1God spoke all these words, saying, 2“I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3“You shall have no other gods before me.
4“You shall not make for yourselves an idol, nor any image of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5you shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them, for I, Yahweh your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6and showing loving kindness to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7“You shall not misuse the name of Yahweh your God, for Yahweh will not hold him guiltless who misuses his name.
8“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9You shall labor six days, and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; 11for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.
12“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
13“You shall not murder.
14“You shall not commit adultery.
15“You shall not steal.
16“You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
18All the people perceived the thunderings, the lightnings, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled, and stayed at a distance. 19They said to Moses, “Speak with us yourself, and we will listen; but don’t let God speak with us, lest we die.”
20Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, and that his fear may be before you, that you won’t sin.” 21The people stayed at a distance, and Moses came near to the thick darkness where God was.
22Yahweh said to Moses, “This is what you shall tell the children of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. 23You shall most certainly not make gods of silver or gods of gold for yourselves to be alongside me. 24You shall make an altar of earth for me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I record my name I will come to you and I will bless you. 25If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stones; for if you lift up your tool on it, you have polluted it. 26You shall not go up by steps to my altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed to it.’
Many of Jesus' healings were performed on the Sabbath, as in the case of the man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5:9). The strenuous objections of the Jews led to their persecution of Jesus (v. 16), and their plotting to kill Him (v. 18). But why was their concern so extreme?
The practice of setting apart the seventh day for rest and worship originated with God's rest from His work of creating the universe and man (Gen 2:2). It was formalized in the Mosaic Law as a provision for man and requirement for Israel. They were to do no work on the Sabbath (Exod 20:8-11; 35:3). To break the Sabbath was to rebel against God and become guilty of death (Exod 31:14). During the period between the Old and New Testaments, as works-based righteousness became more and more important, the religious leaders of Israel added myriads of detailed rules to Sabbath-keeping in an attempt to clarify what activities violated the Sabbath. Attempts were made to define what constituted forbidden work, such as what foods may be cooked before the Sabbath for consumption on the Sabbath, what animals could wear on the Sabbath, which knots could be tied on the Sabbath and how far one could walk on the Sabbath, among hundreds of other rules. This oral tradition substituted human law for God's law (Matt 15:9). It made Sabbath observance a burden of external rules that defeated its purpose of rest and delight in the Lord (Luke 11:46). The scribes and Pharisees held to the oral tradition of the elders, written down in the Mishnah, and later interpreted and commented upon in the Talmud, as being equally authoritative with God's Word. Jesus kept the Sabbath (Luke 4:16) and, as Lord of the Sabbath, He urged others to do so (Mark 2:28). But He condemned pharisaic Sabbath-abuse, which missed the benevolent purpose of God's provision (Luke 13:10-16; John 7:22, 23).