Sunday, June 4, 2023 PM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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We are going to return to our study on the fourth commandment as we are thinking about these ten words, ten words about Christ, how the ten commandments do not stand on their own, they were instructions, words, commandments given to Israel as God made covenant with Israel at Sinai and as such they look back at what it means for us to be made in the image of God and they look forward to Christ our

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Savior who is the image of the invisible God. Let's begin with a word of prayer and then we will read the fourth commandment again.

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Heavenly Father we thank you for this night, we thank you for your word, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ, I pray that you would help us to rightly think about the

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Sabbath, the meaning of it in light of who you are, as a sign that you gave to your people

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Israel that they would learn and look for our

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Savior Jesus Christ. We pray these things in his name, amen. Alright, so Exodus chapter 20 verses 8 -11, we find the fourth commandment.

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Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the

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Sabbath of the Lord your God, in it you shall do no work, you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.

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For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth to see in all that is in them and rested the seventh day therefore the

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Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. And the commandment as given in Deuteronomy 5 verses 12 -16 is similar but some important changes, additions really, intensifications, clarifying especially about the servant part, about the slaves that were part of the household.

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And as we begin to think about this commandment and read it in its own context, read it for what it says, compare it with the other commandments that are given in these ten, we discover that this is not a commandment about the liturgical practices in worship.

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It's not talking about what people do when they get together to have church. It is a household commandment.

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This is a word to the head of the household and to everybody who's a part of the household that God is the provider.

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God is the creator so he provides. And God, in making all these good and wonderful things in creation, did his work in seven days and rested on the seventh so trust him, he's the creator, he's the provider.

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He delivered you up out of Egypt, the account in Deuteronomy says, you used to be slaves in Egypt, no longer, you belong to the

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Lord and so rest on the seventh day. Rest on the Sabbath, Saturday, rest, households.

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So in this sense, there is the temptation for an

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Israelite man, head of his household to consider what the Lord has entrusted to him.

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Here is his wife and his sons and daughters, here are the slaves that live within his household, here are all the animals, the working animals that he owns.

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He looks at it all and there's a temptation of anxiety, of fear, will we have enough?

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Will we have enough to make it through the lean times? You know, we need to be prepared for the times that are tough and there's a temptation to work the household 24 -7 and this

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Sabbath commandment is saying no. And so the household is to be brought under submission to the

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Lord, he's the creator, he's the redeemer, he's the provider, he's the one who delivers and so trust him.

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It's a household commandment and before commandment number five, where the man is to bring his children in submission to him, honor your father and mother, before that the whole household has to be submission to the

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Lord. So it's really a household commandment and we thought about how the

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Sabbath day is revealed in the pattern of creation in Genesis chapter 2 verses 1 -3, how the

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Lord rested, what that might mean and how the Sabbath is described in terms of when everything is in its proper place and at rest.

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It was only after everything was very good that God rested. Everybody in their place and in right relationship to one another, everything in its place as it should be when everything is home and where did the

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Israelites spend the Sabbath day? At the tabernacle? On a mountaintop offering sacrifices?

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They spent the Sabbath day at home. Everybody and everything in its place at rest as it should be.

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Shalom, home. And we studied how the

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Sabbath, the idea of rest, everything in right relationship to one another, how that shows up in the story of Noah and all of the

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Hebrew puns listed throughout the story of Noah, the idea of rest just ringing throughout the story time and time and time again.

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And now we have made our way to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

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What do we call them? What does the Bible call them? Patriarchs. When we think of the patriarchs as they are given to us in Hebrews chapter 11 and so on, when we think about the stories in Genesis, what do you think of when you think of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?

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What are the descriptive terms that you would think of or the stories that really stick out that you remember about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?

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Twelve tribes of Israel, so the sons of Jacob whose name was changed to Israel, his many sons.

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Abraham, the Babylonian from the land of Ur, an idolater, called out of Ur away from the extended family, from those idols, from those ways and called to be set apart, set apart under the

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Lord to be a people in God's place, under God's rule. Yeah, Abram and Sarai, Abraham and Sarah, barren, no son, no child, no heir, and yet Isaac was promised and God gave him a child.

