Daily Thoughts from Exodus: Rest to Work (31:12-18)

And the LORD said to Moses, “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. You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”

And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. (Exodus 31:12-18, ESV)

Yahweh makes a point to emphasize the law concerning Sabbath. It is a sign between them, an evidence that He has spoken to them and constituted them a nation, setting them apart (sanctifying them). It is a set apart or holy day and failure to keep it by resting from work profanes it, acts as if it is not holy, and so must be punished with the death penalty. Israel is to keep this Sabbath forever as a reminder of Yahweh’s creative activity followed by His rest. They can trust that if they make this day holy and don’t work, God will provide for them.

With this last instruction, Yahweh hands Moses (he has been on the mountain top with God for forty days) the two stone tablets on which He personally engraved or etched the 10 commandments. Moses has written these commandments and laws of God, but the stone tablets are a symbol of the whole law and to be kept as a token of His covenant in the ark of the covenant in the Most Holy Place.

The principle of the Sabbath is still important for those who believe and are not Jewish. Though we may view any or every day as holy (Romans 14:5,6) it is important that we observe Sabbath, that is, trust God to provide for us without thinking we need to work every day to make it happen. Recent research indicates that greater physical health results from a shorter work week. We are built for work but we are also built by God for rest. All our lives cannot be taken up with work.

You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are.  (Anne Quindlen, A Short Guide to a Happy Life)

He who cannot rest, cannot work; he who cannot let go, cannot hold on; he who cannot find footing, cannot go forward.  —Harry Emerson Fosdick