Rest and Refresh

Introduction

One of the most famous lines in all of history comes from Act 3 Scene 1 of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In this scene the character of Hamlet gives a speech contemplating the nature of life and death and it opens with the words “To be or not to be, that is the question,”. While neither the works of William Shakespeare or the words of Hamlet have anything to do with our study in Exodus this morning the truth is that the question that is posed by Hamlet here is similar to the question that many Christians ask when it comes to the topic of the sabbath; “should we or shouldn’t we observe the sabbath as it is prescribed in the pages of Holy Writ.

As with all of scripture, there is certainly some bearing that this teaching has on the church and the people of God today. As we look at church history the strict observance of the sabbath, albeit having shifted to the first day of the week and called the Lord’s Day, it has waxed and waned with the flow. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church contains the following information regarding what is known as sabbatarianism:

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church Sabbatarianism

The beginning of 17th-cent. Sabbatarianism is connected with the publication in 1595 of Nicholas Bound’s True Doctrine of the Sabbath, which advocated its strict enforcement on OT lines. The book caused a lively controversy, which assumed political importance when *

It should only take a quick look around to see that we have certainly moved in a direction in the 20th and 21st centuries where the idea of observing the Lord’s Day has become ridiculous in the minds of not only the world, but even more so the church. As the church has moved to become increasingly more friendly to the world one of the fastest things to be sacrificed on the altar of relevance and compromise is the observance of the Lord’s Day as anything but another day of the week.

While I am not advocating that we are called to observe the Lord’s Day in the same manner in which the Jewish people had come to observe the sabbath by the time that Jesus was born, so that we are measuring our steps or the weight that we carry, it certainly should not be to us just another day of the week, but rather a day that is set aside, that is special, that does require some things of us that set us apart as the people of God.

This morning as we return to the text in Exodus 31 we find, after the naming of Bez-al-el and Oholiab as those who would guide the construction of the tabernacle, the section is concluded with two final thoughts. We will examine one of those this morning in verses 12-17 of chapter 31, turn their in your bibles and

Text

Please stand for the reading of God’s Holy, Inerrant, Infallible, Authoritative, Sufficient and Complete Word:

Exodus 31:12–17 LSB

Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely keep My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am Yahweh who makes you holy. ‘Therefore you shall keep the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. ‘Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to Yahweh; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death. ‘So the sons of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as an everlasting covenant.’ “It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.”

Our prayer this morning is adapted from “The Valley of Vision; The Lord’s Day”

Great and merciful Father, Lord, this is Your day, Your ordinance of rest, the door of worship opened, the remembrance of the resurrection of Christ, the seal of the sabbath to come, and the day when saints unite in endless song. Father, we bless You for the throne of grace, where access to your presence made possible by the blood of Jesus reigns; where the veil is torn and we can enter into the holiest. As we enter we find You ready to hear, filled with grace, inviting us to pour our petitions and our desires out before You, knowing that You are able to give abundantly above all that we ask or need. Lord, even as we exalt You, shame and confusion are ours, we recall our past abuse of sacred things, our irreverent worship, our daily ingratitude, and our cold, dull praise. We are thankful that Christ’s blood has been applied to all of our failings and we pray that our time together this morning sees deep improvement in each of us. Lord, we pray that as we glorify You we are blessed by Your truth in Your word. May our hearts be tightly bound to Your word against the worldly thoughts or cares, that our minds are flooded with Your peace that passes all understanding, that our meditations are sweet in Your sight, that our acts of worship be our very lives filled with all joy, that we drink deeply from the streams that flow from Your throne, that our food be none but Your word, our defense the shield of faith, and our hearts be knit more closely to Jesus, for it is in His precious name that we pray. Amen.

The Hedge and Hem

Matthew Henry rightly remarked regarding the observance of the sabbath for the children of Israel, that:

Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume Exodus 31:12–18

the observance of the sabbath is indeed the hem and hedge of the whole law; where no conscience is made of that, farewell both godliness and honesty; for, in the moral law, it stands in the midst between the two tables.

A hem and a hedge both carry with them the idea of something being encapsulated or enclosed, thus the sabbath stands as something of a pair of bookends enclosing or surrounding the entirety of the giving of the Law by God on Mount Sinai. Before Moses ascended Mount Sinai we see scripture clearly identify the keeping of the sabbath as one of the moral laws of God written on the hearts of men since creation. Recall the words of Genesis 2:1–3 “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. And on the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created in making it.” You should also recall from earlier in Exodus the words we find in Exodus 16:23 “And he said to them, “This is what Yahweh has spoken: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to Yahweh. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is in excess put aside to be kept until morning.”” Then of course in Exodus 20:9-11 it is officially given as the 5th commandment, and considered as you may have noticed in the quote by Henry, the bridge between the two tables of the moral law, that which stands and bridges the gap between our relationship to God and our relationship to one another. Finally, it is also brought into the judicial law in Exodus 23:12.