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When you read the story, and I was having a great time reading through Genesis 12 through 50, kind of looking back and forth and thinking about Sabbath, because it's been observed, you don't find

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Noah and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Joseph, you'll see any notes in Genesis about them stopping and observing

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Sabbath. They're not stopping on the seventh day from their work, from their labor, never see it.

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That doesn't mean that the theme of Sabbath rest isn't there, of course it's there, but it's a bigger theme than the seventh day.

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So we saw with Noah, the idea of things being at rest and the right relationship. Well, when you read through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, what strikes me is how restless everything is, how they're always on the move from this place to that place.

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Here they go again, they don't settle there for long, back and forth.

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And it begins with a restlessness in terms of Abraham being promised a place, being promised to be made a great people, and God makes all these promises to Abraham and off he goes.

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And as soon as he gets there, we see this promise given to him in Genesis 12, and then what happens?

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He immediately leaves the land and goes down to Egypt because of a famine.

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Back he comes, and then all of a sudden he and Lot are in a problem because he and Lot have too much stuff.

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Off goes Lot towards the valley of Sodom, and then God says to Abraham, you know, all this land

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I'm going to give you. Look to the north and the east and the west and the south and get up and travel. Travel the length and the breadth of it.

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And he did, and he wandered that land up and down, and he left altars of sacrifice to the one true

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God amidst all the Canaanites as he went and traveled the fullness of the land. But he's still wandering, right?

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And then all of a sudden, Keter, Laomer, and three other kings with him, four kings went to war against five, the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Zoar.

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And they went to war and they captured the people of Sodom, Lot among them. And now

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Abram's on the war path and he has to go fight. And he takes his 318 trained men and strikes at night with a threefold attack and wins the day.

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Gives all the credit to the Lord. Gives all the credit to the Lord. But he's still wandering, wandering and wondering, because in chapter 15, he's having this anxious moment at night.

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He's like, I have no heir. The Lord of the Lord comes to visit Abram and he's like, what's going on?

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You promised this. I have no, I have no heir. God assures him and promises him, takes him outside, shows him the stars.

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So shall your descendants be. He believed the promise of the seed and it was accounted to him for righteousness. The promise given again and again, your descendants are going to live in this land.

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They're going to have this place. It's going to be 400 years of them being in a foreign land, but they're going to come back once the iniquity of the

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Amorites is complete. Okay. Um, Abram's still restless.

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Next chapter. Well, let's do things, uh, let's do things another way, right?

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Sarah gives her handmaiden Hagar to Abram as a wife, a concubine, so that by her,

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Sarah can have children. All right. We're going to, we're going to make sure that God's promise is completed because, you know, here's the promise, but we got to make it happen.

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Oops. That causes all kinds of problems, doesn't it? Restlessness in the home, conflict in the home.

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And then God comes with the promise in Genesis 17 because Abram is still doubting and he gives him the covenant sign of a circumcision.

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He comes back in chapter 18 with a promise of the son who will be born in a year. Both Abram, Abram laughs in chapter 17, uh,

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Sarah laughs in chapter 18 because this is so, so unfathomable that they would have a child this, you know, when they're this old.

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Right? 99 and 89. Here comes the promise when they're 190, Abraham 100,

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Sarah 90, they have a child. No wonder they laughed. But they, when the

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Lord shows up with the two angels, um, Abraham, you never seen someone so busy.

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He's up and moving, flying around, trying to get things, uh, butchered and sacrificed, set a meal before his visiting

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Lord. And then he hears about the inspection of Sodom going to go on.

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And he pleads and pleads and pleads with the, with the Lord of righteousness, not do right for the sake of 10 righteous, which you spare

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Sodom and Gomorrah. And then we see

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Lot displaced and he's just, he has no place in any longer and he's displaced and, and, uh, wanders off into history.

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And again, there's another famine. There's more wandering as Abraham goes down to Gerar to the Philistines and a very similar story like Genesis 12.

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Then Hagar is displaced and she is kicked out of the home and she wanders, um, and she's out in the wilderness with Ishmael, more conflicts.

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And then on the move again, here he goes with Isaac up Mount Moriah to offer his only heir as a sacrifice before the

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Lord, but the God provides, God provides. And then we get to, uh, chapter 24,

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Abraham sends his servant on a long journey on a pilgrimage. Go find a wife for my son from Paddan Aram, not from these, not from these

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Canaanites, but from my homeland. And then Abraham dies.

