The Sanctification of Time: The 4th Commandment

[Sung Psalm: 90]

I thought about titling this sermon "Six Days Shall You Labor" – because I want to focus on that line – but as I reflected on how to get at this, I realized that the real point here is that God is teaching us how to think about time.

The third commandment focuses on the holiness of God's name. The fourth commandment turns to the sanctification of time.

We saw that God's name is profaned both by our careless words and our careless deeds. And now we see that our use of time is also something that matters to God.

Why do we have a seven day "week"? All of the other ways we measure time are based on some rhythm of nature. The year is based on the earth's revolutions around the sun. The month was originally based on the phases of the moon. The day is based on the earth's rotation.

All of these are universal to all human cultures, because the sun, moon, and stars provide a way of marking times and seasons.

But the week has no such relation to nature. The seven-day week is based on God's own creation of the world. Our seven-day week is modeled after God's seven-day creation week. Our days are patterned after his...