“Observe the Sabbath” -- Exodus 31:12-18

At the end of a long day, an arduous task, a hard week, there are few things quite as rewarding as being able to sit back, put our feet up and breathe a nice sigh of relief. Perhaps a nice cool glass of sweet iced tea rests in our hands, maybe some music playing. Or maybe it’s just a moment of quiet, a time to close one’s eyes and know that the job has been done and now it’s time to rest.

Jesus understood the importance of rest. There are numerous times in the New Testament where Jesus takes the disciples away for a time of rest and renewal. There are also times when Jesus tried to get away to rest, but the needs of the crowds were pressing and Jesus’ compassion compelled Him to forgo His moment of rest and minister to the needs of others. Still, the New Testament does indicate that Jesus knew there were times He needed to be alone, to rest, to reinvigorate, to renew.

Background

At the end of the creation story, the Bible is very clear that at the end of creation, God had completed the work He had done, and so He rested from His work. We need to understand that God didn’t take a long weekend to rest up—God never wearies—and He didn’t put things out of His mind. All things exist because of Him. For God to stop thinking about something or someone would cause that person or thing to simply cease to exist. So what does it mean, “God rested?”

The phrase we need to look at is that God “rested from all His work.” He no longer needed to create, so He stopped creating. When He had created man and woman in His image, He saw that it was very good and at the end of the sixth day, God pronounced His creation as being “very good.”

So God rested from His creative agenda and began to focus on other aspects of His new creation. There was the need to provide, to nurture, to protect. There was the need to rule over His creation. There were many other needs. So, when we say, “God rested,” we simply mean that He moved on to other things.

Notice also that this “seventh day of creation” has never come to an end. Recall in the creation story recorded in Genesis 1 that at the conclusion of each day, the passage reads, “and there was evening and there was morning—the numbered day.” Genesis 2:1-3 never tells us that God rested, and there was the evening and there was the morning—the seventh day. It simply says that God rested from what He had been doing. The point being is that God is still at rest, and that that rest is available to all who follow Him.

In the Ten Commandments, God places the Sabbath command at No. 4 on the list. His emphasis on there is that God has made the day holy, and it is a day that we, too, would reverence and set aside for God’s purpose.

Jesus, in Matthew 11:28 says, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” The remainder of the chapter explains that the burden we currently carry will be replaced with a yoke that is joined to Jesus, and it is a yoke that is light and easy. The idea, then, is not that Jesus invites us into a world of idleness but one of finding release from sin and freedom to obey and walk and work with Him.

So we see from Old and New Testament passages that God’s intent is for us to find a place and a time to set aside specifically for Him, a day to be holy, and a day that reminds us that we are holy, too.

Central Truth: God gave the Sabbath as a day of rest and a sign of our holiness.

God gave the Sabbath:

1. As a sign (12-13)

The first thing we notice about the Sabbath is that it is mandatory: “You must observe the Sabbath.” This wasn’t a suggestion or a hint, but rather an outright command to set aside the seventh day, to make it a day of rest and remembrance.

The reason why it is a mandatory event is that it a double-edged sign. The first edge of the sign is that it points us to God—“so you may know that I am the Lord.” By setting aside the seventh day as a day of rest, we harken back to the Creation story and the beginning of all things. And as we go back, we remember that before Creation, God was. We are recalling the majesty, the power, the creativity of the God who brought Israel out of Egypt. We are reminded that not only is He God, but He is “Yahweh”—“I Am Who I Am” or “I Will Be Who I Will Be.” The word God uses when He says “I am the Lord” is the name He shared with Moses when Moses asked Him, “Whom shall I say is sending me?”

So not only are to remember God’s grandeur and majesty, but we are also to remember His intimacy with His people. This God who reveals His name to His people so that they can believe and follow—this is the same God who, after creating the universe and all that is within it, who willingly tends to His people. He is the Lord who provided escape from Pharaoh’s army through the Red Sea, the Lord who provided manna from heaven to feed His people, water from rocks to quench their thirst. He is the Lord who hears the cries of His people and is patient with them.

