Deuteronomy 5:12-15 – Sabbath: Finding our rest in Christ

Introduction

The history of humanity has been one constant attempt to be enslaved. From Genesis 3 to Revelation we see an attempt of humanity to be gods and bear the weight of the universe, to want to be in control and determine their own fate, to want to work to earn the approval of God and others, and to do it until we are worked to the bone. Humanity does not like to rest. We like to be slaves.

Now, before you say, wait a minute, there are lots of people out there who don’t want to work or like to rest, think about this for a moment. They have another way that they are trying to be gods; they want everyone to serve them or they want a life of ease. Some demand that everyone else work to be their slaves, and others desire to live a life where they don’t contribute to or for other's good. We like to make other people our slaves or use them. So, we are either slaves or we want to make others our slaves.

Today we are going to see that as Christians we must find our true rest in Christ who is our true Sabbath.

Instead of focusing in-depth on just one passage, I want to look at three at a high level. The first is found in the Ten Words/Commandments.

Exposition

Deuteronomy 5:12-15

In Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, we see a command to rest. Now, let me ask you a question. Why? Why out of these 10 words that speak of love for God and love for others, would God give a command to rest one day out of seven? Because we want to be slaves. We like being controlled by others, in charge of ourselves, or in control of others.

What is interesting about this command is that it bridges the two greatest commandments: love God; love others.

The Sabbath day is said to be a day once a week where it is “to Yahweh your God.” It expresses our love to God. It is a day where we are to remember that we were once slaves, working and worked to the bone by worldly and spiritual powers, and even ourselves. But because of God’s great rescue, God’s work, we were brought out of slavery by his mighty arm. God is our deliverer. And so, we dedicate one day out of 7 to worship and delight in him, one day to find our rest in him. He baked a rhythm into the world, work 6, rest 1. Work and rest.

It is also a day that shows our love to others. We are not to put others in slavery or bondage. Not our family, our employees, our animals, or even people that might tangentially work for us. We are to love others by showing them that they also can have rest in God. They are free too!

The conclusion of the Sabbath command is that we keep it because God delivered us. The command is for our best interest and our best good. It keeps us rooted and grounded in the freedom that only God can bring.

But what is fascinating is that this one-day-a-week work/rest rhythm wasn’t the only rest that was commanded. There was even a rest for the land every seven years. This is where the idea of Sabbaticals comes from…an argument from lesser to greater. If the land gets a rest, shouldn’t people? But, there was also a complete liberation every seven sevens, 49 years. God baked rest into his people’s societal structures.

Essentially, God says, “You will constantly try to be in slavery. Others will constantly try to enslave you. I redeemed you to be free. Live in my freedom. Everything in you will try to go back to bondage. Create rhythms in your life and in your society to keep you focused on my rest, to keep you remembering that you truly are free in me.”

But the problem is that God’s people have continually hardened their hearts against him and have tried to find their rest in everything but him. Let’s look at Psalm 95:6-11.

Psalm 95:6-11

First we see that we, as God’s people are the people of his pasture, and sheep of his hand. He watches over us, and we are under his care. This is why he doesn’t just say, “Don’t have hard hearts!” Like a warning on a coffee cup, but he tells us how he loves us and cares for us.

Like a good shepherd, he chases after us when we wander, and gathers us in his arms. God demonstrates this in Jesus who left heaven, in all its glory, came to earth to pursue us as wayward, wounded, and dying sheep. He, the Good Shepherd, redeemed us from the wolves at the cost of his own life being taken by them. He is our shepherd.

In a sense, we are being told, “Don’t you see, I’m trying to help you, not hurt you?” We are loved and cared for by the Creator of the universe!

The warning

Now comes the warning with an example. Listen to God. Don’t have hard hearts, doing whatever you want. Don’t test God.

There was a time when Israel was traveling to the Promised Land. They began quarreling with God because they wanted more water. They were angry and bitter toward God and Moses. They quarreled (Meribah) with God and tested (Massah) him by demanding that he give them what they wanted when they wanted it. Even though they had seen God’s great deliverance, his provision, and his ability to do anything, they weren’t satisfied to wait upon God and let him provide exactly at the right time and in the right way. They wanted to be in control. 