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He had bought a cave to lay his body in, in the wife of, in the body of his wife for his, his, he had a little place to die in the land, but he didn't, he was not, he did not own this land that God had promised him.

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He did not possess it. He wandered all his life. And then

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Isaac himself, Isaac himself, his story is one of, of traveling and unsettledness.

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Rebecca herself is unsettled, twins, struggling within her womb. She is totally unsettled.

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And there is strife between these brothers, fraternal strife and familial strife. Isaac is wandering.

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There's a famine. He also goes to the Philistines in Gerar. Always on the move.

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There is a, he can't find a well to keep, well, conflict about water over and over and over again, until finally he finds one well that he's, that he can use.

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And he calls it Rehoboth because finally he can settle there and have some water. Just anything, right?

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Anything. I can just find some things, some steady form of water. Jacob, of course, betrays his family and he's on the run.

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Jacob is not a man who is at rest. He's on the run. He's restless. He's a wandering shepherd for his uncle

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Laban. You ever hear as a tirade against Laban about all his sleepless nights.

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Here is the life of a shepherd. His strife with Laban, his strife with his own family because he marries two wives and then marries their servants.

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So he has four wives. So he's on the run from Esau. Then he's on the run from Laban. And then he's not rest, restful.

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He's at, he's wrestling even God. He wrestles a man to the sunrise.

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Jacob splits from Esau, stays on the run. He thinks he's going to settle in Shechem. Nope. Conflict at Shechem. They go to war.

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All the men of Shechem are slaughtered by Simeon and Levi. On the run again.

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Rachel dies. Isaac dies. And then

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Joseph. Where do we see Joseph? Oh, there he's out wandering in the field at Dothan, trying to find his brothers.

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And oh, there he is in exile. Down to Egypt he goes. With Potiphar. Nope, can't stay there. In the jail.

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Nope, can't stay there. Here you're going to go up to help Pharaoh collect all the food. And oh, Jacob and his family, they can't stay in Israel, in the land of Canaan.

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They've got to move down to Egypt. But they can't stay in Egypt proper, they've got to stay in Goshen because they're a bunch of stinking shepherds.

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Restlessness. On the move. The whole story cycle is like that. You've got to catch your breath just reading through it.

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So where's the rest? Where's the rest? It's in the promises.

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It's in the promises. Abraham pilgrimages from Ur.

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What does he get? A promise. His servant goes on a pilgrimage to find a wife.

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Why? Because Abraham explains to his servant at the beginning of Genesis 24, the promise.

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Based on this promise that my descendants will inherit this land, you go get a wife for my son. Because they've got to be fruitful and multiply and fill this land.

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Jacob, running away from Esau, he is instructed by his father to leave and go to Paddan Aram, to Laban, and Isaac, even though Jacob had tricked him,

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Isaac explains to Jacob the promise. The Genesis 12 promise. Genesis 15 promise.

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The Genesis 17 promise. Isaac tells Jacob that, and based upon that information, Jacob goes.

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And of course, God continues to reaffirm that promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in their pilgrimages.

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In the strife with Lot, God affirms his promise to Abraham. Even though Lot goes off to the valley of Sodom, God affirms his promise with Abraham.

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There's strife in the womb. Jacob and Esau fighting even in the womb. And Rebekah is so unsettled, but then

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God gives her a promise about her children. There's strife with Laban, and it gets worse and worse until the angel of the

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Lord comes to Jacob and reaffirms the promise about where he's supposed to be. So he gets his whole family, and he starts heading back.

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You can look at it in a different pattern. The promise at the beginning of Genesis 12, we see that promise, and then we see

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Abraham fleeing down to Egypt. In Genesis 26, God reaffirms the promise of Abraham to Isaac, the whole thing.

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And then there's famine, and he flees to Gerar and pulls an

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Abraham -like moment. Then Joseph gets these visions and these dreams from God and reaffirms the promise that God made to Abraham and to Isaac through his dreams.

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And then a little bit later on, what do we see? We see the whole family fleeing down to Egypt because of a famine.

