Some faithful believers lose their jobs, their homes, their relationships, and even their lives. But whenever on account of our decision to observe the Lord's Sabbath faithfully we are tempted to ask, "How shall we survive if we do not work on the Sabbath day?" the Lord always responds, "Trust Me." New believers must take courage in the fact that the God who provided quail and manna for Israel in the barren wilderness can provide for them also if they do not work on His holy Sabbath. Established believers undergoing Sabbath trials can remind themselves of the response God gave to Israel in Leviticus 25 when, upon being told to rest their land every seventh year, they asked what they would eat during the seventh year if they were not to sow their fields or prune their vineyards for an entire year.

The Lord's unequivocal assurance was, "I will command my blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it [the land] shall bring forth fruit for three years. And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store" (Lev 25:18-22 KJV). It is this same Lord who speaks to us saying not to ask anxiously what we are to eat, drink, or wear. Christ's assurance is unequivocal: "Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things" (Matt 6:32).

Thus, the Sabbath reminds us not to be over-anxious by teaching us that faithful obedience to God, however costly it may be, is always rewarded with joy, honor, and divine blessing (see Isa 58:13-14; 56:2).

Conclusion. What insights, then, regarding the Sabbath of the fourth commandment can we gain from an African culture and from a mother's parting advice to her son? First, Memeneda in the African Akan culture reminds us that there is no culture in which the great IAM has not left some aspects of His truth. Until they reject additional light from the Bible, God accepts the worship of those from among the "heathen who worship Him ignorantly" (see Rom 2:11 15; Acts 17:30-31).

"Those whom Christ commends in the judgment may have known little of theology, but they have cherished His principles. Through the influence of the divine Spirit they have been a blessing to those about them... Among the heathen are those who worship God ignorantly, those to whom the light is never brought by human instrumentality, yet they will not perish. Though ignorant of the written law of God, they have heard His voice speaking to them in nature, and have done the things that the law required. Their works are evidence that the Holy Spirit has touched their hearts, and they are recognized as the children of God" (The Desire of Ages, 638). 

Second, the knowledge that Onyame Kwame has claimed one day as His own reminds us that the Sabbath, as a "sign" or "seal" of God upon His people (see Ex 31:13, 17; Eze 20:20), should not be a day for mundane, secular activities; rather, it is a day on which we should rest from all our works. Finally, the call of the fourth commandment to "remember" the Sabbath is an invitation to adopt a certain mental outlook, a world view which treats all human beings as equal in worth, which recognizes the graciousness of God in giving us some privileges, which cherishes work and rest as divine gifts, and which trusts God for our daily sustenance and future security.

In a very real sense, then, the Sabbath echoes the African mother's parting advice to her son: "Remember that you are not like any other person, remember your past, and remember the home you come from." For in the fourth commandment we hear our loving Father's gracious advice to His earthly children on the eve of their journey into the heavenly Promised Land.

Thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in [to keep Sabbath in].

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: thyself in the then shalt thou delight thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it (Isa 58:12-14).

NOTES

1. See the excellent presentations by Gerhard F. Hasel, "Sabbath," in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 6 vols., David Noel Freedman, ed. (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 5:849-856, and by Samuele Bacchiocchi Sabbath herewithanachaist The Creation Christian History," in The Sabbath in Jewish and Christian Traditions, T. C. Eskenazi, D. J. Harrington, and W. H. Shea, eds. (New York: Crossroad, 1991), 69-97.

2. See K. Owusu-Mensa Onyame Kwaame: The Akan God of Saturday (Accra, Ghana: Advent Press, 1990) the best study yet on this subject.

3. For a discussion of how a person's mental framework shapes his conduct, see my article, "Contemporary Culture and Christian Lifestyle: A Clash of world views," Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, 4/1 (1993): 129-150.

4. Guy L. Robbins, "And in the Seventh Day," American University Studies, Series VII/36 (New York: Peter Lang, 1987), 161.

5. Ibid., 180.