Chapters 19-20

Exodus 19:6 - "You shall be to me a Kingdom of priests..." That is not how you build a kingdom in the natural world. Not everyone can be a priest. But the Lord is changing the model, so to speak. As a priest, you do the will of the god you serve. For Israel, the fact that everyone is a priest means that everyone must do what pleases the Lord. Therefore, the whole nation of Israel is on divine commission. In a normal society, the priestly guild is concerned for appeasing the god. The rest of the people are concerned for pleasing themselves. Not so in Israel. Everyone must work to please the Lord. If the Lord says, "I want you to be a cobbler." You say, "Yes Lord, anything else that will please You?" This fact in this light makes the modern arrangements in most churches laughable. The Church today is not a Kingdom of priests. It is just like the world. You hire a minister (priest) to appease your god. Then the people come in to do their duty then leave to please themselves. Where's the divine commission?

Exodus 19:18-20 - What a scene! The Lord descends on a mountain in fire. The mountain is covered in smoke. It quakes and trembles. There is the sound of a trumpet, but no human is blowing it, and no one knows where it is coming from except the cloud of smoke. The trumpet continually gets louder and louder until finally Moses calls out to God. "We are here, Oh God." Then the voice of God calls back, "Moses, come up here. I want to talk to you." Moses climbs the mountain in the sight of all, disappearing into the cloud while the trumpet begins to fade in the background. I think the people got the message. Moses is God's man. Listen to him (see vs. 9). Even until this day, the Jewish people have the highest respect for Moses.

Exodus 19:23-24 - Moses was not correcting God or questioning Him. Sometimes in prayer, the Lord will tell us to do something that is contrary to our present beliefs or course of action. We simply tell the Lord that we do not understand His command based upon our prior understanding of His will. In this case, Moses says, "They aren't going to come up because You already warned them." But the Lord must have had something else in mind. There may have been a group of people that had it in their hearts to ignore the previous command to stay away. They perhaps said in their hearts, "If we are going to serve this God, then I want to see Him." Thus, the Lord compassionately sends Moses down to remind them not to try anything.

Exodus 20:8-9 - This is a very balanced commandment. "Six days you shall labor and do ALL your work" (vs. 9, NASB, emphasis added). In other words, work hard for six days. Do seven days of labor in six days or leave nothing undone for the week. The children of God should not be slack or lazy, but work hard for six days. Then on the seventh day, they should rest completely. Work hard, rest completely.
The Sabbath day has been blessed by God and set apart or made holy. This was done before the Law was given. It was blessed as a part of creation order.
I will attempt to propose a balanced view of the Sabbath and Christianity: Clearly the Scripture says that God blessed the seventh day of the week. He did not bless the first day (Sunday), but the seventh (Saturday). Nothing changed in that creation order blessing with Jesus' resurrection. His resurrection on Sunday was a matter of timing and not intended to change anything. He could not be resurrected on Saturday for two main reasons: (1) It was foretold that He would remain in the ground for three days by His own words (Mt 16:21), (2) He would not be raised on the Sabbath, as it was a day of rest and no work should be done. The observance of Sunday in the early church was a commemoration. They met many times during the week. Sunday was just a more special day because it commemorated the resurrection. In addition, many of the Christians were Jews who still kept the Sabbath themselves. They had rites and duties to perform on the Sabbath day, thus they could not and would not meet together with the sect of Christians on that day.
Paul has clearly said that Christians are free to esteem any day they want as holy (Romans 14:5). And so some do. But that still does not change the fact that God blessed the Sabbath. It is our decision if we wish to participate in that blessing or not.
Jewish observance of the Sabbath actually begins Friday a few minutes before sun-down and lasts until sun-down on Saturday. In that 24 hr period, no work should be done. The advantage to a 24 hr period is that you get a night of sleep in the midst of your "day off life." By treating Sunday as the day of rest, you are only getting 12 hours rest, at most. For many people, Sunday is the hardest day of the week: get the kids ready and out the door. Get to church on time. Put on a happy face to hide the lack of sleep and frustrations. Come home, make lunch. Take a nap, if you are lucky. Then many go back to church again. You call that rest?

For a proper day ofrest, meals should be prepared before hand as much as possible (left-overs are great) and rest/relaxation/recreation should be the primary focus of that period. The enjoyment of family and friends can be a source of recreation. For the Christian, Sunday we should still go to Christian church, but treat Sunday as a work day. That is when you can do your shopping, cut the grass, wash the car or dog(s). Prudence should be used, however, because the watching world thinks Sunday is holy. Therefore, if your neighbor will think you are sinning by cutting the grass on Sunday, for example, then you should refrain from causing him/her to stumble or bring disrepute on Christ.
How you might "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" (Ex 20:8, NASB): Prepare dinner before sun-down on Friday. Then commit the night to rest and relaxation. In the morning, have a simple breakfast such as cereal and/or toast. Keep the eggs, pancakes, etc. for Sunday morning. Lunch can be pre-prepared on Friday or something simple and easy to put together. That night, if the Lord permits you financially, go out to eat with the family and/or friends. Keep your conversations off contentious topics or off work. Focus on enjoyment and relaxation. In short, take a day off normal life. You can pick it back up on Sunday. This is how you can participate in God's blessing of the Sabbath. It is not a requirement but an opportunity.