The Creational Pattern of the Sabbath

Intro

Sometimes the best way to teach someone to do something is to show them by your example. You learn to bake a cake by watching mom. She says, first take flour and you sift it like this, and then you do this and this and this. So, to begin, the daughter is just watching her mother bake, and then Mom says, OK, now you try.

With this kind of teaching, it’s not so much the conveying of information, it’s more about formation. It’s not so much taught as it is caught. In the same way, God teaches us through His own actions. As Christians, we are called to imitate Christ, the perfect man. But before Christ came, and became a man to save us from the awful plight of sin and death, God had called the first man to imitate him by creating him in His likeness and image. God set a pattern in creation for Adam, and all his posterity, to follow. It was a pattern of work and rest, a pattern of rule and care. As we consider the importance of the Lord's Day over the course of the next few weeks, it is important to begin where scripture does, right back in creation and ask, “why did God rest from his work?”

As a testimony that His work was complete; as an example for us to imitate; and as a reminder of the Eschatological rest.

Genesis 2:1–3 (ESV) — 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 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. 3 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.

As a testimony that His work of creation was complete.

For the six days prior, the Lord worked to create the world, and all it contains. He formed it, then he filled it, and as he sat back each day, he saw it was good. There is an obvious progression to the days, which build to a denouement—that rest of the seventh day. Whereas every other day ended with good, the seventh day is holy. What does it mean that the Lord blessed the seventh day and made it holy?

First, the sanctification of the seventh day as holy is a recognition that his work in creation is complete. Rest is the response the Lord makes when he completes His work. Not because he is tired, or in any way needs rest as we may at the completion of some arduous task. Rather, rest is delight and admiration for completed work. And that is the first thing we notice about the Sabbath, it signifies completion.

Exodus 20:8–11 (ESV) — 8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 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. 11 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.

It is significant that the fourth commandment begins with remember. That has two functions. First, it points back to its establishment in creation. And second, you need to be reminded to remember things you are prone to forget.

The Sabbath is a Creation Ordinance.

Much of the debate regarding the Sabbath has to do with the question of its continued significance in the new covenant. Is it, as some Christians think, a part of the ceremonial aspects of the law that have been fulfilled in Christ? Or not.

The answer is more complicated than no. The confession is helpful in its teaching regarding the law. Adam, in creation, had the law of God written on his heart, which law was later delivered to the nation of Israel in the ten commandments. But Israel was also given various ceremonial laws, which prefigured Christ. These differ from the moral law, the ten commandments. These ceremonial laws were a tutor, helping the church in her infancy to reach Christ. Through types and shadows, Christ was held out to the people of God, which they were to receive by faith.

But the Sabbath was first given in creation, as something that God himself did when he rested from his labors in creation. After stating the command as a prohibition against work by any, even your animals, he grounds the command in God's action in creation. "For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day." Creation ordinances, the Sabbath rest, marriage, and work, are all normative patterns that the Lord set down in creation for all men everywhere to follow.

This does not mean that there are not aspects of the Sabbath that were added in the Mosaic covenant which are ceremonial, designed to lead Israel to Christ, there were. We'll look closer at these in a couple of weeks, when we consider the change of day from the seventh as a result of Christ's resurrection from the dead.

But the command to remember is also given because we are so prone to forget. We need to remember to rest from our labor, not only because God did from His, but to remember that God completed his creative works. So, part of what it means to enter into his rest, to set apart the sabbath as holy, is to delight and admire his works. For example take the Psalmist in Psalm 111.

Psalm 111:1–10 (ESV) — 1 Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. 2 Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. 3 Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. 4 He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and merciful. 5 He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever. 6 He has shown his people the power of his works, in giving them the inheritance of the nations. 7 The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy; 8 they are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness. 9 He sent redemption to his people; he has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name! 10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!

A day of rest from our vocations enables us to come in worship to be reminded of God's work in creation and redemption. We'll consider the redemptive pattern of the sabbath next week. But our worship should also contain a studied meditation on God's works of creation. "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. "

So, why did the Lord rest on the Sabbath because he had completed the work of Creation. But notice also, as we have already briefly seen, that the Lord's rest was a pattern for us to follow.

As a pattern for us to follow.

Since the Sabbath is grounded in creation, and not merely a ceremonial law fulfilled in Christ, it has a binding character with ongoing significance for the Christian life. For in it, the Lord set a pattern of work and rest. For six days he labored in his creative work, and then he rested on the seventh day.

