Sunday, June 25, 2023 PM

our study on the Ten Commandments, which are ten words about Christ, and we are studying the fourth commandment, which is about the

Sabbath, and trying to understand it in light of God's covenant with Israel, that God makes covenant in biblical history as a response to, as a follow -up to, making us in His image, and there being a defilement of that image, a ruination of that image in the fall, and that when

God deals with Noah and Abraham and Israel and David, what

He does looks back at how He has made us, all the covenants God makes, it concerns our relationship with Him, our relationship with one another, our responsibilities in the world that God has made, and this is no different when we get to the

Ten Commandments. Very often, traditionally, the Ten Commandments are shown by what picture?

Two tablets, right? And in Christian tradition, it is built up talking about the first and second table of the law, and these have been very well -established, often very helpful ways of talking about the

Ten Commandments, and yet when we reflect upon their content, they have a particular symmetry to them, a particular design and beauty, and they address all it means for us to be made in God's image, about loving

God supremely, loving one another rightly, and stewarding the creation responsibly. And the

Sabbath commandment deals with all three vectors of those relationships that we are in, about how to honor

God and remember Him as our provider and as our Creator, how to rest in Him and in His promises.

At the same time, the Israelites were instructed to rest and to make sure that everyone in their household were able to rest, not work the household, you know, seven days a week.

And so there was a proper treatment of one another in the Sabbath command, as well as a proper stewardship of the created order.

They were taught to work their animals and work their land 24 -7, 365, every single year.

They were required to rest, and as they rested, to reflect on God's good provision and to trust in Him.

And so we have been thinking about the Sabbath command, its instructions to the household.

It's a household command about how to manage your household in the fear of God. And we've thought about the theme of Sabbath, the theme of rest in God's creation.

Remember the seventh day, God rested. Once everything was in its proper place, God rested and said it was all very good.

And we thought about the theme of Sabbath in the story of Noah, whose name actually means rest.

As Lamech, his father, was desiring this promised, typified rest, and so he named his son

Rest. And the theme of rest and how Noah's name and plays on the word rest show up all through the story of Noah.

And we thought about Abraham. We thought about how restless Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were.

They were always on the move, wandering from this place to the next place. And the story of the patriarchs is really a restless kind of story.

And yet they had a form of rest, in that they were constantly called to rest in God's promises.

Though they may not have inherited the land, though they didn't have possession of the land, they didn't have that multitude of descendants that have been promised to them.

They did not yet see it, but they could rest in their own time in the promises that God gave them.

And we've been moving forward in the storyline, and we got to the part where God has delivered the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and he brings them into the wilderness because he promised

Abraham he was going to do that. He told Abraham, you know, 400 years and the iniquity of the

Amorites will be complete, and I will bring your descendants up from a foreign land and bring them back.

Well, God is keeping his promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's bringing their descendants up out of Egypt, and they come to the wilderness, and there's no food and no water.

And Moses would tell that next generation after them that God lets you be hungry. God lets you be thirsty so that you would depend upon him.

He gave them manna, gave them bread from heaven, and along with the bread from heaven that he provided them.

He also gave them instructions about the Sabbath, and he said six days you can go out, you can gather the manna.

On the sixth day, gather a double amount because on the seventh day you're not going to go gather manna.

You're going to rest in your tents. You are not going to get out of your tent. You're not going to do any work at all. You're not going to gather this manna.

You're just going to rest. And of course, the Israelites did it every which way but the right way, you know.

On the fourth day, they gathered double, and the leftovers, bread, worms, and stain. The seventh day, they went out, and there was no manna, and Moses was just losing his patience with them.

Like, come on. Here's bread from heaven. Here's miracles, and you can't just follow the basic instructions.

But it's an interesting thing to see that God, keeping his promises to Abraham, provides manna to the children of Israel, and instructs them in a pattern in which they're to rest the seventh day before he makes covenant with them at Sinai.

