How is the sabbath to be sanctified?

Which Bible passages support this answer?

The Westminster Assembly attached these Scripture proofs to answer 60. Read them together and ask what each one shows about the answer.

1. Exodus 20:8, 10

   ⁸“Remember the Sabbath day to set it apart as holy. ¹⁰but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, or the resident foreigner who is in your gates. (NET)

2. Exodus 16:25-28

   ²⁵Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the area. ²⁶Six days you will gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.” ²⁷On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather it, but they found nothing. ²⁸So the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to obey my commandments and my instructions? (NET)

3. Nehemiah 13:15-19, 21-22

   ¹⁵In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath, bringing in heaps of grain and loading them onto donkeys, along with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, and bringing them to Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them on the day that they sold these provisions. ¹⁶The people from Tyre who lived there were bringing fish and all kinds of merchandise and were selling it on the Sabbath to the people of Judah—and in Jerusalem, of all places! ¹⁷So I registered a complaint with the nobles of Judah, saying to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day? ¹⁸Isn’t this the way your ancestors acted, causing our God to bring on them and on this city all this misfortune? And now you are causing even more wrath on Israel, profaning the Sabbath like this!” ¹⁹When the evening shadows began to fall on the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I ordered the doors to be closed. I further directed that they were not to be opened until after the Sabbath. I positioned some of my young men at the gates so that no load could enter on the Sabbath day. ²¹But I warned them and said, “Why do you spend the night by the wall? If you repeat this, I will forcibly remove you!” From that time on they did not show up on the Sabbath. ²²Then I directed the Levites to purify themselves and come and guard the gates in order to keep the Sabbath day holy.For this please remember me, O my God, and have pity on me in keeping with your great love. (NET)

4. Luke 4:16

   Now Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, (NET)

5. Acts 20:7

   On the first day of the week, when we met to break bread, Paul began to speak to the people, and because he intended to leave the next day, he extended his message until midnight. (NET)

6. Psalm 92 (title)

   A psalm; a song for the Sabbath day. It is fitting to thank the Lord, and to sing praises to your name, O Most High. (NET)

7. Isaiah 66:23

   From one month to the next and from one Sabbath to the next, all people will come to worship me,” says the Lord. (NET)

8. Matthew 12:1-13

   ¹At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on a Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pick heads of wheat and eat them. ²But when the Pharisees saw this they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is against the law to do on the Sabbath.” ³He said to them, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry— ⁴how he entered the house of God and ate the sacred bread, which was against the law for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests? ⁵Or have you not read in the law that the priests in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are not guilty? ⁶I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. ⁷If you had known what this means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. ⁸For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.” ⁹Then Jesus left that place and entered their synagogue. ¹⁰A man was there who had a withered hand. And they asked Jesus, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” so that they could accuse him. ¹¹He said to them, “Would not any one of you, if he had one sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, take hold of it and lift it out? ¹²How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” ¹³Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and it was restored, as healthy as the other. (NET)

What does this answer mean?

The catechism teaches that the sabbath is kept holy by resting all day, even from work and recreations that are lawful on other days, and by spending the time in public and private worship. It makes room for works of necessity and mercy, such as caring for the sick or meeting real needs.

What can we ask our children?

1. What are some ways we can rest on the Lord's Day?
2. What is the difference between public and private worship?
3. What kinds of work are still right to do on the Lord's Day?