Exodus 31:12-18
The Sabbath Law
12 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 13 “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. 14 You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. 16 Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. 17 It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’”
18 And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
The LORD who sanctifies told His people to remember the rest from His works of creation by resting from their own work for a day. It was such a sign to remind them of this truth that their standing before Him was due to His work and not their own, just as we find later in Hebrews 4:9-10 where our sanctifying rest is in the work of God’s Son and stop our own efforts to earn any merit for salvation. We find further understanding of this rest in Christ in Romans 14:5-6 as we see that it is not a particular day to rigorously honor as a religious duty, but a life of rest in Christ as our Sabbath whom we rest in every day and not just once per week. This life of rest in Him each and every day then is to be sanctified as set apart to live holy in His righteousness and our adherence to doing what is right in response by living in the love, light, and wisdom (Ephesians 5:2, 8, 15) given us to follow Him. The sign of the New Covenant of Grace then is rest in Christ and not in a particular day to honor God’s work in both creation and re-creation of us all. These things were written on cold stone tablets of the letter of the Law to Moses, but now have been written on the tablets of our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33) with true thankfulness and gratitude of willing obedience to live by His moral laws written with the finger of God’s Spirit there (2 Corinthians 3:3) on each of we who are His children in Christ. His testimony of the gospel is written in us and our rest is in Him every day and not just once per week on certain days and times of religious requirements (Colossians 2:14) that demanded adherence or punishment of death. We are free at last in Jesus Christ, our true and intended Sabbath rest!
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