God Keeps Telling Us To Rest

The Sabbath regulation is one of the key repeated themes in the book of Exodus. From the moment of their deliverance, God reveals the Sabbath in providing bread for 6 days and not the seventh in Exodus 16. Then the 4th Commandment pertains to keeping the day of rest as holy to the Lord. The command is repeated after the specifications are laid out for building the tabernacle to Moses on the mountain of God in Exodus 31. In Exodus 34, God speaks of the Sabbath shortly after the Golden Calf incident and the re-affirmation of His Covenant with Israel. Now again, here in the beginning of Exodus 35, the Sabbath is commanded! This time reinforced by Moses himself.

Exodus 35:1–3 (ESV) Moses assembled all the congregation of the people of Israel and said to them, “These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do. 2 Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. 3 You shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the Sabbath day.”

I think Moses is picking up a theme from God in all the time he has spent talking with Him. God's intention for man is REST in HIM! The Creation testifies to this reality, Exodus reinforces that the new people of God will be a people who are at rest with Him no matter what season they are in (as Israel is in the wilderness and wandering here). Our lives are intended to find our REST with God.

What does that mean?

For Israel, work was outlawed on the Sabbath because ancient agricultural people depended on the land's produce for their life! There were no grocery stores to go get bread from should you have a bad day of farming. So God was teaching them, "your work is not what makes you who you are, MY work is what makes you who you are." 

Do I think we are bound to take a day off a week? I think we should. I think we should spend a day where our regular work is completely put aside for our benefit, our spiritual life and out of obedience to God's commands. The Ten Commandments are not eradicated in the New Covenant. We still should not murder, lie or commit adultery. Therefore, we should rest one day out of 7. I do not believe it has to be the same day for all. Paul hints at this in Colossians:

Colossians 2:16–17 (ESV) Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

Notice the last line though. "These are a shadow (the Sabbath being one) of the things to come - the substance (of the Sabbath) belongs to Christ."

What does that mean? It means we remember that all our endeavors to "make a life for ourselves" or to achieve a right standing in society's mind or our family's mind or even our own mind DO NOT MAKE US who we are, GOD'S work in Christ is what makes us who we are.

Everyone has a "righteousness" they are trying to attain. The businessmen may not give a thought about Biblical righteousness but he has a "personal righteousness" that may be rooted in his financial stability, his cost cutting abilities, or his outward symbols of material success. He is pursuing that "righteousness" by working endless to reach it. The young 20 something is working hard to achieve a "personal righteousness" of popularity, educational acumen or inner happiness. Everyone has something in their mind that they have set up to be some sort of "personal righteousness" whereby they feel they matter, they count or they are valuable. It is different for everyone. It speaks to the human condition -- that we need to be loved and accepted by someone outside of us. The Pharisees exposed this big time for each other with money and personal piety: Luke 16:15 (ESV) (Jesus) said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

One modern and touchy example of this is the huge number of young homosexual people who "come out" on youtube after they have been scorned by their family. Why the need to do that? They are looking for personal righteousness with someone, even an anonymous community of people they will never meet. They need someone to say they are "okay" in order to solidify their identity. They are working for it. We used to use sex and money to create community, now we use them to create individual identity. This is the human condition. And God knows it ends in tiresome labor that never rests. Why does God constantly talk about death for the sabbath breaker? Because working tirelessly to prove you are "right" by the standards you have set up in your mind will inevitably suck the life out of you anyway.

This is why the Sabbath matters and we see it's substance in Christ. In Christ you have a firm and finished identity that can never be taken from you. In Christ you are known and loved by someone out side of you. In Christ you are accepted because of God's finished work for you! Now you work OUT the ramification of God's righteousness deposited into your account (Philippians 2:12). You do not have to work FOR God's acceptance, you get to work FROM His acceptance. So the Sabbath moves from the final day of a hurried week to the first day of a brand new week filled with possibilities. What a beautiful picture of our salvation and new life in God!

Now, get to rest.