I came to thinking about these on this sabbath day, as I thought of the wisdom of keeping a sabbath day holy. I think this stands aside from religion, it makes sense without reference to any God.
We are not machines, and we can’t make real progress unless we stop, “Stand, and stare”.
And then I looked again at the others of the top five, and was surprised and disappointed. They are mostly concerned with the glory of God, which suggests the sabbath was all about taking time to glory God, and one expects this was to be by formulaic routine. We can only call to mind our own experience of religious tradition, but let’s imagine a community in exile in a world without our modern distractions…
The Sabath would have been a long day, extending from sundown on a Friday to sundown on Saturday, there would surely be time to think, for those minded to.
But the five commandments…..
Why would it concern God so much that he be honoured by his flawed people?
The 5th commandment “honour thy father and thy mother” translates in my head to honour older people, as many would have no parents, or their parents might be murderers, thieves, or idolatrous. It makes no sense.
But for the most part, in a hyper religious society, I imagine the parents might have been more religious, so this fifth commandment goes along with the fourth to reinforce the first three.
So I return to the fourth commandment
Thou shalt observe the sabbath day to keep it holy
And taken out of context it is perfect theology. An equality for all to enjoy rest and leisure, and for this to be “holy”.
Society has overtaken this simple logic, many of us now have nothing but leisure, and some of us confuse leisure and work.
Those who are religious are often obsessively so, and those who are not, are not.
But I can stand, and stare, all day long today, and on many Sundays, and don’t mind if this serves the glory of God.
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