Once, in a commandment-keeping evangelical Church Sunday School lesson, a teacher stood up and began to discourse on the human hand. He read aloud from Exodus:

"So [Moses] was there with the LORD (Yahweh) forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments" (Ex.34:28, NKJV).

"Why did God (Elohim) limit his basic moral law to 'Ten Commandments'"?.

"The reason is simple. Man has ten fingers, five on each hand. By these he learned to count."

"The beginning of mensuration (the study of measurement) was indeed 'hand-made'. Here is the primitive abacus, the original source of calculation. With this natural aid to memory, each Israelite would learn to appreciate the Decalogue; the 'ten words' could be at his fingertips.

"Two hands equals two fives, the division of God's (Elohim's) life-plan into its two essential parts. The first five commandments are summed up in the term PIETY, our obligation to God (Elohim), or which parent honour is a part (1 Tim.5:4); the second five denote PROBITY, our obligation to our fellow-man.

"And they are in the right order. God (Elohim) must come first, but this does not rule out our duty to men. In fact, the latter can only be fulfilled by the inspiration of the former. Complete well-being involves both - with God (Elohim) a priority.

"These words were written in stone to emphasise their permanence; but they can only be truly embraced by being written in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Ruach haQodesh) (2 Cor.3:3)."

"Sir, if we have five direct obligations to God in the five commandments, and if these define our piety, what do we become if we neglect any of them?"

"This is a most serious matter indeed. Consider what Paul said of those who break the fifth commandment and how he places their sins alongside this list of the fruits of disobedience:

"And even as they did not like to retain God (Elohim) in their knowledge, God (Elohim) gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God (Elohim), violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God (Elohim), that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them" (Rom.1:28-32, NKJV).

"To disobey your parents is to dishonour God (Elohim) and to break the 5th commandment. To disobey God (Elohim) in any commandment is to declare contempt for Him, to say that you know better. Paul says that such are worthy of death."

"Sir, this being indisputably true, would place you and your church under the same condemnation, because the fourth commandment says that we are to work six days a week and not five, and that we are to keep the 7th day of the week holy, and not some other one as you do here:

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of Yahweh your Elohim (God). In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it" (Ex.20:8-11, NKJV).

"Since this commandment was written in stone and is permanent like the nine others, as you yourself said, and since you do not obey it, and teach others to do the same, does this not place your soul - and the souls of those whom you teach - in danger of the Judgment of Yahweh Almighty?! And ought you not now to ask the Holy Spirit (Ruach haQodesh) to write this truth into your heart so that you may spontaneously do what is right and be in agreement with the written Word? I urge you to research this matter out and to do what is right!"

There are those who believe that not all the commandments are as important as each other and that man has the right and authority to change or even discard those which displease him. The Fourth Commandment is absent from virtually all churches today and its members are walking around with only nine metaphorical fingers. And I speak of the diligent commandment-keeping, holiness churches. The truth is, few churches are observing any of the commandments these days. This is truly an age of lawlessness.

The Fourth Commandment - to work six days a week [1] and set-apart the Sabbath on the 7th day - is as important as any of the other commandments. Indeed, we cannot claim to love and serve Yahweh with all our souls if we ignore or disobey it. Furthermore, once you turn your heart to the true Sabbath, it will lead you to all the other Festivals of Yahweh since the Sabbath is a pointer to Sukkot, the 7th Festival, which culminates all the others. And without the New Moon we cannot know when any of these moedim is to be observed. Therefore the Fourth Commandment is a summary of other equally important commandments.

When in 1999 I finally decided to obey the Fourth Commandment it led me to a cluster of others which have brought immeasurable blessings to me and my household and to my ministry. Yahweh has opened so much truth to me since. Please research this matter out diligently, get right with Yahweh, observe His moedim and discover the richness of Yahweh's way of life. It's all preparation for heaven!

Endnotes

[1] This does not mean you have to do your regular job six days a week, which would probably be illegal in some countries anyway. It means that six days a week should be used for some kind of productive labour. How you define that is between you and Yahweh.