Sabbath: Exodus 20
Mar 10, 2024 2024-03-10 Ben Hoyer Exodus 20In the fourth week of the Lenten Sabbath series, this message examines Sabbath as commandment in Exodus chapter 20, set at Mount Sinai where God gives Israel the Ten Commandments after delivering them from Egypt.
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I don't know if you guys have been carving out any Sabbath time, but as we move through Lent as a church, you know, that's one of the things we're focusing on this Lenten season is what does Sabbath mean? How might we be people of Sabbath taking a break resting in God's provision and protection? And so we've been working through the ideas of Sabbath. I'm like totally geeking out on it, really loving it.
And so this is our fourth week thinking about Sabbath. We started like the kids mentioned, realizing that Sabbath is part of the creation story. So I'm starting to think that Sabbath is just part of the way that the world works. You know that there's, when you start to read through the Torah, God actually talks about giving the land a season of rest. Like that when he's building the Israelites as an agrarian society, as they move into
Canaan, they plant and the land produces and then they rotate the field so that even the land gets rest. So that built in the story of creation is a rhythm of break from work, to celebrate what God has done, to take in the provision and protection of God. It's just part of the way the world works. And then we talked about how inside the garden there is work and outside the garden it's different. That there's seventh day rest work and that there's toil work.
And so for those of us who are living outside the garden, we have this tension between work where we respond well, stewarding the free gift of God and work where we try and manufacture God's provision, work toil. This week I want to look at Sabbath as a rule, Terry. Buckle up because it's in there. So in Exodus chapter 20 is where we're going to start this morning.
And remember where we are in the story of Israel here in Exodus chapter 20. God has delivered the Israelites from Egypt. He defeated the Egyptian gods in the 10 plagues. He defeated the Egyptian army at the Red Sea, part of the Red Sea. Then they've walked across the Red Sea and they've come to Mount Sinai in in Exodus 19. God invites the Israelites into this relationship.
He gives them this like conditional covenant. So they've been established as the people of Israel several chapters before this initially in chapter 12 and then again in 15 and again in 17. So what establishes the descendants of Abraham and the converts into his tradition as the people of Israel is the free gift of God. The covenant, the Abrahamic covenant that says, you will be my people in the world.
Through you I will bless all the world. In this covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, God does all the work. At Sinai in Exodus 19 he invites Israel into what we call a conditional covenant. There'll be two sides. God says, you now in this community, in this place will be for me a special kingdom of priests and a holy nation. If you do the things I ask, then you will retain this position in the world. If you can hold up your side of the bargain, then I will leave you as this kingdom of
priests to the whole world. Are you interested? God's like, you are Israel already. Remember, I brought you out of Egypt before you knew my name even. And I've brought you here. I've rescued you. Your rescue is complete. Your rescue is not conditional. Your position now as the kingdom of priests for the world, as the inhabitants of Canaan is conditional. You keep your covenant. I'll keep mine. Are you interested? And the people are like, yeah, sounds great.
We love that. Okay, cool. Here's the covenant. Exodus 20, right? And God spoke all these words saying. God's like communicating his words to Abraham. I mean, to Moses. Sorry, I'm getting my patriarchs mixed up. God is talking to Moses on Sinai. And conspicuously, when you read this, these things that God speaks on Sinai to Moses,
that Moses writes on tablets, right? And then Charleston has to carry them down. They're never called in the script. They're never called the Ten Commandments. They're always called the Ten Words, the Ten Devarene. This is important because what's happening here, these Ten Words are the... ...distillation or the most concise description of the law of God, which is largest version
is the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah. Its smallest version might be the Shema, the heroes who are the Lord. You got your Lord is one. But the fullest distillation of it is the Ten Commandments. And the reason I'm saying it's important that we call them the Ten Words is because the law can do several things for you. We think of the law as the law can say, hey, here is the way that you ought to live. This is what life ought to look like.
The law can also, when you read the law can say, hey, look at what a failure you are. Look at what you are not. The law can also be, hey, now that I am Israel, how should I live? What should I do with my life? We call these, this is your Lutheran Primer, the three uses of the law. The law can do three things. It is not merely command. This is why it's important that in the Hebrew they're not called the Ten Commandments, they're called the Ten Words because the law can say, hey, this is just the way things go.
