The Sabbath of Moses
Exodus 31:12-17
Always in the ministry through the years that the Lord has given me, I have been encouraged to see Scripture in detail, as you well know. Sometimes bearing down with amazing relentlessness on one verse or one phrase. And I love to do that. I'm greatly challenged and thrilled to dig deeply into the smallest piece of divine revelation. But at the same time, I realize that nothing is more exhilarating, nothing is more encouraging, nothing is more compelling than to understand the big picture. In understanding the Bible, it's fine to understand the details if you understand how the details fit into the big picture. So when you can sort of talk about sweeping themes of Scripture, it's very, very helpful to create context in which we can place the details.
And that's essentially what we're doing as we've come to Genesis chapter 2 and are looking at the issue of the seventh day. We're looking in to a detail. But the deeper we go into this detail, the more it throws us into a wider, broader view. You'll see that as it unfolds tonight in our message and in the subsequent messages in the weeks ahead.
We have finished our series on the origin, origin of the universe as indicated in Genesis chapter 1. By the way, that series has had an amazing, amazing response and I think it will continue to have that when it is aired on Grace To You, it will literally fill up an entire month of broadcasting, I think, after the first of the year. But when we finished chapter 1 and we get through the creation, also adding the elements of chapter 2, we come to the beginning of chapter 2 and it says, "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their hosts and by the seventh day, or on the seventh day, God had completed His work which He had done and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."
Thus we are introduced to the day after creation...the seventh day. And that introduces us to this whole issue of the seventh day. We know it is a major issue. We understand that it has connections to the Jewish Sabbath. We understand that there are groups today, such as Seventh Day Adventists and Seventh Day Baptists, would you believe?, and other groups that still adhere to a Saturday observance of worship. And there are many people who have transitioned the seventh day to the first day and they are what we call Sunday Sabbatarians who want Sunday to be treated with all the same devotion and the same prescription as the Old Testament seventh day Sabbath. That introduces us then to the necessity of having to get a grip on the seventh day and its significance.
Now last time we addressed the issue of the seventh day in Genesis 2:1 to 3. It is mentioned there three times. And the creation account makes this reference to the seventh day three times and identifies it as a day in which God has ceased all His creative work. Now we covered the meaning of that in our prior message. If you weren't here, I really encourage you to get the tape on this...so...it is so very foundational. But to remind you of the essential teaching that we gave, we need only to direct you to the fact that this day God blessed and sanctified, according to verse 3. That is to say God declared it holy.
Now the incomparable character then of this seventh day is indicated by the fact that "holy" is used to designate it and it's the first time the word "holy" is used in Scripture. First usage of the Hebrew word meaning holy, or sanctified. It means to set apart, to exalt, to elevate above the usual level. And the seventh day becomes elevated, it becomes set apart, it becomes lifted up, it becomes exalted for three reasons indicated by three verbs.
First of all, because the heaven and earth, verse 1, were completed. That is to say creation was finished. Secondly, in verse 2 because God having completed His work rested, meaning not to work...also including the positive idea of delight and satisfaction. It was a special day because creation was finished and because God was fully satisfied, as we saw back in the end of chapter 1, the very end of the chapter in verse 31, He saw what He had created and it was very good. We also noted that God rested because there was nothing else to do, there was no further work until the Fall of man when God had to go to work again to preserve and uphold His creation now fallen, and tending toward death. And He also had to begin the work of redemption.
So, we concluded then that the seventh day of rest in Genesis has no relation to man's rest. It doesn't say anything about man resting. It doesn't have any connection to man's worship. It isn't commanded of Adam to observe it. Mankind is not told to observe it. There is no command for man to rest every seventh day in Genesis. There is no Sabbath rule given here. There isn't any Sabbath rule given anywhere in Genesis, not even in the Abrahamic Covenant which was God's unique covenant of blessing for the nation Israel. But it is a special day set apart because God completed His creation, because He rested and then verse 3, because He blessed the seventh day.
And in what sense did He bless it? Well, He blessed it by identifying it as a memorial. Every seventh day, we showed you last time, that goes by stands as a testimony, as it were, a memorial to the great fact that God created the universe in six days. There is no reason, and I pointed this out last time, there is no reason for men to count time in seven-day periods. There is no reason for that. There is no...it doesn't make mathematical sense to divide 365 days or even 360 days in the Jewish calendar into sevens, it doesn't work. There's no compelling reason to do that. Tens would seem to fit much better. The only reason we possibly could have arrived at a universal, worldwide designation of time in seven days is because that is testimony to a six-day creation after which God rested and established that seventh day as a constant on-going end of every week memorial to His six-day creation. So that every time Saturday comes along, it gives us opportunity to be reminded of the fact that God created the universe in six days and it was finished.
