No Greater Rest

Sabbath rest was just a glimpse of something better that is on the way.

Exodus 20:8-11  “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  9  You have six days each week for your ordinary work,  10  but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the LORD your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you.

11  For in six days the LORD made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.

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Just about all of us are running on empty and would love to have some time to rest but it seems like none of us are willing to make rest a priority. It seems like it should be an easy command to obey but for most of us resting is the hardest thing to do.

In the beginning God put us in a perfect place of rest in the Garden of Eden but instead of resting in our relationship with him we decided to take Satan's advice. We preferred to put our trust in our own efforts rather than trusting God but instead of improving and becoming a better version of humanity or becoming gods we became much less than we were. As a result we gave up our place of perfect rest in the garden. The Bible is the story of God making a way for us to get back to our rest that can only be found in his presence. 

God promised Abraham that his descendants would live in a place of rest some day, the Promised Land was a place where they would live under God's blessing, but hundreds of years went by as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all passed away waiting for God's timing.

God finally brought his people out of slavery to the kingdom of darkness where they never had any rest. On their way to the land where they should find rest in the land of plenty they sing this song of praise to God after he saved them from Pharaoh:

God Brought Them Out So He Could Bring Them In

Exodus 15:13,17-18 “With your unfailing love you lead the people you have redeemed. In your might, you guide them to your sacred home. 

17 You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain— the place, O LORD, reserved for your own dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hands have established. 18 The LORD will reign forever and ever!”

Don't forget that God's children are singing this song out in the wilderness on the shore of the Red Sea. They are celebrating a miraculous victory over Egypt where they were forced to labor but they were nowhere close to the place of rest that God has promised.

They were brought out of the kingdom of darkness and guided to the place where they can reside in God's presence even though they were still standing in the wilderness. What a beautiful picture of the ultimate fulfillment of this reality in the future when God's people will find the perfect rest that we lost in the garden.

Until we get there we need to wrestle with the desire to do everything for ourselves. God's power at work in us and our willingness to rely on him is the way to a peaceful, satisfying life. But most of us see God's word as a bunch of to do list and rule keeping that looks nothing like rest. 

Finding rest seems just as impossible as it must have sounded to the former slaves that Moses led out of Egypt. For hundreds of years they were under the threat of losing their lives if they did not work and now God is telling them that their future depends on their ability to rest in him.

What Is Work? 

It's not a bad question to ask but when you look to man for the answer instead of God you end of with the wrong answer. In their passion to avoid work God's people kept adding to the list of things to avoid doing to the point that the Sabbath became a burden instead of a blessing.

Silly Rabbinical Rules and the True Meaning of Torah

When man adds to God's rules it is usually done with bias and it is done to have control over others. The largest organized religions in the world are famous for adding church rules and traditions on top of the Bible. We have to be careful when we add to the intended purpose of God's rules.

To not work is just the beginning

Isaiah 58:13-14  Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don’t pursue your own interests on that day, but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the LORD’s holy day. Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day, and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly. 14 Then the LORD will be your delight. I will give you great honor and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob. I, the LORD, have spoken!”

God centered rest was taught by the prophets in the Old Testament over and over again. God made it so clear that they were doing it wrong, how to do it right and showed them the great benefits for doing it correctly. (Isaiah 56:1-8, Isaiah 58:13-14, Jeremiah 17:21-27, Ezekiel 20:12-26; 22:8, 16, 26, Nehemiah 10:28-31; 13:15-22)

Part of their problem was they were not living to please God the other six days of the week so it would be impossible to be genuine in their observance of the Sabbath.

Micah 6:3,8 “O my people, what have I done to you? What have I done to make you tired of me? Answer me! 8 O people, the LORD has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

The unnecessary burdens that the religious leaders placed on the people probably contributed to their tendency to be unfaithful to God and create less demanding gods. The pleasant demand to rest had been replaced with a strict application of the law that was a weapon to control people. (Deuteronomy 10:12, Matthew 23:4, Acts 15:10)

Then comes Jesus, the religious leaders didn't have any idea how to handle someone that seemed to intentionally break their rules, imagine telling Jesus how to obey the Sabbath. It seems that Jesus took the time to break man's Sabbath rules in order to teach them the real Sabbath rules.

Did Jesus Break The Sabbath Law?

The True Sabbath Rest 

Matthew 11:28-29 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Jesus must have felt incredibly misunderstood as he saw the unnecessary burdens that the religious leaders placed on the people. As the people tried to do what was right, their religious leaders only had bad news for them, no matter how hard they tried they were told they were doing it wrong. (Isaiah 58:1-14, Matthew 23:1-39)

Jesus offers us a better opportunity than the law could ever do, instead of resting for a day Jesus offers us a daily rest in him. Only Jesus can release us from the bondage of sin to receive true rest. We can lay down the burden that our conscious puts on us as we feel the weight of our sin. We can lay down the burden of trying to be good enough to be loved.

