A Rest Remains | Exodus 20:8-11
INTRODUCTION
Have you ever wondered why we measure our time in weeks? I mean, just think about it, all of the other time measurements we rely on have very clear scientific explanations. Days represent the time it takes for the earth to spin around its axis; Months loosely follow the lunar cy2cle of the moon; and years measure the amount of time it takes for the earth to revolve around the sun.
But why do we have weeks? There is no natural, scientific phenomena that explains the rationale for weeks. Much to the chagrin of materialists around the world, we have weeks because God established them when he created the universe.
And this morning, we are going to take a closer look at the significance of these weeks that God made. If you are able, out of reverence for God’s holy and authoritative word, would you please stand with us as we read our text for this morning.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
—Exodus 20:8-11:
It is my purpose this morning to convince you that: God’s people should imitate God’s Sabbath-rest by setting apart God’s day for God’s purposes.
Today we turn our attention to the Fourth Commandment. This is the only one of the ten commandments that God clearly sets forth and establishes before the Israelites even reach Mount Sinai. We see this idea of the Sabbath first mentioned in Exodus 16 with the Lord’s provision of manna in the wilderness. This is also the longest and the most detailed of the ten commandments listed in Exodus chapter 20.
And, in addition to that, one could argue that the Old Testament Israelites considered this commandment to be the most important of the ten. And how do we know that? Because, as one commentator notes:
“Sabbath observance is mentioned more often than any other of the Ten Commandments—eleven times in the Pentateuch and over one hundred times in the Old Testament.”
—Kevin Deyoung
The Fourth Commandment may come with its fair share of controversy, but you cannot doubt its significance. And this morning, as we consider this commandment, I want you to consider what it looks like for us to: imitate God’s rest, sanctify God’s day, and see God’s purpose in giving us the Sabbath. First, let’s consider God’s rest.
GOD’S REST
In Scripture, there are two different places where we can find the Fourth Commandment clearly taught. The first place we find it is in our text from this morning in Exodus 20:8-11 and the second place we see it is in Deuteronomy 5:12-15. And while the basic contours of the commandment are the same in each location, the reasons—or the motives—given for why we ought to obey the commandment are different and worth considering.
First, let’s look at the motive in Exodus 20:8-11. Look specifically at the word “for” that begins verse 11: So why are we to “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy?” “For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
Exodus chapter 20 grounds obedience to the Fourth Commandment in God’s pattern of creation. And as we know, all good theology begins in Genesis. God, through Moses, is telling the Israelites that they ought to rest from their work in the present precisely because God rested from his work in the past—in creation.
In Genesis 2:2-3, we see:
And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
So God sets the pattern at the very beginning: work for six days and then cease from work on the seventh day. And then in Exodus 20:11 God tells us to imitate him. One commentator says of this verse:
The God who brooks no other god, the God who is provoked to jealousy by any human-made representation of him, the God who guards the sanctity of his name severely, here says, “Be like me.”
What an honor that God would dignify our work by comparing it to his work in creation. What we see here in Exodus 20:8-11 is that God grounds the Fourth Commandment in the moral fabric of the universe and establishes it as a creation law.
Next, when we turn to Deuteronomy 5:12-15, we see an additional motive that grounds obedience to the Fourth Commandment. Deuteronomy 5 again explains the command in verses 12 through 14, and then in verse 15 says, “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.”
This time Moses expands the reason why God’s people should observe the Sabbath. He roots the commandment in their deliverance from Egypt by God’s mighty hand. So not only is this law connected to creation, it is also connected to God’s salvation. It is a redemptive law just as much as it is a creation law. And therefore, connecting the Fourth Commandment to God’s creative purposes and to his saving acts should increase our appreciation for and honoring of the Sabbath.
With that established, let us consider now the requirements of God’s Sabbath-rest. Unlike the other commandments which give us either a positive or a negative command, the Fourth Commandment gives us both a positive command and a negative command. Verses 8-10 say, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.”
God’s people were to keep the Sabbath holy by resting from their ordinary work and by worshiping God in public and in private. It was a day for special holy use—a day for trusting in the Lord and turning their horizontal gaze upward. A day to renounce their autonomy and a day to trust in God’s sovereignty.
It was not a day to make a few extra sales, network with a few extra clients, or burn the midnight oil to make a few extra dollars. As Victor Hamilton says, “God was not a workaholic. Don’t you be one, says this fourth commandment.”
Yet, while work is prohibited and rest is required, this commandment was not to be turned into a magnifying glass by which overzealous legalists could scrutinize and judge what their neighbors were doing wrong. We know that our sinful hearts have a tendency to take a good gift like the Sabbath, and to turn it into a way in which we can parade our false sense of righteousness before others.