So, when Saturday rolls by, we remember God the creator. And when Sunday comes, we remember God the Savior because that is the day Jesus rose from the dead having accomplished our redemption. Through the years in western Christian society we have recognized that man works on a five-day week and he takes those two days, I think we've lost obviously the intent, but that we would think that maybe originally the intent for some was that we might spend Saturday remembering God as creator and enjoying that creation and spend Sunday worshiping God for the gift of Christ who died and rose again for us. And so with that we closed our thoughts on Genesis.
Now the seventh day comes up again and the next time it comes up it shows up in the book of Exodus. It shows up in the Mosaic Law, the Law of God given to Moses, sometimes called the Mosaic Covenant, sometimes called the Sinaitic Covenant because Moses was in Mount Sinai when God gave it. The children of Israel were at the foot of Mount Sinai. It is sometimes called the Old Covenant. The New Testament writers refer to it as the Old Covenant.
But in that Mosaic, Sinaitic, Old Covenant there was a Sabbath law given. We're going to look at that. That's very important for us to understand. And then once we've seen that, we can move on and show how the New Testament deals with that Sabbath law whether it's in or out, and how if at all it relates to Sunday and the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But we have to start by understanding the Sabbath in the context of the Mosaic Law. We can ask the question...are we still under Sabbath law? Are we still under some seventh-day obligation? Is the first day of the week our Sabbath and should it have all of the compunctions and all of the prescriptions of the Old Testament Sabbath? Or should it not? Well, we have to understand the Mosaic Law and the New Covenant to answer those questions, and let's begin with the Mosaic Law.
So, we turn now from the seventh day of creation to the seventh day Sabbath of Mosaic Law. In Exodus chapter 19 and 20 God met Moses on Mount Sinai. And this is very familiar turf to any student of the Bible. God met Moses on Mount Sinai. And God gave him there His Law. He established the divine standard of righteousness. In the Law of God you have really an articulation of righteousness. You have a prescription of righteousness. You have righteousness defined in all of its dimensions for man. And the standard of righteousness is what is required, mark this, to satisfy God. God is not satisfied with anything less than perfect adherence to His complete righteous law. And in the Mosaic Law you have God's righteous standard laid out completely. And this is required to satisfy God. Any breach of that law, any violation of that law, any disobedience to that standard produces death, judgment and damnation. This is a very serious issue.
Now this Mosaic Covenant, Sinaitic Covenant or Old Covenant can best be understood in four features. This will help you to grasp this. I don't know that I've ever taught it in this kind of sequence, but this helps me as I struggle to try to organize it in my mind and I hope it will help you. I want to sort of help you to understand the nature of this Mosaic Law by giving you four features of this law, the first three of which develop in increasing detail. Okay, just hang on to that.
The first way we understand the Law is in a two-fold summarization of the Law. Here it is. "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself." There is the summation or the summarization of the entire Law of God.
Now we only can have relationships in two directions. We can have a relationship with God and we can have a relationship with other people. And so all the Law of God covers those two categories. And all that can be said about our relationship to God is summed up in one statement, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength." That is to say, if you love God perfectly with every element of your human capacity, if you love God completely with heart, soul, mind and strength, you would fulfill every obligation to God. So that is the summarization of that part of the Law of God which relates to Him.
The second is obviously relating to the issue of human relationships. And if you love your neighbor as yourself you will fulfill that aspect of God's Law. Perfect love toward God fulfills all obligations toward God. And perfect, unselfish, utterly sacrificial devotion to others fulfills the human part of God's Law.
Now by the way, this two-fold summarization of the Law is given a number of times in the Old Testament. You will find it in Deuteronomy 6:5; Deuteronomy 10:12, 11:1, 13:32, Deuteronomy 19:9, Deuteronomy 30 verse 6, you will find it also in the New Testament, Matthew 22:37 to 40 where Jesus gives this and also the Apostle Paul says this in Romans 13 verses 7 to 10. So the first broad view that you get of the Mosaic Law is that half of it relates to God and half of it relates to people and if you love God perfectly and love people perfectly, then you will fulfill it all. Perfect love to God precludes doing or being or thinking or saying anything that would dishonor Him. And perfect love to others precludes doing anything that would harm them or demean them or belittle them or injure them or wound them or show any level of indifference toward their need. Therefore those two become the fulfilling of the Law. That's what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 13. Perfect love fulfills the Law toward God and toward your fellow man.
