Published: July 9, 2023 | Speaker: Tim Freitag | Series: God as Creator - Part 9 | Scripture: Genesis 1-2
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remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God on it you shall not do any work you or your son or your daughter your male slave or your
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female slave or your cattle or your resident who stays with you for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the Earth the sea and everything that is in them and he rested on the seventh day for that reason Lord bless the Sabbath
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day and made it holy in fact we have the word itself in the Hebrew literally is just the verb that means to rest and so when we read that translated in our Bibles it
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is that word is there it says God Shabbat he rested from his labors so what do we do with this are we
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um anybody want to volunteer as a replacement sabbatarian and put your hand up and say that the Sunday is the Christian Sabbath
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what do we do with the fact that God includes this in the creation account that he that he points it out to us through Moses the first thing I want us to pick up and look at in there is out of all
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again God exists outside of time but we are talking about this in the timeline that we have in the Bible
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he observes it before any man or any creature observes the Sabbath in God's observance there is no command or imperative given to the imitation of
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this observance this observance we read here that God rested but we don't read of God in Genesis commanding man to do the same we don't read of it here that when God
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rested he said to man you shall do the same we see other commands in the creation account we have the command to the animals to be fruitful and multiply we have the command to man to do the
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same and also to subdue and to rule over John Calvin in his commentary on Genesis has a helpful quote to us he says God cannot either more gently
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Allure or more effectually incite us to obedience than by inviting and exhorting us to the imitation of himself
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um Sabbath by sanctifying it and blessing it we read there in Genesis that he pronounces a blessing on it and that he Sanctified that day he set it apart
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it apart there is a concept an idea both there in Genesis and in the larger context of scripture and I'm going to try to do this relatively briefly but of the barakah
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the blessing those things that God blesses and in fact in the creation account if we include the first three verses of chapter two with chapter one in the creation account those days we
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actually read three blessings in it comes from the word to bless it is a a word meaning blessing and we see three
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of them we read as God makes the swarm of living creatures he created all the sea creatures and then we read that he created according to their kind every
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Winged Bird according to its kind and God saw that it was good God blessed them saying be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas and let the birds multiply on the earth so same word
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God blessed them he blessed the the next one as he makes man we looked at this last week we spent a fair amount
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of time talking about the idea of the creation mandate as he makes man in his own image God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply fill
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the Earth subdue it and rule over it over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the Earth
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and then finally the third one in those course of days here God blessed the seventh day and Sanctified it Sanctified it and you will notice that in the three blessings two of them
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are given commands and the third one is not the birds and the fish are told to be fruitful and multiply man to do the same and also to subdue and rule over the Sabbath is not given a command
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in fact we have here two living things and then a day so what's going on with that there is a sense in which the absence of the command the
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um singleness of the Sabbath transcends any given Covenant or religious framework because of the way God himself observes and participates in
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it at the very first the very beginning here one commentator offers this concept of the three blessings that the first is a
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blessing of life the third is a blessing of rule and the last one the blessing on the Sabbath is a blessing of holiness and that in the imitation in the observance of the
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Sabbath there is an imitation of
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the barakah the blessing is a concept that we read in the rest of the Old Testament and it is in fact um present in other sort of near Eastern religions I don't know how much
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you all are familiarize certainly not greatly familiar in myself with Islam but Islam also holds a concept of the barakah they use the same word it's in the Arabic of course not in the
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Hebrew but it basically pronounced the same it is this idea of a permeating metaphysical power Chuck in his Genesis study likened it in some senses the
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concept to the the force that you have in Star Wars right it moves between and it dwells within Islam has this view of um of the the barakah
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um defined as a beneficent force from God that flows through the physical and spiritual spheres as Prosperity protection happiness and I think you see a similar Concept in Scripture
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as an indispensable virtue of everyday life you think about the way this is a way that Ancient Man thought of his relation to God think of the psalmist when the psalmist says blessed is the man fill in the blank there's an idea of man
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dwelling in the favor of God you see again in the psalmist when he talks about the idea of God turning his face away that's the same idea as that blessing that favor
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deserting or moving away you see job's stance you think of job you think of job's friends I mean their argument to job is look dude if all this stuff happened to you the blessing has gone
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you are out so there's an idea there's a concept in the the the mind of of Ancient Man in