Live this way. It can also say, look at what a failure you are. You have not done the right things. It can also say, here's what love looks like. Respond to the God who calls you Israel in love. Here's what love looks like. The ten words of God that we call the Ten Commandments can have all three of these uses depending on how you come to them. And what's interesting is Israel in Sinai comes to them most like this over here.
Hey, you've rescued us already. Thank you. How might we live now? And so God describes what their life will look like. Later they might come and go, what's the minimum we've got to do? How do we get by here and he might go, well, here's, look, this is the standard. They might say, hey, we're Israel. Who can say anything wrong to us? And then he's like, look at what you're not, you covetous people. The law can do three things.
These ten words are the clearest synopsis. Okay. And that was more than you're looking for probably, but I got to sneak it in when I can, Beverly. And God spoke all these words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt out of the house of slavery. The other thing that's interesting about these, we talked about this some if you came for Ash Wednesday, is that like different people number these differently. The original Hebrew didn't put numbers next to him. So this is a problem actually a lot in the Hebrew scriptures.
We know there's ten words because it's always referred to as the ten devareim, but we don't know the numbering. Like where the, which one is one, you could number it and get twelve. Like the Jewish tradition has this, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt out of the house of slavery. One, that's the first word. Then they group other ones together to get ten. It's crazy. Well crazy to me, but maybe not to you. Number two, you shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself a carved image or my likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water underneath the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For either Lord your God and medjell us God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me. It's showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. Verse seven, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
For the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Verse eight, remember the Sabbath day to keep 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 do no work of any, shall do not do any work. You are your son or your daughter, your male servant, your female servant or your livestock or the sojourner who is with you in your gates for in six days.
The Lord made heaven and earth the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Honor your father and mother that the days may be long in the land and the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. There you go Bob. Good work. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or your male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that is your neighbor's.
And then now when they saw this thundering those are the ten words. And there's the Sabbath one right there in it. Through the Sabbath day to keep it holy. It's kind of like oh see how I did that. I'm going to pass this around. These are prayers that we can read out loud so you can write them down while I'm talking. I was supposed to pass it out earlier. Oh the Sabbath is kind of like the Sabbath pretty quickly well not quickly semi quickly
between now and when Jesus comes so over hundreds of years. The Sabbath becomes the like focal point for Israelites. It's like if you think about it these first table of commands have no other gods before me. Don't create an image of an idol. Don't use the Lord's name in vain. Then the first one that you do yourself like these are things you shouldn't do now. Keep the Sabbath.
And when we understand Sabbath can be like the cleanest way to acknowledge God as the God. The kind of the way that you pull those things together this command of the Sabbath. And it becomes like a calling card of Israel. If you think about like Israel especially the seven day rhythm is like a thing like I mentioned he puts it in the land.
There's a thing about the year of Jubilee will come to where all the debts are forgiven every seven years. Every seven seventh year so every 50th year all the land that's been sold goes back to its original family owners. There's this rhythm of seven that happens in the life of Israel in the world. But by the time they like they get dispersed and exiled across the places then these laws become very distinctive for them.
So when an Israelite is living outside of Israel when they're trying to be Israelite in Babylon or in Assyria or down in Egypt this Sabbath thing becomes really distinctive. We talked about how the seven day rhythm has always been with the Israelites but it's not in the earth anywhere. You know what I mean? The moon doesn't follow a seven day cycle. The sun doesn't follow a seven.
The seasons don't renew every seven. There's nothing kind of like in nature that says a week should be seven days but the Israelites have always had a seven day week. A couple of other nations tried it at different points then they would try ten days and they would try. The Israelites have always had a seventh day and wherever they go the Israelites take a day off of work. Like isn't that interesting?
Think about an agrarian society where you're farming all the time. The Israelites with their farming they work a little bit more on the sixth day and then they take the seventh day off. When you are working for a master who oversees you to whom you report and you're taking the seventh day off. This becomes a distinctive feature of the Israelites and kind of a calling card for
them which at some times people were pointing you can read in literature people say in Jewish folks are lazy they don't work because their God takes care of them and gives them a day off. But by the time that Jesus gets on the scene right it has become a problem. Think at Mark chapter 2, Mark chapter 2 verse 27.