Descending into further detail, however, is the second way you view the Mosaic Law. The second way you view the Mosaic Law is not a two-fold summary but a ten-fold summary. This ten-fold summary is known to us as the Ten Commandments, often called the Decalogue, deca being Latin for ten. This is the sum of the Law. Often this is called the Tablets of Stone in the Old Testament, sometimes called The Tablets of the Ancients, Deuteronomy 9:9, 11 and 15, most commonly called the Ten Commandments.
Now here you have...the first half of the Ten Commandments are about how we love God perfectly, and the second half of the Ten Commandments are about how we love man perfectly. The first half of the Ten Commandments refer to our relationship to God. The second half of the Ten Commandments refer to our relationship to each other. And we get further detail about God's moral law as we look at the Ten Commandments. And you can look at them right there in Exodus chapter 20, they unfold from verse 1 right on down through verse 17. And we won't take the time to go through them all, you're familiar with them. The first half deals with our relation to God, the second half deals with our relation to man.
So you have then, first of all, a two-fold summarization of the Law. Then you have a ten-fold explanation of the Law. Thirdly, we go from two-fold to ten-fold to let's just say manifold. As we descend down this increasing ladder of detail, we get to the expanded laws which further define and explain the two-fold commands and the ten-fold commands. And if you...when you look at verse 1 of Exodus 21 you start to get all kinds of detail. Starting in chapter 21 and running all the way to the end of chapter 23 you have all kinds of detail relating to human relations and divine relations. For example, it starts in chapter 21 and verse 2 with how you treat a slave, and it ends in chapter 23 verse 33 with how you treat God, about not serving other gods. So you have here an expanded version, as it were, in far more detail of the Ten Commandments which are an expanded version of the two-fold commands which we identified first of all.
I would add to this that this is not all the manifold explanation. You can basically take the entire book of Leviticus because the entire book of Leviticus unfolds more and more of this manifold Law of God.
Now the expanded version...I'll back up a little bit. The Ten Commandments further explain the two commandments and the manifold Law of God further explains the Ten Commandments.
Now let me just go down the Ten Commandments for a moment. First of all, number one is "No other gods." That's simple, you're not to have any other gods. But as you look at the explanation of that, for example, in Exodus 22 it says you're to make no sacrifices to another deity. In Exodus 34 it says you are not allowed to worship any other deity. In Leviticus chapter 20 it says, "I am the Lord your God alone." And in Deuteronomy chapter 10 you are to fear the Lord your God and Him only. So, you see, you get further and further explanations of that first commandment.
The second commandment again related to God is to not worship idols. And Leviticus 26:1 says you're not to make any kind of idol or graven image. Deuteronomy 29 further goes on to say if you do this then you will not be forgiven for it. Deuteronomy 32 explains in verse 21 the anger of God about that. And Leviticus 19 further describes the great crime against God of turning toward false gods. So you get a continued expansion of this not only in Exodus in that section, not only in Leviticus but as I noted further in to Deuteronomy.
The third commandment is not to profane God's name, to take His name in vain. Exodus 34 warns that if you do that, iniquity will be visited on succeeding generations. Leviticus 22:32 further warns not to profane His holy name in any way. Leviticus 24:16 says that you can be executed, put to death for such profaning or for such cursing of God.
The fourth of those first commandments we'll talk about in a moment, but it is, "Remember the Sabbath," and it's dropped right in the middle. The first four relate to God, 5 through 10 relate to man and the Sabbath one is dropped in at number 4. We'll comment on that in a moment. I'll just suffice it to say that when it says "Remember the Sabbath," that too is expanded. In Exodus 31 it is called a perpetual covenant. It is...it is serious enough that violation of the Sabbath is cause for death, execution, being cut off and so forth.
You come then to a fifth commandment and there's a turning from being focused toward God which is the first three, and then that middle Sabbath command and then from 5 to 10 you have to do with human relations. The first thing in human relations that God requires is that you honor your...what?...father and mother. And Exodus 21 further explains the death penalty if you curse your parents. Exodus 21:15 gives the death penalty for striking your father. Leviticus 19:3 further expands on the need for reference for father and mother. Deuteronomy 21:18 to 21 talks about rebellion against parents.
