Providing rest for others (Exodus 20:8; 23:10 - 13)

Short teachings from Hillcrest Church further exploring Sunday's teachings.

Transcript

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Hey, hope you're doing well. Tim here, and we are diving deep into the 10 words of life. So um I wanted to, yeah, I want to do another one final uh podcast on the theme of Sabbath and just touch on a theme that we haven't uh that I think is uh critical anytime we talk about Sabbath, but it just we haven't had a chance to talk about it uh yet. And that is the idea that um the Sabbath commandment uh is not it's so easy to think of it solely in terms of rest for us, rest for you, and that is certainly part of it, and that's what we've talked a lot about. Uh but if you read the text, if we pay attention to the text, actually much of the commandment is about rest, providing rest for others. So, you know, Exodus 20, verse 8, remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work. So this is written, that whole first part, it's written, presuming that the reader or listener has the ability to not work, has the choice to not work, has the option, the agency to rest. But then it goes on. Um then it goes on for the six days the Lord's created the heavens and earth. But um a huge part of this word is uh addressed to people who have the ability to provide rest for the sake of others. There's gonna be there's gonna be people and uh uh animals, creatures that that may not be able to uh to gain rest for themselves, and God is saying, I want to create a society, I want to create a community where those with power are providing rest for those who have less power. Um this idea actually pretty much every time Sabbath comes up, this idea comes with it. So, you know, it's interesting, kind of the idea of Sabbath rest, it shows up in multiple ways. One, it's a weekly thing, right? That's what we're seeing here, but it's also like every seven years, um, then there's festivals where the people are not meant to work. And regularly, um, the idea of providing rest for others comes along with this. So let's see, uh in the book of Exodus, uh, if you flip over to the right, chapter 23, Sabbath Laws. Um now this is apply this is talking about some of the yearly stuff. Um let's see, for six years you were to sow your fields and harvest your crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused, then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with the vineyard and your olive grove. Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed. So again, here you get the the Sabbath years and Sabbath weeks, Sabbath years and then one day out of a week. And again, what do you notice in both of them? The theme of providing rest for the land, providing for the poor, providing for the person who's enslaved, providing for the foreigner, uh rest. Um, and this, you know, we could uh Leviticus 25 uh is another section. Um that's one of my favorite uh chapters in the Bible, Leviticus 25. Uh let's see. Um, and uh I a lot of this is about um letting the land rest and the way it provides uh for people in that time. Uh we can multiply the examples, but I guess uh you're getting the idea that that when Sabbath comes up, um yes, part of it is you, listener, getting rest for your own self. But it's also you in whatever uh ways that you have power providing rest for others. And and I just think that is that is a vital word for us today. Um, you know, uh, and this, you know, this can be well, before I kind of talk about application, maybe maybe just to jump, when he when the the other the connection that goes that I make in my mind right away is when when you see Jesus interacting with Sabbath, it's really interesting because uh a lot of Jesus's interactions around Sabbath, I think, have this edge to them. What I mean is he he gets in all these conflicts, right, around Sabbath. Uh Mark 3, he's healing a man with a withered hand. Luke 13, there's a woman who's been bent over for 18 years that he's uh healing. John 5, there's a man who's been um paralyzed for 38 years. Um, you know, there's all these we see these healings, uh the blind man in the book of John, all these healings happening on Sabbath. And in my mind, um I see a connection between those healing and Jesus saying, in a sense, he's providing rest. And obviously for those being healed, it's not just literal ceasing from work, but it's a kind of rest and refreshment for them that the Sabbath was always meant to provide for people. Um, and I see Jesus leaning into this rest for others aspect of the Sabbath. And so I think as we cut, you know, as we kind of end this our time in the fourth word, like what does it mean to be people insofar as we're able to provide rest for others? Some of this is like at a societal level. Um, I was reading the there's an Old Testament scholar, Christopher Wright, um, who called this, oh, what was his language around this? Um uh the first and greatest worker protection act in history. I love that. I mean, this is a it's it's a worker protection act. And so uh some of this is gonna be how we at like a societal level, like how we we use our influence to shape society, um, that we would be helping create a society where workers have a chance to rest. Uh, and then some of it's gonna be at a at a real personal level. I mean, uh the image um from the Ten Words is someone who, insofar as you're able, you know, those who work for you, those who are in your household, the animals that are there providing them rest. And I think for us, that's gonna be um are you a coach? Are you you know, are you making sure your athletes rest? Not just that they get to be more productive, but that they're human beings. Are you a teacher? When you when you think about um uh what you're asking of students, are you thinking about teaching them to be people who who stop and delight? Are you a parent? Are you are you um raising your children to have these rhythms of rest? Um are you are you a boss? Are you an employer? Is making sure those that you supervise, making sure they rest, is that not just not just that they would be good workers, but because that is how human life is meant to be lived. Is that part of how you think about that? Like in all in our spheres of influence, are we thinking, how do I provide rest for others? You see a you see a young family with a with a with a newborn, uh, with little kids, and you're like, hey, how could I go? Could I give you a break? Could I give you a couple hours? Um, let me hang out with your little one while you take a breath. Like, I, you know, how do we become be rest bringers for others? That we uh from the very personal to the to the societal, we are people, because ultimately this goes all the way back to the very purpose of the commandments. Remember, God is taking the people out of Egypt. Um, He wants to create a community that is the anti-Phara. Uh, because in in Pharaoh's Egypt, it was you are valued for what you produce. Work, work, work, work, work. Um, and God says, in my community, everybody gets to rest and gets to simply be a creature delighting in their createdness before me. And I want to create that kind of community. And so uh may we experience that for ourselves, but may we be deeply committed to providing that for others as well. Praise in peace.