Exodus 23_1-2 - You Shall Rest

A Divine Commandment

Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien may be refreshed. (Exodus 23:12)

In our fast-paced, materialistic culture, time is money. If we are not working, we are not making a profit. With the advent of social media, email, and cellular technology, we are often on call twenty-four hours a day.

Over the last number of years, my wife and I have been looking after her aging parents and our grandson, who has been struggling with a mental illness, each requiring numerous doctors’ appointments and personal attention.

As a writer, I have taken on one writing project after another for over thirty-five years. There have been months when I have written in the morning, afternoon, and late at night. I feel there are as many unwritten books before me as behind me. I have been overwhelmed with requests for free books from many countries. I will not live long enough to meet these requests. 

From a pastoral perspective, I have seen the people in the church suffer from sickness and tragedies of all kinds. I see young men and women in that community who have made a profession of faith in Christ, but who are no longer walking in the truth they professed. Others have never come to Christ. Where do you find time and energy to meet these overwhelming needs?

THE NEED TO  BE REFRESHED

It is in this context that I want to consider Exodus 23:11 quoted above. Note how the Lord God told His people that they were to work six days a week, but on the seventh, they were to rest. Observe first the call to work. Out of the seven days God created, He calls us to work six. This shows us something important. We were created to work. Listen to the purpose of God for Adam, the first man, in Genesis 2:15:

 15  The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. - Genesis 2:15 ESV

In a perfect world, where sin did not exist, God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden to work. The human body was created by God to move and be productive. Our work not only benefits society but also contributes to our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual wellness. 

One of the things we need to understand, however, is that our bodies, minds, and spirits all wear down with effort and need to be recharged. You cannot change this reality. All we can do is respect it. This is how God created us. 

I was struck some time ago by the words of John 4:5-6. Speaking about our Lord, John says:

5  So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.   6  Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.  - John 4:5-6 ESV

Consider this for a moment. Jesus travelled from Judea to Galilee after a busy time of ministry. John tells us that when He arrived in Sychar, He was weary from His journey and sat down beside the well to rest while the disciples went into the city to find food. We cannot miss what John is telling us here. Jesus was the Son of God in human flesh. The almighty power of God rested on Him.  He was full of the Spirit of God, yet His flesh grew weary. The picture before us is striking. Dressed in human flesh, the Son of God, weary from His travel, sat down to rest by a well. He needed to rest because He had a body like ours. Jesus shows us here that these earthly bodies were not designed to work continuously, even when filled with the Spirit and power of God. We were created for work, but we can only work effectively if we respect these bodies and give them time to rest.

It is for this reason that the Lord God commanded that when we work six days, we take the seventh day off. This is laid out clearly in the law of Exodus 23:12:

Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien may be refreshed. (Exodus 23:12)

Observe the reason for this day of rest? It was so that the ox and donkey could rest. It was so that the servant and the stranger could be refreshed. That one day in seven was designed to refresh the body and give it rest from six days of hard labour. To honour this day is to respect life as God created it. 

What was true for the human body was also true for the fields Israel cultivated. Consider what the Law of Moses commanded landowners:

 3  For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits,   4  but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard.   5   You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land.   6  The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you,   7  and for your cattle and for the wild animals that are in your land: all its yield shall be for food. - Leviticus 25:3-7 ESV

The land needed one year in seven to rest if it was to be productive. We honour the creation of God when we respect its need for rest. We abuse it when we push it beyond its ability to replenish.

The Hebrew word for rest is שָׁמַט (šāmaṭ), meaning to discontinue, release, let rest, or throw down. In the case of Exodus 23:11, it refers to throwing down our labour or discontinuing our work for the purpose of “refreshing.” The word “refreshed” is נָפַשׁ (nāpha) and speaks of taking a breath. Imagine a runner pushing himself with all his might. There comes a time in his run, however, that he needs to pause to catch his breath. He stops all effort just to let his body’s need for air to be satisfied. As he rests, heart beating wildly, he fills his lungs repeatedly until his oxygen-deprived body is restored to normal functioning again. He is then refreshed and able to continue his run.

To rest in this first sense, then, is to respect our bodies and allow them to be restored as God intended, so that they can continue to be effective in service and labour for the Lord.

