Message 172
Scripture Reading: Exo. 31:12-17
In 31:12-17, after a long record concerning the building up of God’s dwelling place, there is a repetition of the commandment to keep the Sabbath. We all know that keeping the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments, the fourth commandment. We need to find out why this particular commandment is repeated after the record concerning the full revelation of God’s dwelling place.
The last verse of chapter thirty-one, verse 18, tells us that the Lord gave to Moses two tablets of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God. This verse concludes a long section that began no later than chapter twenty. When the Lord called Moses to go up to the mountain, the Lord first gave Moses the law. Then He gave Moses the revelation concerning the building up of His dwelling place on earth. In this section we see the design of the tabernacle and its furniture and a full revelation regarding the priesthood. There is also a record concerning the builders of the tabernacle. After all this, the Lord repeats the requirement related to keeping the Sabbath.
The six verses about keeping the Sabbath, 31:12-17, are inserted between verses 11 and 18 of this chapter. What is the reason for this insertion? The reason for repeating the record of the Sabbath after the charge for the building work of the tabernacle is the first matter we need to cover in this message (see 20:8-11).
The fact that this insertion concerning the Sabbath follows the charge for the building work of the tabernacle indicates that the Lord was telling these builders, these workers, to learn how to rest with Him. They should not work and forget about resting with the Lord. Therefore, in charging them to do the work of building His dwelling place, the Lord reminded them that as they worked for Him, they should learn how to rest with Him. If we only know how to work for the Lord but do not know how to rest with Him, we are acting contrary to the divine principle.
There has been much debate among Christians about the Sabbath, especially whether the Sabbath should be observed on the seventh day or on the eighth day. The Seventh-Day Adventists insist on keeping the Sabbath on the seventh day. Actually, the principle of the Sabbath is not a matter of the day on which it is observed. The principle of the Sabbath is that working with the Lord requires that we learn how to rest with Him.
Some may think that the significance of the Sabbath is merely to cease from work. This is not the real meaning of the Sabbath in the Bible. The Bible emphasizes the fact that God rested on the seventh day. Genesis 2:2 says, “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.”
According to the book of Genesis, to God the Sabbath is the seventh day, but to man it is the first day. In six days God created the heavens, the earth, and everything necessary for man to exist for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. After all things were made, man was created on the sixth day. This means that as soon as man came forth from the creating hand of God, his first day, which was God’s seventh day, was about to begin. Thus, what was the seventh day to God was the first day to man. The significance of this is that to God the Sabbath was rest after work, but to man it was rest first and then work. God first worked for six days and then He rested on the seventh day. But man rested on his first day and then began to work.
I am happy that Exodus 31:17 tells us that “on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.” This indicates that the Sabbath was not only a rest to God, but was also a refreshment to Him. Both Genesis and Exodus tell us that God rested on the seventh day. But in 31:17 the words “and was refreshed” are added. This reveals that even God needs to be refreshed.
To rest is one thing, but to be refreshed is something further. For us to rest we do not need anything in particular. It is sufficient either to sit down or to lie down. But to be refreshed we need something to eat or drink. We often refer to food and drink as refreshment. The point here is that if we would be refreshed, we need something to be a refreshment to us. The same is true of God. God needs something to refresh Him. Do you know what God’s refreshment is? What is it that refreshes God?
Perhaps you have read Exodus 31 a number of times without ever being impressed by the fact that God needs to be refreshed. I can testify that I have expounded the book of Exodus more than once, but only recently have I seen the significance of the word “refreshed” in 31:17. The Bible reveals that after God’s work of creation was completed, He rested and was refreshed. On what did God rest? He rested on His creation. To illustrate, suppose a craftsman spends a long time making a very special chair. When his work is finished, he may rest on the very chair he has made, enjoying it and thinking about it. I often experience this kind of rest after I have finished my work of writing. When I have finished writing something, I may sit back, look at what I have written, and enjoy it. I particularly enjoy the light I have received from the Lord through His Word. Likewise, sisters who make their own clothing may enjoy a good rest after they have finished making a particular garment. In the same principle, after God created man, He rested. He could look upon His handiwork, at the heavens, the earth, and all the living things, especially at man, and say, “Very good!” Then God could rest and be refreshed.