This is why the Scriptures show us that the Fourth Commandment permitted doing good on the Sabbath and it allowed doing works of piety, necessity, or mercy. It was not wrong for Jesus to teach in the synagogue on the Sabbath or for a priest to perform his priestly duties (cf. Mark 1:21), or for a mother to cook a meal for her hungry family (Matt. 12:2), or for you to take your friend to the emergency room (Matt. 12:12).
In keeping the Sabbath, we must remember that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. Notice also what is said at the end of verse 10, “On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.”
God entrusts the responsibility of keeping the Sabbath to those who are in authority. Thomas Watson calls these people “superiors.” Whether public or private, whether parents, or business owners, or civil magistrates, these people are responsible for honoring the Sabbath so that those underneath their care may also experience the blessings of the Sabbath.
It is interesting to note that throughout history, some societies enacted Sabbath laws, or blue laws as some people call them, and they were established for the blue collar worker—for the working class man or woman. And as verse 10 indicates, the Sabbath was to benefit children and servants and livestock and foreigners. God wanted all people to enjoy this principle of rest, not just those who had the means to live a leisurely life.
So, in the Fourth Commandment, we see God setting the pattern of work and rest, and then calling us to imitate him in that rhythm. Christians in general have been in agreement that this idea of Sabbath rest is a good one. However, there has not been agreement on exactly when or how this day should be honored. So second, let us consider the nature of God’s day.
GOD’S DAY
And we can start by asking: does God care which day the Sabbath is observed on?
In the Old Testament, under the Mosaic Law, the Jews observed the Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, which is what we would understand as Saturday. However, the Fourth Commandment did not require God’s people to rest specifically on the seventh day; it merely required them to labor for six days and then to rest for the seventh. It did not stipulate which day the pattern should start on.
Yet as we move into the Gospel accounts, we see that Jesus never violated the Fourth Commandment in its Mosaic, seventh day form. He did not change the day during his life and ministry. And we know that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law (cf. Matt. 5:17). And our posture should be that God’s law is still applicable to us today unless the New Testament shows us a change in its application. So why is it that—with the exception of a few different traditions—Christians now worship the Lord on Sundays, the first day of the week, and not on Saturdays, the seventh day of the week?
For many Christians, it probably just a matter of tradition and convenience and status quo—if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Right? What I would like to show you is that there are actual theological and biblical reasons for this shift as well. And it’s my opinion that these reasons should increase our appreciation for a Sunday sabbath and increase our worship of the Lord. So let’s take a look at those reasons.
The first indication we have of a switch in Sabbath observance from the seventh day to the first day of the week is seen in the early New Testament church. In Act 20:7, Luke tells us that:
On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.
The disciples were gathered on the first day of the week, and presumably Paul was preaching a sermon as they broke bread together. The Jews had been worshiping God for centuries on the seventh day of the week, but here in Acts the Jewish Christians explicitly met for a worship service on the first day of the week. In 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 we see something similar. Paul says:
Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.
He instructed the Corinthians here in the same way that he instructed the church of Galatia, and he told them that it would be fitting to collect the offering on the first day of the week, when the church was gathered together to worship. But what is so important about the first day of the week and why did Luke and Paul feel it necessary to mention that day in particular?
The Gospel of Mark tells us that the first day of the week was the day that Jesus rose for the dead. Mark 16:9 says, “Now when he rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.”
The first day of the week is significant because it is the day that Jesus rose from the grave. And not only did he rise from the grave, but in his rising, the entire created order was reborn on that day. This was the day of re-creation! And as one author has said: “...every creation needs a sabbath. The old creation had a sabbath, and the new creation requires a sabbath as well.”
In Revelation 1:10, the Apostle John calls this first day—this resurrection day—the “Lord’s Day.” And so what did Christ do with the Sabbath of the Mosaic Law? B.B. Warfield says it like this. “Christ took the Sabbath into the grave with him and brought the Lord’s Day out of the grave with him on the resurrection morn.”
And in our observance of the Lord’s Day on Sunday, what exactly do we celebrate? We celebrate the day in which God the Father said, “Let there be light,” we celebrate the day in which God the Son rose from the grave, and we celebrate the day in which the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost.
This is what happened on the first day of the week and this is a day we should not take lightly. This is a day of cosmic significance. This is God’s day, and it is a gift to us. So what are Christians to do with a day like this?
If we acknowledge that it is still appropriate for Christians to obey the Fourth Commandment by setting aside a day for rest and worship, and if we agree that it is fitting to observe this day on the first day of the week which is the Lord’s Day, then how should we think about this day and what are God’s purposes for us in it. So last, let us look at God’s purposes for us in the Fourth Commandment.
