Question: Please, will you discuss and explain the following scriptures: Hebrews 4:4-5, Exodus 20:8 and 31:12-17?
Answer: All of these scriptures are related and combine together in the same topic; namely, the rest of the people of God. So we will unite them together in the discussion. Hebrews 4:4-5 says, “For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.”
These verses fall in the middle of a passage which continues from the first verse through the eleventh verse. The first verse says, “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.” Verses 9-11 conclude the passage and they say, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” All of this passage refers to the rest of the people of God, but the fourth verse injects the idea that the seventh day and the Old Testament seventh day Sabbath had some connection with it, so we will go back now and pick up a few references pertaining to it and see if we can confirm this relationship in the Scriptures.
In Exodus 16:23 we find mention of “the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord.” This is the first reference in the Scriptures to the Sabbath and it was made 1400 years after God had completed the work of creation. So it would seem evident that no one before Moses, including Enoch who walked with God and had the testimony that he pleased God, or Noah who found favor with God through which he and his house were saved from the destruction of the flood, or Abraham who believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness and through his faith became the father of all those who believe, nor any of the patriarchs knew anything of, nor observed any Sabbath. It was reserved for a special people, the chosen people of God (Israel), and was given them at Sinai when the law was given for a special, specific purpose. Note: This text refers to the “rest of the holy sabbath” and indicates that the holiness of the day consisted in total rest from physical labor on that day. This thought is prominent in every reference to the Sabbath, or nearly so, throughout the Old Testament scriptures. This is important to the discussion and the meaning of the Sabbath.
In Exodus 20:8-11 we have this: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shall not do any work,… For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Again the idea of ceasing from all physical labor on that day is related to the holiness of the day. They were commanded to keep the day holy and in the very next verse they were forbidden to do any work on that day, and the next verse just emphasizes and confirms that command.
Exodus 31:12-17 is one of the passages included in the question and it comes right in line here with the overall discussion. Verse 14 says, “Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.” We see here again that doing any work on the Sabbath constituted a defiling of the day and the penalty was death. We have a specific case recorded in Number 15:32-36 where a man was found picking up sticks on the Sabbath day. They brought him to Moses and Aaron and they put him in ward until they could inquire of the Lord concerning him. The Lord said the man should surely die, so the congregation stoned him and he died there. This may sound very severe to us, but God had said in Exodus 35:3, “Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.” He required strict obedience to this command.
In the face of all this background of scriptures regarding the Old Testament and with knowledge that it has a direct connection with the passage in the fourth chapter of Hebrews, (Hebrews 4:1-11) (verses 4-5), let us see how these two sets of scriptures dovetail. In Colossians 2:16-17 we read, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” We see here that the Old Testament Sabbath with all of its provisions was a shadow or type of the New Testament Christians’ rest to the soul through faith in Christ. The holiness of that Old Testament Sabbath, consisting in refraining from all physical labor on that day, was a type of the child of God abandoning and forsaking all of his own works, and casting himself wholly and without reservation on the Lord for Him to work His works in him.
Hebrews 4:10 says, “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” I consider this text to refer to all of our own works, righteous or wicked, and just allowing God to work His works in us according to His own pleasure. In Romans 10:3, Paul spoke of a class of people who were going about to establish their own righteousness but had not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. All such works and efforts of our own to establish our own righteousness must be laid aside and our trust must be fully in Christ and the atonement He made for our righteousness if we are to find this rest in Him. According to Exodus 31:14, any work done on the Sabbath constituted a defiling of the day. Just so, any works we do outside of Christ working is us constitutes a defiling of our Sabbath, which is Christ. Paul said in Romans 15:18, “For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me,…” In I Corinthians 15:10 Paul referred to his abundant labors but hastened on to add, “…Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Just as any work constituted a defiling of the Sabbath and the penalty was death, so any of our works and efforts in the kingdom of God which do not fall in the category of being anointed, inspired, and energized by the Spirit of God, will constitute a defiling of our Sabbath (Christ), and if persisted in will produce spiritual death to our souls.