With what was God refreshed? God was refreshed with man. Man was God’s refreshment. God loved man. He created him in His own image with a spirit so that man could have fellowship with Him. Man, therefore, was God’s refreshment.
According to Genesis 2:18, God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him.” This word has a significance in typology, and indicates that it was not good for God to be alone. Before God created man, God could be compared to a bachelor. Some may criticize us for using the word bachelor to speak of our holy God. But I believe that God is happy to hear this word used with respect to Himself. Perhaps God would say, “My child, this word touches My heart. I truly was a bachelor before I created mankind.” The Bible reveals that in eternity past God was a “bachelor.” But in eternity future He will have a wife, the New Jerusalem, which is called the Lamb’s wife (Rev. 21:9-10). Therefore, according to the revelation of the Bible that the New Jerusalem is the wife of the Lamb, I have the boldness to use the word bachelor with respect to God.
When God saw the man created by Him, He could rest and be refreshed. Man was like a refreshing drink to quench God’s thirst and satisfy Him. When God ended His work and began to rest, He had man as His companion. To God, the seventh day was a day of rest and refreshment. However, to man, God’s companion, the day of rest and refreshment was the first day. Man’s first day was a day of enjoyment.
It is a divine principle that God does not ask us to work until we have had enjoyment. God first supplies us with enjoyment. Then after a full enjoyment with Him and of Him, we may work together with Him. If we do not know how to have enjoyment with God and how to enjoy God Himself, we shall not know how to work with Him. We shall not know how to be one with God in His divine work.
We do emphasize the matter of working with God and not working for God by our own strength. Yes, we should work with God and even by God. But according to what the Bible reveals, it is not even sufficient merely to work with God. We need to be one with God in His work. This requires that we enjoy Him. If we do not know how to enjoy God and be filled with God, we shall not know how to work with Him, how to be one with Him in His work.
A very good illustration of this principle is found in the New Testament. The New Testament ministry of the apostles began with the enjoyment they had on the day of Pentecost. The disciples did not work for six days and then enjoy the Lord on the day of Pentecost. The actual situation was that the Lord had told them to wait until the Spirit came upon them to fill them. With what were the disciples filled when they were filled with the Spirit? No doubt, they were filled with the enjoyment of the Lord. Because they were filled with the Spirit, others thought that they were drunk with wine. Actually they were filled with the enjoyment of the heavenly wine. Only after they had been filled with this enjoyment did they begin to work with God. This is the way to work with God, the way to work in oneness with Him. When Peter stood up with the apostles to preach the gospel and thereby do a work for God, they all were one with God in His work.
The day of Pentecost was the first day of the week. Pentecost denotes the fiftieth day after a period of seven weeks, or forty-nine days. We know from Leviticus 23 that the day of Pentecost was fifty days after the feast of firstfruit. This means that Pentecost was the first day of the eighth week. Therefore, concerning the day of Pentecost, we see the principle of the first day.
To man, the day of rest has always been the first day. According to the Old Testament Sabbath, the day of man’s rest was his first day. Likewise, according to the New Testament, the eighth day, the day of rest for man, was also the first day.
According to the principle in the Old Testament, man’s day of rest is a day that comes after God’s work has been completed. Man does not rest after his own work is finished; he rests after the completion of God’s work and enjoys it. God works, and man enjoys. Man enjoys what God has accomplished in His work.
As soon as man was created, he needed air to breathe and water to drink. God had already created the expanse, the atmosphere, on the second day because He knew that without air man would not be able to live. He had also prepared water and food for him. This is the reason the seventh day was a day of rest for God: He had worked for six days to make everything ready for man to enjoy. When man came forth from God’s creating hand, his first day was God’s seventh day. Therefore, he had enjoyment with God, he lived with God, he walked with God, and eventually he was ready to work with God. God had put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it (Gen. 2:15). Perhaps after enjoying rest with God on his first day, Adam worked to care for the garden for another six days. Then on what was his eighth day, another first day, he again rested with God. This is a cycle that would continue again and again with intervals of resting and working. With God it is a matter of working and resting; with man, a matter of resting and working.