And then the next command dealing with human relations, command number six in total, is not to kill. And you find further explanations in Exodus about killing in a quarrel and a fist fight. Exodus 21 talks about killing by beating with a rod. Exodus 21 talks about what happens when someone is killed by an ox, and so forth. First offenses, several offenses and all kinds of explanations about killing.
The seventh command is not to commit adultery. And Leviticus 20 adds to that, not to done with another man's wife. Leviticus 20 says that. Leviticus 20 also says not with your father's wife, that is not incest. Leviticus 20 also says not with a daughter-in-law, not within the family. And then Leviticus 18:16 to 30 a number of different situations which God forbids adultery.
The eighth command then is not to steal. And Exodus 22:1 talks about stealing an ox. Exodus 22:2 to 4 talks about a thief caught while breaking in, talks about stealing someone else's animals in Exodus 22. And it even talks about in Exodus 22 what happens when you catch a thief a long time after his crime is committed. There's much further detail about stealing.
The ninth command is not to bear false witness. That is not to lie. And you have Leviticus 6 speaking about lying and swearing falsely. Leviticus 5 talks about swearing thoughtlessly. Exodus 23 talks about giving false report, giving false testimony under oath. Deuteronomy 19 deals with the same thing, false witness and the punishment for a false witness.
And then the tenth command is not to covet. Deuteronomy 7 embellishes that. Don't covet gold. Exodus 34, don't covet land. And I'm just giving you some illustrations.
So, what you have is two commandments expanded into ten commandments, expanded into manifold explanations so that those commandments are applied in all kinds of situations in life.
Now that was the Mosaic, Sinaitic Covenant given to Israel and what it did was articulate God's standard of righteousness and the required behavior was to completely keep that law to satisfy God. Any breach, any violation as we are reminded in Deuteronomy and again in Galatians 3, if you break the law in one case, you have broken the whole law and you are cursed by God. So the standard is absolute, unbending.
Now this expanded version, this manifold version of the Covenant with all of its detail given in Exodus and Leviticus and Deuteronomy was brought together, copied down and placed in a receptacle and that receptacle was placed on the side of the Ark of the Covenant. You remember in the tabernacle and in the temple later on, the tabernacle had, of course, an outer courtyard and then an inner holy place, and then an inner Holy of Holies. And inside the Holy of Holies, you remember, was the Ark of the Covenant. Beside the Ark of the Covenant was placed this great manifold explanation of the Ten Commandments. Notably, folks, I don't know if you remember this, the Ten Commandments were placed in the Ark. So in the Ark you have the Ten Commandments and outside you have this manifold explanation. Deuteronomy 31:26 says this, "Take this book of the Law and place it beside the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord your God that it remain there...and here's the reason...as a witness against you."
Boy, that's not a very nice covenant, is it? And it was designed to damn people. It was designed to show people their...what?...their sin. The Ten Commandments which is the expansion of the two commandments, the Ten Commandments are the words of the Covenant, they're often called that. The Ten Commandments are the words of the Covenant which God made with Israel after Sinai and the expanded version of the Covenant God made with Moses at Sinai, the interpretation of the Ten Commandments covers all kinds of life situations. And in Exodus 24:7 that expanded version is called the words of the Covenant, Exodus 24:7, the words of the Covenant also. So you have the Covenant defined in two commands, ten commands, manifold commands. The book of the Covenant was placed inside the Ark, the expanded words of the Covenant outside the Ark for the purpose of an ongoing permanent testimony against the people.
Now why did God want to make testimony against them? Because it was absolutely critical that people understand their condition before God and that was a condition of alienation and separation by sin. And the idea of that was not simply to drive them to despair and guilt and remorse and shame but to drive them to a lack of confidence in themselves, a recognition of their inability to please God and a desperate level of repentance in which they called upon God for mercy and grace and forgiveness which He would provide by grace. So we see those are the three features that we start with in this sort of descending cascade of more detail.
There's one other key feature in the Old Covenant and that is the Sabbath. And I want you to turn to Exodus chapter 31 so that we can understand how the Sabbath fits into this. We don't really have to strain at this because it's laid out for us in very direct terms. In Exodus 31 I'll look at verses 12 and 13, jump down to 16 and 17 and we'll cover the verses in the middle later on.
"And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, But as for you, speak for the sons of Israel saying, You shall surely observe My Sabbath." Now stop there for a minute.
The Sabbath day has already been instituted in the Mosaic Law. I told you it was the fourth command. And it sort of sits in the middle. The first few had