The Command to Rest

Philosophy of sermons at the beginning

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Revelation & Response

Which of the 10 commandments would you throw away?

I mean, if you were able to do it...

What would you throw away? Let’s go through them

You shall have no other God’s before me

Don’t make idols

You shall not take the Lord’s name in vain

Remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy

Honor your father and mother

You shall not murder

Do not commit adultery

Don’t steal

Don’t bear false witness

And do not covet

Well obviously the question is a loaded question…

As people who proclaim that we believe in what scripture says then the 10 commandments are important right?

We can’t just say that that one of these doesn't matter because.... They all matter!

But if we decide to ignore just one of these, do any of them matter?

So why has keeping the sabbath fallen out of favor with so many christians?

The unspoken rule is that Its sort of the commandment that we don’t have to keep in the church…Why?

I don’t know…Because there has been a debate on it?

Because we are really busy?

Because…because…because

When we realize the Sabbath is one of the Commandments…its like…WOW…This isn't just a suggestion…There is something in this day that is so important!

And for those of you who can take a sabbath on Sunday…Do it…Just refuse to work and honor God’s day

For those of you who cant…Take your sabbath on Friday or Saturday…But don’t neglect the power of taking a day and dedicating it to God.

So, How did we get to the place where a commandment was necessary?

I mean…God rested on the 7th day of creation

people should have just rested right?

but it is not till Exodus 20 that God commands Israel to rest.

Last week we talked about there being two different kinds of work...

There is this sabbath work rest.... Rest that is easy, that is abundant…A work that is work with God and we rest with God...

And then there is work that is characterized by the curse. Work that is hard…it is like this endless toil...

and after the garden we see man leave and eventually work his way toward Babel...

Babel is the place where we first see slave labor in the Bible..

And then the rest of Genesis is about this man named Abraham and his family…His family becomes the 12 tribes of Israel and Abraham’s family eventually goes to Egypt and they all become slaves.

Work, for the people who were supposed to be living in Eden, becomes slavery in Egypt. Egypt is the eventual end result of the curse

So we don’t see really any “Law” or “commands in the Bible until Israel is coming out of Egypt

And Egypt by the way, was a far cry from Eden

So the book of Exodus tells the story of the Exit of Israel from Egypt. God leading his people out of slavery, which is hard work!

So the question becomes…How does God form a whole nation into his image...

A nation that was held captive by Egypt

A nation that for 400 years was discipled into the way of Empire...

How do these become God’s people?

And the answer is The law

God gives them a new set of rules

And what I want you to see is that this is not a set of rules that is meant to harm people..

We often time think of the “rules” we think of it as something harsh or to keep us down.

The “rules” are not fun

And when the rules are harsh, that is true. When we don’t respect the person making the rules then we want to rebel against them.

But look at the way the 10 commandments start

English Standard Version Chapter 20

20 And God spoke all these words, saying,

2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

See these are rules that are given out of love

I am the God that brought you out of slavery.

I am the God that wanted something better for you!

I am the God who loved you so much that I rescued you!

These are rules that are given out of love, not rules that are given out of a sense of needing control

We all have those people in our lives that when they give rules we just don’t listen to them at all…Why? They are controlling, they don’t love us, they just want power...

Their rules are for manipulation!

But we also have that person in our live that we love and respect and when they say…Hey here are the rules…you follow them! Why? You know they have your best interest at heart and not theirs

So these 10 commandments are given from a God who loves us…who wants the best for you and who rescues his people from slavery.

Exodus 20:8-11

English Standard Version Chapter 20

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.

So this is the 4th Commandment:

Before this there was no other command to rest

This command is for the whole household too, its like…just in case you get some idea about delegating your work to others…don’t do it…Literally you are to remember creation…Why?

Because Creation set about the pattern for worship for the Jewish people and it should for us too.

There is this Old Jewish Story that riffs off of this commandment.

It goes like this:

In the beginning, time was one: There was unity in time. And so time was divided into 7 days…With every single day a new realm of life came into existence except for one day, the Sabbath.

The Rabbis said this: This can be compared to a king who has 7 sons. To six of them he gave his wealth, and the youngest he endowed with his nobility…The six older sons who were commoners all found their mates, but the 7th remained without a mate.

After the work of creation was completed the seventh day pleaded: “Master of the universe, all that thou hast created is in couples; to every day of the week thou gave a mate; only I was left alone”

And God answered: The community of Israel shall be your mate

So this little allegory was a story that was told to Israel for thousands of years…and what it really is riffing off of is verse 8

Remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy:

When it says to Keep it Holy it is this word Qadash (KA-DESH) in Hebrew...

It is the same word used when a Bride sets herself apart and is concentrated for her wedding day

So this is how sacred the people of Israel see the Sabbath,

It is a moment in time to renew vows with God.

It is a time every day in your week where you remember that God has always seen his relationship with us as marriage relationship.

The Sabbath is like a weekly anniversary dinner.

Its one of the reasons why God commands that we remember the sabbath

So for thousands of years on sundown on Friday night, Jews would welcome their bride the Sabbath!

Obviously…Do you see how this pays off in the New Testament? Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath is the groom and the bride of Christ is the church.

This marriage metaphor is all over scripture and it includes the sabbath!

