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Text: Exodus 31:12-18
An artifact of creation
- Exodus 20:9-11
- What’s interesting about this is that almost every nation in the world has only seven days on their calendar. And a universal measure of time is a week. At some point in the week, there are designated rest days. In the way an archeologist might dig up remnants of ancient civilizations, there are artifacts of time from creation. But they aren’t buried. This artifact of time has never been abandoned.
- It is a call for rest. And the sabbath would become synonymous with rest going forward.
- That rest was made for man as Jesus said in Mark 2:27-28.
A sign for the nation of Israel
- The LORD institutes the law of the sabbath for the nation of Israel so they’ll know the LORD.
- Cycle of weeks
- Here’s a quick history. When Nebuchadnezzar initially began to siege Jerusalem and destroy Judean cities in 606 B.C., it was exactly 490 years from the time God had given Israel its first king, Saul. What is significant about 490? Every seven days was a sabbath day, and every seven years was a sabbath year to let the land rest. But ever since Israel was given a king the land continued to be worked and Israel failed to observe the yearly sabbaths. Seventy sabbaths later, that’s 70 x 7 years, 490 years later, God brought judgment. The judgment was a year for each sabbath missed, so 70 years of captivity. Of course, God’s judgment is made known to those that trust Him.
A test for the nation (Jeremiah 17:9-11)
- God tries the deceitful heart with his commandment to keep the sabbath
- Sabbath was given in Exodus 16:4-5 to prove their trust
- James 1:22-25
- Trusting riches is the chief problem against trusting God.
