Session 5 A Slower Pace

Intro

Start with

Exodus 20:8–11 ESV

“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.

20:8 Remember the Sabbath. The hallowing of the seventh day—even the use of a seven-day week—was unique in Israel within the broader ancient Near Eastern world. Calendars and most measurements of time were based on the lunar or the solar cycle; the seven-day week is based on neither. Still, a period of seven days seems to have had special significance.

Several examples can be cited. Gudea, the ruler of the Mesopotamian city of Lagash (end of the third millennium BC), held a seven-day dedicatory festival after completing the temple for his god Ningirsu. In the Gilgamesh Epic, Utnapishtim (the Noah-like figure in the story) builds his ark in seven days and experiences six straight days of rain, but then it ceases on the seventh. The Ugaritic Baal Cycle describes a six-day cleansing by fire of Baal’s palace, which ceases on the seventh. Each of these examples has religious significance. The Israelite practice, as a recognition of God’s rest and therefore his control and rule of the ordered cosmos, has its closest functional parallel in the ancient Near Eastern New Year festivals commemorating and reenacting the enthronement of the deity. Israel’s commemoration takes place weekly rather than annually.

While the law in Exodus also carries religious overtones, it includes a humanitarian component, allowing rest for everyone at all levels of society.

20:8 The Hebrew word used here, shabbath, relates to the Hebrew verb shavath (which may be rendered “to rest” or “to cease”). The verb can also mean “to observe the Sabbath,” so it is debated whether the verb derives from the noun shabbath or vice versa.

Israel’s calendar is lunisolar (the months of the solar year are described as “new moons,” a lunar cycle lasting approximately 30 days); the Sabbath is a parallel feature of the calendar. It appears unique among ancient Near Eastern worldviews. While seven-day units of time appear in other ancient Near Eastern cultures, these are only sporadically correlated with the lunar cycles. There is no astronomical logic to a seven-day cycle running concurrently throughout the year, which demonstrates that the Israelite Sabbath is disconnected from celestial phenomena. The Sabbath might be part of a religious polemic aimed at other gods.

Calendars in Old Testament Times

Sabbath AYBD

Sabbath, Sabbatical Year DOT: P

See and note; 19:14 and note. The holiness of the Sabbath depends on the people remembering and observing it. Since the Sabbath is for the people, it is the people who make it “holy” or “set apart.”

V. 8. The fourth commandment concerns the time of worship; God is to be served and honoured daily; but one day in seven is to be particularly dedicated to his honour, and spent in his service. Remember the sabbath-day, to keep it holy; in it thou shalt do no manner of work—It is taken for granted that the sabbath was instituted before. We read of God’s blessing and sanctifying a seventh day from the beginning, Gen. 2:3 so that this was not the enacting of a new law, but the reviving of an old law. 1st. They are told what is the day, they must observe, a seventh after six days labour, whether this was the seventh by computation from the first seventh, or from the day of their coming out of Egypt, or both, is not certain. A late pious Writer seems to prove, That the sabbath was changed, when Israel came out of Egypt; which change continued till our Lord rose again: But that then the Original Sabbath was restored. And he makes it highly probable, at least, That the sabbath we observe, is the seventh day from the creation, 2dly, How it must be observed; 1. As a day of rest; they were to do no manner of work on this day, in their worldly business. 2. As a holy day, set apart to the honour of the holy God, and to be spent in holy exercises. God, by his blessing it, had made it holy; they, by solemn blessing him, must keep it holy, and not alienate it to any other purpose than that for which the difference between it and other days was instituted. 3dly, Who must observe it? Thou and thy son and thy daughter—The wife is not mentioned, because she is supposed to be one with the husband, and present with him, and if he sanctify the sabbath, it is taken for granted she will join with him; but the rest of the family is instanced in it, children and servants must keep it according to their age and capacity. In this, as in other instances of religion, it is expected that masters of families should take care, not only to serve the Lord themselves, but that their houses also should serve him. Even the proselyted strangers must observe a difference between this day and other days, which, if it laid some restraint upon them then, yet proved a happy indication of God’s gracious design, to bring the Gentiles into the church. By the sanctification of the sabbath, the Jews declared that they worshipped the God that made the world, and so distinguished themselves from all other nations, who worshipped gods which they themselves made. God has given us an example of rest after six days work; he rested the seventh day—Took a complacency in himself, and rejoiced in the work of his hand, to teach us on that day, to take a complacency in him, and to give him the glory of his works. The sabbath begun in the finishing of the work of creation; so will the everlasting sabbath in the finishing of the work of providence and redemption; and we observe the weekly sabbath in expectation of that, as well as in remembrance of the former, in both conforming ourselves to him we worship. He hath himself blessed the sabbath day and sanctified it. He hath put an honour upon it; it is holy to the Lord, and honourable; and he hath put blessings into it which he hath encouraged us to expect from him in the religious observation of that day. Let us not profane, dishonour, and level that with common time, which God’s blessing hath thus dignified and distinguished.

