Dt 15:1-16:17 Fourth Commandment: Our Sabbath Rest
Do you ever get stressed out by the pressures of everyday life?
Do you ever get so caught up in the your situation--your problems--
that you lose sight of who Christ is?
that you forget what he has done for you?
How can you prevent that?
How can you keep from getting snowed under the demands and burdens of life?
When I was in college, I would frequently get stressed out.
I would be so frantic that I didn't see how I could get everything done.
Then a professor taught us about the Sabbath,
how God commands us to give one day each week back to him,
as a day of holy rest and worship.
I decided to do it.
My friends thought I was crazy.
What? they said. All that study time wasted?
But for the last six years I have sought to keep the Sabbath holy,
and my life has changed.
Every Sunday is the Lord's Day--the Day of the Lord.
Every Sunday we are to set aside the normal, everyday burdens of life.
Sunday is a day devoted to the things of Christ.
Every week God has given you a day that is set apart for Christ;
a day which is focused on him,
If you keep this day holy,
then you will not likely forget God the rest of the time.
The Fourth Commandment says:
"Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.
On it you shall do no work:
you nor your son, nor your daughter,
nor your male servant, nor your female servant,
nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle,
nor your stanger who is within your gates,
that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.
And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt,
and the Lord your God brought you out from there
by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm;
therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day."
First, What does it mean to "observe" the Sabbath day?
There are three basic points within this commandment,
and all three are expounded in Dt 15-16.
1) six days are for your labor; one day is for God
2) This day is not merely for you to rest--it is a day where you give rest to others
3) This is a day for remembering
These three things are taught to us by the Sabbath,
and are to applied in everyday life.
1) Six days are for labor; one day is for God
God has given you everything: you should give something back to him.
Dt. 14:22-29 commands this with respect to grain--the tithe
Dt. 15:19-23 commands this with respect to animals
2) This day is not merely for you to rest--it is a day where you give rest to others
Dt. 15:1-6 commands this with respect to loans ("bankruptcy" of the ancient world)
Dt. 15:7-11 commands this with respect to the poor
Dt. 15:12-18 commands this with respect to slaves
3) This is a day for remembering
Dt. 16:1-8 commands this for the Passover
Passover/Unleavened Bread in Spring (16:1-8)
like the Sabbath, you "observe"--not merely something to remember,
but a day of worship
Dt. 16:9-12 commands this for the Feast of Weeks
Feast of Weeks in Fall (16:9-12)
like the Sabbath, gives rest to the laborer (after a busy harvest)
Dt. 16:13-15 commands this for the Feast of Tabernacles
Feast of Booths in Fall (16:13-17)
seven day feast--thanksgiving for technological harvest (threshing and pressing)
Now, all these things were specific applications for the Israelites.
We don't ask Brad to bring the first 10% of his soybeans to church!
We don't insist that banks forgive mortgages after seven years! (wouldn't that be nice!)
We don't all gather in tents outside the meeting house here every fall!
But the Sabbath commandment still remains
Second, So how does the Sabbath point us to Christ?
1) six days are for your labor; one day is for God
Isaiah 58:13 says this:
"If you turn your foot from the Sabbath,
from doing your pleasure on my holy day,
And call the Sabbath a delight;
The holy day of the Lord honorable,
And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways,
nor finding your own pleasure,
nor speaking your own words,
Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord"
The Sabbath is day set apart for God.
You have six days to do your own thing,
to find your own pleasure,
to speak your own words.
to focus on all the things that God has given you
to do in your daily life.
One day is for God's "thing"--God's pleasure--God's Words.
Yes, all of life is to glorify God,
but on the six days, you are to glorify God by working.
on the seventh day, you are to glorify God by resting.
Why?
(Hebrews 4)
God entered his rest on the seventh day of creation;
and he called his people to come and enter his rest.
When they took the promised land, did that bring them rest?
When David became king, did that bring them rest?
No.
But Christ entered HIS rest in his resurrection
In Genesis 2, when does the seventh day end?
For the first six days, it tells us that there was evening and morning,
for the seventh day, it does not.
Why?
When does the seventh day end?
Hebrews 4:5-6 seems to suggest that it does not end
until man enters God's rest.
Well, when did a man enter God's rest?
When is the evening of the seventh day?
On the cross, the sky darkens.
On the cross, evening falls.
And on the first day of the week, Jesus rises from the dead.
Matt. 28:1 makes this very explicit:
"Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn..."
It was on the first day of the week that Jesus entered his rest.
And it was on the first day of the week that the Holy Spirit was poured out,
as the guarantee that one day, we too would enter Christ's rest.
But Hebrews 4:11 makes it clear that we have not yet entered that rest (read)
This is why Hebrews 4:9 says-- (note sabatismos)
We are still looking forward to the final rest which we will receive
when we too are raised from the dead in the New Jerusalem.
2) This day is not merely for you to rest--it is a day where you give rest to others
Let's look at the life of Christ.
He kept the law perfectly, observing the Sabbath in the synagogue.
Turn to Mark 1
He preached there weekly.
Some of you have wondered whether preaching is work for me.
No, it is worship.