THE NEED TO RESTORE BALANCE

There was something else about rest we need to understand in the context of Exodus 23:12. Listen to the words of verses ten and eleven:

10   “For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield,   11  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 field may eat. You shall do likewise with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard. - Exodus 23:10-11 ESV

Exodus 23:10-11 speaks of one year out of seven where the land was to remain unplanted. In this year, the poor and the animals were given permission to eat whatever the land produced naturally. 

Consider what is happening here? Over the six years of working fields, an imbalance began to emerge. Some people harvested significant crops and made great profit from their fields. Others struggled with poor harvests, not entirely their fault. Imagine the young family whose father, the only labourer, passed away, leaving nobody to work the fields. Imagine another family suffering from an accident hindering their ability to cultivate their land. Over time, a social imbalance becomes evident. Some families had much more than they needed, while others did not have enough to survive. To pay their bills, some Israelites were forced to sell themselves into slavery, working the fields of those who had plenty already. 

In the seventh year, the rich were required to leave their fields unplanted and allow the animals and the poor to eat what they produced. The grapevines and the olive trees became anybody’s harvest. The imbalance became more tolerable. Those experiencing poverty had the opportunity to eat from fields, vineyards, and trees throughout the land. They experienced rest from their poverty and oppression. Greater balance was restored to society. Those who had been forced to sell themselves as slaves were released in the seventh year and given an opportunity to start over. Every seventh Sabbatical year, or every fifty years, land that had been sold through hardship was restored to its original owners and social imbalance checked. 

This imbalance was not just societal, but personal as well. Unchecked work and busyness naturally create imbalance. We become obsessed with productivity. We begin to feel irreplaceable. We find ourselves ignoring other priorities. Money, work, and success keep us from God, and or our families. The command of God to rest forces us to reexamine our life balance. Pulling ourselves from the constant demands of work releases us to redirect our energies to other priorities in life. It forces us to examine our lives and challenges us to consider those things that have been neglected in the pursuit of our personal and spiritual goals. Rest, in this sense, meets a very basic need in our lives. It checks the natural imbalances resulting from work without a break. The poor were given an opportunity to gather what they could not plant. The slave was given an opportunity to reboot and start over. The individual was given time to pull away from the constant demands of his work life to focus on other priorities God had given him.

LOOKING FORWARD TO TRUE REST

Exodus 20:9-11 seems to add another dimension to the rest God required:

 9   Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,   10  but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.   11  For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. - Exodus 20:9-11 ESV

Note the reason for this seventh day of rest in verse 11. Israel was to rest because God made the world in six days and rested on the seventh, blessing that day and making it holy. Notice two details here.

First, Genesis 20:11 tells us that the Lord God made the world in six days. That could have made for a six-day work week, but God chose to add a seventh day for the purpose of rest. Understand here that God is the source of all strength. We draw all we need from Him, but His energy does not diminish. The Psalmist puts it this way:

 4  Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. - Psalms 121:4 ESV

The rest of God in Exodus 20:11 is not a rest that comes from fatigue, but rather a completion of the work of creation. He stopped creating the physical world as we know it. Note, however, that while He stopped creating the physical world in six days, He established a seventh day for rest. This seventh day was as important as the other six. In fact, it was this seventh day that would keep everything He made healthy and balanced. That seventh day or seventh year would restore and refresh creation and keep it as He intended. The rest He created on that seventh day would renew and refresh His creation. To respect this day was to respect its Creator and His creation.

Second, observe that God blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. The word “holy” in the Hebrew text is קָדַשׁ (qādaš), meaning consecrate, keep, dedicate, purify, or sanctify. The idea is that this was a special day. In fact, of all the days of the week, this day alone is called holy and set apart by God. This day of rest was set apart as holy. The question we must ask is this: What is it about this day that made it so holy? To answer this, we need to look at Exodus 31:13: bo

 13  “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.  - Exodus 31:13 ESV

Observe several important details in this verse about the seventh day of rest.

First, consider that the Lord tells His people that this day of rest was a sign between Him and His people. When a couple is married, they present each other with rings, signs of their commitment to each other. In the Old Testament, we have the sign of circumcision given to every male child as a reminder that they were the children of God. We use signs to remind us of important truths we cannot forget. By giving His people a day of rest, God gave them a sign and reminder of an important truth.