GOD’S PURPOSES
Purpose #1: God means for this day to be a day of delight for us and not a day of duty. We do not want to be like the Judaizers that Paul warns us about in Colossians 2:16 who enforce Sabbath observance according to the sacrificial and ceremonial order of the Old Covenant. We are not bound to observe the Jewish calendar anymore.
And when we observe the Lord’s Day, we do not want to be superstitious cranks and curmudgeons about it. Rather, we want to recognize the Sabbath as God’s grace to us. The Sabbath is not something we can claim with an aggressive grasp of our hands, it is something we receive with humble hearts.
And though God has made every day, there is a unique sense in which we can say with the Psalmist here that “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24).
Purpose #2: God intends that this day would be viewed as the best day of the week for Christians. Some have even referred to The Lord’s Day as “the queen of all the days.” Listen to how the Puritan Thomas Watson describe this day, and consider how it compares with your opinion of the Sabbath:
“The Sabbath is the market-day of the soul, the cream of time. It is the day of Christ’s rising from the grave, and the Holy Ghost’s descending upon the earth. It is perfumed with the sweet odour of prayer, which goes up to heaven as incense. On this day the manna falls, that is angels’ food. This is the soul’s festival day, on which the graces act their part: the other days of the week are most employed about earth, this day about heaven; then you gather straw, now pearl. Now Christ takes the soul up into the mount and gives it transfiguring sights of glory. Now he leads his spouse into the wine-cellar, and displays the banner of his love…This day a Christian is in the altitudes; he walks with God, and takes as it were a turn with him in heaven. On this day holy affections are quickened; the stock of grace is improved; corruptions are weakened; and Satan falls like lightning before the majesty of the word. How highly should we esteem and reverence this day! It is more precious than rubies. God has anointed it with the oil of gladness above its fellows. On the Sabbath we are doing angels’ work, our tongues are tuned to God’s praises. The Sabbath on earth is a shadow and type of the glorious rest and eternal Sabbath we hope for in heaven, when God shall be the temple, and the Lamb shall be the light of it.”
Do you view the Lord’s Day like that? And if Sunday is the best day of the week for us, like we sometimes say, then how do we keep it that way? I’d like to offer two suggestions for how we can cultivate a high view of the Lord’s Day.
First, we ought to prepare for it. For each family or person here this may look a little bit different. But at the very least we should pray that God would prepare our hearts for Sunday, and we should get good rest the night before so that we can come attentive and eager to hear what God has to say to us in his word.
Beyond that, I don’t want to get too prescriptive in how you prepare, but I know some families who love to share a Sabbath meal on Saturday evenings so that their hearts can be filled with gratitude to God who gives to us richly all things. And in this way, they create rhythms that center around The Lord’s Day. But as you prepare, remember that these are things that we get to do and not things that we are required to do.
Second, we should guard it. Our consumeristic world demands that we never slow down in the rat race of life. Furthermore, sports leagues and other extracurricular activities have a way of absorbing all our time and energy, often without any regard for the Lord’s Day.
And so we ought to make Sabbath rest and worship a priority in our lives. As Kevin Deyoung says: “We may say that ‘Jesus is Lord’ but end up showing that soccer is the real king.” And if it’s not soccer for you, you can fill in the blank. The way that we spend our time and order our weeks communicates to our families and friends of the things we value most. And that is why we must prepare for and be careful to guard the Lord’s Day.
And lastly, Purpose #3: God intends for the Fourth Commandment to remind us to rest in the finished work of Christ. Hebrews 4:9-10 says, “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.”
A Sabbath rest remains for the people of God because Christ entered God’s rest when he rose from the dead and conquered sin and death. And now we who are joined to him rest in him by faith. Victor Hamilton says,
Rest for the follower of Jesus is both a now reality and a not-yet reality…those who have placed themselves under Christ’s yoke have already experienced a most satisfying “rest.” However, there is both possessively and prospectively a “Sabbath-rest for the people of God,” which will become a full reality in the eschaton, when the faithful elect “will rest from their labor” (Rev. 14:13b).
So how do God’s people keep the Sabbath and obey the Fourth Commandment between the now and the not-yet? We gather on the Lord’s Day together like this to rest from our constant striving and to renew our faith and our trust in the Lord and his finished work as we see the day drawing near.
If you have not yet experienced this rest, if you have searched the world over and come up empty, or if you have looked for salvation in all the wrong places, then come to Christ for he longs to give you the rest you need. For he says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”