Passover to Pentecost – Shabbat/ No Work        Week 1 Day 6

The Sabbath or day of resting, another foundational stone of Judaism, was started by God at the end of His work of creation.  God wants His people to rest.  The concept of rest and holding one day a week as holy is a “God idea” not a “man idea.”  Genesis 2: 2 & 3 is the first Sabbath, but it is not mentioned again until Exodus 16 (see Week 1 Day 3).  It is then stated as the Fourth Commandment; then clarified and built on in 23:11, 31: 15, 34: 21, and 35: 2.  My personal opinion for some of this is God had to have this group of ex-slaves to rest and focus on Him.  Remember Exodus 16 dealt with the people having to “work” for food and they needed to rest and live in the miracle of the manna.

In Exodus 33: 14 God tells Moses that He will give him Rest.  I think this answer is interesting because Moses was talking about leading the people and finding favor with God.   God did give him what he wanted (see verse 17 and 19), but at first He was offering him rest!

The word “rest” in English is actually three different words in Hebrew.  Some refer to the actual day, while some are the act of resting, and some are a general purpose word that refers to being still.

I know Jesus purposely did miracles on the Sabbath to prove the point that He was Lord even of the Sabbath.  But He was chiding the Jews about all of the rules and regulations that have been made to define work.  This made the day bigger than it should have been.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabbat

http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/sabbath/