Year 1, Day 80: Exodus 31

God Ordains

We begin this reading hearing how God has appointed special workers among the community to construct what God desires.  Of course, I am immediately struck by a single thought: If God desires something then He will equip the people within the community to make it happen.  Here’s another way of stating that thought.  That for which God desires, God ordains; and that for which God ordains, God provides.  Why should we expect anything different?

So what are we as people of God to do?  Why – to listen to God, of course!  What are we really to do?  Well, we are to listen to God and look for people that God has equipped.  We are to prepare our life so that what we desire is not that which we pursue.  Rather, we empty ourselves of our personal desires so that when the thing God desires comes along we are ready to jump on board.  We prepare ourselves so that we are poised to act when the call of God comes forth.

But we are also supposed to expect God to equip.  We are to expect God to use people in our midst.  We are more than just a collection of people God gathers around Himself so that He can be venerated.  We are a people that God gathers around Himself so that after venerating Him we can go out and be tools in His hands!  How often have I given God my short-sighted perspective when I simply viewed myself as a worshipper and not a full blown tool in God’s hand?

Sabbath

Now we turn to the Sabbath – and of course the time when Moses receives the stone tablets, which I will ignore for today.  God makes an interesting claim right here.  The prior passage was all about us seeing ourselves as God’s workers.  Having just made that claim, God makes sure to reinforce that there is a time for us to not do worldly work as well. 

God worked 6 days in creation (worldly work) and He rested (holy/separate work) a seventh day.  Remember from earlier comments in this blog that we should be careful to not equate “rest” with “not working.”  God’s “rest” was work of a different kind – it is holy/separate/sacred/consecrated work, not work like we do the rest of the week.

Furthermore, remember that mankind was created of the 6^th day.  That means that our first full day was actually the 7^th day – the day of God’s rest.  God expects us to rest and then work from our rest.  So often we try to rest from our work, but that is not what the Sabbath is really all about.

Those Who Break the Sabbath

I wonder as I ponder the punishment for a person who does not keep the Sabbath.  Exodus 31:15 tells us specifically that anyone who does not keep the Sabbath is to be put to death.  Ouch.  How many of us really deserve to be alive underneath that statement of value?    Why is it so important to God that the Sabbath be remembered?

When we honor the Sabbath, we are essentially saying to God that we are going to do a different kind of “work” (or “rest”) that is separate than what we do the rest of the week.  So when we don’t honor the Sabbath – when we do things on the Sabbath that are worldly and not godly – we are essentially telling God that we are not interested in Him.  We are telling God we aren’t interested in being separate from the world.  We are telling God that we are not interested in the concept of holiness.  We are telling God that while we might be able to bring ourselves to believe in the concept of a higher power we aren’t really interesting in submitting to God. 

I would argue that when our Sabbath days are filled with worldly activities we are telling God that we really aren’t interested in a relationship with Him.  We want someone who will be there when we need Him, but we aren’t interested in someone with whom we can relate to all the time.  We are neither willing to submit to Him nor learn from the example He sets before us.

I think this is the reason that such a steep punishment is given for the Sabbath-breakers.  It is so easy to slip into a pattern of not valuing a true relationship with God.  It is so easy to slip into a relationship of “Oh God, give me” and “Oh God, I need” rather than a relationship of “Oh God, teach me to be present with you at all times.”  Since that is such an easy pit-fall into which we can fall, there are steep consequences to help us remember to be careful on this one.

In the end, I do thank God that I live in the grace of the post-crucifixion days.  I am glad that when I fail I can repent and know God’s forgiveness without feeling the fear of being put to death.  But I think I also must admit that I lose something, too.  When the punishment is seen as lessening, so often does the desire to obey grow less as well.  That is something we could all ponder today as we consider how seriously we take God’s call for us to do His work in addition to His call to honor the Sabbath.

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