"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall work but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your sons or your daughter, your servants or your livestock or the guest in your house. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." Exodus 20:8-11

You may be surprised to learn that the fourth Commandment is the longest and most detailed of all God’s Commandments.

We learn that God made the seventh weekday holy and blessed it because He rested on that day after making the world and all that is in it. The Sabbath, meaning "rest" or "cease from work" is a weekly memorial of our Creator and His creation. It is a weekly reminder that God created everything and everything other than God is simply a created thing.

You might ask, -"Why is that important? Why is keeping the Sabbath so important that it is God’s most detailed Commandment?" God knew that if man failed to keep the weekly Sabbath that he would eventually fall into deceit and begin breaking the second Commandment which forbids idolatry.

 Idolatry is simply the worship of a created thing, usually in the form of a person or an animal. If man had not forsaken the Sabbath he would have had a weekly reminder that the invisible Creator is the only real God.

The Apostle Paul wrote that idol worship is nothing less than demon worship, and thus Satan worship. Satan greatest desire is to be worshiped. Before he could deceive people into worshiping him through idolatry he first had to get rid of the weekly reminder that there is but one God and He is the Creator.

 In Eden Satan convinced Eve that the forbidden tree was the same as all the other trees. When it comes to the Sabbath, Satan often presents the thought that all days are the same. But the truth is, God made one day of the week special, blessed it and made it holy.

Though the Sabbath was created at the end of creation week it was soon forgotten. When God chose the children of Israel to be His people He introduced the Sabbath to them. Interestingly, it is the only Commandment which begins with "Remember."

 One can only remember what he once knew.

God did not deliver this Commandment by Moses or another Prophet, but spoke it to His people Himself from Mt. Sinai. As a Sabbath keeper for my entire adult life, I have learned the value of the observance. It has been a great blessing to me and my family. It saddens me that so many have forgotten the very day God commanded them to remember.