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Scripture of the blessing of God we we have it um Additionally you see things like is often held up Boaz right who in his particulars obeys the command of God and
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in like turn is is blessed in every particular by God that he fulfills his Blessing in that sense we have um perversions of this concept that dwell in modern Christianity you think of your
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Joel Osteen's for example that some sort of uh favor of God will bless you with material wealth and and all of those things is the same kind of thing that job's friends were mistakenly leveling
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at job at job so this idea is here the blessing of God
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great movie The Wind and The Lion if you haven't seen it I highly recommend you see it see it uh the shake the the Berber is saying all through the movie how the
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Baraka is with him and he will be triumphant near the end of the movie he's found tied upside down and someone comes to rescue him he says aha the Baraka has not deserted me and then the
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shots are hitting the wall next to him he says quick cut me down before it does you know the favor of God he had this idea that it was with him Edmond Jacob and his Theology of the Old
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Testament says in conclusion we can say that the blessing is the power by which life is maintained and augmented the result of the blessing is the condition defined by the word shalom
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which suggests the idea of abundance Prosperity peace this state will only be fully attained fully attained in the last times but the for the righteous it can be a
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present reality so true is it that there is nothing hoped for which cannot be translated immediately into actual life
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so God blesses and sanctifies day seven without reference to anything to be done without a command no strictures no restrictions placed on man or on Beast as he observes this rest
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we see in this instance God sanctifying a Time unit one in seven we talked a little bit about the days
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the days are listed out for us day one day two day three day seven God rested he sanctifies it he sets it apart
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you think back over our discussion of the days he's just made the lights he's just made the seasons he's given them rule over time and and set them in order that these things will be a memorial we even see him renewing that promise to
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Noah but the one in seven doesn't exactly line up with the lunar calendar doesn't really line up with the turn of the Earth around the Sun these things are close but not exactly
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divisible we have issues there trying to line that up it's not tethered in the way that it is you know day obviously follows the course of the sun through the sky and the year follows the
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turn you know we have the celestial bodies that are moving over but the one in seven is not given a similar Dominion we see evidence of man throughout the near East observing seven day cycles
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there is evidence of the Assyrians and the Babylonians and others apparently doing various kinds of rituals on a one in seven basis some would use this as a
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argument the cynics level it as an argument that Israel was copying stealing from their near neighbors I think it's more likely the inverse that God has placed this in his creation
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we see it happening here in Genesis and that God doing this wove into the fabric of man of man that one in seven so that the even the
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unbeliever as we've read out of Romans observing his invisible attributes reflects this follows up on it we have early evidence in job again of
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job sacrificing as far as we can tell on a one in seven basis when his children finish their Feasts the end of those seven days he would rise early in the morning he says when
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the days of their feasting had completed their cycle job would send and consecrate them rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all for job said perhaps my sons have sinned and
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cursed God in their hearts thus job did so we see God doing this in his creation resting on the seventh Desiring imitation as far as we can tell man made
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in his images reflecting this as we see in job we see in in external evidence and God will go on to make it part of his revealed plan for Israel his stated
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revealed religion revealed religion we have it as the fourth Commandment we've already read Exodus 20 verse um well actually have we shoot I messed up
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yeah so Exodus 20. verses 8 through 11. the fourth Commandment the institution of it it becomes part of the very essence of Judaism
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we have in fact the prophets continually reminding man don't we I mean you can think of any number of examples of them having to harangue man harangue Israel
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to obey the Sabbath to remember it to honor it before God we have Isaiah's comment often used in discussions of the Sabbath and worth reminding ourselves of
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and in Isaiah 58 he says if because of the Sabbath you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath the Delight the holy day of the Lord honorable and honor
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it desisting from your own ways from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word then you will take Delight in the Lord and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth and I will feed you with
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the heritage of Jacob your father for the mouth of the Lord has spoken we can see here in in Isaiah 58 that this is intended to be a blessing a
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relief to man we see God doing this instituting it at this opening of creation as a rest a relief
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and yet by the time of Christ we have observed that the Pharisees raised this to the level of a burden not a blessing
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there is a sense in which you can understand how the Pharisees got there we talked about this a little bit in terms of idolatry you think over the course of the
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narrative history that we have in First Kings and Kings and Chronicles as we go through and we observe Israel constantly falling into idolatry constantly ignoring the Sabbath days and the Sabbath rests the
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sabbatical years that they're meant to take every seven years