And that's where we are right now. We are going to look at how God is going to formalize his relationship with covenant at Sinai, and he's going to make the

Sabbath central to that covenant. So that's what we're going to look at this evening.

We're going to open our Bibles, we're going to think of the scope of the sign that God gives.

We've already looked at the commandment proper, but now we're going to turn to Exodus chapter 23. Exodus chapter 23.

It is hard to understate the importance of the Sabbath to the children of Israel, to the covenant that God made with them.

The Sabbath was ever as much as important as circumcision. Circumcision was the sign that God gave to Abraham with his covenant with him, and the

Sabbath is the sign of the covenant that God made with the children of Israel. Now, the observance of the seventh day has everything to do with Israel trusting in God's promises to provide.

God's going to provide. They need to trust him in that, so they need to rest every seventh day. They, their household, the father, the mother, the children, the servants, the animals, all of them are to rest every seventh day.

And they are to remember in this, in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, in the fourth commandment, they are to reflect on God's resting on the seventh day in creation.

He's the creator who provides. They are to reflect on God redeeming them up out of Egypt. He is their Savior. He brought them out of slavery.

Don't live as slaves anymore. You're out of slavery, so rest on the seventh day. And the honoring and remembrance goes beyond the seventh day because God says it's not just every seventh day, it's every seventh year.

Every seventh year. So Exodus 23 verses 10 through 12. Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat, and what they leave the beasts of the fields may eat.

In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove. Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.

So you see how when God speaks of the Sabbath, even though in the Ten Commandments it's about the seventh day,

God immediately connects that to the seventh year. Here in his instructions in Exodus 23.

Observing the Sabbath, remembering the Sabbath, yes, there's a seventh day, but then what about the seventh year? As God is teaching and instructing his people and how to live as a part of the covenant that he is making with them, he is telling them to rest every seventh year.

Now when Israel was to harvest their crops, and they were not to harvest the corners of their field, they weren't to go beating their trees a second time, or go over their vines a second time, whatever they missed upon that first run -through was left for the poor.

And the poor would get up out of their beds, wherever they were, walk to these various fields, wherever they were, and they would go in and they would get the food that they needed, and they would work, and they would receive their food as well.

That's how God took care of the poor in the society of Israel. Well also on the seventh year, even though there's no harvesting going on, no planting, no harvesting, it says here there's going to be something there.

Anybody who's ever done any gardening know there's all sorts of volunteer plants coming up wanting to produce all manner of...

I didn't plan to have pumpkins this year, but there they are, you know. And so God was promising to to provide for the poor in that way, even though the people weren't working.

Now the fourth commandment is considered a holy gathering, but it is not a holy gathering where people are going to the tabernacle or going to the temple.

They're not getting up out of their place later on in the in the kingdom of Israel.

They're not getting up out of their place, whether at Dan or Beersheba, and traveling down to Jerusalem for a holy convocation.

The Sabbath was a holy gathering that occurred in each household, and this is what Leviticus 23 tells us.

Leviticus chapter 23 verses 1 through 3. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, the feasts of the

Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy of convocations, these are my feasts. And he says, six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a

Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it.

It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. So you don't leave.

You stay in your dwelling. You just stay there. And as we saw in the the previous studies, when everything is in its proper place and everybody is in right relationship, we call that home.

And the Sabbath is observed in the home. Everybody at rest, everybody in right relationship, trusting in the

Lord. And the Sabbath becomes most important for the children of Israel.

The scope of the sign is that it's every seventh day, every seventh year, there's a

Sabbath. And the Sabbath is often invoked for various feasts. If there is a week -long feast, if there is a special day in the year, very often

God would instruct Israel and say, now this is going to be a Sabbath. No work is supposed to be done on this day. But what is the significance of all of this?

In Leviticus 23 and Leviticus 25, it's very interesting, there's a parallel that occurs.

At the beginning of Leviticus 23, we receive, yet again, instructions about the

Sabbath. And in verse 3, it says, six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a

Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You should do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwelling.

So, this is the fourth commandment. This has been dealt with time over and again.

But God brings it up again at this point because he then begins to talk to them about the

Passover. The Passover feast, the feast of unleavened bread, and how they're going to remember how

God brought them up out of Egypt. That goes with the fourth commandment, right? Observe the Sabbath day, remember

God brought you up out of Egypt. So, here in Leviticus, he says, remember the Sabbath day, remember the

Passover, and then instructions are given. On day after the

Sabbath, so you get you get done celebrating Passover, you get done celebrating the significant moment in your remembrance of the

Lord, and you conclude with the Sabbath for your Passover. It is the day after that Sabbath, you're going to have another little feast.

You're going to have a wave offering before God, and you're going to have something called the Feast of the First Fruit. So, what's the day after the

Sabbath? Sunday. And on Sunday, he says, you're going to have a celebration called

First Fruits, and then you're going to start counting. You're going to start counting.

The Sabbath that concludes the Passover, you're going to start counting. Seven more Sabbaths, seven total

Sabbaths. You're going to go 49 days, seven times seven, 49. And the day after that, on the 50th day, you're going to have a new special Sabbath, and sometimes the translation will say it's the

Feast of Weeks. It's the Feast of New Grain on the 50th day. So, in the

New Testament, this feast is called what? Pentecost. Pentecost, the

Feast of New Grain. So, what was the

Feast of First Fruits, then? If this is the Sunday after Passover, what significant thing happened on the

Sunday after Passover? And what did Paul call Jesus?

First Fruits from the dead, bringing in the new creation, bringing in the new covenant.

And then, you count out seven times seven plus one on Pentecost, and what is given?

Who is given? The Holy Spirit is given. So, when we read Leviticus 23, we reflect on the shadows that are fulfilled in Christ.

Now, Leviticus 23 is a little bit of a parallel at the beginning of Leviticus 25, because it's not just about the seventh day, it's about the seventh year.

And every seventh year, you just stop plowing. You let your animals rest.

You let the land rest. You don't have your servants out in the field weeding or plowing or anything.

You know why? Because you don't have any. On the seventh year, all the slaves are freed. They all go home.

So, everybody just rests. But then, more counting ensues, and you start counting seven sets of seven plus one.

Every seventh year is a Sabbath year. Slaves are released, and everybody takes a big long rest.

But, when you get seven sets of seven, that's 49, and the next year, the 50th, kind of like Pentecost, but it's the 50th year, that's called the year of Jubilee.

And on the year of Jubilee, whatever land has been acquired from between families, it all goes back to the original inheritances.

And so, in the counting of Sabbath days, you move from firstfruits to new grain, and in the counting of Sabbath years, you move from Jubilee to Jubilee.

Interesting? The whole mindset about counting

Sabbaths and observing Sabbaths is, God owns it all. It's all

God's land, and it's all God's produce. It's all the harvest that God has provided, so trust

Him, trust Him, trust Him. You could put it this way, throughout the economy of the

Old Covenant, everything operated with a interesting, isn't it?

Everything about it. So, it was about remembrance. Every household was to remember how

God provides for and keeps promises to each household, just like Abraham. They were to rest, the land was to rest, they were to rest on the land, but interestingly enough, their rest was not in a land.

They let the land rest, they rested on the land, but the land was not their rest.

Their rest was still in God's promise. There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God beyond the

Canaan delivered by Joshua. In Hebrews 4, 8 through 10, it says, for if Joshua had given them rest, then he would not afterward have spoken of another day.

Didn't he bring them into the land? Once they were on the land, weren't they able to rest every seven years?

Once they were on the land, weren't they were able to rest every seven days? Wasn't this God's land that he had provided for them, and through it provided for all that they needed, so they could just rest and rest and rest some more?

And yet, the author of Hebrews is saying, you know, if the land really was their rest, that doesn't make any sense, because afterward it was still spoken of as the

Sabbath still yet to come. There remains, therefore, a rest for the people of God, for he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works, as God did from his.

Meaning, let's go back to the very beginning of what Sabbath meant. When everything was in its proper place, and all the relationships were in right order, then

God said, this is very good, and he rested. And the author of Hebrews is saying that that's the kind of rest we need to enter into, and that is the only, and the only rest that, that kind of rest cannot be entered in through Joshua, but through Yeshua.

Not through the initial successor to Moses, but the ultimate successor and fulfillment of Moses, who is

Christ. He's the one who puts all the relationships back into their proper order.

He's the one who puts everything back into its proper place as the image of God, the perfect image of God.

So, there was a lot of everything in the life of Israel, their whole holy calendar, the liturgical calendar, everything was just, was marked off by Sabbath, Sabbath, Sabbath, Sabbath, Sabbath, Sabbath.

It was, it was their, it was their critical sign by which they kept covenant with God.

When they were kicked out of their land, when they were kicked out of their land, it was described, the reason why they were kicked out of their land was because they did not keep

Sabbath. That was the reason given. Now, in Exodus chapter 31, in Exodus 31, verses 12 through 18, the

Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, Surely my

Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the

Lord who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath therefore, 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. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is a

Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a perpetual covenant.

Never gonna stop, never gonna end. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever.

For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.

And when he had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he gave Moses two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

One tablet went in the Ark of the Covenant, and they kept the other one to read. Now, you see how it, so God has, ever since Exodus 20,

God has been laying out his covenant. Ever since Exodus 20, where he gives the Ten Commandments, he's been laying out what it means to follow those

Ten Commandments, the significance of the covenant that God made with Israel. Once he's done, says, this is what

I mean by these Ten Commandments, which function as a summary of my covenant with you,

Israel. Once we're done discussing that, now we put that, we talk about the sign again that seals our covenant, and then we're going to put the copy of the covenant into the

Ark of the Covenant. This is how you're going to live, and God's saying to Israel, here's how we're going to live.

I'm your God, you are my people, we're in covenant together, this is how it works. Now, God gave these commandments, and he gave this sign.

If an Israelite would not keep the Sabbath, he would die. That was the job of the community, because they needed to have corporate faithfulness.

They needed to have faithfulness across the board, throughout their whole nation, if they were going to keep covenant with God.

And so, the Levites were sprinkled throughout the land to read the Word of God to the people, that people were supposed to hold each other accountable, and say to one another, know the

Lord, fear God. And if they didn't do that, and everything started going south, and people began to forget the

Lord, become idolatrous, and the curses of the covenant would come upon them. And one of those curses would be that they would lose the land.

They would be displaced from the land that God had promised to Abraham. Now, we heard that the penalty for breaking the

Sabbath was the death penalty. If you broke Sabbath, you die. So, let's think about how strict this sign is.

Let's think about the strictness of the sign. In Exodus 35, verse 3, it says, you shall kindle no fire throughout your dwellings on the

Sabbath day. So, you're going to spend all day in your dwelling, but you're not going to start any fires.

Not going to bake, not going to boil, you're not going to do anything for heat to stay warm.

You're going to simply rest and do no work, trusting in the Lord. Kindle no fire.

In Numbers 15, and we're all in a lot of trouble, by the way. In Numbers 15, there's a story about a man who went out on the

Sabbath day, and he was picking up sticks. So, Jeff DeForest and I had a little discussion, and Josiah as well.

Last week, the DeForests, I hate to tell you all this, but they were out picking up sticks on the

Sunday. They had a big tree down in their yard. Did they break the

Sabbath? In some traditions, very much so. But really, the

Sabbath day, as we've seen from what God said to Israel very plainly over and over again, was Saturday, not

Sunday. Just straight up, it was Saturday. But that makes it even more of us in trouble, because we were over at the

Smoots on Saturday, picking up a lot of sticks. You know, but we live on this side of the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.

We live in the kingdom of Christ. We live under the new covenant. But this is very strict.

