The Fourth Commandment

The Fourth Commandment as it is written,

Exodus 20:8-11 MKJV
(8) Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
(9) Six days you shall labour and do all your work.
(10) But the seventh day is the Sabbath of Jehovah your God. You shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger within your gates.
(11) For in six days Jehovah made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore, Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day, and sanctified it.

Let us begin by examining some of the words of this item of our marriage covenant. This is the first instruction that begins not with something we are to keep ourselves from, but we are instructed to “remember” something.

Remember:

Exodus 20:8-11 MKJV
(8) Remember …

Let’s look at the word, “Remember”.

H2142 Original: זכר- Transliteration: Zakar (zaw-kar’)- Definition: a primitive root; TWOT – 551; v AV – remember 172, mention 21, remembrance 10, recorder 9, mindful 6, think 3, bring to remembrance 2, record 2, misc 8; 233
1) to remember, recall, call to mind
1a) (Qal) to remember, recall
1b) (Niphal) to be brought to remembrance, be remembered, be thought of, be brought to mind
1c) (Hiphil) 1c1) to cause to remember, remind 1c2) to cause to be remembered, keep in remembrance 1c3) to mention 1c4) to record 1c5) to make a memorial, make remembrance.
– Strong’s: A primitive root; properly to mark (so as to be recognized) that is to remember; by implication to mention; also (as denominative from H2145) to be male: – X burn [incense] X earnestly be male (make) mention (of) be mindful recount record (-er) remember make to be remembered bring (call come keep put) to (in) remembrance X still think on X well.

This word, zakar, really needs a picture to help get the meaning across. Here is the picture: something is being engraved into a hand and it is so deep and so permanent so as to imprint eternally that something, into the mind. Something likened to a branding, like what Cattle owners do to their cattle.

Yehovah is telling us to “zakar” the Sabbath. He is instructing us to “engrave it into the palm of our hand and count it a memorial that manifests itself in our minds”

This is significant for some other matters which will be discussed further.

The first mention of this word in Scripture is found in the event of Noah during the Great Flood. We read,

Genesis 8:1 MKJV
And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle which were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.

In this passage, we may envision Yehovah etching Noah and all the life that was with him in the ark… into the palm of His Hand. This idea of having something cherished in the palm of the hand is one of those scarlet threads that runs through Yehovah’s Word. This is also the place where He keeps His “peculiar treasure” His segullah¹. E.g.

Exodus 19:5 MKJV
And now if you will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure to Me above all the nations; for all the earth is Mine.

Deuteronomy 14:2 MKJV
For you are a holy people to Jehovah your God, and Jehovah has chosen you to be a peculiar people to Himself, above all the nations that are on the earth.

Deuteronomy 26:18 MKJV
And Jehovah has taken you today to be His peculiar people, as He has promised you, and to keep all His commandments,

Psalms 135:4 MKJV
For Jehovah has chosen Jacob to Himself, and Israel for His peculiar treasure.

A segullah is a treasure, but not just any treasure… it is a peculiar treasure.

A segullah is the most valuable item in the possession of a King. It is so valuable to him that he doesn’t even let his highest officer watch over it, keep it, or guard it. Sometimes the King allows his high officer to use his seal, as in a ring, to be used to speak for the King and carry out decrees and business. But his segullah… that is another story. The segullah never leaves the King’s hand. It is too valuable to allow anyone to possess it but himself.

In Isaiah, we read:

Isaiah 49:15-16 MKJV
Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet I will not forget you.
(16) Behold, I have carved you on the palms of My hands; your walls are forever before Me.

And Yeshua (Jesus) Himself told us:

John 10:27-29 MKJV
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
(28) And I give to them eternal life, and they shall never ever perish, and not anyone shall pluck them out of My hand.
(29) My Father who gave them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand.

The last Hebrew letter in the word “zakar” is the resh (ר) and it is the pictograph of the head of a man. So, within this word, remember, we have a cutting, a hand, and a head. Don’t we read some things in scripture about binding things to our hands, and between our eyes?

The first place is in the event, of the redemption, of the firstborn of Israel, in Egypt.

Exodus 13:15-16 MKJV
And it happened when Pharaoh hardened himself against sending us, Jehovah killed all the first-born of the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man, and the first-born of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to Jehovah all that opens the womb, that are males. But all the first-born of my sons I redeem. (16) And it shall be for a token upon your hand, and for frontlets between your eyes. For Jehovah brought us out from Egypt by strength of His hand.

We find this also in the shema² in Deuteronomy:

Deuteronomy 6:6 MKJV
And these words which I command you this day shall be in your heart.

Deuteronomy 6:8 MKJV
And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

Deuteronomy 11:16-18 TS2009
Guard yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other mighty ones and bow down to them.
(17) Then the displeasure of יהוה shall burn against you, and He shall shut up the heavens, and there be no rain, and the land not give its increase. And you shall perish quickly from the good land which יהוה is giving you.
(18) And you shall lay up these Words of Mine in your heart and in your being, and shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes

Yehovah tells us over and over again, remember… remember the Sabbath day.

He wants us to set it apart, prepare for it, and think about it.

What does Set Apart mean?

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1
H5459 Original: סגלּה (C@gullah) – Phonetic: seg-ool-law’ – Definition: 1. possession, property a. valued property, peculiar treasure b. treasure. – Origin: from an unused root meaning to shut up. TWOT entry: 1460a – Strong’s: Feminine passive participle of an unused root meaning to shut up; wealth (as closely shut up): – jewel peculiar (treasure) proper good special.
2
Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.
And in Hebrew: Sh’ma Yisra’eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad.