June 18, 2006 Deuteronomy 5:12-15
“Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you.
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
Observe the Sabbath Day By Keeping it Holy
Out of all of the things I command my children to do every day; clean their rooms, empty out the cat litter, put their bikes away - do you know what command my children seem to dread the worst? Go to bed. It doesn’t matter HOW TIRED they are - most of them almost always dread and fight going to bed. The flesh is a strange thing. You would think that out of all of the commandments God gives us - the command to REST would be the easiest one of all to follow. After all, which one of us isn’t tired? Yet our society doesn’t know how to rest - we always have to be doing something. We feel like we are not being good parents if our kids don’t have at least three activities a week to go to. We feel like we’re being lazy if we just sit on the back porch without weed whacking or vacuuming or something. So we go out and whack the weeds. We run our kids back and forth. We work overtime. As a result, we are tired. We wish we “could” slow down. Yet we don’t do anything to give up our activities. We convince ourselves that we NEED to have things that we don’t. The new car or furniture, the beautiful garden in the back yard, children who can speak five foreign languages, or the latest high tech gadgets are absolute musts.
In the midst of this we try keep in mind what Proverbs 23:4 says, “Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint.” God constantly calls on us to show some wisdom. That means to use what you know, and apply it to the decisions you make - especially with your desire to “get rich.” Be careful with what you charge on your credit cards. Will it force you into an extra job that will take you apart from your family? This applies to our constant activities as well. Do my children need to be involved in this activity, or will it wear us out?” Before you say, “I don’t have time” to worship, to read the Bible, to spend with my family - ask yourself - “WHY don’t I have the time?” If we want to be realistic with ourselves, it isn’t that we HAVE to be so busy or that we HAVE to have all these things going on. It’s because for some reason we WANT to. Maybe it makes you feel important to be busy. Maybe it keeps you from doing the things you SHOULD do - because “you’re just too busy.”
This is no new thing. The Jews back in Moses’ time also felt the need to be going about their chores and working their fields. Just to live day by day required a much greater amount of daily chores and responsibilities. Yet in the midst of their busy-ness - the LORD grabs them by the collar from the fire and clouds of Mt. Sinai and says - “OBSERVE THE SABBATH DAY.” It didn’t matter how “busy” they were. It didn’t matter how much they just HAD TO get done. On this one day - the seventh day - a Saturday - they were to rest. This was not an option. It was a command from the LORD God.
I. The meaning of it
How were they to observe it? “By keeping it holy.” Martin Luther had an interesting observation on what it meant to “keep the Sabbath holy.” In describing the 7th day of the creation week he wrote,
He did not sanctify for Himself the heaven, the earth, or any other creature; but the seventh day He did sanctify for Himself. This has the special purpose of making us understand that the seventh day in particular should be devoted to divine worship. For "holy" is that which has been set aside for God and has been removed from all secular uses. Hence to sanctify means to set aside for sacred purposes, or for the worship of God. It follows, therefore, from this passage that if Adam had remained in the state of innocence, he nevertheless would have held the seventh day sacred. That is, on this day he would have given his descendants instructions about the will and worship of God; he would have praised God; he would have given thanks; he would have sacrificed, etc. On the other days he would have tilled his fields and tended his cattle. Indeed, even after the Fall he kept this seventh day sacred; that is, on this day he instructed his family, of which the sacrifices of his sons Cain and Abel give the proof. Therefore from the beginning of the world the Sabbath was intended for the worship of God. (Comments on Genesis 2:3 from volume 1)
In other words, what Luther was saying was that the 7th day was supposed to be a time that the Old Testament Jews would set aside to observe and talk about God’s creation instead of using it. In that way, the day would be set aside and not ignored by every day busy work.
II. The reasons for it
This is in keeping with what the LORD Himself says in Deuteronomy 5. God could have just told the Israelites to rest and given them no reason. Yet His explanation helped to feed their faith and motivate them to see why this rest was so important. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. The first reason was so that not only they but all of their slaves and animals could let their bodies rest. After the Fall, the bodies of men and animals tended to get tired and worn out. It would be easy for these slave owners to simply work their workers and animals to death. With this commandment God was holding them accountable for those workers under them. He was forcing them to give their workers and them selves a break. Even though God allowed slavery, He still had a deep concern that these people and even the animals would have a break from working in this sin ridden world.
The benefit of having a break - physically - can really prove invaluable. If any of you have been forced to work for two weeks straight without a day off, you recognize how your whole body starts to wear down and your productivity slows greatly. More accidents and injuries happen at work. You can tell just by looking at someone who has worked overtime - their eyes are droopy and their body actually sags - that they need a break. Ironically, the day off rejuvenates your body and mind and enables you to get more work done with the day off than you would working straight through. Many employers don’t recognize this - and so they overwork their employees to their own detriment. God recognized this weakness in the fallen world, and He wanted to provide a break for His creatures.
However, the main reason for this “break” - as Luther mentioned, was spiritual. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Imagine a Hebrew father saying to his child on a Saturday afternoon, “If it weren’t for the LORD, you would be looking for straw and mixing bricks today. You’d have a whip to your back if your feet were sore and you tried to stop working for a little bit. You’d have to see these Egyptians worship the sun and call the Pharaoh a god. It was the LORD who sent the plagues. It was the LORD who killed the firstborn. It was the LORD who split the Red Sea. All that we have here today - the ability to sit here and relax in our own home in our own land, the promise of a Savior to come - the ability to worship the true LORD on this day - is a gift from the LORD.” After that, thhey could reflect on how the LORD had given them a nice looking harvest as they ate their meal. These kinds of reflections were meant to remind the Israelites that everything they had, everything they were - was a gift of God’s grace. It was to bring about a sense of humility and thankfulness.
III. The fulfillment of it
When you fast forward at least 1500 years, you have to wonder where this whole concept and purpose behind the Sabbath went? All the Pharisees seemed to be concerned about was how many steps a person could or couldn’t take. Imagine the Sabbath police walking around and spying on each other trying to keep one another from doing what they considered work. So when Jesus and his disciples went walking through a field and decided to pick some kernels of grain and eat them, there the Pharisees were - condemning Jesus for working on the Sabbath. When Jesus healed someone’s shriveled hand, there they were again, condemning Jesus for having no regard for the Sabbath. To them, the Sabbath was only a law that needed to be enforced. You have to wonder, why weren’t they home teaching their own children about the Passover? Why weren’t they taking time to talk about and enjoy God’s creation - instead of worrying about what Jesus was doing?
When Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees, what did Jesus say to them? He told them about David, who while running from Saul - went and ate some of the consecrated bread so that he and his men could survive. He “broke the law” in a time of emergency. It proved the point that the Sabbath was made to SERVE man and HELP him. It wasn’t supposed to enslave man or make him starve to death. So Jesus took it to the next step. He concluded in Matthew 12 that He was greater than the temple and that He was the “Lord of the Sabbath.” Since Jesus was greater than the priests and the temple and man, He could heal on the Sabbath if it was for the benefit of man. He could allow his disciples to pick a few heads of grain. He could still obey the Law in the way that the Law was meant to be obeyed - not the way the Pharisees thought it should be obeyed.
I think this is important for us to understand, because we can all too often approach God’s law from a Pharisaical position. We think that we are obeying the law by doing what it tells us, when in reality we are missing the whole spirit of the law. Take for instance coming to worship. You can come to worship or Bible class because you feel like it’s the right thing to do. You can come because you want to obey the 3rd commandment, as God commands. Yet if when you come here, all you think about is what kind of work you are missing out on, are you really benefiting from it? If you don’t listen to the sermon, are you really obeying what the LORD commanded of you? If you only come to keep the pastor or elder from calling on you for another month, is that really a good reason to be here? Are you thinking about who isn’t here or how loud someone else is singing - the Sabbath police - instead of concentrating on what is happening in the service?
I can’t imagine what a joy it must have been to sit at the feet of the Messiah and listen to Him expound on a text. While a majority of the Hebrews were running around the temple grounds and being distracted by the money changers and everything else, Jesus simply listened to God’s Word and worshiped. I can’t imagine how wonderfully simple it must have been to worship with Him - sing songs with Him - and experience the worship of someone whoo genuinely worshiped. He didn’t live worrying about how many steps He took or whether His disciples ate grain or not. He didn’t fret over whether it was “ok” to heal on the Sabbath. He knew. He worshiped according to the Sabbath. On every Saturday He reflected on the goodness of the LORD and reflected on the wonderful deliverance from Egypt - as the LORD said to do. And so He understood and preached on what true rest is all about. It’s about knowing that God is merciful. It’s about knowing that God is a God of deliverance. It’s about knowing that God forgives. Imagine sitting and listening to Jesus on a Saturday afternoon talk about the wonderful gifts of creation; the birds of the air and flowers of the field. In the midst of all this the disciples must have felt so relaxed and good about the goodness and mercy of the LORD. While the Pharisees were all uptight over who was breaking the law, Jesus was simply obeying the Law.
IV. Reflect on it
Here we sit, two thousand years later. As we reflect on these words to the Jews - written over three thousand years ago - we hear the LORD saying to them, “Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy.” It doesn’t quite mean the same to us - does it? I mean, we weren’t delivered from Egypt. Paul also says in Colossians 2:16-17, “do not let anyone judge you by . . . a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” The LORD isn’t grabbing us by the collar and commanding us to worship on Saturdays. So I guess we don’t have to rest. We don’t have to take off on Saturdays and talk about God’s deliverance from Egypt. With this law lifted from our necks we could work seven days a week, every day of the year. We could work ourselves to the bones. We could forget to take time out to reflect on the Lord’s goodness. Many do. Others manage to throw in an hour a month maybe to come and worship. A few may listen to Christian radio on the way to work - and call it “good.” On the inside though, they have that nagging feeling that they just aren’t giving God their best. They are giving Him their leftovers. No matter what you try to tell yourself, you still have that nagging guilt that you just aren’t taking enough time for the LORD. You aren’t getting the rest you need.
In the Old Testament, God set aside a day a week for the Israelites just to slow down and reflect on God’s goodness and mercy - especially for freeing them from slavery to the Egyptians. We have a much greater deliverance that we have been given - from a task master much worse than an Egyptian. We have been freed from our slavery to Satan, sin, death and eternal hell. When Jesus cried out “it is finished” from the cross - we recognize that our sins were paid for in full. Jesus obeyed every law as our substitute. When we stand before Jesus on Judgment Day - we have the comfort of knowing that Jesus is also our defense attorney. Even with the guilt of knowing that we aren’t giving God our best time and effort, we know that Jesus gave us His best - and because of that we are declared “not guilty” - even though we are guilty. This wonderful truth is something that we need to take time to reflect on. Even though God doesn’t command us to - it is good to just take a day off and dedicate it to worship on that day. It’s good because when we hear about Christ - and sing about Christ - and think about Christ - we feel at rest with God. We know that no matter how many things we have to get done in this world - THIS JOB is finished - the job of our salvation. So we can come to worship and have the comfort of knowing that we’re already holy in God’s sight. We can sit here and relax knowing that we’re ready for heaven because of Jesus. As you sit in the pew, you don’t have to worry about how many Sabbaths you have broken, because Jesus kept them all for you. That’s what gives us rest.
Out of all of the commands God gives us - don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t covet - this one - Remember the Sabbath Day - might seem like the easiest one to keep. After all, resting is an easy thing to do. Just sit there and listen. Yet our sinful flesh even makes this command difficult to keep - impossible to keep. We always like to be doing something - we can’t just sit still and listen.
The LORD was bold and commanded His Old Testament people to observe the Sabbath. This was not an option. Yet He didn’t want the keeping of this command to feel like a burden either. He said in Isaiah 58:13-14, “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.” The LORD wanted to bless His people through the Sabbath, and He wants to bless you. That’s why He gave you this church and a pastor. He wants you to take prime time out from your burdened and hard working life to receive some blessings by just listening to His Word: blessings of knowing your sins are paid for and you’re forgiven; knowing God loves you and will never forget about you; knowing that the LORD is protecting you and taking care of you; singing to one another of the mercies of the LORD. It’s good to take a day off and just dwell on the LORD’s deliverance. It’s where we find our rest. This is what the Sabbath is all about - so we remember all that we have is a gift from God. If that doesn’t cut it for you and enable you to relax and enjoy the life God has given you, then nothing will - no matter how hard you work for it. Amen.