Jesus was walking with his disciples on one Sabbath he was going through the grain fields and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain and the Pharisees were saying to him hey look man why are you doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath? And he said to them have you never read what David did? You hear what he's doing? He's walking with his disciples they're walking through a field of grain it's the Sabbath day. I don't know I've never picked grain I don't know that I've seen wheat actually growing
anywhere but they're walking through wheat and they can pick off and crush it and eat it and it is that good has anybody done that? It sounds terrible right? I don't know but this is what Jesus and the disciples do he said the disciples began to pluck heads of grain and the Pharisees were saying to him hey that it was work to harvest the grain and they couldn't harvest the grain because it was Sabbath and they were doing work and he quotes to them this story of a time when David went into the tabernacle
and ate the bread and he said to them verse 27 Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath and so the son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath and then if you keep going again he entered the synagogue and a man was there with a withered hand and they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so they might accuse him and he said to the man with the withered hand come here and he said to them is it lawful on the Sabbath
to do good or to do harm to save life or to kill but they were silent and he looked around at them and with anger and grieved at their hardness of heart and he said to them stretch out your hand and he stretched out and his hand was restored and the Pharisees went out immediately and held counsel with the Herodians against him to destroy him they are not happy that he's eating some plucking some grains of wheat and healing a man shriveled hand on the Sabbath because they have they have serious rules about Sabbath there were sects of the
Pharisees and the Sadducees two groups of Israelite leaders in the days of Jesus that thought if they could keep get Israel all of Israel to keep the Sabbath perfectly once that the Messiah would come and so they were very focused why is the Messiah not come why are we still under the heel of the Romans after all these other people well it must be that we're not observing the rules properly let's get the rules clarified and let's get out
there and make sure everyone keeps the rules and so they started to build like rules outside of rules I looked it up just for fun to see if it was still around there's a group because their Orthodox Jews are still very careful about the Sabbath right we lived in a community in St. Louis for a while when we were going to seminary that was a great spot but it was one
of these places there's an Orthodox synagogue nearby so in the right little section the values of the homes had kind of skyrocketed because all of the Orthodox Jews that were member of that synagogue needed to live within walking distance of the synagogue because in order to get to Sabbath services they couldn't drive their cars this is a phenomenon you look it up it happens in New York to around Orthodox Jewish communities the values of the homes go up because these they need
to live that close so they'll pay above market value in order to get close to this synagogue right so I was looking up in Orthodox communities commitments around Sabbath and this one in the Orthodox Union they have listed out the rules for keeping the Sabbath and there's 39 categories okay I'm going to read you the description of the first category the first category is about not carrying things this category involves carrying in a public place this is one of the few categories
of work that is actually mentioned in the Torah you hear the first sentence there all these are about outlining which work is not acceptable on the Sabbath and carrying is one of the few categories of work that is actually mentioned in the Torah it is also the very first type of work that was prohibited as we discussed earlier the initial commandment of the Sabbath was given in connection with manna but what possible type of work was involved in gathering a portion of manna for one's family obviously this is carrying thus when Moses told the people in Exodus 1629
let no man leave his place on the seventh day he was telling them that they could not carry manna the Torah also gives an account of a man who was put to death for gathering wood on the Sabbath here again according to some commentators his violation of the Sabbath involved carrying in the third place the prophet Jeremiah specifically warns his people not to carry on Sabbath he says take heed and carry no burdens on the Sabbath also do not carry any burden out of your houses on the Sabbath carrying is really the prototype of all other types of Sabbath work as mentioned earlier
the definition of such work is any act where a man demonstrates his mastery over nature but the first act by which man demonstrates such masteries by taking things from nature and carrying them to where he needs them this was the deed of man gathering wood therefore if we are to relinquish our mastery over nature the first requirement is that we not carry anything in a sense by not it keeps going this is the first of 39 categories outlawing the type of work that's available on the Sabbath and so when Jesus is walking through and picks a grain of wheat and they're like do
you're doing work he's like guys Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath it's not as though we are here in order to perform proper observance it's not as though Sabbath were about your perfection as though god were waiting for you to get it right because news flash is never going to happen
He's like man was not made for Sabbath Sabbath was made for man it's not made for you to get it right is this beautiful gift is this beautiful gift God makes the whole earth in six days in order that he might enjoy it
