The Sabbath is the Sign

(Just so you know, if you are on track Wednesday February 17th you are reading Exodus 35-38.)

When reading the Bible, especially the Old Testament, it's easy to misunderstand the context of the story and wonder why something seems so important that comes out of nowhere. The Sabbath can be like this. God can seem unusually harsh in His punishment for not obeying the Sabbath.

But when you understand the covenant agreement that He made with Israel, you can easily understand why. A covenant, which was a standard practice in the Ancient Near East (ANE), is somewhat parallel to our modern day contract, but with much more weight behind it. A covenant came with several ritualistic components, which we don't have the time here to get into. Dr. Jim Garlow has a great book on the meaning of this ancient practice and it's foreshadowing of Christ's new covenant in his death and resurrection. I highly recommend it. It's called 'The Covenant.'

But when you read through this section that we are in you realize that the Sabbath is the sign of the covenant. (read 31:13) In other words, God offered to fulfill His end of the bargain, and the primary way in which the Israelites upheld their end of the deal was by obeying the Sabbath. It seems rather odd, because God's command to the people was in essence was to do nothing.

However, when you sit back and think about it, the Sabbath is one of the things that set the Jews apart from everyone else in the ANE. For example, the Sabbath and 7 day week was revolutionary at the time because they were the only ones who practiced this rhythm of the calendar. And taking a day off really set them apart. For them it is no different for us today, taking a day off every 6 days reminds us that we can't do it all. it's a weekly reminder that God needs to be in control of our lives.

So this Sabbath component to the covenant agreement makes sense because God is acclimating them to a different culture, a culture that is completely different than the one that surrounded them in Egypt. Instead, God is establishing at the beginning of their new relationship with Him that as His people they are to be 'set apart', or holy unto God in all they do. He is establishing this in their cultural practices.

***By the way, the 2 tablets didn't contain 5 commandments each on them, as movies would have us believe. Instead, on each tablet were all 10 words of God. Why? Because in the ANE it was standard that when a covenant was established between 2 parties, there would exist a copy of the agreement for each. So the 2 tablets had the entire copy on them, one for the Israelites, one for YHWH.

Chapter summaries:
Exodus
23 various laws/God's angel
24 the people confirm the Covenant with God
25 Tabernacle instructions (furniture)
26 Tabernacle specifications

27 rules for inside the Tabernacle
28 priestly garments
29 ordaining the priests
30 Tabernacle instructions (atonement money)

31 the Sabbath is the sign
32 Golden Calf
33 Moses' tent of meeting
34 New Tablets and Moses' radiant face

Tomorrow I will talk about something you may never have thought about before in the familiar story of the Golden Calf.