But consider that the Lord made man on day six in His image and likeness and gave him dominion over every realm within creation. Image-bearing implies a duty to be like the one we were made to resemble, including doing the things he does. Adam's first full day in the world was the sabbath. So that before he even does any work, he rests, learning as we have noted, to rejoice in the works of God. Then Adam must begin the task of ruling over and subduing God's creation, mimicking God by forming and filling, ruling and subduing, punctuated weekly by rest.

So this pattern must punctuate our own lives. Six days of work and then rest. Rest means not idleness, but a cessation of our vocational weekly work. The command to cease from work extends to everyone. This is not just something for those who are well-to-do, for a leisure class, if there was such a thing. The Lord's merciful provision of rest even extends to animals, and to sojourners who lived in Israel. You heads of house need to ensure that rest extends to everyone under your charge and as far as you are able you should seek to extend that to all, even those who are not Christian and have no such conviction to rest one day a week.

For my family and I, that means that we try not to frequent restaurants or stores on the Lord's Day. That way, we can provide others with the opportunity to rest on the Lord's day. If you are an employer, than you should not be employing people to work while you rest on the Lord's day. And if you find yourself enslaved to an employer who requires you to work on the Lord's day then you should seek to find other employment that will allow you to rest on the Lord's day. The Lord ceased from his work and rested on the Sabbath as an example for you to imitate.

Which also presupposes that for six other days, you have worked. We not only rail against imitating God by refusing to rest but also by refusing to work. Not satisfied with one day of rest, we want two, or three, or four, or the entire week to rest. But rest is meaningless without work. Especially now that our work is tainted by the curse of sin. Work now in this age is toilsome, and its value is not always apparent when for instance we cultivate the ground and it produces not fruit but weeds. Part of work now is spent in futility, so that although it is necessary it is also burdensome. But since the Lord has regard for us, he gives you a day for rest as a reminder that one day work and rest will be redeemed.

Why did God rest on the Sabbath? As a testimony that his work of creation was complete, and as an example for you to follow, pointing you forward to promised rest of the life that is to come.

As a reminder of eschatological rest.

The Sabbath is a creation ordinance, and its pattern is binding on all for all time. And the Sabbath, as an ordinance, anticipated and signified an eschatological rest that awaits us in the life that is to come. So in the weeks ahead we will consider much more of the redemptive pattern of the Sabbath and its continued validity in the Christian life, including the Sabbath as reminder of Eschatological rest, and we see that right here in Gen. 2.

Theologians often call Genesis 3:16 the proto-gospel, since it is the first promise of salvation from sin. But I think the first gospel is found even earlier than that in creation of the Sabbath. It may not have been readily apparent to man on that first Sabbath, but as redemptive history unfolds it would become increasingly clear that the Sabbath is what the whole of creation is eagerly groaning for.

Which is precisely the case the author of Hebrews is trying to make in Hebrews 3-4 when looking at Joshua and Israel and concluding that Joshua did not give Israel complete and final rest, therefore there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God. Which Christ does give us, spiritually now, but one day physically too, in the life that is to come. We will consider that in much greater detail in the weeks ahead. But for I now I just want you to notice that the Sabbath is a proto-type of our rest in glory. So that when we rest from our work on the Lord's day we look forward with eager anticipation to that rest we will enter into when we are with Christ in glory.

Proto-types are by nature provisional. But they offer Hope, by giving us a foretaste of what is to come. Just as marriage was always meant to point to the mystical union that Christ has with his church, so also does the rest of the sabbath point us forward to the eternal rest of the life to come. So when we rest from our work, we get a small glimpse of the joy of rest which sustains us while we wait. That sabbath rest hope moves us forward slowly, week by week.

“God’s intention was to bless his people through the constant and conscientious observation of the [Sabbath], week after week and year after year. Believers are sanctified through a lifetime of Sabbath observance. In other words, the Sabbath is designed to work slowly, quietly, seemingly imperceptively in reorienting believers’ appetites heavenward. It is not a quick fix, nor is it necessarily a spiritual high. It is an ‘outward and ordinary’ ordinance, part of the steady and healthy diet of the means of grace.”

It's those quick-fix solutions that lead us to work 24/7 to accomplish our goals and neglect the Sabbath. If Chick-fil-A has taught us something, it is that a modern company can still do very well financially and still honor the Lord, including being closed on Sunday. The Lord set the pattern for the Sabbath rest down in creation, as a testimony that his work in creation was complete, as an example for us to follow, and as a reminder that there is a rest that is still to come. Amen.

Charge

Next week, we are going to consider the redemptive pattern of the Sabbath, in the different reason given for its remembrance in Deuteronomy than in Exodus. It's that redemptive pattern that prepares us for Christ, helping us to see and savor the Sabbath as the Lord's day. Just as the Lord rested from His works, so must you set aside one day in seven to rest from your worldly labors.