Synod Emphasis
Freed from Slavery: The Blessing of the Lord’s Day
By Andy Webb
“Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you” (Deuteronomy 5:12).
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new family had been attending our church for over a month when I noticed one Sunday that they weren’t there. Their absence was easy to spot because they had 4 kids and always sat with the family in the
congregation that had originally invited them. So, I grabbed their visitor card, and that Monday evening I gave them a call to see if they were ok. The father answered and explained that Little League season had started and that his sons and daughter all belonged to teams with away games so while they liked our congregation, it was just impossible for them to attend church during the base- ball season. I asked him, “Doesn’t, that cycle of working all week and then attend- ing games all weekend leave you exhausted?” And he laughed and said, “Yeah.” I followed up with, “You know God said even donkeys are supposed to have a day of rest, right?” He laughed, but with that warning, “now you’re starting to meddle” tone. After a few more pleasantries and my hopes we’d see them again soon, I hung up. We didn’t, and the friends who invited them let us know they weren’t going to another church although they did drop their kids off at an AWANA run by a Baptist church in town. They just didn’t have time for church. Now needless to say, it was never God’s intention that his people should be trapped in an endless cycle where they were without a day of rest and worship.
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As our text makes clear the restora- tion of that day of rest, that Sabbath day (Sabbath means rest incidentally) was one of the reasons he had freed his people from bondage in Egypt! The giving of the Ten Command- ments or Moral Law of God here in Deuteronomy 5, is the second time that Moses had delivered them to Is- rael and for the most part, what we read here is a straight repetition of the Commandments as they are spelled out in Exodus 20. But the giving of the Fourth Commandment here is considerably different. In Exodus 20, the emphasis is on the Sabbath day as following the pattern that God set for us in His Creating work. Although God could have created the World in an instant, he chose to labor for six days and then on the seventh, he rested from his labors and hallowed the day, thus setting a divine example for us of a cycle of six days of labor and one of rest. Although the impor- tance of allowing your servants, your family, your visitors, and even your livestock to have a day of rest is spo- ken of in Exodus 20, the emphasis is on the Lord’s Creative work. Here in Deuteronomy 20 though, the empha- sis is on the Sabbath as a day of liber- ation from bondage and oppression, a day upon which being freed from slavery is remembered.
ßJohn Currid points out that in Exodus 20, “the rationale for the Exodus is creation, whereas here it God’s great redemptive acts of res- cuing his people from oppression in Egypt. In reality these are not mutu- ally exclusive, but they complement one another.”
The Sabbath is (and notice I said “is” not “was” because as part of the Moral Law, it continues) both a creation ordi- nance and a redemptive sign. You see when God created the world, he gave mankind two creation ordinances in the garden for their own good, one was Marriage and the other was the Sabbath. Then God
The Associate Reformed Presbyterian
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