They knew exactly what God was capable of. They knew he could do anything and everything necessary to save and provide for them, but what he was doing, what he thought best was not enough. God was not an end in himself, he was a means to an end. God represented a better life and the fulfillment of their passions or desires. This showed their hard hearts. They did not trust or love God. God was only useful to them when they were getting what they wanted. God was a genie in a bottle to them, and not a loving, caring shepherd.

No rest

Because they didn’t love God and care about him and had no real relationship with him, that generation would wander in the wilderness for 40 years and then die. They never saw God’s rest, the Promised Land, though their children did.

God warns us that if we have the same hard hearts, ones that simply use him for his gifts and not to have a relationship with him as his people, his sheep, then we will never enter his rest. People who try to use God are those whose hearts have gone astray; they are far from God. They don’t know him or love him.  They really have one god, and that is themselves, their own stomachs. Their god is their belly.

So, God becomes angry at their false worship and their false gods. He swears that they will never be with him and experience the blessings of his presence. Why? They don’t love him, they love themselves, so they will spend eternity with themselves in isolation from God, in judgment.

Rest

Though Israel had been freed from slavery, been provided for by God, been given rich blessings, had been given legislation that proved God was for their rest, and had been given the promise of a land where they could dwell in peace and safety, it wasn’t enough for them.

The laws of rest were real and concrete metaphors for the kind of life they would have in the present and future if they lived in God’s love and rest. They had a work/rest rhythm that allowed them to enter into paradise, into a type of new Eden, every week.

The Promised Land, a real place for Israel, is essentially a metaphor for everlasting life with God in a perfect world with perfect people, experiencing perfect love and rest. The first generation of the Israelites wandered in the wilderness and died because they did not know or love God. Though God rescued them from physical bondage, they never were released from spiritual bondage. They never saw Yahweh as their Good Shepherd. They never truly saw Jesus. They never rested in him.

We are being told that hard hearts, rebellion and testing against God, where he means nothing to us but what we can get out of him, will ultimately lead to eternal punishment and separation from him.

Our rejection

God’s rhythm that he baked into his people’s redemption lives, rest, was and is continually rejected. We secretly don’t want rest. It makes us dependent and helpless. It says that God is my only rest, not me.

Most of us like to work ourselves to the bone because in it we think we will be safe and secure. If only we can make enough money to have enough savings. If only we keep working, we will feel secure and ready to face the future, then we will rest. We enslave ourselves with work. We worry, we work: we live in self-reliance. We reject God’s rest.

But not only in our finances, we do the same thing in our relationship with God. We want to work to earn his love and acceptance. This is the heart of religiosity. This is the heart of unbelief and not being willing to accept the free gift of God’s redemption in Christ Jesus

This is what Jesus is trying to get across in Mark 2:23-3:6. Jesus is our Sabbath. Let me simply read it and then draw a conclusion from it.

Mark 2:23-3:6

Religion in a person works super hard to make sure they are right with God. When it looks at the laws of God, it is concerned with detail. Why? To be sure they obey it because their acceptance with God depends on it. This centers and fixates upon self, so others get lost in the mix, and attacked. It is about self-management.

But, relationship looks at God’s law as a way to see how best we can love and live in a way that makes God happy. It is not concerned so much with details as it is about relationship. It centers itself on God and others, so it gets absorbed or caught up in loving God and others. Law is studied to find out how best to please and look like God. It is about the materialization of love. It is about the heart…the heart of God.

Jesus says that Sabbath was for man, not the other way around. Jesus is the Lord or Master of the Sabbath. Jesus doesn’t deny the Sabbath, but rather re-centers it on its true intention…rest. Jesus removes religion from it…he removes the legalism and points to relationship With God.

So, what did Jesus mean when he said, “I’m Lord over the Sabbath?” What he was saying was that he is THE Sabbath. He is the source of all the rest we need, all the rest we are looking for. He didn’t come simply to tell us how to rest correctly, but to be our rest. He didn’t come to help us learn to simply rest one day a week. No, he came to be our source of rest all the time, he came to bring rest and healing to humanity through his life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.

Application

So why do we work so hard? Is it to try and prove ourselves? To convince God and others that we are good people? In the Gospel, the Good News of Christ, we can be done with this type of work.