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So when we look at this story cycle moving from Genesis 12 all the way through Genesis 50, who gets displaced?

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Who gets nothing? That's an interesting question. Who gets nothing? Well, Lot ends up with nothing.

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Ishmael ends up with nothing. Esau ends up with nothing.

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All three cycles, there was one that was the chosen and one who was rejected.

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One who was the chosen, one who was rejected. One who was the chosen, one who was rejected. And the only difference between them, now

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Esau had a lot, Genesis 36, wow, what a kingdom. And Ishmael had a lot.

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He became a great nation, as we well know. And Lot, through his two incestuous daughters, had two great nations come from him.

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However, they still had nothing. Why? Because they didn't have any of the promises. They didn't have the promises.

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Who received the promises? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob received the promises. They received the promises.

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And so even if they were wandering, even if they were sojourners, even if they didn't have the land in their possession, and even if they didn't have the descendants as numerous as the stars in their own lifetime, even though they didn't have any of those things, they still had the promises.

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And every time they got restless, anxious, and afraid, and on the brink, what does God do? He comes with the promise again.

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He comes with the promise. He comes with the promise. He comes with the promise. To do what? To put them back at rest.

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To put them back at rest. When we read about it in Hebrews 11, let's look over there very quickly, there is great encouragement in recognizing that the rest that we have is not sequestered to a day.

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All sorts of rest in the life of Noah, when we think of the patriarchs and the covenant that God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, all kinds of rest existed there.

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But the rest, you see, was in the promise. Resting in the Lord came by the word of the

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Lord, came by the word of the Lord, by the promise. So, in Hebrews 11, verse 8, by faith

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Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going.

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Now, it's going to be full of anxiety, and fear, and restlessness, and of course you go by faith. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs of him the same promise.

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We've been talking about looking at their whole cycle, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, heirs of the same promise.

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So promise in verse 8, promise in verse 9, verse 10, for he waited for the city which has foundations, plural, whose builder and maker is

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God. He's waiting for something, promise. Now, a city is a place to stay.

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If you're a wandering herdsman, you don't stay in cities, because you're itinerant, you're on the move, you're wandering.

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But he's waiting and looking for a city, that's a resting place, and this place has foundations, foundations plural.

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There is a city that has foundations, plural, and you read about that city in Revelation 21, it's called the bride of Christ.

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Verse 11, by faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged him faithful who had promised, promise in verse 11 as well.

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Verse 12, therefore from one man and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky, in multitude innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore, which of course is the quoting of the promises.

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Verse 13, these all died in faith, not having received the promises, look, they died in faith, but they had not received the promises, do you see that?

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Having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

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They had not received the promises, who has received the promises?

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Because of Christ, all of God's promises are yes, and we have received the promises.

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John the Baptist was the most blessed of all the prophets of the old covenant, but even the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than him.

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To live on this side, how blessed we are. Verse 14, for those who say such things, or declare plainly that they seek a homeland, they seek rest, they seek a home, they seek

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Sabbath, and truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return, why not go back?

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But now they desire a better, that is a heavenly country. So is

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Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob desiring an earthly country or a heavenly country?

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So then what should we desire? Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their

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God, for he has prepared a city for them.

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And what a city, and what a city that is. Again you want to see what city that is, read about the bride of Christ in Revelation 21.

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So, where is the rest? Where is the rest? We are instructed when we think about the theme of Sabbath, when we think about the way in which the

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Sabbath theme is built up, long before we get to Exodus, we see that Sabbath is about when everything is in its right relationship.

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Everything is at rest because it's in its right relationship with God and each other in the created order.

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Only after it was very good does God rest. And we see with Noah, whose name means rest, the man of rest, how he functions as a type of Christ.

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And the man of rest sends out the dove upon the new and refreshed creation, trusting in the sign that God gave him, the sign of the covenant, the rainbow, that God has given us a man of rest and a new creation, defined by the

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Holy Spirit coming upon the new creation. And that we can be at rest and accepted and right with God because of the man of rest.

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And then in the story of Abraham, you know, as Hebrews also acknowledges, not all the enemies of Christ are yet put as a footstool for his feet.

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Not every last issue has been resolved yet. We live knowing that all of God's promises are true.