Bird's-eye view
This passage comes at a crucial juncture. God has just given Moses the detailed instructions for the Tabernacle, the place where God's glory would dwell among His people. He has detailed the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altar, the priestly garments, and He has just designated Bezalel and Oholiab, filling them with His Spirit to carry out this glorious work. Right on the heels of all this instruction for holy work, God inserts this stark and solemn command about holy rest. It is as though God is saying, "Before you pick up a single hammer or thread a single needle for My house, you must understand the foundation of all your work, which is My rest."
The Sabbath is presented here not simply as a day off, but as a "sign" of the covenant between Yahweh and Israel. It is a visible marker, a flag planted in time, declaring who they are and whose they are. The severity of the penalty for desecration, death, underscores its importance. This was not an arbitrary rule; it was a matter of covenant identity. To profane the Sabbath was to profane the covenant itself. The reason given is rooted in creation: God worked for six days and then He rested. By resting, Israel was to imitate their Creator and enter into the meaning of His finished work. This passage, therefore, sets the Sabbath at the heart of Israel's worship, identity, and relationship with the God who not only created them, but sanctified them.
Outline
- 1. The Sign of Sanctification (Exod 31:12-17)
- a. The Command to Keep the Sabbath (Exod 31:12-13a)
- b. The Sabbath as a Covenant Sign (Exod 31:13b)
- c. The Purpose of the Sign: To Know Yahweh (Exod 31:13c)
- d. The Penalty for Profaning the Holy (Exod 31:14-15)
- e. The Sabbath as an Everlasting Covenant (Exod 31:16)
- f. The Grounding of the Sign in Creation (Exod 31:17)
Context In Exodus
Exodus 31 concludes a major section of the book (chapters 25-31) that details the plans for the Tabernacle. This section is a revelation of God's desire to dwell with His people. Immediately following this passage, in chapter 32, we have the catastrophic failure of the golden calf. The juxtaposition is stunning. While God is giving Moses the pattern for true worship on the mountain, the people are at the foot of the mountain engaged in idolatrous, man-made worship. The Sabbath command, with its death penalty, stands as a stark guardian between the glory of God's presence described in these chapters and the apostasy of the people that follows. It highlights the absolute necessity of approaching God on His terms, not our own. The Sabbath is a guardrail against the kind of self-willed, frenetic, idolatrous "work" that characterized the worship of the golden calf.
Key Issues
- The Sabbath as a Covenant Sign
- The Meaning of Sanctification
- The Death Penalty in Theocratic Israel
- The Principle of "Cutting Off"
- The Sabbath and Creation Rest
- The Meaning of "Everlasting Covenant"
- The Transition of the Sabbath to the Lord's Day
A Flag Planted in Time
We need to understand what a covenant sign is. A sign points to a reality. The rainbow is a sign of God's covenant with Noah, pointing to His promise not to flood the earth again. Circumcision was a sign of God's covenant with Abraham, a cutting in the flesh that pointed to the need for a cutting of the heart. The Sabbath is a sign of the Mosaic Covenant, but it is a unique kind of sign. It is not a mark on the body or an object in the sky; it is a mark on time itself. Every seventh day, time itself was to be consecrated, set apart for God.
By stopping all their regular work, Israel was planting a flag in their weekly calendar that declared several things. It declared that Yahweh, not Pharaoh, was their master. Pharaoh drove them to work relentlessly, without rest. Yahweh commands them to rest. It declared that Yahweh was the Creator, the one who worked and then rested. And it declared that their holiness, their being "set apart," did not come from their own striving or working, but was a gift from the God who makes them holy. The Sabbath was a weekly, enacted gospel presentation. You do not work your way into God's presence; you cease from your works and enter His rest.
Verse by Verse Commentary
12-13 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely keep My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am Yahweh who makes you holy.
The command is emphatic: "You shall surely keep My sabbaths." This is not a suggestion. Notice the plural, "sabbaths," which likely refers to the weekly Sabbath as well as other high holy days. The reason is immediately given: it is a sign. A sign is a visible token of an invisible reality. What is the reality? The covenant relationship between Yahweh and Israel. This sign is to function "throughout your generations." The purpose of this sign is not arbitrary; it is pedagogical. It is given "that you may know." Know what? "That I am Yahweh who makes you holy." The word for "makes you holy" is the verb form of qadosh, meaning to set apart. Their separateness, their unique identity as the people of God, was not something they achieved through their works. It was something Yahweh did to them and for them. The Sabbath was a weekly reminder that their sanctification was a divine gift, received through rest, not achieved through labor.