Even the casual reader of scripture would see that there is something important regarding the observance of this day, but the question does arise as to why we find the verse here, at the close of the issuance of God’s instructions regarding the tabernacle. Again I refer back to one of the words that Matthew Henry used in his description, hem. The purpose of a hem in a garment is not so that your clothes look fashionable, it serves a purpose, the purpose is to keep the garment from unraveling, to protect it from damage. God is reminding His people that in their zeal to build His dwelling place do not neglect His command to honor Him and to rest in Him. As we look at our passage this morning let us look deeper at what this means to us today.

A Sign

Once again, as in previous weeks, our passage opens up with the very specific statement of Moses that “Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,”. As in our previous studies this once again stands as a reminder to us that these are not the commands of Moses or any other human, but the very words of God. We have noted before, but it bears repeating that this continual return to this statement is a method of not just reassurance and authority, but as a way of reminding a people who so quickly forget. I dare say that the reality that so many people in our churches today take the Lord’s Day lightly is an indicator of not only how quickly we forget, but how easily our affections are drawn away from God toward the things of this world. We need this reminder, daily, that the Bible is the very word of the Eternal, Holy God.

God then says to Moses that he speak to the sons of Israel and remind them regarding the sabbath and identifies it as a “sign between Me and you...”. The word translated sign is the common word we see in scripture for sign. It can literally mean anything from something like a street sign, a standard, to the other end of the spectrum where we see it used in verses such as Genesis 9:12–13 “Then God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am giving to be between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I put My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth.” Genesis 9:17 “And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.””

A sign then is a physical thing that points to a spiritual reality, here, it stands as a reminder to the sons of Israel of their deliverance and dependence upon God. It keeps them grounded and focused on Him. The fact that they were called to take one in seven to simply reflect on the Creator is truly at the heart of the Sabbath. Notice the purpose that God identifies in verse 13, “that you may know that I am Yahweh who makes you holy.” In Isaiah 56:2 we read ““How blessed is the man who does this, And the son of man who takes hold of it, Who keeps from profaning the sabbath, And keeps his hand from doing any evil.”” By it’s very nature this command was to serve as a reminder to God’s people and one that would stand for all their generations, a perpetual statute and everlasting covenant.

Along with being a sign and serving this function through all generations we also note something interesting about the description of the Sabbath contained within these verses. It is not uncommon to see the word holy found in scripture, but typically when we do it denotes something being set apart by God for God or the way in which He is certainly set apart from us, the difference between His being Creator and our being creature. We also see in this passage that the Sabbath is Holy to the Lord, that it is set apart from profane or common use and is used instead to honor and glorify God. But in verse 14 we see something else. Notice the first clause “Therefore, you shall keep the sabbath, for it is holy to you.” Firstly, since the clause and verse begins with a conclusive conjunctive, a word that links two ideas and identifies one as being the result of the other, we need to understand why it is there, what generates this conclusion, to which our attention should be drawn upward, both figuratively and literally. Figuratively in that as we are reminded these are the words of God we look to Him, but literally in the sense of we look to how the preceding verse concluded, or to what it contained.

The prior verse gave us the understanding that this was to stand as a sign or reminder to the people that Yahweh was the one who made them holy and since they are now holy, they must keep the sabbath...but there is more. There is an explanation as to why they are to keep the sabbath and that explanation is “for” a word that identifies a purpose, “it” the sabbath, “is holy” again, set apart, “to you”. So, not only does the text identify the sabbath as holy to God but it also identifies it as holy to you, you here being the sons of Israel.

In the gospel of Mark we read these words: Mark 2:27-28

Mark 2:27–28 LSB

And Jesus was saying to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. “Consequently the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

We often speak about all things being for God’s glory and our good, here is an example of that. The sabbath, this one in seven being set aside by God for God was also done by God for His people. It is almost as if the Creator was aware of the needs of His creation...

The Seriousness

One final note in general on the passage before we take a deeper look. In the previous passages in Exodus that deal directly with the Sabbath there is no specific punishment identified for failure to observe these commands. We can certainly infer what the punishment would be, but here in this passage God takes away all guesswork, note verses 14 and 15:Exodus 31:14-15

Exodus 31:14–15 LSB

‘Therefore you shall keep the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. ‘Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to Yahweh; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death.