God's purpose for us on the sabbath is that we experience the highest and most intense joy that can be experienced, namely, that we "take delight in the Lord." And yet what he finds again and again is professing Christians who prefer little human-sized pleasures from things that have no close relation to God at all.

John Piper

We can work as hard as we want everyday of the week but if we will acknowledge that every good thing that we have comes from God's blessing on our lives then we can give up our slavery to our own strength and stamina. We can rest from our labor and trust God that he will provide for tomorrow just as he did today. (Exodus 16:16-26)

The greatest rest that we need can be found only in Jesus. We celebrate the rest that only his work on the cross could make possible, peace with God and the peace of God is available without an effort on our part. (Ephesian 2:8-9, Romans 5:1, Philippians 4:6-8, Revelation 14:13) 

How can a true believer that understands the incredible gift that Jesus has given them fail to rejoice at the beginning of the week for a day focused on celebrating this glorious fact?

Let's focus on delighting in God as we look forward to the day when we reach our final and ultimate Sabbath rest for eternity in his presence.

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The Eighth Day (baylor.edu)

The Sabbath in Apostolic Preaching and Practice (bible.org)

Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep It Holy (desiringgod.org)

The Promised Son Needs A Bride

God's servants need to prayerfully find a bride for his son.

Genesis 24:36-40 “When Sarah, my master’s wife, was very old, she gave birth to my master’s son, and my master has given him everything he owns. 37 And my master made me take an oath. He said, ‘Do not allow my son to marry one of these local Canaanite women. 38 Go instead to my father’s house, to my relatives, and find a wife there for my son.’ 

39 “But I said to my master, ‘What if I can’t find a young woman who is willing to go back with me?’ 40 He responded, ‘The LORD, in whose presence I have lived, will send his angel with you and will make your mission successful. Yes, you must find a wife for my son from among my relatives, from my father’s family.

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In the previous post we looked at the concept of foreshadowing, a lot of prophecy and events of the Old Testament are symbolic of events in the life of Jesus or they are pointing us to events when Jesus returns. The symbolism that is seen throughout the Bible helps verify that all of the writers of this book were inspired by God.

It took forever for the promised son to be born but now Isaac is about forty years old, his mom has already died, his dad probably won't live much longer and Isaac still doesn't have a wife. How will Abraham have so many descendants when Isaac doesn't even have a wife? How could this rich bachelor still be single?

The foreshadowing continues in the life of Abraham and Isaac as the father sends his servant to his homeland to get a bride for his son. If we see Isaac as a type of Jesus, then take the next step and look at Rebekah as a type of the church, the bride of Christ. The story of the servant being sent to get the bride suddenly takes on new meaning that God's people need to understand more fully.

The faithful servant has taken an oath to go back to Abraham's family to find a bride without taking Isaac with him. The servant loves the son and wants to make him happy but how can he persuade the lady to willingly come back with him without a photo or a social media profile to show her?

Genesis 24:12 “O LORD, God of my master, Abraham,” he prayed. “Please give me success today, and show unfailing love to my master, Abraham.

The servant went straight to God, this huge task didn't seem to cause him any worry, he is confident that with God's help he will be successful. The servants prayer was answered quicker than any of my prayers, in fact his prayer time ended as the answer to his prayer walked up to the well. (Genesis 24:15)

The answer to the servants prayer was so obvious, Rebekah was willing to do everything that the servant requested. The servant was eager to tell the potential bride and her family about his master. He shared about the fame, the goodness and the riches of his master so that a longing grew in Rebekah to meet the father and his son. 

Genesis 24:58 So they called Rebekah. “Are you willing to go with this man?” they asked her. And she replied, “Yes, I will go.”

A lot of marriages in those days were forced but the decision to be the bride was left up to Rebekah, the servant was convinced and Rebekah's relatives were also sure, but she was allowed to have the final say.

Ephesians 5:31-32  As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.

Throughout scripture marriage is a metaphor for the relationship of God with his chosen people and for Jesus relationship with the church. Every time the Bible mentions marriage we can find a message from God about our relationship with him.

If you love the father and his son then you will be the faithful servant, you will take the oath to go get a bride for the son, no matter how difficult it may seem. The son is in his home country preparing a place for his bride. He is counting on his faithful servants to fulfill their duty out of love for him.

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A Bride For Isaac (ligonier.org)

The Lord Will Provide A Son

God's promised son is the only sacrifice that can save.

Genesis 22:1-2  Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called. “Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.” 2 “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”

Genesis 22:7-8 Isaac turned to Abraham and said, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “We have the fire and the wood,” the boy said, “but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?” 8 “God will provide a sheep for the burnt offering, my son,” Abraham answered. And they both walked on together.