14 Therefore you shall keep the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.
Because the Sabbath is a sign of their sanctification by Yahweh, it is therefore "holy to you." It is a sacred trust. To profane it, to treat it as a common day, is to trample on the covenant itself. The penalty is correspondingly severe: "shall surely be put to death." This was the civil penalty for high-handed, public defiance of the covenant sign within the theocracy of Israel. This wasn't for someone who accidentally worked too long on a Friday evening. This was for defiant rebellion (see Numbers 15:32-36). The phrase "that person shall be cut off from among his people" is parallel to the death penalty. To be cut off from the covenant people was to be cut off from the covenant God, which was a sentence of death, whether by judicial execution or by divine judgment.
15 Six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to Yahweh; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death.
The pattern is established: six days of work, followed by a seventh day of rest. This is not just rest, but a "sabbath of complete rest," a shabbat shabbaton in Hebrew, an intensified form. It is a rest of rests. And this rest is "holy to Yahweh." It belongs to Him. To work on this day was to steal from God what was consecrated to Him. The penalty is repeated for emphasis: "shall surely be put to death." God is not stuttering here. In the economy of the old covenant, to reject the sign was to reject the substance of the covenant, and the penalty for treason against the divine King was death.
16 So the sons of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as an everlasting covenant.’
The command is summarized again. They are to "keep" (shamar, to guard, to watch over) the Sabbath. It is something to be celebrated, not endured. It is a festival of rest. And it is described as an "everlasting covenant." Now, we have to be careful here. "Everlasting" (olam) in the Old Testament often means "for the age" or "as long as the current order lasts." The Aaronic priesthood was "everlasting," but it was fulfilled and superseded by Christ. The sign of the Sabbath was to last as long as the old covenant administration lasted. When the new covenant was inaugurated, the sign was not abolished but transformed. The principle of Sabbath rest is perpetual, but the specific administration of it on the seventh day was a sign tied to the old creation and the Mosaic economy.
17 It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.”
The perpetual nature of the sign is reiterated, and then the ultimate ground for it is given. The Sabbath is rooted in the very fabric of creation. Israel's weekly rhythm was to be a reenactment of God's creation week. Just as God worked to bring order out of chaos and then entered into His rest, so Israel was to work for six days and then enter into God's rest on the seventh. The word "refreshed" is anthropomorphic, of course. The omnipotent God does not get tired. It speaks to the delight and satisfaction God took in His completed work. The Sabbath, then, is an invitation for God's people to cease from their own labors and to enter into the joy and satisfaction of God's finished work, first in creation, and ultimately in redemption.
Application
So what does this mean for us, who are not members of the theocratic nation of Israel? The New Testament is clear that the old covenant administration, with its specific signs and civil penalties, has been fulfilled in Christ. We are not under the Mosaic law in the same way Israel was. The ceremonial laws have found their substance in Jesus, and the civil laws were for a specific nation that no longer exists. However, the moral law, summarized in the Ten Commandments, is still binding, because it reflects the character of God. The fourth commandment is part of that moral law.
The Sabbath principle, therefore, endures. But it has been transformed by the work of Christ. The old creation was finished on the seventh day. The new creation was inaugurated on the first day of the week, when Jesus rose from the dead. This is why the Christian church has, from the very beginning, gathered for worship on the Lord's Day, the first day of the week (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2). Our Sabbath is a celebration not just of the old creation, but of the new creation in Christ Jesus. We don't rest in order to work; we begin our week with rest in the finished work of Christ, and from that foundation of grace, we go out to work for six days.
The death penalty is gone, because the civil administration of Israel is gone. But the principle behind it remains. To willfully and high-handedly reject the Lord's Day, to profane the rest that Christ has purchased for us, is a spiritually fatal thing to do. It is to reject the sign of the New Covenant. We are to guard the Lord's Day, not as a burden of legalistic rules, but as a joyful celebration of our sanctification. It is the day we remember that we are not made holy by our frantic, seven-day-a-week labor, but by the God who commands us to rest in the finished work of His Son.