Later in Numbers the people are reminded of this truth: Numbers 15:32-36

Numbers 15:32–36 LSB

Now the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, and they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day. And those who found him gathering wood brought him near to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation; and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done to him. Then Yahweh said to Moses, “The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

To profane something is to take that which God has set aside for His purposes and use it for ordinary means.

Rest and Refresh

Before we proceed, I want to draw our attention back for a moment to where we began this morning, what does this mean for the people of God today? Are we commanded to a strict observance of the Sabbath? What is the difference between the Lord’s Day and the Sabbath?

The first thing that we need to remind ourselves of is that as in all things that are in scripture there is something here for us today. Anytime we are studying the word of God there is some truth, some understanding that can be gleaned from the text, regardless of whether that particular text is prescriptive or descriptive, or whether it is describing something or commanding something. In the case of a passage where there is a clear command, such as our text for today, we need to understand to whom the commands were originally written and the underlying purpose behind the command.

As we look at this passage we see, very clearly, that the commands were given to the sons of Israel, but as we have discussed in the past, when we are dealing with the moral law of God we are dealing with truths that transcend just a place in time for a specific people. There are, in fact specific truths here that apply only to the nation of Israel, namely the punishment involved with the deliberate violation of God’s law.

Underlying this specific command to a specific people is a purpose that surpasses the constraints of a specific nation and instead focuses in on the truth of the true Israel, the church, the bride of Christ. We find that purpose reiterated and expanded for us in verse 17, Exodus 31:17 ““It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.””

There are two adjectives here at the completion of this verse, rested and refreshed, let us take them in the order in which we encounter them in scripture.

Rested

Firstly, we need to understand that both of these terms are anthropomorphic terms, meaning that these are terms being used to describe an action of God in a human manner. It is not that God needed either of these things, but that He modeled them for us and described them in a way that we could actually apply to our lives. As we have talked about at multiple points of our work through Exodus we are often dealing with types and shadows and the sabbath rest is no different, it is a type that points forward to a great truth regarding believers.

As we look at the term rest, we must take care not to simply apply our idea of rest and move on, rest here, is not the absence of activity in the sense that we are to just lay around all day and do nothing, that takes us back to the pharisaical view of rest and pretty soon we will become legalistic in our observance focusing more on our actions that on God. Rest here carries with it the idea of simply abiding in Christ. Ultimately the sabbath is a type that points forward, ultimately to the true rest that is described for us in the final chapters of Revelation, but we are dealing with concept that although will not be completely fulfilled until New Jerusalem, has an impact on our lives here today.

As we look at the world, one of the things that we should note is the restlessness that is easily observable, the constant craving for satisfaction and contentment. Isaiah 57:20–21 states “But the wicked are like the tossing sea, For it cannot be quiet, And its waters toss up refuse and mud. “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”” The reason that the world is restless is because they do not know God and notice, the lack of rest is directly tied to the lack of peace, both of which find their foundation in knowing Christ. Jesus, spoke the woman at the well in John 4:13 “Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;” This statement of Christ has everything to do with resting in Him, finding contentment in Him, knowing peace in Him. AW Pink writes:

Gleanings in Exodus Chapter 58: The Sabbath and Israel

It is not until the Spirit of God has shown us that all under the sun is but “vanity and vexation of spirit,” has convicted us of our sinful and lost condition, has shown us our desperate need of the Savior, and drawn us to Him, that we hear the Lord Jesus saying, “Come unto Me, all ye, that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Then it becomes true that, “we which have believed do enter into rest” (

But what has this got to do with a modern observance of the Lord’s Day, everything. Certainly we are called to daily partake of the Word of God, to live out its instruction in our daily lives, to apply it to our every situation, but the Lord’s day, is a day set aside to drink deeply from the well, to step away and focus solely on Him. to be reminded of His providence, His provision, His faithfulness, His holiness, His majesty, His Glory...

To be reminded that the work of Christ has secured us eternal rest in the arms of the almighty. As the saints gather on the Lord’s day it is a dim reflection of what that future day will be, regarding that day, Zephaniah 3:17 says ““Yahweh your God is in your midst, A mighty one who will save. He will be joyful over you with gladness; He will be quiet in His love; He will rejoice over you with joyful singing.”

Refreshed

As I mentioned earlier there is a second adjective here, one that we have translated for us often in English as refreshed. It is an unusual word, one found only three times in the Old Testament. This is the only time of those three where it is speaking of God. The root of this word is a word that deals with life or soul or breath and the translation could be rendered “He took a breath”. What is being depicted for us the is the result of the rest, a restoration. Again, it is not that God needed a restoration, but it is being portrayed here so that we see the result of taking rest.