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message out of second chronicles 36 tells us tells us he took into act he took into Exile in Babylon those who had escaped from The Sword and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the
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kingdom of Persia to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths all the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath to fulfill 70 years you can
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go back date that that's 490 years of unobserved sabbatical years as they were in the land we have that commandment in Exodus 23 shortly after the Ten
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Commandments this is extended to all of now you shall sow your land for six years and gather its yield but in the seventh year you shall let it rest and
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lie uncultivated so the needy of your people may eat whatever they leave the animal of the field may eat you were to do the same with your Vineyard and your Olive Grove a whole year of letting it lie fallow of
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so we observe then that God intended this to be a relaxation but the Pharisees have raised it to a burden God Jesus rebukes them does he not when he tells them that the
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Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath it is intended to be that rest that relaxation we have a
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I can give myself in a little bit of trouble this morning we live in a well we live in a fallen world in all the systems of man that govern
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ourselves have a tendency a reality of being tainted with sin and the vices of man come out in them we ourselves we live in a capitalist
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Society there is a great deal of connection in the course of history between capitalism and generally speaking calvinistic Protestant theology Protestant theology most historically speaking most
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capitalist societies have Arisen out of the Protestant countries first and slowly spread to their neighbors and so on for more on this you can see Chuck's dissertation on the the
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connection of those things recommended we live in a capitalist Society one of the things that typically governs our society is frankly greed
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and overwork the acquisitive desire for more and more
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and more as I was thinking about this I was reflecting on you know we have again in the pentateuch here in the scope of Moses's writing we have the Gathering of the Manna don't we
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one is one of the distinctives of the Gathering of the Manna you can't gather more than you need when you do it goes away and in fact on the seventh day what are you supposed to do you're not supposed to go out and gather
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the man it's not going to be there for you God had provided for you in abundance ahead of that time that you can take that rest you can take that relaxation without fear
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because God has already foreseen it God has instituted it and prepared it for you again out of Isaiah of rebuke I think to many in our own day I read about this um
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woman's anecdote was saying her grandfather would never step into a Walmart which you know I can understand but specifically that he held up this verse in particular against Walmart
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Isaiah 5 verse 8 woe to those who attach house to house and join field to field until there is no more room and you alone are a landowner in the midst of the field
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the field when you guys can I'm sure think of any number of examples of companies that we could level this against in our day and age of adding House to House Field to
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field the constant drive to expand to acquire more to connect more um you know the restraint that Isaiah is
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talking about here the restraint to say it is enough God has provided sufficient for you for you it is a a concept of Restraint of of
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trust in God that he has provided what you need not straining after one more something I'm sure you all can think of the very famous quote by one of our society's great Heroes
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um the Rockefeller of course how much money does it take to make man happy just one more dollar it's slightly disputed whether or not that's actually what he said but I'm sure you all have met people like
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this in the course of your life and unfortunately some of you may even work for such a person in your life I hope um so in our society in our particular
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context I think this is one of the the issues that we come up against this idea of more and more and more and it creeps into our our society I mean
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again I'm sure most of you can think of uh time and an example I'm not that old but um even over the course of my life I can think of how many more stores are open on a Sunday now than they used to be
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some of you probably remember when basically nothing was open on a Sunday it moves into society greed and the acquisitiveness the desire for more hey if you had your hand up
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there is an example in history I mean greed is is a is a fundamental uh undergirding I'm not going to go into the seven deadly sins but broadly speaking greed is a large
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besetting sin of mankind as a whole um there is an example in in history the Soviets in certain of their republics for a while tried a five-day
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week they said all right we'll change the cycle we'll go to five days it's a little a little easier to divide it'll give you more rest it didn't really work they abandoned it
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after a couple of years the the French famously French Republic they were moving into the Age of Reason rationalism we're going to do away with all religious
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symbols and and tethers in society we're going to go to a 10-day week in fact it's part of a whole move of decimalization everything's going to be decimal they even had decimal time so none of this base 60 nonsense we're
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gonna do decimal time and we're going to go to a 10-day week they actually Managed IT kind of for about 12 years it was one of the first things the Napoleon did away with when he came in so there
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have been moves by man to to look at this specifically and say we reject this cycle but it always comes back it moves back into the reflection of the image of God
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in man the one in seven Rhythm this um this pattern that he has Sanctified set apart in the course of mankind again