An Eden People

God’s command to keep the sabbath Holy is also a reminder to the Israelite that they are a people of Eden. They are not a people of Egypt.

I feel like we need this reminder too. You have always been intended to be an Eden people. But at times we act like Egypt people

There are two places in the Bible where God has his people remember the 10 commandments

Here in Exodus 20 and in Deuteronomy 5

Well here in Exodus 20:11 God says

English Standard Version Chapter 20

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.

This is a reminder of the creation narrative for the people of God.

It is a reminder that resting with God and setting this weekly rhythm is a way to return to Eden.

See when God took his people out of Egypt, he had to re-form their minds and their identity

They had become children of Egypt...

Learning Egyptian ways and customs

So what we have to see is that the 10 commandments is the way that these children of Egypt become children of Eden again...

And this is so key

In the Hebrew when God’s people are given the promise land, the language that is used is, God “Planted” his people in the land of Canaan.

See the idea has always been that God’s people are an Eden people, and not an Egypt people

The idea is that these Eden people, practiced a different kind of life style…

Eden people still work hard but the rest and worship.

And these Sabbath people would be planted in the land of Canaan and they would form a new Eden…They would be images of God in his garden again...

The idea is that a regular Sabbath reshapes your rest and your work

A regular sabbath reminds you that you do not belong to the other kingdoms and empires of this world but that you belong to the kingdom of God.

A regular sabbath transforms you into an Eden person all over again!

So in the first place where the 10 commandments are found, the Sabbath is to remind you that you are an Eden People and not and Egypt People

And that is an important reminder today. You are an Eden people

But this word wants to shape you into the mold of Egypt.

Where beauty is more important than integrity

It is through intentionally setting aside a day where you remember your covenant relationship with God that you become shaped back into a person of Eden

So, let’s go over to the other spot where the 10 commandments are, Deuteronomy 5

Deuteronomy 5:12-15

English Standard Version Chapter 5

12 “ ‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 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 or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 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.

Now in all the 10 commandments, The sabbath is the only one where there is a major difference between the Exodus accounts and Deuteronomy accounts.

Now In Exodus there is a reminder that we are an Eden people…The Sabbath is a reminder of the garden and creation.... and in Deuteronomy the reason why Israel rests is because they were liberated from slavery! They are no longer slaves! God rescued them!

The whole point of resting is now two fold.

To rest and remember that we are an Eden People in a marriage relationship with the living God

The Sabbath kills the taskmaster

Egypt had taskmasters…People with whips that relentlessly worked the Israelites into the ground…

They kept pushing the Israelites till they died!

If you remember back, Moses actually in his younger days killed a task master…But that didn't result in freedom…Only more bondage!

The point of all of it is that we can not have freedom from the taskmaster inside us through using worldly means

God has to supernaturally free us from the taskmaster inside

See when we relentlessly work like the Israelites did then we get that taskmaster living inside of us.

See Good leadership, Good bosses, they are a form of taskmaster too…But what they produce inside people, is encouragement and empowerment to get the job done

But Bad leadership, they get the job done too…But they create stress and anxiety in their employees

You might be a taskmaster here today....

If your a parent: in some senses, your a task master…But in others your kids are accidentley the taskmasters

The task master that says

Get the kids to baseball

Ballet lessons at 4

Dinner has to be on by 5

Hurry hurry hurry!

Or maybe its the internal taskmaster…And this is what I struggle with

You wake up at 3 am thinking of all the things you have to do

You are up again at 5 am thinking of an email you need to send

Meetings you have to have

people you have to talk to

You know we only really need a task master long enough to get in our own heads then we become our own task master

Our internal taskmaster is where our Anxiety comes from

It is where our sense of hurry comes from.

It is the taskmaster of Egypt that is still alive in the human soul that God wants to free us from...

It is learning to live a life without hurry

It’s learning to live a “Jesus - Paced life” which in a few weeks I am going to break down…It was relaxed...

The point is that interrupting your work with a day of rest begins to slowly kill the taskmaster inside you

It slowly takes the power away from the slavedriver of work..

It slowly forms and shapes you into the people of God rather than the people of Egypt

See where The 10 Commandments of Exodus is a reminder of who you are…an Eden people

The 10 Commandments of Deuteronomy is a reminder that God wants to kill the taskmaster in your life…He wants to reshape you into a new kind of person…A person who is liberated and free from all taskmasters

Through it all the invitation of Jesus still stands...

Matthew 11:28-30

English Standard Version Chapter 11

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Come to me and walk with me…I will break you of your Egypt mentality and I will Give you an eden mentality…I will form in you a new identity

I will create a new person who will be birthed out of you

Come and take my yoke…I will be the good shepherd…I will remove the taskmaster of anxiety....I will remove the taskmaster of hurry

Response

So many other things in our lives are “too important”

They need to happen right now!

So much in our life we need to do...

But I want to challenge you that your bride, the sabbath is waiting…Waiting for you to stop living in the Rhythm of this world...

Your bride the sabbath is waiting to shape you into an Eden person

Your bride the sabbath is waiting to kill the taskmaster of hurry in your life...

Your bride the sabbath is just inviting you today to stop…To learn to enjoy God and let Him transform your life.