As we entered into our discussion regarding the tabernacle one of the things that we spoke of was the culmination of God’s purpose in drawing the people out of the land of Egypt, so that He may dwell with them. Here, at the completion of the tabernacle, God reminds His people of another day of completion, the seventh day of creation, the sabbath. CA Coates quoted by AW Pink wrote:

Gleanings in Exodus Chapter 58: The Sabbath and Israel

He was making a material universe, and this in itself could not afford Him refreshment. But He was making it so that it might be the scene for the introduction of ‘the holy order of the tabernacle,’ which represented the vast scene in which God’s glory is displayed in Christ, and in view of the introduction of this He was ‘refreshed’! The Sabbath speaks of things being brought to completion, so that there is no more work to be done; all is finished, and there is holy rest for God and His people

This brings me back to the questions that I asked. Firstly what does this mean for us, it means that as we observe the Lord’s Day, resting in the finished work of Christ, abiding in the presence of the almighty, we will find that we are refreshed, restored and prepared to face another week in the trenches of life.

Does this mean that we are held to a strict observance of the Sabbath? Yes and no. We gather on the Lord’s Day, the sabbath was the last day of the week, the Lord’s Day is the first. We do not stone people if they miss church on Sunday. That being said, there should be a desire for the people of God to gather and worship and glorify Him. It is not a punishment, it is a blessing to be in the presence of each other. John Currid closes out his commentary on this section of scripture with this:

A Study Commentary on Exodus: Volume 2: Exodus 19–40 Application

The problem, of course, is that keeping the Sabbath is often painful, difficult, or inconvenient. We all know the story of the Olympic runner Eric Liddell, and how his stand for the Sabbath almost cost him the chance of a gold medal. But he was willing to pay the price. I have an acquaintance who was an All-American soccer (or, as the British would say, football) player in college, and he was selected to play for a major professional soccer team. Although he underwent great ridicule by the media, he refused to sign with the club unless there was a provision for him not to play on Sunday. The team signed him to a contract. Are we willing to do the same—to put all on the line to keep the commandments of God?

Conclusion

As we bring our study of Exodus 31:12–17 to a close, we are reminded that the Sabbath was not given as a burden but as a blessing, not as a chain but as a gift. It was, and remains, a sign that points beyond itself to the greater reality of God’s covenant love for His people. The Sabbath was established at creation, enshrined in the law, and emphasized in the building of the tabernacle because it was meant to hem in the life of God’s people, keeping them from unraveling into self-reliance and forgetfulness. It was God’s way of saying, “Rest in Me, for I am your holiness, your Creator, and your Redeemer.”

For Israel, this command came with weighty consequences, underscoring how seriously God views His people’s devotion. But for us who are in Christ, the Sabbath finds its fulfillment in the Lord’s Day—a day where we step aside from worldly pursuits to rest in the finished work of Jesus. Here, our true rest is not idleness but abiding in Him. Here, our refreshment is not mere physical relief but spiritual restoration. Each Lord’s Day becomes a foretaste of the eternal rest promised to all who are united to Christ by faith.

Yet how often we treat this day as common, as though it is just another space on the calendar to be filled with errands, entertainment, or even outright neglect of worship. But God has given us this day as a gift of grace, to remind us of His holiness, His faithfulness, and His promise of eternal refreshment in His presence.

The Lord’s Day is not a punishment; it is a privilege. It is not a duty that drains but a delight that restores. To neglect it is to cheat ourselves of the blessing God intended. To honor it is to proclaim that Christ is our rest and our joy, both now and forever.

So the question before us is this: will we continue to treat the Lord’s Day as ordinary, or will we set it apart as holy, gladly receiving the rest and refreshment God Himself has provided in Christ?

Closing Prayer

Our gracious and merciful Father, we thank You for the gift of rest, the sign of Your covenant, and the reminder that You alone make us holy. We confess that too often we treat what is sacred as common, forgetting the great privilege You have given us in setting aside a day for worship, fellowship, and renewal. Forgive us, Lord, for the times we have neglected Your day, for the times our hearts have been distracted, and for when our affections have been pulled toward the fleeting cares of this world.

We praise You that in Christ we have entered into a greater rest, one not bound to shadows and ceremonies, but rooted in His finished work at the cross and guaranteed by His resurrection. We thank You that in Him we are not crushed by the weight of law but refreshed by the freedom of grace.

Father, help us to delight in the Lord’s Day, not as a burden but as a blessing. Bind our hearts to Christ so that when we gather with Your people, our joy is multiplied, our faith is strengthened, and our hope in the eternal rest to come is renewed. Teach us to abide in Your Son daily, but especially on this day You have consecrated for our good and for Your glory.

In the name of Jesus, our true Sabbath rest, we pray. Amen.