In chapter 35, Moses once again reiterates the importance of keeping the Sabbath to the people, that it was a holy day for resting. This symbolized the day of rest after God’s perfect creation.

I saw Bekah ask why we don’t recognize the Sabbath anymore. I’d like to address that.

Throughout the old testament, the Sabbath is very important, it was intended to be a day of rest after 6 days of work where God’s creation could enjoy Him and God could dwell in the hearts of his people without them being sidetracked by the things that occupied their normal lives. It was to be a Holy day where the only focus was God. Before the fall of man, Adam had all the time in the world to focus on God in the perfect environment of the Garden of Eden but after the fall, man had to toil for his food which started man’s prioritization of work over God. The Sabbath was to remind people that God created everything, he provided their needs and he was in control.

Obviously, the Israelites had problems when it came to keeping the Sabbath. Israel was in a continual state of backsliding, worshipping false gods, idolatry. In and out of bondage to other kingdoms. God’s people were far too weighed down with trouble to be able to truly enjoy the sabbath as it was intended. When would God’s people be able to rest in the enjoyment of their relationship with Him again?

The answer as you may have guessed is Jesus Christ. We can see in the gospels that Jesus respected the Sabbath but he also made it clear that he was Lord of the sabbath. We can read in Matthew 12 where the Pharisees are criticizing Jesus for letting his disciples pick corn on the sabbath and Jesus tells them in Matthew 12:8 that the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day. Then he even heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath. Jesus couldn’t sin, so we know he wasn’t breaking any commandments. The point that he was trying to make was that he was the Sabbath. He fulfilled that old covenant and established a new one.

The new covenant that Jesus came to establish was one where he provided the means to have perfect fellowship with God. To be able to rest on his promises. The old covenant was law, the new covenant was grace through faith. Galatians 3:24 talks about the law being a good schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. We know from trying to keep the law that we can’t, but God robed himself in flesh and fulfilled the law for us that we might be able to live like we had ourselves through our faith in him.

So instead of resting on the seventh day of the week, looking back at our works, we now look forward to Christ on the first day of the week, the day of his resurrection, worshipping him for what he’s done for us, and looking forward in hope to his coming and serving him as best we can while he tarries.