After God gave the revelation concerning the tabernacle and the furniture, and after God selected the builders and gave Moses a charge regarding them, He went on to speak again of the Sabbath. It seems as if God were saying, “Do not forget My Sabbath. Don’t take the excuse that you are not laboring on your own business, but are doing a divine work. You should not think that because you are working to build My dwelling place, you can work every day continually. No, even in doing My divine work, the work of building the tabernacle, you must still bear a sign to indicate that you are My people and you need Me. Therefore you need to enjoy Me first. Then you will be able to work not only for Me, but also with Me and by being one with Me. I will be your strength to work and your energy to labor. But if you work in yourself and by yourself, that will be an insult to Me. You must do the work of building My dwelling place with Me, by Me, and in oneness with Me. I shall be very happy if you work in this way. But if you try to do a good work for Me by yourselves, leaving Me aside, that would be an insult to Me, for that is a sign of the Devil’s people. You are My people, and you should bear a sign that you need Me to be your enjoyment, strength, and energy. You need Me to be your everything so that you may be able to work for Me. By working in this way you honor Me and glorify Me. This is to bear a sign indicating that you are My people.”
We all need to learn a basic lesson regarding the Sabbath. When I was young, I argued with others about which day, the eighth day or the seventh, should be kept as the Sabbath. Now I would say that that kind of argument is altogether a waste. The Sabbath means that before we work for God, we need to enjoy God and be filled with Him. If we have enjoyed God and if we have been filled with God, then we are ready to work for Him. Such work will not be by ourselves; it will be by God. Consider Peter’s situation on the day of Pentecost. When Peter stood up to preach the gospel, he did not preach by himself. He preached by the very God who had filled him up. In preaching the gospel, Peter was not empty. He preached the gospel by the infilling God, by the infilling Spirit. Therefore, Peter had a sign that he was God’s co-worker, and his gospel preaching was an honor and glory to God.
The people of the world all work by themselves. They do not have a sign on them that indicates that they belong to God. They do not enjoy God, they do not rest with God, and they do not work with God. Our situation is altogether different because we have a sign. What is the sign we bear? The sign is that we rest with God, enjoy God, and are filled up with God first, and then we work with the very One who fills us. Furthermore, we not only work with God, but we work as those who are one with God.
I can testify that every time I stand up to minister the Word, my unique prayer is that I would be one with the Lord in my speaking. I pray repeatedly, “Lord, in my speaking I want to practice being one spirit with You so that my speaking will be Your speaking. Lord, it must be that You speak in my speaking. If You are not one with me, I will not speak anything. I would never speak in my empty self. That would be a blasphemy to You, an insult to You. Lord, I would speak not only with You, but also by being one with You. Those who listen must have the impression that while I am speaking, You are one with me. Lord, my speaking involves the practice not only from my side, that I am one spirit with You; it also involves the practice on Your side, that You are one spirit with me.” If we would speak this way, what an honor and glory it would be to the Lord! This is the sign of the Sabbath. In my speaking I always seek to bear a sign that my Lord is my Sabbath. He is my rest, my refreshment, my energy, my strength, and my everything for ministering the Word.
In 31:12-17 we see that the builders of the tabernacle were charged not to begin working until they had rested with the Lord and had been refreshed. Then they could work for Him and with Him. However, this work would not go on continuously. Rather, it would be a work in intervals of six days of labor and one day of rest. With every interval, the beginning is a day of rest, followed by six days of work. Then there would be another interval beginning with rest and continuing with work.
We have emphasized that to God the Sabbath is the seventh day and to man, the first day; that God worked for man’s enjoyment and rest; and that man enjoys what God has accomplished in His work in order to work with God. Man in his first day enjoyed what God accomplished in the previous six days. Then in the following six days man worked with God. After six days’ work, man again first enjoyed what God had accomplished, and then he worked again the following six days. This proceeds as a cycle. This cycle is a sign that we are one with God.
Keeping the Sabbath is also an agreement or covenant. When we begin to keep the Sabbath, this indicates that we have signed an agreement, a contract, that assures God that we shall be one with Him in this way. We would be one with Him by first enjoying Him and then by working for Him, with Him, and in oneness with Him. This is an eternal covenant. It is not merely for one age, dispensation, or generation. It is an eternal agreement between us and God.