Those who are living under the old covenant, if you're picking up sticks on the Sabbath day, what happened to the guy? He was stoned to death.

That's how strictly it was observed, individually. And then, corporately, everybody was called to do this.

All of Israel was required to keep Sabbath, and if they didn't, then all of them were going to end up being displaced from their land.

It's very simple. If Israel, as they functioned together, as in a corporate sense, they were functioning as the image of God.

Israel was a light to the nation, saying to all the nations, here's how you love God supremely. All mankind made in the image of God, and yet, in rebellion to him and in darkness, they needed some light.

And God gives Israel as a light to the nations, and they say, here's how you love God supremely. Watch us.

Oh, and here's how you love each other rightly. Watch us. Here's how you steward the creation responsibly. Watch us.

They were the image of God corporate. They were put to display that as they followed their covenant.

But, if Israel, for her provision, and break the sign of the covenant, if she decided, well, you know, not kindling fire on the seventh day, that's just kind of ridiculous.

That's a little strict. Sometimes, you have to pick up some sticks, and honestly, you know, we're behind, you know, on our projections.

We're gonna have to work that seventh year, and we're gonna have to keep your slaves on for another seven years, right?

As they began to break Sabbath, as she began to determine good and evil for herself, whatever she would produce every seventh year, whatever kind of produce she would bring in every seventh day, you know what that would be called?

It would be called forbidden fruit. And when she ate forbidden fruit, what would happen?

She'd be exiled from her garden, wouldn't she? You see?

Well, God is dealing with Israel and teaching her how to rest in him for his produce for her.

Look at all the things that I have given you. Look at all the produce I've given you, but here's what you're not going to do. You're not going to work on the Sabbath day.

Here's what you're not going to do. You're not going to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You see? So, what

God is doing in his covenant with Israel is restorative, is looking back at the relationship that the Creator had with his creatures from the very beginning.

And it's also revealing of the relationship he is going to establish through his

Son. And in Leviticus, well, we're going to save that for next week.

Let's put it this way. Let's go over and let's go look at a genealogy,

Matthew chapter 1. We're going to talk next week, and we're going to do a little bit of connecting between the covenant that God makes with Noah and Abraham, how that flows directly into the covenant that God makes with Israel, and then do our best to move on to think about how the

Sabbath shows up in the life of David. But for now, in thinking about how significant the

Sabbath sign is for Israel, and how it was that they were exiled because they did not keep

Sabbaths. In Jeremiah 25 and in 2nd Chronicles 36, both those places,

God specifically states that Israel is put into exile because they did not keep

Sabbaths. Now, in Matthew chapter 1, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the

Son of David, the Son of Abraham. So, we hear there's Abraham, and there's

David, and then to Christ. Well, when you look at the way that the genealogy is broken up, you get to verse 6.

It says, "...and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah." That's Bathsheba.

"...Solomon begot Rehoboam. Rehoboam begot Abijah. Abijah begot Asa." And then, it goes all the way down to verse 11.

"...Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers. About the time they were carried away to Babylon." So, we go from Abraham to David, from David to the exile.

You see that? And then, verse 12, "...so after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot

Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel." And you go on down. And you get down to verse 16, "...and

Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who was called Christ."

And look how Matthew sums up this storyline by way of genealogy. So, all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations.

From David until the captivity in Babylon are 14 generations. And from the captivity in Babylon until the

Christ are 14 generations. So, after David, the storyline continues until they go into exile.

They go into exile. And then, what's the next thing that happens after they go into exile? Matthew doesn't say, oh, they came back with Ezra and Nehemiah.

He doesn't say, oh, they came back and rebuilt the temple, and they spent some time there.

He doesn't say that, does he? He says, from exile to Christ.

So, in Matthew's assessment, why did they go into exile? Because they broke the

Sabbath. They rejected the rest that God gave them. Well, what brings about the end of exile for Israel?