The second side of the sword is that God makes us holy. “Holiness” is being set apart for God’s purpose. When God is called holy, it means that He is separate from all other known things—He is Other. When we are declared holy, it means that God has put His stamp upon us, that He has set us apart to be His people, to live according to His will and according to His direction. Our holiness comes not from our moral uprightness, but it comes from the Lord, who makes us holy.

And so it is that this seventh day is to be set aside as a day of holiness and rest and remembrance.

1. As a day of rest (14-15)

I have a former church member who took to heart the idea of keeping the Sabbath holy. He was a big fan of NFL football, and he would spend his Sundays in front of the television, watching every game he could. He would take time to come to evening worship, but he loved watching NFL football on Sunday afternoons.

Then one day, he was reading about the Sabbath day, how it was to be a day of rest and reverence. And a strange thing happened to him. He decided that he didn’t need the NFL that badly. He would gladly give it up and spend that time instead in Bible study and quiet reflection and prayer. Rather than having a day of NFL football sandwiched between two worship services, he would instead give the entire day to the Lord.

That’s the idea that God presents to us in these two verses. It’s not just that the Sabbath points us to God’s holiness and Lordship, and it’s not just that the Sabbath reminds us of our holiness. The day itself is holy. Just as we are set apart for God’s purpose, so is the Sabbath set apart for God’s service. It is a specified day of rest that must be observed each week. God is very exact in His expectations for the day—the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest.

It is so important to God that we set aside a day of rest that God makes it a capital offense to violate the observance. In God’s eyes, there is no “going into the office for a few hours just to get some stuff done.” There is no “I can get ahead of things if I go in today for a few hours.” There is no, “I’ve got to do housework, because I’ve been too busy the rest of the week.” In God’s eyes, there is no reason not to rest. We’ve had six days to work and get things done. Now, we have a Sabbath day of rest. We need our rest. We suffer when we do not rest. We hurt our health, our emotions and our social abilities if we become too tired.

But it’s not just the idea of rest; it is also the idea of worship. The seventh day is holy to the Lord, which means it is set aside for Him. We use the Sabbath not only to restore ourselves from six days of labor; we use it to draw closer to the One Who calls us. We use the Sabbath to rest in His presence, to spend time with Him, to learn from Him and about Him.

We know that God takes this day seriously, again, because He warns that failure to observe the day is a capital offense. Anyone who desecrates the day is to be put to death. In other words, it is well to heed God’s command. It’s not the act of work that is so offensive; it is the callous disregard and rebellion of sin that God cannot and will not abide.

1. As a day of celebration (16-18)

The Sabbath is also to be a day of celebration. It is to be a day exalting God for all He has done and is doing in our world and in our lives. It is to be a day that draws us to the Father, and we are to use this day to teach our children and our children’s children. As one generation teaches and passes the joy and reverence of Sabbath to the next generation, we should lead that generation to share it with the next. And since it’s a celebration, it is not to be a dour time and event, but one of joy and laughter and happiness. Reflecting on God, but in worship and in praise. It is also a time for family and friends.

As we celebrate this day, we are reminded that God the Creator also included us in His plans and in His calling.

It’s interesting that, as God is giving this command to Moses, the people are down below in the valley, compelling Aaron to create a golden calf for them to worship. Even as God is giving the tablets to Moses, He knows that major sin is occurring at the foot of the mountain. Rather than tell Moses, “Listen, you stay here; there’s something I need to take care of down there,” God allows Moses to descend the mountain with the tablets of commands that have already been shattered by the people down below.

Judgment came to Israel that day, but also a day of forgiveness (see Exodus 32). While God promised judgment would come, He would nevertheless get them to the Promised Land.

Conclusion

We live in a busy world, with all sorts of demands on our time. It is all the more reason that we need to set aside a day of rest, a day to restore, to reflect, to remember that the God who created our world rested from His creating and is still resting. We need to join Him, and we need to praise Him. We need a Sabbath day.