In Mark 1:21-31 we are told that Jesus healed on the Sabbath.
After what you've heard about giving rest to others,
was Jesus breaking the Sabbath by healing and casting out demons?
Of course not!
He was giving rest to the afflicted.
But notice what it says,
v32--only at evening--once the Sabbath was over--
only then did people come to him and ask him to heal.
After all,
while Jesus would give people rest on the Sabbath,
it would have been wrong for them to demand
that he give them rest on the Sabbath.
Just as Moses had said,
you shall not work on the Sabbath,
and neither shall you make anyone else work for you.
Jesus did not work on the Sabbath;
rather he gave rest to the weary--to those enslaved by sin, death, and the devil.
Indeed, his greatest act of giving rest occurred on the Sabbath.
After all,
it was on a Friday that he was crucified.
He spent the Sabbath in the grave.
He spent the Sabbath enduring the wrath of God,
so that he might give his people rest.
And when he arose from the dead on the first day of the week,
he destroyed the power of sin, death and the devil forever.
And on that same day he gave rest to Mary--comforting her fears;
he gave rest to the disciples on the Emmaus road--breaking bread with them.
he gave rest to the eleven that evening--giving them joy in his presence.
And then, on the first day of the week, fifty days later,
he sent the Holy Spirit--the Comforter
--who gives rest to all of his people.
Is it any wonder that the apostles celebrated the Lord's Day?
Is it any wonder that Paul says in Colossians 2:16-17
"Let no one judge you in food or in drink,
or regarding a festival or a new moon, or sabbaths,
which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ."?
How could a Christian observe the Jewish Sabbath?
How could a Christian rest on Saturday?
Saturday is yesterday's news.
Remember we saw a couple weeks ago that a new TODAY has dawned;
that in Christ, God's saving power has been revealed so completely
that the whole of the OT appears to be nothing more than shadows
compared to the brilliant light of his glory!
To keep a Saturday Sabbath is to fall behind the times.
We are called to remember the Lord's Day--the Day of the Lord!
3) This is a day for remembering
All those feasts in Dt 16--what are they for?
Passover--remember that God redeemed you from Egypt
Feast of Weeks--remember that you were slaves
Feast of Tabernacles--remember that God brought you through the wilderness
We only have one feast:
The Lord's Supper--all the pictures in the OT come down to one picture in X
And this feast is celebrated on the Lord's Day--the day of resurrection and of joy.
Because we too are to remember.
Just as the Israelites were to remember what God had done,
in giving them rest from slavery and bondage in Egypt,
So also we are commanded to remember what God has done in Christ,
in giving us rest from slavery to sin and death;
Just as the Israelites were to remember what God had promised to do,
that he would send his Messiah to bring them into his rest,
So also we are to remember what God has promised that he will do,
that Christ will come again to bring us into glory!
Just as the Israelites were comanded to partake of their sacrificial meals,
so also we partake of our sacrificial meal.
As they gathered around the table and partook of the sacrifice,
they were to remember all that God had done.
Now, did they remember simply in their heads?
No!
v8 says that they were to have a sacred assembly.
and from all the other sacred assemblies in the OT,
it would have included the reading of the Scriptures,
the priests or levites would remind the people of the Exodus,
the people would sing Psalms,
they would pray,
and then they would partake of the sacrificial meal.
And that is what we do every Sunday.
Every Sunday we gather to remember Christ's death and resurrection.
Every Sunday we gather to rejoice in what God has done.
So, third, what should we do today?
First let me make one note:
Obedience requires death (note all the sacrifices);
obedience is costly.
These people were not wealthy,
going to Jerusalem three times every year--each time for a week--
would not be cheap.
Tithing was not optional.
You gave the firstfruits to God.
That would have been hard.
At the beginning of the harvest is the time when you have the least food.
After all, you've been living on last year's harvest all winter.
But you could not eat the firstfruits of the harvest yourself,
you had to give it to God.
And giving to the poor was required.
If they couldn't pay you back,
then every seventh year, you forgave the debt.
And you are supposed to do it joyfully.
And if you have a fellow-Jew as a servant,
you must release him in the seventh year,
and not only that, but you must give him enough to set up on his own!
And you are going to like it!
The land is a gift from Yahweh, you may not use it selfishly
If the needy cry out to God, he will judge the oppressor
to refuse to help the poor is to become another Pharaoh...!
If you treat people the way Pharaoh treated you,
God will judge you the same way he judged Pharaoh.
Don't anyone dare say, "oh, there will always be needy..."
No! that should make us want to help them!
God is telling them: to enjoy the land and its benefits,
you must be willing to sacrifice them--to give them up.
If you rejoice in what God has given you,
then you too must give.
Disobedience is grasping and clinging to God's gifts,
making them into idolatrous objects of ultimate allegiance, desire, and trust.
True obedience is surrendering the first part of your time, of your money,
and of all God's gifts.
Okay, fine.
So we've seen that Sunday is the Lord's Day--the New Covenant day of rest.
What does this mean?
Some people have taken the Sabbath commandment to an extreme.
Others have declared that it is irrelevant to the Christian.
Both are wrong.
