God wrote the Sabbath day commandment himself on a tablet of stone

Note: There are several interesting facts which come out of these scriptures, concerning the ten commandments:

   (1) God wrote them himself
Nowhere else in the whole bible is it recorded that God wrote commandments with his own finger, as he did here (Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 9:10). The fact that God wrote them himself insured his total authority behind them, no mistakes were made when they were written, and they were engraved in stone for permanence. Notice that, "the tablets were the work of God," (Exodus 32:16), and as "his work isperfect:" (Deuteronomy 32:4), every commandment, including the Sabbath commandment, must be perfect. These commandments, which were the basis of the Old Covenant, were called "the tablets of the covenant." (Deuteronomy 9:9; 9:11; 9:15), and were placed in the ark called "the ark of the covenant" (Numbers 10:33; 14:44; Deuteronomy 10:8; 31:9). These are the same commandments and laws that are to be written on our heart when we become a partaker of the New Covenant (See #1.5), and which will be fulfilled by love (See #1.25).

   (2) God spoke them to the whole congregation
God did occasionally speak to individuals on a lengthy basis (Job 38-41), but a discourse such as this, full of commandments, and spoken to so many people (Deuteronomy 5:22; 9:10), is totally unique. Approximately six hundred thousand men left Egypt (Exodus 12:37), plus women, plus children, plus others, so "all your assembly" (Deuteronomy 5:22) may have numbered around two million people. The fact that God chose to speak these commandments audibly himself, and not leave it to others to speak only, shows how much importance he placed on them, and emphasises their permanence:

(Psalm 89:34) "My covenant I will not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips."

So we can be sure that God is not Going to alter the ten commandments. This can be confirmed by the fact that the ten commandments, which were written on stone, were also called "the testimony" (Exodus 25:16; 30:6; 40:20), and "tablets of testimony" (Exodus 31:18; 32:15; 34:29). They were placed in the ark, which was called "the ark of the testimony" (Exodus 25:22; 31:7; 40:3; Joshua 4:16), which was kept in a tent called "the tabernacle of testimony" (Exodus 38:21; Numbers 1:50; 1:53). Thus the word "testimony" in the Old Testament often refers to the ten commandments, and when we read:

(Isaiah 8:20) "To the law and to the testimony: if they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."

we can know that there is no light in those who do not speak according to the ten commandments.

God gave us an example from the beginning

Note: When Jesus was teaching people about divorce, he pointed them back to the beginning of creation in order to explain how things should be (Matthew 19:8; Mark 10:6), and when Paul would not permit a woman (or wife) to teach, he pointed them back to the beginning of creation in order to show them why (1 Timothy 2:11-14). Here, as regards the seventh day, we can also look back to the time of creation to see how it was in the beginning. After his work of creation, when God rested on the seventh day, "God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it:" (Genesis 2:3). When God spoke about this event as he gave the ten commandments, he said, "the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." (Exodus 20:11). The verb translated "sanctified" (Genesis 2:3) (Hb. קָדַשׁ , Htr. qādash) is the same verb translated "hallowed" (Exodus 20:11), but notice that in God's spoken version, he says that he blessed "the Sabbath day". So the Sabbath must have existed since the creation, and this is why the seventh day is called, "the Sabbath of the LORD your God:" (Exodus 20:10; Deuteronomy 5:14). God even refers to the Sabbath day as, "my holy day;" (Isaiah 58:13), and "the holy Sabbath to the LORD:" (Exodus 16:23). Has anything changed concerning this? No, because God has said the he will not alter what he has said (Psalm 89:34), so the Sabbath must still be his holy day. No again, because "whatever God does, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it:" (Ecclesiastes 3:14). God doesn't change (Malachi 3:6; James 1:17), so as far as he is concerned, the seventh day is still blessed and sanctified by him. If our heart is filled with love, which fulfils the law (See #1.25), then it would be full of God, because, "God is love." (1 John 4:8; 4:16), and we would keep the seventh day holy, just as he did. He gave us an example right back there at the beginning. Jesus told us to be like God when he said, "You be therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48), and showed us the principle that people do the deeds of their father:

(John 8:39) "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham."
(John 8:44) "You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do."
(John 9:4) "I must work the works of him who sent me,"
(John 10:37) "If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me."

So if we are to follow God's example, while we are working in the world, then we ought to rest on the seventh day as God did. God sanctified the seventh day (Genesis 2:3; Exodus 20:11), and he told us how to do it also:

(Exodus 20:8) "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."
(Exodus 35:2) "Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD:"
(Leviticus 23:3) "Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work in it: it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings."
(Deuteronomy 5:12) "Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it."