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We recognise this verse as a rephrasing of the Sabbath commandment given to Moses on Mount Sinai. This version is recorded in the Hebrew language at the renewing of the covenant following the breaking of the original stone tablets. It reinforces God’s plan from creation that mankind should set aside every seventh day as a day of rest which God would then make holy. “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Exodus 20: 9-11. “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Genesis 2:2-3.
What is of interest to Bible scholars is the use of a different word, ‘ậbad’ for ‘work’ in this verse. Although still translated into English as work the original word also meant ‘to serve’.
Psalm 100:2, “Serve (ậbad) the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.”

One of the criticisms levelled at the Christian Church over time is the perceived hypocrisy of worshipping God on a Sunday but living an ungodly life for the following six days. Perhaps we should revisit God’s original instruction which implies, by request, that we serve him every day.

Malachi 3:18, “Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth (ậbad) God and him that serveth (ậbad) him not.”
John 12:26, “If any man serve (ậbad) me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me (ậbad), him will my Father honour.”