When God completed creation, he said that it was finished…God rested in satisfaction. When Jesus died on the cross he said it is finished…he could rest. On the cross, God’s plan of redemption was made available to all. He died and rose again so we can rest. The cross says that the work under our work is done. We don’t need to prove ourselves anymore. The idea that our work is never good enough or never done is finished. In Christ, we are found perfect. God is pleased with us. God is satisfied with us. Because of this, we can be satisfied with our life. We can have two kinds of rest now and we will get a third later.

Rest from religion

Because Jesus is our rest, we don’t have to work or earn God’s favor. We are found righteous in Christ. The law is no longer the standard which can’t be met, it is has been fulfilled in Christ. We can stop striving to merit favor by God through our works, rather, we can live a life pleasing to him because we have his favor and are his children. We have rest from religion. We can rest in Christ, our good shepherd.

Rest from work

But not only can we rest from our religion, we can actually take one day (a 24 hour period) a week and rest from our work. We can trust in Jesus as the Good Shepherd. We don’t have to work ourselves to the bone to try to provide for our future in a perfect way. We can trust that God is in control and that he really loves us. If he has given us his only Son, won’t he provide for us all things? If someone purchased an ultimate package for you, do you still need the basic package? No!

Is God sovereign? Does God have every hair on our head numbered? Does he feed the sparrows? Why would we be so worried about our future that we can’t stop and rest one day in 7? Why are we so worried about our ministries or our jobs that we can’t trust God to take care of them when we take one day off a week?

God made the world in six days and rested on the seventh. He did this as a template for us. Work six days then sit back, give thanks for who he is, what he has done, and enjoy his and our work.

Rest from sin and sorrow

Finally, there is an ultimate rest. There is a rest from sin in us and sin in others, from wars within and wars without, from cuts, bruises, scrapes, accidental injuries, wild animals, wild storms, and wild events, from depression, anxiety, and worry, and from every tear and every pain.

Jesus went to heaven to prepare a place for us. It will be there for us. He will be there for us. It isn’t the eternal security and peace that is our greatest joy, however, it is Christ himself. Faith shall become sight, we shall see him as he is and find all our delight in him. Why? Jesus is our rest, not simply a place where we live in bliss. Jesus is the gospel, our Good News, and he is our rest.

What does all this mean…how do I rest?

If you are like me, rest may be hard. If you have an over-inflated view of yourself like I do, you might think that if you take a day off the world may stop spinning. Or, at least that is how you practically act.

If you don’t put in those extra hours, then you will disappoint people, or the ministry you are a part of will fail. If you took a day off, then you would fail or something else would fail. This kind of thinking is rank unbelief. It is mistrust in God and his provision, care, and sovereignty.

There is a reason why God regulated rest. We won’t do it. We must listen to God in Christ. We must hear him say, “Come to me, all who are exhausted, and I will give you rest. I will give you soul-rest. I won’t burden you down. Stop your striving. Come to me and find rest. Find rest from trying to earn righteousness. Find rest from your trying to keep yourself alive. I’ve got you.” He wants us to work six days and rest the seventh. He wants us to find our delight in him and him alone. He wants us to trust his sovereign hand and care.

Practically, we need to take a 24-hour period of time where we do what is different from our normal week. We should carve out, in our schedule, a twenty-four-hour time where we do the things we enjoy, things that re-energize us and reconnect us with God and his joy. But it isn’t just doing things that bring us pleasure, we must remember God in it. God is our all in all, and if we are loving him, then we will rest in him. This fulfills the first tablet: loving God with everything you’ve got.

It is also a way to connect with those we love, spending time with them and doing things that bring them rest too. It fulfills the second tablet of the law: loving our neighbor as ourselves.

Even more than this, it is enjoying the world God has made, after all, that is what he did on his day of rest. So, What activities bring you joy and rest, and how can you make this a part of your Sabbath? What would it take for you to take a twenty-four-hour Sabbath each week? If your life is crazy at the moment and you have made commitments that you shouldn’t have made, think about starting with a four-hour or eight-hour sabbath and build from there until you get to twenty-four.

So, find your rest in Christ, your true Sabbath. If you are not resting in Christ, you are not trusting. If you are not trusting, you are not abiding in Christ. If you are not abiding in him, you can do nothing anyway. So, rest, and maybe you will find that you are actually more productive throughout the week.