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thinking about this as we talk about God as Creator it's right here at the very beginning the very opening of his um created order
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created order we have blessedly though in Hebrews chapter 4 a reminder that it was not just
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early Institution it is a eschatological look it looks forward I'm going to read Hebrews chapter 4 he says therefore we must fear if while a promise remains of entering his rest
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any one of you may seem to have come short of it for indeed we have had good news preached to us just as they also did but the word they heard did not benefit them because they were not
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United with those who listened with faith for we who have believed enter that rest just as he has said as I swore in my anger they certainly shall not enter my
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if through his Works were finished the foundation of this world for he has said somewhere concerning the seventh day and God rested on the seventh day from all his works and again In this passage they certainly shall not
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enter my rest so he's connecting there the early Sabbath institution with this rebuke of the children of Israel who were not allowed to enter in
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therefore since it remains for some to enter it enter it and those who previously had good news preached to them failed to enter Because of Disobedience he sets again a certain
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through David after so long A Time justice has been said before today if you hear his voice do not Harden your hearts for if Joshua had given them rest he would not have spoken of another day after that
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after that consequently their remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God for the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works as God did from his
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therefore let us make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will fall by following the same example of disobedience for the word of God is living inactive
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and sharper than any two-edged sword even penetrating as far as the division of Soul and Spirit of both joints and Marrow and able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart
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there is no creature hidden from his sight but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of him to whom we must answer therefore since we have such a great high priest
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who has passed through the heavens Jesus the son of God let us hold firmly to our confession for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but one who has been tempted in all
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things just as we are yet without sin therefore let us approach the throne of grace with confidence so we may receive mercy and find Grace
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for help at the time of our need wonderful Passage but one of the things that it's pointing out to us is a look forward and to look
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back he is looking reflectively back at the Sabbath in fact he even sort of places himself in the middle there saying okay and then after this great time we have David saying to us and now here he is in
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his early Century preaching to these folks and now here we are some 2000-ish years later the same look the same look forward the
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same look back the Sabbath in Genesis is both a progenitor and it is eschatological it looks forward to a time when man will enter that rest
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this is one of those passages it's not the most classic Passage but our I would argue this is one of those now and not yet passages that we now have a rest in Christ
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but it is not yet the same rest that we will have in the consummated age that we enter into arrest through the blood of Jesus Christ but we do not have the same physical
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relief that we will in our glorified bodies in the new Heaven and the new Earth so what do we do with this does anybody want to raise your hand now and and sorry what
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oh there's a hand sorry go ahead Abigail you are raising your hand my mistake
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yeah get the Mosaic wall the Sabbath is not reinterpreted but it's applied to that factor of human nature but where we see it established it does belong in Genesis 1 and it's
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totally focused on God and I was thinking that a few weeks ago when we were talking about the parallels between the days that it seems like day seven could be a
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parallel to the spirit of God hovering or rooting over the face of the waters that after his creative work he rests here is that
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is that so this the Sabbath and that rest points to the spiritual reality that God will always accomplish what he sets out to do to do with no help from anyone
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and so we have that reminder not just oh God will provide a man that's not going to provide you know produce whatever God's going to do what he intends to do
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God's going to bring his salvation to rest to rest is trusting that and not spiritual struggle which is what man wants to do we want to work
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yeah no I think it's an excellent point and and I like I hadn't thought of it that way but you're you're connecting it back to to God's hovering over the Deep the spirit in some sense Restless ready to create and to to bring into being and
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that he is satisfied he rests from his labors because he has accomplished what he purposed to do you're absolutely right though that man wants to wants to um you know this is one of the the major
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complications of effectively all human religion no matter how much we base it in the Bible there is always some level of human striving that comes back up in it in fact that's one of the reasons why
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the Pharisees did what they did isn't it that they raised the burdens of the Sabbath upon man in an attempt to keep them from ever violating it even by accident we will add law after law to
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keep you resting on the Sabbath you had your hand up yeah
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God May rest is an essential part of the purposes in creation we would probably do well to explore personally at least what rest is
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according to the purposes of God because God established something that we consider to be a negative of work yeah as a as a a seventh proportion at least right of