and he gives you life breath love food home family family creativity community nature not in order that you might get all those things right he makes in six days the seventh day he enjoys it he makes you in order that you might enjoy
the gift of life take a day just take a day and enjoy the gift not to be right but because good heavens God is good at what he does what a gift you see that when Sabbath became this light right rule
um they missed it they missed the whole point they made a gift of God about their perfection about how good they could be they made something God was trying to give them and they turned it into something that they make Sabbath is this gift no no no it's it's created by our observance it's marked by our perfection
of course that's the problem of the whole conditional covenant this is where um this is like the thing that I had to I'm still learning right so when I went through confirmation the kids middle school kids are going through confirmation we learned this conditional covenant that God makes that Sinai is completed in the person of Jesus so when he in the sermon on the mount says I tell you you think I came to abolish the law I did not not a jot or tittle will be removed from the law right
he said I came to fulfill it so the conditional covenant the opportunity for the people of God was to be elevated as the kingdom of priests for the whole nation and Jesus does what Israel could not he keeps fully the conditional covenant and now Jesus in place of Israel is lifted up that we all might look to him the city on a hill and see what we could become and so he resolves the need to keep Sinai you are not obligated to follow the 10 words in order to be who you are called to be
in the world through the person of Jesus you are gifted a completed conditional covenant free now I don't care how many times you murder you're not a murderer God has made you into someone who does not anger or hate no matter how many times you are harbor anger and hate in your heart I don't care how many times you lie you are not a liar God has made you into someone who is rests in the truth rather than manipulates reality
with lies no matter how many times you lie you are not a liar you are not covetous and jealous no matter how many hours you spend pining after the things that you don't have that you wish you did it does not define you through the person of Christ you've been gifted a complete conditional covenant no matter how many times you abstain from the free gift of seventh day rest you have seventh day rest waiting for you forever God has completed the conditional covenant and
gifted you whole righteousness all for free how might we respond third use man how might we respond third use of the 10 words y'all God has been good what should we do oh man look over here have no other gods before you don't make any images
hey remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy why not I was trying to imagine an image to describe to you all what a gift your life and cry what a free and unearned gift your life is that that can be adequately properly righteously described by the 10 words no matter how many times
you fall short your identity is in the completed work of Christ where he gives you a new you Paul calls it a new creation in Christ that that has no other gods it keeps no graven images that remembers the Sabbath that honors the father that does not murder does not steal does not covet how can I describe to you that free gift and I remembered a story that Jesus told very good you're going to have heard it before because it's a classic
remember the one with the two sons and the ones like total jerk dad I wish you were dead as a matter of fact let's pretend you were sell some of your land give me my cut now I'm out goes to live however he wants right realizes when he's far away this is terrible actually the end result of all my bad choices is bad heaped up upon me if I could go back and work my way
into the good graces of my dad maybe I can convince him to give me something back and so he's nervous because he's been a total jerk to his dad and he knows that he's given up every opportunity to be called a son ever again he actually he actually disowned the family and the family went through with it he's he's got no right to be called a son he works up a speech in his head about how
he doesn't need to be a son he just be like to be around the kindness he doesn't need full rights he realizes he's terrible but he just would like to be around there's other people who can still be called kids it's okay don't call me a kid I just like to be around the people that are your kids because around the people that are your kids just get just pay me for the work that I do just just let me earn something from you he's coming back he's working out this this speech in his head just just give me what I earn as a kind master and I'll just live off of that and as he's working up
the phrase in his head remember the story he comes back and the dad runs to him so that no one else in town can shame him meets him up right on the outside of town overwhelms him welcomes him immediately robe ring signet the whole thing all the rights of sonship though he can claim none of them are given to him for free this is the story for you you are a Sabbath keeper
you are a god worship her you are honest and kind you are content in the world I don't I don't have to know the choices that you've made it doesn't matter with your failures in your heart mind and the hands it doesn't matter the gift of God is not contingent contingent upon your perfection it rests in the prerogative of God who like a good father overwhelms with free
gift we're a bunch of Sabbath keepers this lent we are trying to respond third use in the way that the words describe one god no idols keep us up don't lie don't steal don't come in not because we must but because
good heavens we can let me pray that we might hey lord thank you for the free gift of righteousness in you thank you uh give us faith to believe the power in your words and work and give us grace to respond along the path the words lay out for us in Jesus name we pray amen