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It is easy to become overwhelmed with the Old Testament and set it aside and stay in the New Testament. If you avoid Genesis through Malachi and jump into the Bible somewhere in Matthew through Revelation then you miss out on a lot of important information.

Genesis explains to us that in the beginning our world was perfect and it tells us that he is the only one that can fix the problems caused by sin. There are a lot of social justice warriors out there today but they are not very effective because they do not address the heart problem that only God can fix. As soon as we messed it up God told us about his plan to make it all perfect again, that's what the rest of the Bible is trying to reveal to us.

God chose Abraham to be the beginning of a special people that would be the lineage of our savior. Abraham wasn't chosen because he was perfect for the job, over the years Abraham slowly progressed through the school of faith, as he learned more about God his faith would grow and he would trust him more.

This story of God telling Abraham to sacrifice Isaac is very disturbing from our perspective and we have to wonder how God could make such an extreme request. It seems like mental torture for everybody involved. But we have to realize that in the Old Testament we see God interacting with man very direct and often times he asks very great things of them that we never see in our day. 

In the book of Genesis alone there was Noah, Abram, Isaac and Joseph that all did mighty things for God that he would never ask us to repeat. Since we have never experienced God in such a personal and direct way, it can be very difficult to understand this relationship between God and his people in the Old Testament.

Abraham is asked to go to an undisclosed location, a mountain somewhere in the land of Moriah where he would build yet another altar to sacrifice to God, today we know this place as the area that includes the Temple Mount and the Garden of Gethsemane in Jerusalem. Abraham was to go there to offer God the most precious sacrifice. 

Abraham's love and faith in God was put to the ultimate test that reminds me a lot of Job. We will find out whether his blessings were the reason for his obedience or would Abraham be obedient in the most difficult circumstances? God gives us good things but what happens when God wants them back?

Abraham's only verbal response to God was simply "Here I am." The Bible doesn't tell us that he debated with God to try to change his mind and he didn't ask for an explanation. Abraham personally started the task of obeying, he didn't leave it up to a servant to get things ready to go.

After over forty years of following God, he has experienced God and come to know him in a more intimate relationship than anybody that I know of in today's world. That's probably why God made a request that seems so huge to us. Abraham's faith journey brought him into such an intimate, trusting relationship with God that anything short of this extreme request wouldn't really be a true test of his faith. 

Earlier when he didn't trust God, Abraham had Ishmael running around the house as a constant reminder of his lack of faith, if he failed this faith test then he would have Isaac hanging around the house as a painful reminder of his failure, sometimes our sins have long term consequences that we have to live with.

Abraham passed this test, but he wasn't the only one being tested, his only son was old enough that he had to be submissive to God's command in order for it to happen. Isaac could have refused to be involved once he found out that he was the one that his dad intended to put on the altar.

Ancient cultures were killing their children to please their gods but Abraham learned that the only sacrifice that the one true God seeks is a living sacrifice. (Romans 12:1-2) God is never pleased with a dead human and it grieves him greatly that we are so willing to rebel by murdering our baby's. 

When he laid himself on the altar, trusting his father and his God, he came of age as the true seed of Abraham and entered on the inheritance, making God his God. At that supreme moment he made himself over to God, he put himself at God’s disposal; if his death was to be helpful in fulfilling God’s purpose he was willing to die. It was God’s will that must be done, not his.

He had familiarized himself with the thought that he belonged to God; that he was on earth for God’s purposes, not for his own; so that now, when he was suddenly summoned to lay himself formally and finally on God’s altar, he did not hesitate to do so.

-Expositors Bible Commentary

This cooperation between father and son are a foreshadow of God the Father and his Son Jesus. The Father was willing to sacrifice his Son but the Son had to be willing to be a part of the plan to save the world.

There are a lot of prophecy's in the Bible that have a dual fulfillment. Abraham's prophecy that God will provide the lamb for the sacrifice was fulfilled that very day but it was also a prediction that would take thousands of years to accomplish.

John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

John 3:16-17 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

The true lamb of God is the promised son that was represented in the foreshadowing of Isaac, God would never have been pleased with the death of Isaac, only a perfect human sacrifice could pay the penalty for man's sin. Since there are not any perfect humans around, Jesus is the only one that could satisfy God's demand for a sacrificial payment for our sin. (Matthew 10:37-39, 1 Peter 1:18-20)

The Lord has provided, just as he promised way back in the book of Genesis, but we have to believe in the provision. We must see how far short we fall from perfection and realize that God kindness in providing the sacrifice for our sin is our only hope of being with him in eternity. (Romans 3:23)

Isaac Was A Foreshadow of Jesus
The miracle birth was prophesied God issues His command—His will—to sacrifice a beloved son The sons accept God’s will The sons carry the wood God provides a substitute Loved ones grieve for three days Faith in the resurrection

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