The Rhythms of a Free People Text: Exodus 23:10-13
Introduction: The Grammar of Gratitude
We live in an age that is profoundly confused about the basics. We are confused about work, thinking it a curse. We are confused about rest, thinking it mere idleness. We are confused about wealth, thinking it a sin. And we are confused about poverty, thinking it a virtue. Our culture's solutions to these things are always coercive and statist. The secularist sees a problem and his first instinct is to form a committee, pass a law, and create a federal program. This is because the secularist has no God, and so the state must become his god, his provider, his savior.
But the laws God gave to Israel in the wilderness were of a completely different character. They were not the top-down, bureaucratic mandates of a nanny state. They were the rhythms of a free and grateful people. Remember the context. God did not give the law to Israel so that they might be saved by it. He gave the law to Israel because they had already been saved. The preamble to the Ten Commandments is not "do these things and I will deliver you," but rather, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" (Exodus 20:2). Grace comes first, and then gratitude. Deliverance precedes duty. The law is the shape of our thank you.
The passage before us is part of what is called the Book of the Covenant. These are case laws, specific applications of the Ten Commandments to the life of Israel. And what we find here is a set of instructions that weaves together economics, worship, social concern, and radical God-centeredness. This is a holistic vision for a society that is to be utterly distinct from the pagan nations around it. Egypt was a top-down slave economy built on the whip. Canaan was a collection of depraved cults built on idolatry and sexual chaos. Israel was to be different. Their work, their rest, their treatment of the poor, and their worship were all to be shaped by one central reality: the Lord is God, and we are His people. This passage gives us the grammar of a godly society, a society that understands true liberty because it understands its limits, its responsibilities, and its ultimate dependence on God.
The Text
Now you shall sow your land for six years and gather in its produce, but on the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. Thus you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove. Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your maidservant, as well as your sojourner, may refresh themselves. Now concerning everything which I have said to you, beware; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth.
(Exodus 23:10-13 LSB)
Sabbath for the Land (v. 10-11)
The first principle establishes a rhythm of work and rest, not just for people, but for the very land itself.
"Now you shall sow your land for six years and gather in its produce, but on the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. Thus you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove." (Exodus 23:10-11)
Here we have the Sabbath principle writ large, applied to the entire economy. For six years, the Israelites are to work the land. God is not opposed to diligent labor, planning, or productivity. In fact, He commands it. The Protestant work ethic finds its roots right here. You are to sow, and you are to gather its produce. This is the basis of all wealth and flourishing. But this productivity is not boundless. It is not an endless cycle of acquisition. It has a limit, a boundary set by God. On the seventh year, the land is to rest.
This had a number of practical effects. It was good agricultural practice, preventing the soil from being depleted. But the primary reason was theological. This practice was a powerful, annual, national declaration that the land did not ultimately belong to them; it belonged to God. They were stewards, not absolute owners. Their prosperity did not come fundamentally from their own cleverness or hard work, but from the hand of a gracious God who promised to provide for them, even in a year when they did not sow (Leviticus 25:20-22). It was a mandated act of faith, forcing the entire nation to trust God for their daily bread.
But notice the social implications. Who benefits from this fallow year? "So that the needy of your people may eat." This is God's welfare system. It is not a government handout. It is not a state-run food stamp program that creates dependency and destroys dignity. It is institutionalized, decentralized, dignified charity. The poor were not given a check; they were given the opportunity to go into the fields and glean for themselves. This provided for their needs without making them wards of the state. It maintained their dignity and required them to labor for their food. And the provision is generous, extending even to the beasts of the field. God's gracious economy provides for the poor and even the wild animals, all without a single bureaucrat.
Now, are we required to let our fields lie fallow every seventh year? No, this was a judicial law for Israel's agrarian economy. But as with all such laws, we are bound by the general equity, the underlying principle. And the principles are clear: first, our economic activity must have limits, acknowledging God as the ultimate owner. We are not to be driven by a frantic, 24/7 pursuit of more. Second, our prosperity is a gift from God, to be stewarded with faith, not hoarded in fear. Third, God requires that our economic systems have built-in mechanisms for providing for the poor in a way that is generous, dignified, and decentralized. This is a far cry from the socialist impulse to confiscate and redistribute by force, and it is also a rebuke to a libertarianism that would deny any social obligation. Biblical economics is covenantal economics.
Sabbath for the People (v. 12)
From the macro-level of the national economy, the law now zooms in to the micro-level of the weekly household rhythm.
"Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your maidservant, as well as your sojourner, may refresh themselves." (Exodus 23:12 LSB)
This is, of course, a restatement of the fourth commandment. Work for six days, and rest for one. This is a creation ordinance. It is woven into the fabric of the cosmos. God worked for six days and rested on the seventh, not because He was tired, but to establish a pattern for His image-bearers. Work is a good gift from God, given before the Fall. But it is not the ultimate thing. Rest is also a gift, a weekly reminder that our identity is not found in what we produce, but in who we are as creatures made in God's image.
But look at the reason given here. The purpose of the Sabbath rest is profoundly gracious and outward-looking. You are to rest so that everyone and everything under your authority can rest and be refreshed. Your ox and your donkey get a day off. The son of your maidservant, the lowest servant in the household, gets to be refreshed. The sojourner, the alien living among you, is also included in this gift. The Sabbath is a great equalizer. On this day, the master and the servant, the Israelite and the foreigner, even the livestock, all receive the same gift of rest from God.
This is a radical declaration of war against every form of tyranny and exploitation. A man who truly keeps the Sabbath cannot be a tyrant to his employees or his family. A society that honors the Sabbath cannot be a slave society. The Sabbath puts a hard stop to the grasping demands of endless productivity. It says, "Enough." It creates a space for worship, for family, for refreshment. It reminds the powerful of their limits and provides protection and grace for the vulnerable.
In the New Covenant, this principle is not abolished but fulfilled and transformed. Christ is our Sabbath rest (Hebrews 4:9-10). He has completed the work of redemption. This is why the church gathers for worship on the first day of the week, the Lord's Day, the day of resurrection. The old covenant Sabbath looked back to the first creation and ended the week with rest. The new covenant Lord's Day looks to the new creation in Christ and begins the week with rest. We no longer work toward our rest; we work from our rest. Our labor for six days is now built upon the foundation of gospel rest, the finished work of Jesus Christ. But the principle of extending this refreshing grace to all within our care remains fully in force.
Sabbath for the Mind (v. 13)
Finally, God commands a Sabbath for the mind and mouth. It is not enough to rest the land and the body; the heart and mind must also be consecrated to God alone.
"Now concerning everything which I have said to you, beware; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth." (Exodus 23:13 LSB)
This is a command for total allegiance. It is a call to what the Puritans called "custody of the mind." The Israelites were to be on guard. The word is "beware." They were entering a land saturated with idolatry. Every hilltop had a shrine, every valley a pagan altar. The temptation to syncretism, to mix the worship of Yahweh with the worship of Baal or Molech, would be immense. God's command is absolute: do not even speak their names. Do not let their names be part of your vocabulary. This is the principle of antithesis.
God is not one option among many. He is not the head of a pantheon. He is the one true God, and He will not share His glory with another. To even mention the name of another god in a way that grants it legitimacy is to commit spiritual adultery. This is because true worship is not just an external act; it is an internal posture of exclusive devotion. You cannot serve God and mammon. You cannot serve the Lord and Baal.
We live in a pluralistic age that considers this kind of exclusive claim to be the height of arrogance and intolerance. But it is the bedrock of reality. There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. All other "gods" are either demons or figments of our rebellious imagination. And so for us, the general equity of this command is that we must be vigilant to guard our minds and our speech from the idols of our age. We must not give credence to the false gods of secularism, materialism, sexual autonomy, or statism. Our minds must be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and our mouths must be filled with His praise, and His name alone.
Conclusion: The Rest Giver
These laws, given so long ago, reveal a God whose wisdom and grace are profound. He establishes rhythms of rest for the land, for the poor, for the animals, for the servants, and for His people. He builds a society where faithful work is honored, and where rest is a non-negotiable gift. He designs an economy where the poor are provided for with dignity. And He demands a worship that is exclusive and whole-hearted.
But Israel failed to keep these laws. Their failure to keep the Sabbath laws for the land was one of the stated reasons for their exile to Babylon, where the land finally got its rest (2 Chronicles 36:21). Their failure to rest in God led them to chase after idols, whose demands were relentless and cruel.
And this points us to our need for a true Sabbath-keeper, a true rest-giver. Jesus Christ is the one who perfectly fulfilled all of God's law. He is the one whose work was perfect and whose rest is complete. And He extends that rest to us. "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).
The gospel is the ultimate sabbatical principle. We work for six days, as it were, under the law, trying to earn our own righteousness, and we fail. Our souls become depleted and fallow. But then Christ comes, our seventh day, our seventh year, our Jubilee. He declares a release from our debts. He provides for us, the needy, from the bounty of His own righteousness. He gives rest to our weary souls. And having received His rest, we are then freed to work, not out of frantic obligation, but out of joyful gratitude. We are freed to extend that same grace to others, to care for the poor, to give rest to those under our charge, and to speak of His name, and His name only, as the one who is our work, our rest, and our eternal refreshment.