Exodus 31:12-18--The Sabbath

The Sabbath​
12 And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. 14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. 16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. 17 It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”

18 And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

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The Sabbath is not a topic that most Christians think is vital or important--in fact, many Christians like to say that it is not important because the fourth commandment is not repeated anywhere in the New Testament, but that's not exactly true.  We see Jesus and the New Testament saints living out the commandment to honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy.  Many will probably argue with me that Paul's letters teach that people can worship on any day they want and no day is more important than another or that keeping the Sabbath is somehow enslaving them to the Law and the practices of the Judaisers, but you have to read that into the passages and is clearly not he practice of Jesus, Paul, or the other apostles throughout the New Testament, nor is is consistent with the teachings of Jesus that He did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it or the teachings and practices of the New Testament apostles and saints.

With that said, this blog is not about guilt-tripping anyone who worships on Sunday.  I just wanted to make the point that I see the shift from worship on the Sabbath to "The Lord's Day" as an attempt to make sure that Christians were not just a radical sect of Judaism but that you won't find a clear abolition of adhering to the Sabbath if that is what your conscience convinces you of, but you will find a clear abolition of judging someone's salvation by what religious days they observe or don't observe.  I think I made my personal views quite clear, but for those who feel they need to know, I would prefer to worship on the Sabbath as it has always been understood.  However, I've never belonged to a local church that gave me that option and I've never found it to be an issue to break fellowship with a local congregation over.  I can understand where others that I worship with are coming from on why they worship on Sunday and that they are choosing to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus on a weekly basis, not just an annual basis, because that event changed everything.  But isn't it interesting that Jesus "rested" on the Sabbath, even when He was in the tomb?  He did the work of dying on the cross on Good Friday and He rose from the dead (something He said that He Himself did--He would lay down His own life and take it back up again), yet He did no work on the Sabbath day, but rose again "very early in the morning"--as soon as it was clear the Sabbath was over.

Now that we have all that out of the way, let's talk a bit about what God's Law teaches us about observing the Sabbath, what we should learn from that as Christians (how it can be fulfilled in Christ and in the Church) and how it points us to the reality of the New Creation--as we've tried to do with everything else we've studied so far in Exodus.

God tells His people that above all they are to keep the Sabbath--now that's very interesting given the discussion we just had about how many people today which to abolish the idea of the Sabbath, and the purpose of God's people keeping the Sabbath is so that they may know that God sanctifies them (makes them holy).  It is something unique that only God's people can experience.  While everyone else in the world might understand that God made the heavens and the earth in six days of creation and rested on the seventh day, only God's people can rest in the finished work that God has done in and through them to make them a new creation and a people unto Himself.  God is not just about the work of creation in the Bible, but of salvation, sanctification and recreation.  One, we will eventually all those who are in Christ will enter God's Sabbath rest (see Hebrews 4), but some who live in rebellion like the Israelites in the wilderness will be told, "You shall never enter My rest." (See Hebrews 4:1-13).

We are not only told to keep the Sabbath but told that anyone who claims to be one of God's people and whoever profanes it or breaks should be put to death--Sabbath-breaking is a capital offense to God, just the same as murder, adultery, homosexuality, or witchcraft--"cut off" means to be put to death, not kicked out (we'll see God repeat Himself to make it abundantly clear in a few verses).  Does that change the way you think about it?  It is no small thing to God.  If this law hasn't changed and God says that the identity of His kingdom citizens will be known by their observance of this command, are you willing to stake your citizenship on that?  I'm not going to pass judgment on you, but I'm just asking the question.

We then have one of the clearest indicators that the creation account of Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 is six literal, 24-hour days (evening and morning) because God uses that to say that because He worked for six days and rested on the seventh that His people two should work for six days and rest on the seventh.  The seventh day is to be a day of solemn rest and holy to the Lord--meaning it is set apart from every other day and is for Him and His word and His word alone.  Nothing "common" should take precedent over this.  Now, the Jewish leaders got tied up in knots over this and made up all kinds of rules and traditions to make sure they didn't break the Sabbath and Jesus had to correct them that God, not man, makes the rules.  He also made the point that He, being God in the flesh, was the only Man that had any right to define what was or wasn't a violation of God's Sabbath, but He never actually broke the Sabbath--if He did, He would have been a sinner and not eligible to be our substitutionary atonement on the cross and would have deserved the death that He received for that sin--as that is the punishment for doing work on the Sabbath.

Now comes the part where people do some "gymnastics."  God said, "Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever."  Is God only talking about "ethnic Israel" or is He talking about "spiritual Israel" which would include the Church?  Which covenant is God referring to?  There is a lot of "spin" that happens here in both camps, but let's suffice it to say that whatever God meant it to mean that it's still part of His covenant with that group of people to this day because Jesus said that not one iota of the Law would be changed until everything was accomplished--then your question has to be when did that happen?  Was that at the crucifixion, because surely God changed the sacrificial system at that point and tore the veil to the Most Holy Place to allow access?  Is that part of the meaning when Jesus said, "It is finished?"  Did He possibly mean that all had been accomplished?  If so, then which parts of the Law have changed?  How do you know?  Who gets to decide?  Again, I'm asking questions and hoping that you seek for answers in the Word of God and not commentaries or the traditions of men or even in the bylaws of your local congregation.

This was the last thing on God's mind before He finished writing the stone tablets that not only contained the Ten Commandments, but the entire Law that we've studied up to this point--a Law that was written with the very finger of God. There's no chance that Moses heard God wrong or wrote it down wrong because God cared so much about getting this right that He wrote it out Himself.  We are absolutely sure that God said what He meant and meant what He said.  Don' you usually save one of your most important points for last?  What does that tell you about if this was the last thing God wanted His people to hear?  Wouldn't that imply that it has some huge significance because He wants it to be the foremost in their mind after listening to everything--sure the first point(s) also bear some weightiness, but the last point of a lesson is usually where you want to hit a home run with the bases loaded.  Again, I ask you, does any of this change how any of you feel about the Sabbath?  I'm not here to judge you--we have but one judge--but please listen to the Holy Spirit and your conscience on this matter and don't be convinced by lofty arguments of man one way or another--let the Word of God be that which guides and directs your paths and defines what the Lord does and doesn't require of you.