As is self-evident by the fact that this is the fourth post on the topic, I’ve been trying to work through what it means to observe the Sabbath or Lord’s Day. Thanks especially to those who have commented previously helping me work through these considerations. Please bear with me as I do this, it has been something that has long been turning over in my mind. And to titillate y'all (does living in the South warrant me to say that?), I will definitely have one more post on this topic.

John Barach commented with some thoughts offering the suggestion that the “Lord’s Day” may be redefined even more and constricted just to the period when we are meeting to worship. I reproduce his comment in full here:

It might be profitable in this connection, not only to trace the links between the Sabbath (which was the seventh day of the week from the Old Creation on) and the Lord's Day (which is the first day of the week), but also to trace the link between 'the Day of the Lord' in the Old Testament and the 'Lord's Day' in the New.

The Day of the Lord, the Day of Yahweh, is a major biblical theme, which starts already in Genesis 1 when God creates light and calls the light 'Day.' The basic definition of 'Day,' then, is 'Light-time.' It's only by extension that the whole 24-hour period, including both light-time and dark-time, is called 'Day.' It's named after the light-time, which surely has significance in itself. And as we see again and again in Genesis 1, the 'Day' is the time of judgment, the time when God 'sees' (and sight has to do with judgment in Scripture) that what He has made is 'good.'

So the 'Day of Yahweh' is first of all the time of light, which means that its the time of judgment. The Seventh Day, then, is the climax of all those days. It is, par excellence, the time of judgment, the time Yahweh draws near to inspect and to enjoy His creation.

It seems to me that Scripture indicates that Adam and the Woman fell before they ever entered into God's rest. Yahweh then appears 'as the Spirit of the Day' (Gen. 3:8; see [Meredith] Kline's exegesis in Images of the Spirit). None of this 'walking with Adam in the cool of the evening' stuff. Rather, Yahweh comes in the Spirit, in the Glory-Cloud, which is the 'Spirit of the Day,' the Spirit of Light-time, the Spirit whose light shines out, the Spirit of Sabbath, the Spirit of judgment. (Whoops! I think I started preaching there.)

From then on, 'the Day of Yahweh' (a.k.a. 'the Day of the LORD') is the time when Yahweh draws near to visit and to judge His people, whether to judge in their favor by overthrowing their enemies (e.g., Babylon) or to judge against them.

In the Old Covenant, the weekly scheduled 'Day of Yahweh' was the Sabbath. That was the time of inspection, the time of judgment. Today, the 'Day of Yahweh' is on the first day. But then it is, in particular, the time of the liturgy.

That is the time in which Yahweh draws near to meet with and to judge His people, to deal with their sin, to speak to them His Word, to receive their good works in the form of their tribute, and to enjoy them by feasting with them, which may result in some people 'falling asleep' (1 Cor. 11) but which also results in nourishment. And that is also the time when Yahweh overthrows His enemies: When Yahweh is lifted up on our praises, His enemies are scattered.

It seems to me that a theology of the Lord's Day should work out these sorts of things, which I've only sketched here and which I certainly haven't worked out fully. But it might turn out that 'the Lord's Day' is particularly the time on the First Day when God's people gather to draw near to Him. That is the time when none of them should be working. But that may leave open the question of whether it's forbidden to work at other times on the first day of the week.

Let me leave it at that for now. I have some more thoughts lined up on the idea of rest that I gleaned from a class today, but I will formulate those some more and post them maybe tomorrow or the day after. Interact with John's thoughts here, though, let's discuss this. It seems to me so far that how you define rest, Sabbath/Lord's Day, and as I'll discuss next time, the Kingdom, has major impact on how you interpret the fourth commandment.