Seder 61: The Sabbath in the Book of Exodus

 The Sabbath commandment is mentioned six times in the book of Exodus.  Different messages about the significance of the Sabbath are communicated in these various passages.

In the Decalogue (Exod 20:8-11), the Sabbath is presented as a memorial of creation, so it is a time to acknowledge God as the creator and owner of everything.  All of the things that we have working on are gifts from him.  In keeping the Sabbath, we follow God's example.  On the 7th day of the creation week, he entered into a rest, not of inactivity, but of shalom---peace and well-being.  He invites us to join him, each week and forever.

As we read in Exodus 16, God used manna to teach Israel an important lesson (vv 22-26).  The manna from Sunday through Thursday did not keep overnight, but the manna from Friday did.  The Israelites could gather twice as much on Friday, and then they did not have to gather manna on the Sabbath.  Israel learned through the manna to rely on God for their daily provision.  Similarly, we learn through the Sabbath that we do not have to work every day.  We can rely on God to take care of us. 

I see a similar lesson in Exodus 34:21, which says that the Sabbath should be kept even when time-sensitive tasks lie ahead.

Exodus 23:12 says, "Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed."

This verse says that all God's creatures deserve a rest, and no one should enslaved.  

In Exodus 31:12-17 we see the Sabbath as a sign of the Mosaic covenant.  It was a time for the Israelites to remember who they were.  The Sabbath is not a sign of the Christian renewed covenant, but it is still important for us to regularly remember who we are and to draw closer to God  

In Exodus 35:2 the Sabbath is mentioned again, just before the description of the building of the tabernacle.  Building the tabernacle was an important project.  This was a place where God would dwell in the midst of the nation.  But work on the tabernacle still stopped every Sabbath.  As Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, the Sabbath can be viewed as a "sanctuary in time," a temporal space in which to enjoy God's presence. 

The book of Exodus contains a number of valuable lessons about the Sabbath, whatever our weekly practice might be.