Some sabbatarians add to what God has said;
Some dispensationalists subtract from what God has said.
What has God said?
1) Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy
As we've seen, remembering has to do with worshiping.
Remembering is something that we do as a body.
On this day we are to devote ourselves to the holy worship of God.
This is our joyful feast day.
We are to gather every Lord's Day and remember his death and resurrection.
So a large part of every Sunday should be taken up in worship.
We gather both on Sunday morning and on Sunday evening
as a picture of how the whole day is Christ's.
The Reformers would have services all day long (with a break for lunch).
The early Methodists would gather at dawn for prayer,
and then spend the whole day in worship and fellowship,
before heading back home in the evening.
Many Korean churches today--both in Korea and in America--
have a prayer meeting Saturday night,
gather at 6:00am Sunday morning for prayer,
have various worship services and classes until noon;
then they gather for lunch, and fellowship together while the children play,
until the evening service.
They have understood that the Day of the Lord is a day of rejoicing.
The Lord's Day is the day in which we remember what Christ has done,
and in which we eagerly look forward to Christ's return.
John's vision on Patmos in the Book of Revelation,
was given to him on the Lord's Day.
Even so, our vision of Christ is to be clearest on this day.
That as we gather together in the presence of the heavenly host,
we are gathered with Christ himself,
we are in the presence of our Almighty Father,
we are worshiping in Spirit and in truth.
Is the Lord's Day a day of rejoicing for us?
Is Sunday a day of thanksgiving and joy?
It can be.
God gave it to us as a gift, and as a blessing.
If we spurn his gifts and blessings, we are saying that we prefer
the curse of a hectic schedule and a stressed-out life.
2) six days are for your labor; one day is for God
The Lord's Day is to be different from all other days.
On this day you are not to do your own projects,
you are not to work; you are to rest.
In other words, don't do the things that you normally do on the other six days.
I'm not going to give you a list of dos and donts.
All the bible says is that you are to finish ALL your work in six days.
On the seventh day, you are to rest and remember his blessings.
3) This day is not merely for you to rest--it is a day where you give rest to others
Don't make other people work for you.
You are not supposed to work,
don't make your children work,
don't make your servants work
don't make strangers work for you;
in other words,
don't hire people to work for you.
Instead, look for ways to give rest to others.
This is a day for showing mercy.
It's not a day for sitting around the house, bored.
If you are ever bored on Sunday, then you are not keeping the Sabbath!
Find ways to give rest to others.
Have people over for a simple dinner.
Spend time enjoying your children,
playing games, reading books out loud together,
singing hymns, and talking about Christ.
I'd like to close with Matthew 11:28-12:14
Immediately after Jesus says that he will give rest to the weary,
he starts to teach about the Sabbath.
There is always the danger that we will fall into the legalism of the Pharisees.
They claimed that the disciples were breaking the Sabbath
because they were plucking grain.
They were wrong.
They claimed that Jesus broke the Sabbath by healing people.
They were wrong.
Jesus was giving them rest.
He points out to them that if their sheep fell in a ditch,
they would pull the sheep out.
Even so, if someone is suffering,
help them!
The Sabbath was made for man,
not man for the Sabbath (Mk 2).
In saying this, Jesus points out that the Sabbath is a gift--a blessing--
and we must always remember that.
Let me simply give you a suggested pattern to start with
--you can build on it from there:
On Saturday night, gather your family together around 8 or 9
and spend some time in prayer and in singing.
If you don't have anything to sing, make some photocopies of your favorite hymns
and sing them together.
Read a Psalm, and a portion of the NT which focuses on Christ.
Some families have found it useful to lay out their Sunday clothes before going to bed;
others like to prepare a cassarole or roast for Sunday dinner,
so they don't have the hassle the next day.
Get to bed early, and wake up early.
Pray together before leaving for church.
Pray that God will give you a heart that longs for Christ,
that longs to know him, and to rejoice in his presence.
While you are at church, look for ways to serve others.
Seek to encourage others, look for things that you can do to build each other up.
On Sunday afternoon, set aside everything else.
But Sunday is not merely a day to kick back, it is a day to serve others.
Husbands, make sure that your wives have Sunday off from cooking and cleaning.
Wives, make sure that your husbands have Sunday off from worrying about work
or doing projects around the house.
Parents, make sure your children have Sunday off from school.
Basically, look for ways to give rest to one another in your family and in the church.
If someone is hurting, bring them comfort.
You would not believe how much of a relief it is to simply forget everything
that you will have to do the following week.
That's why I love the Sabbath.
I have a hectic life.
Graduate school is more than a full-time job;
Pastoring takes up an enormous amount of energy;
But on this day,
God has commanded me to take a day off and simply worship him.
God has commanded me to set aside all of my cares.
As Jesus put it, "come unto me, all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest.
The Lord's Day is to be a picture of that rest
--a day when we get a taste of what Christ has prepared for us.
God has commanded you to take a day off.
If you do not rest and enjoy his presence, he will be very upset with you!
None of this is to be done in a legalistic, mechanistic fashion.
This is a gift from God which is to bring delight--but what kind of delight?
Is. 58:14--delight in the Lord.