c   Day 4:   d

True Rest

"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

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 animals, nor the

alien within your gates. For six days the

LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea,

and all that is in them, but He rested on

the seventh day. Therefore the LORD

blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

Exodus 20:8-11

Scripture Meditation: Nehemiah 9:1-37

The first four commandments dealt with Israel's relationship to God. The fourth had to do specifically with their special covenant relationship with the Lord. The Creator of the world, Who does whatever He wills, chose Israel out of all the nations of the earth to bring His ultimate blessing to mankind, the Savior of the world, who would bring the ultimate deliverance from sin for man. The commandments were given to prepare Israel for their coming Messiah, and no commandment expressed that final peace and rest that He would bring more than the fourth commandment. "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from His own work, just as God did from His. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience" (Hebrews 4:9-11).

The Sabbath finds its origin in creation. "By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all His work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done" (Genesis 2:2-3). While not yet a covenant obligation, the Israelites were instructed to observe the Sabbath for the first time on their way to Mount Sinai. "This is what the LORD commanded: 'Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD'" (Exodus 16:23a). In the giving of the law at Mount Sinai, the Sabbath rest was given as a sign of their special relationship to the Lord. Just as circumcision was a sign of God's covenant with Abraham (reference Genesis 17:9-13), and the rainbow was a sign of God's covenant with Noah (reference Genesis 9:12-17), so, too, would the Sabbath be a sign of God's covenant with Israel. "Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you...For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD...It will be a sign between Me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He abstained from work and rested" (Exodus 31:14a, 15a, 17).

So special was this commandment that it is not listed as one of the commandments given to the New Testament church to obey. The Sabbath command was given only to the nation Israel. "He has revealed His word to Jacob, His laws and decrees to Israel.  He has done this for no other nation; they do not know His laws.  Praise the LORD" (Psalm 147:19-20). Today, believers find their rest in Jesus Christ; looking forward to a time of eternal rest in heaven. "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). Believers do not observe the Sabbath, ending six days of labor with rest, but we do observe the Lord's Day, beginning the week remembering we walk in the new covenant of grace. We are to remember that every day belongs to the Lord and our lives are to be devoted to Him in holy living and godly service. "One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord" (Romans 14:5-6a). 

For the Israelites, the Sabbath was a weekly reminder of that final rest to come; their faithful observance of God's commands would yield blessings that would be a foretaste of the blessings the Messiah would bring to them. "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 you 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" (Isaiah 58:13-14). Unfortunately, they did not obey this command, resting in the Lord each week and giving the land its Sabbath rest (reference Leviticus 25:1-7), necessitating the Lord's discipline, as He removed them from the land they had been entrusted with and had taken for granted, giving the land the rest they had neglected to give it. "He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power. The land enjoyed its Sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah" (2 Chronicles 36:20-21). 

By the time of Christ the Pharisees had gone so far as to distort the Sabbath command, adding multiple restraints, and making it almost impossible to keep, turning God's original blessing into a burden for the people (reference Matthew 12:1-14). "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). As we meditate on the national prayer recorded in Nehemiah 9:1-37, we find the people of Israel standing before the Lord, after He had led them back to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, reading from the Book of the Law and confessing their sin before the Lord in a ceremony of rededication to the Lord. The walls provided them the security they were looking for, but only in obedience to the Lord would they find their true rest. Let us continue to pray that they would experience the true peace and rest that is found only in Christ. May we also pray for our nation, to wake up and recognize that the unrest we are suffering is a result of our neglect of the Word of God, a rejection of His commands, and a refusal to acknowledge the One Who offers us true rest!

Heavenly Father, we pray for Your people, Israel, that they would find true rest in You, may they realize as You have shown them throughout their history that their deliverance and salvation come from You alone. How glorious Your place of rest will be on that day when You will reach out Your hand a second time to reclaim Your remnant. As they sought You after You brought them back to rebuild the wall of Your holy city, wanting assurance of their safety and prosperity, may they seek You again, recognizing that in repentance and rest is their salvation, and in quietness and trust is their strength, and in You alone is their hope for a future of peace and rest in their land. Forgive all your people when we labor and toil trying to make our way in the world, instead of taking time out to rest in You and trust Your provision and blessing. May we be reminded each day, as we seek You in Your Word, of the spiritual restoration that is available for all Your people through Jesus Christ, as we await the day when we will finally rest from all our labor and be at rest with You in our heavenly abode.  In Jesus' Name. Amen. 

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Prayer Scripture references: Nehemiah 9; Psalm 62:1; Isaiah 11:10-11; 30:15; Matthew 6:25-34; Hebrews 11:28-30; Revelation 14:13.