Christ, who comes and says that he is the Lord of the Sabbath, who comes and says, I will give you rest.

Christ, who comes and saves his people from their sins, from their transgressions.

Christ comes as the answer to the exile, as the rest that God had promised.

So, we'll leave it there. Any questions or thoughts as we close? So, there were some questions about why the disciples of Jesus were not fasting in the same way that the disciples of John the

Baptist and the Pharisees would fast. And Jesus talked about, it didn't make any sense for the friends of the bridegroom to fast when the bridegroom was with them.

Isn't that the time for feasting? Which he was, by that, exposing that the way in which spiritual disciplines were being done were by tradition, were by just routine, this is what we have to do.

But the bridegroom had shown up, so they were missing the point of them.

They were missing the point of it, he was there, it's all about him, it's about rejoicing in him and communion with him, not about checking something off the list.

It's the difference like in Galatians, moving from slave to son. The slave goes and does the work and checks it off the list, the son is rejoicing and fellowshipping with the father, the relationship is there.

And that's what Jesus was pointing out, the difference between, were the disciples being unholy because they were rejoicing with Jesus?

No. So trying to reorient the focus not on the shadows and the routines and the ceremonies and the traditions, but putting it on the substance, he was

Christ. So it's related. I'd say, what did

Jesus tell his fellow Jews to look forward to? And then what did the

Apostles say? What does the book of Hebrews say? What did they all together in harmony say as the gospel went forth to the

Jew first and also to the Gentiles? What were they told to look forward to and expect and desire and put their hopes on in the

New Testament? What were they told? They were to put their attention upon the same place that Abraham did, a city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is

God, a mountain that cannot be touched. If the goal was to return to a geographically bound physical area of the

Levant in Palestine, then the promises in the New Testament would be very clear.

It would say, you know, gear up, get ready, you're going to go back, and you're going to go back to the mountain that can be touched.

You're going to return to offering sacrifices daily. Does that sound like Hebrews?

Does that sound like Galatians? Does that sound like, you know, the way that Jesus taught?

Total opposite. And in fact, and of course in Galatians 4, there was this idea in Galatians of returning back to the ways of Judaism.

Oh, you have to have circumcision, right? How significant is circumcision? And Paul said, well with that you're gonna have to keep the whole wall.

And he said, you know, going back to, he said there's a Jerusalem that represents slavery, and it's here on earth.

There's a Jerusalem above who is our mother, and you can either be a slave, there is an old covenant

Israel, and there's a new covenant Israel who is Christ. Who do you want to be in? Every time

Paul talked about being in Christ, you know how vital it was in the Old Testament, the Old Covenant? Are you in Israel, or are you out of Israel?

Are you in the camp, or are you unclean and cast outside the camp? Outside the camp, right?

Jesus put, are you either in Him, or you're outside in judgment, right?

So the language is always about, are you in Christ, or outside of Christ? Because He is the fulfillment of Israel. That's what Isaiah 49 was saying this morning.

You just read Isaiah 49, just read it out loud. God is saying to the Messiah, you are

Israel, I sent you to save Israel and the Gentiles. So who does

God call Israel? He calls Jesus of Nazareth Israel. He calls Him, He calls the Christ Israel. And if the question in the

Old Covenant was, are you in or you're out? So also is the New Covenant, are you in or you're out? Are you in Christ, or are you outside of Christ?

And the Jerusalem that He establishes is not one that can be touched. The description of the

New Jerusalem is, all of the hopes of what it means to be in Christ and in the

New Jerusalem have their metaphorical anchor in what God did in the life of Israel. So it's very, very important, but it's fulfilled in Him.

So the promised rest, you know, in Hebrews, the message of Hebrews to the

Jews was, don't go back, don't go back, don't go back. So, you know,

I think just kind of lean into what Christ and the Apostles said to their fellow Jews, and that's the hope that we should offer to the

Jews, as well as the Gentiles, because they're offered to both. All right, well let's close by singing the doxology together.