Worship and Rest: The Sabbath and Israel

Worship and Rest: The Sabbath

Worship and Rest: The Sabbath and Israel

The beginning chapters of Genesis are absolutely vital to our understanding of the Sabbath in general, and as it applies to the nation of Israel in specific, which then informs our understanding of the Sabbath for the Church today.

6 November 2019 Bobby Howell

Introduction

Last week we began a series through our Statement of Faith and Doctrine on the Sabbath.

Our Statement of Faith records, “We believe the first day of the week is the Lord’s Day. It is a Christian institution or regular observance. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should be employed in exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private. Our lives should reflect the hallowedness of this day.”[1]

This “Christian institution or regular observance” is founded in the Creation and then explained and built upon in the nation of Israel. We learned last week how God set apart the seventh day to be holy (). We even briefly glanced at how this played out prior to the giving of the Law in with the manna in .

This morning, however, we begin a detailed look at the Sabbath. It’s like a spontaneous thought of a vacation. We push out idea after idea, thinking of places we want to go, restaurants we want to try, etc. We have an entire trip planned before anything has been written down. This is how we typically start planning for a vacation, but reality hits in. The questions of, How are we going to pay for this? Where is our destination? Is this vacation geared for rest or activity?

This initial planning phase is sort of like the early views of the Sabbath. It is basic, to the point, and extremely practical. Work for six days, and rest on the seventh. That’s it. And while God’s Word and plan are not idealistic in the same sense our vacation planning is, there are some details that are ironed out through the nation of Israel. The ideas of Sabbath are formalized into the details of the Mosaic Law. This is where the vacation plan takes on the specifics.

I. Covenants and the Sabbath

Before we dive into the Mosaic covenant, we want to consider how God’s covenant with Abraham helps us understand God’s covenant with the nation of Israel.

In God promises to bless the nations of the earth through the Promised Seed of Abraham. Abraham was separated from all other people and chosen to be the one through whom the Seed of the woman () would come.

Now, moving on over a thousand years later, we come to Mount Sinai where God gives Moses the Law and builds upon the covenant with Abraham. Sam Renihan, a pastor theologian, describes the situation, “The promises of the Mosaic Covenant, therefore, are simply the enjoyment of what had already been declared to Abraham.”[2] As the children of Israel obey God’s Commands, they are blessed (see ). This is essential to understand the Mosaic Covenant in general and the teachings of the Sabbath in particular. The Covenants are, in a way, like a sketch pad of ideas for the vacation.

II. The Ten Commandments and the Sabbath-

The Ten Commandments are “the cornerstone document of Jewish and Western morality,” as Rabbi Joseph Telushkin puts it.[3] These are the moral Law to which the Gentiles will be held accountable (). However, these Ten Commandments would be the entire Law, which Jesus summarizes into two commandments (see ).

However, our focus is not on the Ten Commandments specifically, but on the 4th Commandment.

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A. The Fourth Commandment Considered-

God commands Israel to remember. The word remember is interesting. It implies more than simply recalling something, like remembering meeting someone at Lowes a few weeks before. It is something that moves us to action, like remembering your anniversary, or a close friend’s birthday. You immediately do something. That is the same idea here. Rather than doing something, you really do not do anything. The first part of the commandment is to keep it holy. This is the purpose of the Sabbath, is to keep it holy, set apart, consecrated. Just as God set the seventh day apart for worship and rest, so we too should follow His example. As we notice in 20:11, it is the creation example that sets the tone for Sabbath observance. We are to remember to keep it holy. We set apart one day in six in order to worship. Consider the context. The first two commandments teach us who to worship. The second and third commandments teach us how to worship. And this commandment teaches us when to worship. We are to remember that we are to worship, but we are also to rest. We are to cease (which is what the word rest means) from our work. And God makes sure Moses, Israel, and we today exactly who is to rest: everyone.

B. The Fourth Commandment and Growth-

I want to read a quote from a book on worship. The two authors also include a treatment of Sabbath. They write, “God’s intention was to bless his people through the constant and conscientious observation of the day, 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 imperceptivity 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 (WSC 88), part of the steady and healthy diet of the means of grace.”[4] The weekly observance of the Sabbath would have enhanced family relationships, increased knowledge and worship of God, and provided a weekly avenue of growth for the entire nation of Israel.

III. The Nation of Israel and the Sabbath- Select Scriptures

For the remainder of our time, I want to just look through some passages of Scripture concerning the nation of Israel and the Sabbath.

'Therefore you are to observe 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 may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.

"You shall not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the sabbath day."

'For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to the LORD in all your dwellings.

- God takes the Sabbath seriously

- The Sabbath flies in the face of worldly thinking

Application

While there is much more in the Old Testament regarding the Sabbath (appears 78 times in 61 verses), we have covered the main thoughts found as it relates to the nation of Israel. We saw the establishment of the Sabbath at creation and noted some of the conclusions for us today.

Now we have examined the Sabbath as the nation of Israel was instructed to keep it. We learned that it was vital for Israel to guard the Sabbath, to continue to set it apart from every other day of the week. They were to engage in worship and in rest.

How can we apply this today?

1. Our lives should reflect the holiness of the day.

Just was our Creator God made everything in six days and then rested, we mirror our Creator. The inclusion of this command in the Decalogue is not a mistake. God intended for His children, both before the nation of Israel was established, while the nation was in existence, and after the revealing of the Church. It is a day dedicated wholly to God. It reflects the character of our holy God. As we are reminded in to be holy like God.

2. Our lives should reflect a seriousness in worship.

3. Our lives should be structured around worship.

[1] Orcutt Baptist Church, Statement of Faith and Doctrine (Newport News, VA: Orcutt Baptist Church, 2017), 2.

[2] Samuel Renihan, The Mystery of Christ: His Covenant and His Kingdom (Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2019), 107.

[3] Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People, and Its History (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2001), 40.

[4] D. G. Hart and John R. Muether, With Reverence and Awe: Returning to the Basics of Reformed Worship (Philipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishers, 2002), 65.