20:10 The actions that are considered prohibited work are not detailed here but some examples are given elsewhere (16:29; 34:21; 35:3; Num 15:32–36; Isa 58:13; Amos 8:5; Neh 13:15–18; Jer 17:21, 24, 27). Exodus 23:12 elaborates on the positive purpose of the Sabbath rest.

20:11 This rationale for the Sabbath rest connects the Sabbath observer to Yahweh. In Deut 5:15, the rationale for keeping the Sabbath is a remembrance of the Israel’s bondage in Egypt.

The command concerning the Sabbath (as such) is not repeated in the NT, and while there are applicable principles (one day in seven for rest and worship), the command was given in a unique sense to the nation of Israel as a sign between the Lord and the sons of Israel (cf. Ex 31:13–17) and thus it is not applicable to the Church in the same way as it was to Israel (cf. Col 2:16–17).

Move to

Exodus 31:12–14 ESV

And the Lord said to Moses, “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. 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.

31:13 The plural here denotes the weekly observance in perpetuity. Its observance is the fourth of the commandments in 20:8–11 (compare 23:12; 31:15–17; 34:21). The principle of the Sabbath is established at creation (see Gen 2:2).

The Sabbath

This connects the Sinai covenant with the Abrahamic covenant, where circumcision is given as a sign (see Gen 12:1–3; 15:1–6; 17:1–14). The Sinai covenant is now at the same level as the Abrahamic; they operate in tandem and are to be honored equally (see Exod 24:3).

In connecting the two covenants, obedience to the law becomes linked to inheriting the promises of the Abrahamic covenant. Obeying these laws and circumcision now define the relationship of Israel to Yahweh. This, in turn, bears on the relationship of Israel’s later apostasy and exile to other elements of biblical theology, such as ot salvation and the interpretation of prophecies by nt writers related to the covenants.

Covenant—meaning an agreement or contract between two or more parties—is a major theological concept in the ot. The term appears over 80 times in the Pentateuch. This covenant is between God and Israel. Different types of covenants in the ot follow ancient Near Eastern conceptual norms. The Sinai covenant involves clear behavioral stipulations. Earlier covenants, such as that made by God with Abraham, also have certain conditional elements (see Gen 17:1–2).

V. 13. It is a sign between me and you—The institution of the sabbath was a great instance of God’s favour, and a sign that he had distinguished them from all other people: and their religious observance of it, was a great instance of their duty to him. God, by sanctifying this day among them, let them know that he sanctified them, and set them apart for his service, otherwise he would not have revealed to them his holy sabbaths to be the support of religion among them. The Jews by observing one day in seven, after six days labour, testified that they worshipped the God that made the world in six days, and rested the seventh; and so distinguished themselves from other nations, who having first lost the sabbath, the memorial of the creation, by degrees lost the knowledge of the creator, and gave the creature the honour due to him alone.

V. 14. It is holy unto you—That is, it is designed for your benefit as well as for God’s honour; it shall be accounted holy by you.

31:14 Refers to treating something holy as though it were common or ordinary.

The proximity of this phrase with the reference to being put to death suggests it may sometimes indicate capital punishment. It generally means shunning or exclusion from the covenant community and its blessings. See note on Num 15:30.

Finish with

Exodus 31:15–17 ESV

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. Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. 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.’ ”

V. 15. It is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord—It is separated from common use, for the service of God; and by the observance of it we are taught to rest from worldly pursuits, and devote ourselves, and all we are, have, and can do, to God’s glory.

V. 16. It was to be observed throughout their generations, in every age, for a perpetual covenant—This was to be one of the most lasting tokens of the covenant between God and Israel.

V. 17. On the seventh day he rested—And as the work of creation is worthy to be thus commemorated, so the great Creator is worthy to be thus imitated, by a holy rest the seventh day.

31:17 Here, the Sabbath serves as a commemoration of Yahweh creating the world in six days and resting on the seventh (Gen 2:2). This both connects the Sabbath observer to Yahweh, and reminds Israel of its status as cocreators with him (Gen 1:27–30). In Deut 5:15, the Sabbath is in remembrance of the bondage in Egypt.