A covenant is stronger than an agreement, an agreement is stronger than a promise, and a promise is stronger than ordinary words. God wants us to sign a contract with Him that assures Him that from now on we shall enjoy Him and be filled with Him before we go to work for Him, with Him, and in oneness with Him. Once we sign such a contract with God and give God the assurance that we intend to keep it, we should not break the contract. If we break our agreement with God, He may take us to the heavenly court and blame us for not keeping our contract. It is important for us to see that the Sabbath in relation to the building work of the tabernacle is both a sign and an eternal covenant, a covenant that cannot change.
It is a serious matter to work for the Lord by ourselves without praying to Him and without trusting in Him. Actually, what we need is not mainly to trust in the Lord, but to take Him in and enjoy Him by eating Him. On the day of Pentecost Peter was not only trusting in the Lord; he was filled with the Lord, even drinking Him. Do you not believe that as Peter was speaking, he was drinking of the Lord and eating Him? This means that while Peter was preaching Jesus, inwardly he was partaking of Jesus. In fact, he preached what he had been eating. He testified what he had been enjoying. Peter had signed the agreement with the Lord. He had made a covenant with Him. Both parties, the Lord and Peter, had to keep their part of the agreement. If Peter was eating the Lord and the Lord left him, the Lord would have broken the contract. But if He were supplying Peter everything he needed, and Peter turned aside from the Lord, Peter would have broken the contract. The crucial point here is that the Sabbath is a sign and also a covenant, a contract, an agreement.
The Sabbath is also a matter of sanctification. The Sabbath day sanctifies us, designates us, marks us out. When we enjoy the Lord and then work with Him, for Him, and by being one with Him, spontaneously we are sanctified. We become holy, separated from what is common.
Exodus 31:14 and 15 say, “And you shall keep the sabbath, for it is holy to you; everyone who profanes it shall certainly be put to death; for whoever does work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a sabbath of rest, holy to Jehovah; whoever does work on the sabbath day shall certainly be put to death.” These verses say clearly that if anyone did not keep the Sabbath, bear the sign, and honor the covenant in order to be sanctified, that one would be put to death. This signifies the suffering of spiritual death. The principle applies in our experience today. If I do not speak in oneness with the Lord, I shall suffer death in my speaking, and I shall be cut off from God’s people. To be cut off from God’s people is to be cut off from fellowship.
In the church life we may do many things without first enjoying the Lord, and without serving with the Lord and by being one with the Lord. That kind of service results in the suffering of spiritual death. Any service to the church that is without the enjoyment of the Lord and that is without the oneness with Him brings in spiritual death. Whenever we serve in that way, we cut ourselves off from the fellowship in the Body.
All the tabernacle and its furniture lead to the Sabbath of God. All of these things lead to the enjoyment of what God has purposed and done. This means that the tabernacle and all its furniture leads us into rest. The offerings are for us to rest. If we do not come to the altar of burnt offering to experience Christ as the offerings, we shall not have rest. Instead, we shall have condemnation and accusation. Likewise, if we do not come to the showbread table, we shall be hungry and not have satisfaction. This is another indication that we do not have rest. If we do not come to the lampstand, we shall not have any light. We shall be in darkness, and darkness will not give us rest. In the same principle, if we do not come to the ark within the veil and to the incense altar, we shall not have rest. Everything related to God’s dwelling place leads us to one matter — to the Sabbath with its rest and refreshment of the Lord. Therefore, the tabernacle with its furniture leads us to the enjoyment of what God has purposed and done. Hallelujah, in the church life we are in the tabernacle, and the tabernacle leads us to rest, to the enjoyment of God’s purpose and of what He has done!
The building work of the tabernacle and all its furniture should begin with the enjoyment of God and continue in intervals with the refreshment by enjoying God. This will indicate that we do not work for God by our own strength, but by the enjoyment of Him and by being one with Him. This is the meaning of the Sabbath, and this is the reason that a word about the Sabbath immediately follows the word concerning the building up of God’s dwelling place on earth. May we all see this matter and be impressed with it.
This message is not simply an expounding of the Bible. I believe that what we have covered in this message is the genuine extract of the record in Exodus 31 concerning the Sabbath.