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of the of his creative Works to create rest and it parallels that he would do work and rest as part of his purposes and creation what what the phrase that
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the writer Hebrews uses is let us strive to enter that rest not a bad summary of what was going on at the very beginning yeah pictures came
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yeah I appreciate that yeah there is that you know it was just saying the the um sort of folly but but the writer of Hebrews does remind us strive to enter the rest is a fascinating sort of little phrase out of that that passage
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um and you know this is one of those things I I um among my other faults had a um architectural based education there's a quote that many of
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you have probably heard which is that art is never finished
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no God completed it he was satisfied it is enough and that's one of the things that I want us to pull out of um Hebrews as we as we close there is a
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a striving to enter the rest there is a desire to be close it's sort of the um you know sometimes we're yesterday I had my kids out we were shopping and they they're cuddling trying to keep up with
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me across the parking lot right in safety there's a there's a certain striving to stay close behind to me that's the picture here in Hebrews is Strive to stay with him to to enter the
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rest to be there with him but there isn't a sense in which we have emotional spiritual rest there is a there's a peace there's a cessation of laboring in Christ that you do not have to
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strain after every little thing because you have entered into his rest that he has given it to you he is our Sabbath rest a man in Christ has this open access to
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rest physically though it is built into creation in terms of the physical frame the physical element that is um again God establishes it here there's a level of
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of saying this is done this is complete I am satisfied now we rest I think it's useful for us in our own whether it's creative Endeavors or your your business
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life whatever those things may be to recognize that that God has put this in um there's also an element in this you know you think about in the writing of of
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Hebrews at the time this was written the people to whom he was writing the Sabbath was not necessarily available to all many of his hearers would not have had a
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day off of work so there is an element here in which he's he's he's he's helping them spiritualize it and recognize do you still have opportunity you still have rest with Christ you can
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still enter with the fellowship in that day together of Joy whether you've gotten up as we read the historical example they got up very early in the morning on their seventh day to worship
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together to enjoy to rest in that sense but I will say it is available to us by God's blessing by his Mercy we live in a society where it has been fought
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for that we have a day of rest a day off to gather together and so if you think about what is enough I would I would challenge you to rest in what God has provided for you Aaron you
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had your hand up
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the fact that the people were eager being your first four reasons of internal corruption and greed to work on the Saturday it's one of the earliest case laws in the world wood on
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wood on per day yeah they were eager to do them all them all the art doesn't change that but what I was thinking was that
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describing it strive to let us strive to enter that rest with parallel what Paul says since we live by the spirit let us also keep them spirit
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I was thinking Mark talked about how that that phrase that sentence is misused to say you know better keep up otherwise it was basically turning it on
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its head as well rather than being an expression of Our Hope if we belong to God here it
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is here's what we have in Christ in Christ turned on its head as some sort of
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because we who because we enter that rest who believe yeah let's strive there when we work to enter it yeah it should be as we see it
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in God it should be a joyful desire of satisfaction to enter into the rest not
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not a burden I guess to come back to that that idea that phrase are there other questions or comments before we close this morning well I'll just say I'm personally I'm not a
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replacement sabitarian but we have the day off day off I think we ought to enter into it because God has instituted it in his creation that that one in seven is a
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blessing to man that we have fought for it we we have it we should not relinquish it by any means and that we should enter into uh satisfaction in what God has provided that he has given
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us enough in everything spiritually physically emotionally I mean I know many of us are various points in our lives weary and burdened
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by the labors that we are given by the demands of family by whatever those things may be but the writer of Hebrews reminds us we have entered if you have believed you have entered into his rest
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and you are a partaker with Christ in that so let's close in prayer as we prepare ourselves to go upstairs in
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our heavenly father we do thank you for your word we thank you for the reminder from the writer to the Hebrews that we have such a great high priest who has gone before us the Forerunner who rent The Veil and made this way for us to enter
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in we thank you that we have rest that we have opportunity to lay our burdens down and to come enjoy together we ask that you would stir up the spirit within us that we might truly enter into
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it in that same attitude that we read here of Christ that we would be magnifying your name raising up our hands together and offering an acceptable sacrifice before
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you we ask your mercy your blessing upon this time that it may we're down to your glory and that it may edify the body for its further work that you have established it to do upon this Earth we
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ask all of these things in the name of our most holy