IN CHAPTER 5 Israel were reminded of the covenant the Lord had made with them at Sinai. There they received the Ten Commandments and there they had voluntarily bound themselves to obey. Now Moses repeats to them all that God had taught their fathers in the wilderness and tells them that if they wanted to be blessed, if they wanted to live long in the land, they were to keep all the commandments of the Lord. For us as Christians we must walk in communion and obedience if we are to enjoy the blessings which God has given to us in Christ now seated at His right hand in heaven.
In Exodus 20, when the law was given, the people were told to remember the Sabbath and to keep it holy because “in six days the LORD made heaven and earth,... and rested the seventh day.” There it was in connection with the rest of God in creation. Here in Deuteronomy, however, a different reason is given for their keeping the Sabbath. It was because of their redemption out of Egypt.
God has no rest in His people now except by redemption. When He made everything at first He looked round on it all and said, It is all very good. But man sinned and spoiled everything that God gave him. Even the beautiful earth was cursed for man’s sake so that it brought forth thistles, thorns and briars. God could not rest in that creation.
Then God said He would choose a people for Himself and bring them out from all the rest and He would redeem them. To redeem means “to buy back.” God purchased a people with blood; that was the price He paid for them. Israel was redeemed out of Egypt by the blood of the passover lamb, and this was a type or shadow of something far more precious — the blood of Jesus. And now God was to have no rest except in redemption. So God said to Israel, as it were, You must rest on the Sabbath day because I have redeemed you out of Egypt.
“Remember that thou vast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out then through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.”
As far as our day of rest is concerned we learn from Hebrews 4:99There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. (Hebrews 4:9) that “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.” The Sabbath was always the seventh day of the week; Sunday is the first, so it could not possibly be the Sabbath. We await our day of rest when the Lord shall take us to His Father’s house, that we may rest in His love above. He Himself will rest then too. Our rest is at the end of the journey.
In Christianity the first day of the week takes the place of the Sabbath. On the Sabbath the Lord Jesus our Saviour lay in death in the grave. But how glorious to come together on the first day of the week when He rose triumphantly from the tomb, to break bread and to remember His dying love. How sweet and precious too to give Him this first day of the week, His day.
What a privilege too to use our spare time on Lord’s day in some loving service for Him, perhaps in Sunday school or gospel activities, or it may be in visiting the sick and aged ones. It would be well for us if, instead of spending the day in pleasure, we were tired at the end of the day from happily serving Him who gave His all for us.
ML-12/08/1974