Second, observe that this sign was for their generation. It would be passed on from one generation to another until it was fulfilled. They passed on this sign and its meaning to their children and grandchildren.

Third, we discover from the verse what this day of rest represented. It was a reminder that the Lord God sanctified His people. What is the connection between this sanctifying work of the Lord and the rest of the seventh day? Let’s consider this briefly.

First, the word sanctify is קָדַשׁ (qādaš) and speaks of appointing, consecrating, dedicating, making holy, purifying, and keeping. In the New Testament, the act of sanctifying is a work of the Holy Spirit, who, after making us children of God, matures us in the faith and makes us like Jesus Christ. dy

To understand the connection between this day of rest and the sanctifying work of God, let’s consider the words of Hebrews 4. In the context, the writer speaks about how Israel, wandering through the wilderness, refused to go into the land of Canaan, fearing the people of the land, and not trusting their Lord to give them victory over them. God wanted to give them rest from their wilderness wandering, but His people rejected it, and so, the Lord left them in the wilderness for the next forty years. It is here, in Hebrews 4:1, that the author picks up the story:

1  Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.   2  For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.   3  For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’” although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. - Hebrews 4:1-3 ESV

What is Hebrews 4:1-3 telling us? It shows us that the Israelites did not enter their rest because they did not receive what God offered them by faith. They refused to enter the land, fearing its inhabitants, and refused to trust the Lord to give them victory. The writer goes on to tell us that it is those who believe who enter the rest He promises. How were God’s people to enter Canaan, the land of promise? They were to enter it by faith in God, who would give them victory beyond all odds. What would they find in Canaan? They would find their rest from the weariness of their wilderness wanderings.

From this illustration, the author moves on to make an application. Listen to his words in verses 9-11:

 9  So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10  for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 11  Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. - Hebrews 4:9-11 ESV

There is a Sabbath rest for the people of God, he tells us. We can enter that rest by faith. Those who enter this rest, God gives rest from their work as God did. We are to strive to enter this rest. 

What is this rest that the writer of the Hebrews refers to here? For the people of God, it was a rest from their wandering in the wilderness and a place in the land of Canaan, the promised land. In Hebrews 4, it is a rest from our wandering in disobedience and unbelief. We enter this rest by believing in the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf, and taking our stand against the disbelief and sin in our hearts and lives. Like Israel, we stand before the land of Canaan. God offers it to us by faith. It is a land of blessing and rest from our wandering. He opens the door for all who will, by faith in Jesus Christ, receive it. In Christ, we can be freed from the burden of sin and wandering, know the forgiveness of God, and the joy of eternal rest in His presence.

Let’s return to Exodus 31:13:

 13  “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.  - Exodus 31:13 ESV

God’s people were to remember the seventh day of rest because it was a sign that God would sanctify them. He would give them rest from sin and rebellion. He would set them free from their wilderness wandering and bring them into their own land, the land of Canaan. Ultimately, however, Canaan was not the final destination. That destination was the heavenly city, the land promised to those who believed in His Son. This is our final resting place. It is the place of perfect rest. Rest from sin and rebellion. Rest from the curse of sin with its disease and death. Rest for our souls in the person of Jesus Christ. 

“Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths for this is a sign between me and you… that you may know that it is the Lord that sanctifies you.” The day of rest looked forward to the ultimate sanctification of the Lord Jesus. It was a picture of the salvation Jesus came to offer, a rest from sin and its curse.

This day of rest was “above all” important because of what it represented. It pictured perfect rest in the person of the Lord Jesus. As the people offered their weekly sacrifice on that Sabbath day, they looked forward to a rest from the endless sacrifice of bulls, goats, sheep, and birds. Speaking to the crowds of His day, the Lord Jesus said:

 28   Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.   29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. - Matthew 11:28-29 ESV

It is not just our bodies that need rest. Our souls as well are often filled with turmoil and chaos. For this, there is only one solution. As Augustine of Hippo once said:

“You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

The day of rest was a day to rest the physical body and refocus our priorities, but it was also a promise from God to His people that, through His only Son Jesus Christ, He would bring salvation and spiritual rest for our weary souls. In Him and in Him alone is the true rest we need.