Sabbath in the True Story | Part 1

*We will be taking a short break in our “Participating in the Missio Dei” series to look at the Sabbath and rest in the Bible.

Why are we hurried people? Why do we often feel distracted and busy and often over-committed and overworked?

The trouble is not that there is no respite from having to work, but what to do with the leisure time and how to prevent it from being filled up with the hectic round of activities that will show leisure itself is caught on the treadmill of working and consuming. Amid the mad rush of work and play, those who, through Christ, already enjoy a foretaste of the Sabbath rest to come should be able to go about both their work and play with an inner freedom that produces a more leisurely style.

We are people desperately in need of rest. God’s wired his world to work in rhythms of work and rest, but do we live that way? In creation, God has stamped a seven-day pattern on history; six days of worship and work and a whole day of rest and worship. A unique day is set apart for enjoying creation, the Creator, and the kind of rest that heals hurried hearts. A day to be re-rooted in God’s Story and reminded of our identity apart from work and rest from the hurry of the world.

One of the biggest hindrances to living on God’s mission is our complete exhaustion born out of a belief that we can do life apart from God. We falsely believe we can do the things of God apart from God and His rest. We need to take our feet off the proverbial gas pedal of life because that’s not the life Jesus invites us to experience.

When Jesus says, “come to me” and find rest in me (Matthew 11:28-30), he shows us how to walk in his unforced rhythms of grace. Jesus’ ways are not oppressive, but they will be counter-cultural.

And so, for the next three weeks, we will rediscover a rhythm of God’s grace called the Sabbath. We’ll take the first week to look at how the Sabbath was a command given to God’s people in the OT; the second week, we’ll look at how the Sabbath was understood in the NT and early church; the third week, we’ll work out the practical implications of how this Sabbath rhythm can be lived out in our lives.

We’ll dig into this rhythm of grace by looking at God’s true Story through six symbols: creation, rebellion, promise, redemption, church, and restoration (new creation).

Genesis 1:1— “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Genesis 1:31—”And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

Genesis 2:1-3—”Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. ² And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. ³ So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”

God rested: The Hebrew word for “rest” is Shabbat, where we get the word Sabbath. Now, this doesn’t mean that God became tired and worn out from his creation work (Isaiah 40:28). It means that the all-powerful, eternal, infinite God ceased from his creation work, was pleased with what he had created, and knit into creation a space and time for holy rest; a day that God blessed, set apart for his glory and the flourishing of his creation.

And if you are tracking with the creation narrative, you’d notice that God blessed two things before this. The animals (1:22), which he said to be fruitful and multiply. The second was humans. God told them to make little image bearers who would fill the whole earth, bringing his glory wherever they go, leading to human flourishing in all creation.

But then God does something different in Genesis 2:1-3, and he blesses a day. I think God is saying that this day leads to the flourishing of humanity. It brings more life into the world as humans rest with God in his holy space and time, which he has set apart for his glory and the good of his creation. The idea here is that humanity would be perfectly resting in God; in their work, parenting, and cultivating life—God would be with man, and man would rest in God.

God [is] on a rescue mission to restore that ideal rest between him and his image-bearers.

But in Genesis 3, sin enters the world. Here is humanity’s first effort to say, “God, I’ve heard enough of what you have to say about the way the world works and what our limitations are, but I think there’s a better way to live—I want to walk in my ways, for my pleasure and my glory, not yours. There’s a better life outside your reign, your care, and your word.”

And so Adam and Eve chose to believe the lie of the serpent. And as a result, humanity ends up empty, lonely, broken, and severed from God’s perfect rest. Man’s relationship with God, others, creation, and himself is marred by sin.

Yet the Story doesn’t end there. In Genesis 3:15, God speaks of what theologians call the protoevangelion—the first gospel. It proclaims that God’s people will finally triumph over the serpent. The “seed of the woman” is a collective noun, indicating corporate victory. However, if left to ourselves, we cannot win this war. No, it took Jesus, Eve’s seed par excellence, to deliver the crushing blow (Colossians 2:15), and if we are in him, we share in and extend His victory (Matthew 28:19; Revelation 20:4).

God promises to put to right all that sin has undone in his good creation. Although sin has severed man’s perfect rest with God, God will be on a rescue mission to restore that ideal rest between him and his image-bearers.

Fast forwarding through Genesis, we see that wickedness had spread through humanity, yet one man, Noah, found favor with God. God saves Noah, his family, and every kind of animal from the flood. God blesses Noah, and then through his son Shem’s lineage, we see Abram, whom God calls to himself in Genesis 12. God promises to bless Abram (Abraham) and tells him that all the families of the earth will be blessed because of him: they are blessed to be a blessing. God makes a covenant with Abraham, promising his offspring will be as numerous as the stars in the heavens and promising to give him land to possess.

Fast forward some more, and we see that God has kept his promise to bless Abraham’s offspring through his son Isaac and through Isaac’s son, Jacob (whom he blesses and names Israel)—through whom the twelve tribes of Israel would come. We see that Jacob and his offspring have come to dwell in the land of Egypt (through God’s working in Joseph). And as the book of Genesis ends and Exodus begins, we see God keep his promise of blessing as stated in Exodus 1:7:

“But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them.”

But sin has its evil effect, and we see at the beginning of Exodus that the Egyptian Pharaoh enslaves God’s people. God hears his people’s cries for help, and He rescues them with His mighty hand, using a man named Moses. This exodus from Egypt was the great act of God that Israel would always look back on to remember, “God is our Savior and will keep His covenant with us!”

After God rescues Israel from Egypt, he brings them to Mount Sinai in the wilderness and gives them his Ten Commandments. We first find these commandments in Exodus 20 and again in Deuteronomy 5, 40 years later, after Israel has wandered in the desert for a generation because of their disobedience. God gave his commandments to Israel so they could walk in God’s ways and be a light to the nations surrounding them.

We find the Sabbath commandment in Exodus and Deuteronomy, the 4th commandment. The first three commandments tell Israel how to relate to God and the last commandments how we relate with others. The Sabbath commandment is a hinge between those two, which is crucial for Israel.

Here are a few thoughts to consider:

God gives us the Sabbath so that we can refocus.

God gives us the Sabbath so that we can rest.

God gives us the Sabbath so that we can remember.

Refocus: Take intentional time to “observe”— to refocus and reorient ourselves in God. Slow down and take time to be with God.

Rest: Take intentional time to rest — physically, spiritually, emotionally

Remember: Take intentional time to remember all God has done. Try journaling your thoughts or using a creative (such as art, poetry, or music) to remember.