Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20070711.htm

EXODUS: FUNCTIONING WELL IN A HOPELESS GROUP ASSIGNMENT
Part II: God's Sustainment Of Israel In The Wilderness Wanderings Amid Humanly Hopeless Trials
M. God's Establishment Of The Tabernacle Of Meeting
17. The Sabbath Institution: Signaling God's Gracious Rest Versus Pagan Religious Oppression
(Exodus 31:12-18)
  1. Introduction
    1. Man's religions tend to burden him with obligations to favor his deity with hard work or hard-earned merit to win the deity's approval, producing an oppressive relationship with the deity in man's view.
    2. This is dramatically different from the view God wants His people to have of their relationship with Him: God intends for us to find rest and refreshment in Him, a truth signaled in the placement of the reference to the Sabbath at the end of the institution of the tabernacle (as follows):
  2. The Sabbath Institution: Signaling God's Gracious Rest Versus Pagan Religious Oppression.
    1. Though the institution of the Sabbath Day is one of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:8-11), the ordinance was repeated at the end of God's instructions on the building of the tabernacle, Ex. 25:1-31:11, 12-18.
    2. In this context, God made the Sabbath observance a sign between Israel and God so that His people might view Him as the Lord who set Israel apart from the pagan nations around her, Exodus 31:12-13.
    3. In so doing, God emphasized the refreshing rest His people were to know that day in great contrast to the oppression and unrest the pagans knew in their relationship to their false gods, Exodus 31:17 KJV, ESV :
      1. Israel's Ancient Near Eastern pagan neighbors saw the seventh day and their religions as oppressive:
        1. Scripturally, the Sabbath commemorated God's creation of the universe and man, Exodus 31:17.
        2. Now, the Ancient Near Eastern pagans in their creation accounts viewed man as a slave to the gods: (1) Tablet VI of the Akkadian creation account, Enumah Elish claims man "was created from the blood of Kingu, a rebel deity and for the purpose of doing the work of the gods." (Bruce K. Waltke, Creation and Chaos, 1974, p. 65 citing James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 1969, p. 68) (2) The repetition of such an account thus reiterated to the pagan mind that man was a slave, Ibid., citing Narbur M. Sarnia, Understanding Genesis, 1971, p. 7.
        3. Coupled with man's role as a slave was his pagan view that the "seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth day of the month connected with the four phases of the moon" and "the nineteenth of the month, which occurs seven weeks after the beginning of the preceding month, were regarded as unlucky days on which a man should afflict himself, eschew pleasures and refrain from performing important work, for they would not prosper.'" (Ibid., Waltke, citing U. Cassuto, A Com. on the Book of Gen., trans. Israel Abrahams, Jerusalem: The Mangues Press, 1961, p. 23)
      2. Yet, in great contrast to all of this, God's Sabbath was intended to liberate, rest and bless His people:
        1. Jesus noted that the Sabbath Day was made for man, not man for the Sabbath Day, cf. Mark 2:27. It was thus to be a time of rest and refreshment for God's people when they entered into the rest God enjoyed upon finishing all His creative works, Ex. 31:17 KJV, ESV; Mark 2:23-28; Heb. 4:4-10.
        2. Also, opposite the pagan view that the Seventh day was a time of bad luck when man was to avoid work lest his efforts become fruitless, God blessed the Seventh Day, Genesis 2:3. Thus, all during Israel's 40 years of wilderness wanderings God supplied a double portion of manna for each Sabbath that Israel might not be afflicted, but rest in blessing in God's grace, Exodus 16:22-26.
    4. Applied to a discussion on the tabernacle, this emphasis is both encouraging and instructive (as follows):
      1. God closed His words on the tabernacle in referring to the Sabbath to show Israel was to relate to a God of blessing and grace versus the nations who knew only oppression in relating to their false gods.
      2. Thus, opposite the oppression and fear pagans experienced in their temples, Israel was to relate to God in the tabernacle as the God of grace who gave blessed rest for His repentant people, Exodus 31:12-18!
Lesson: God closed His directives on the institution of the tabernacle by making the Sabbath Day observance a sign of His relationship with Israel as the God of RESTFUL, LIBERATING GRACE in STARK CONTRAST to the pagans who knew only enslavement and oppression in their false religions!

Application: If our Christian walk seems oppressive, something is very wrong, for GOD wants us to know His blessing, rest and liberty in our lives! May we adjust as necessary to walk in God's grace!