“And [Jesus] said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.'” (Mark 2:27-28). Our (eternal) rest is not dependent upon our circumstances or the whims of another, but upon the God-Man Jesus the Christ who has sovereign control of everything and directs it for our good and his glory.
Exodus 16 is the first time we read of a ‘holy Sabbath to the Lord” (Exodus 16:23). The setting is significant. Pharoah’s army had been overthrown in one of the most dramatic events in the Old Testament. Moses wrote a song about it in Exodus 15 and his sister Miriam wrote a refrain for the women. They all rejoiced singing this song in the desert. Three days later these same rejoicing Hebrews “grumbled against Moses” (Exodus 15:24). Their water supply had run out and the springs at which they had arrived were bitter (think: God created them bitter – because God created all things).
Please hang in there with me. This will be a bit longer of a blog but I think you will appreciate it. I have a ‘guest speaker.’
After the people grumble (which was not outside of the sovereignty of God): “There the LORD made for them a statute and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.” (bold, mine, this is significant) (Exodus 15:25b–26). They providentially came to Elim which has 12 springs of not bitter water.
The people grumble again shortly after this for the food of Egypt (I know you’re familiar with this) in the beginning of Exodus 16. It’s at this point that God gives his people bread from his hand (i.e. it rained from heaven) and where we come to the first mention of a day of rest for the sake of dependence upon the Lord God.
This particular passage in Exodus 16 has implications throughout the whole of Scripture. God creates this picture, this beautiful illustration of dependence, to use throughout the Bible. Here are a few examples to look at on your own just from Matthew: The Our Father (regarding our daily bread), fasting, Matthew 6:24ff regarding anxiety, Jesus in the wilderness…and on and on it goes not only throughout Matthew but in all the Scriptures. I wish I had the ability to sit and chat with you about all of the beautiful details and nuances here.
Back to Mark 2:27-28: The Sabbath, or ‘rest’ in Hebrew, was made: for the sake of, on account of, because of (Greek: δια) man. Man has a need of the Sabbath. Why? For more than one reason, but at least for this reason: we have been afflicted with the disease of sin and are in need of healing. We (must) depend upon God; we must place our faith in him. In Exodus 14-16 God revealed man’s need for him. He also required that man acknowledge that need. Remember that he allowed the Israelites to gather God’s miraculous provision only for 6 days a week. Listen to this bigger picture of dependence on God from our guest speaker Pr. Jeremiah Burroughs (stay with me – I really believe this will bless you).
Here [living in dependence upon God for our daily bread] was the difference between the land of Canaan and Egypt: the land of Canaan depended on God for the watering of it with showers from Heaven, but Egypt had a constant way of watering the country, that did not so much depend upon Heaven for water, but upon the river Nile, which at some certain time overflowed the country, Knowing that the watering of their country depended upon the river and not upon Heaven, they grew more proud. And therefore the Scripture, to express Pharoah’s pride, brings him in as saying : ‘The river is mine’: he could order the river as he pleased, for it was his. Canaan was a country which was to depend upon God, and though they had rain at one time, yet they never knew whether they should have it at another time, and lived always in a dependence upon God, not knowing what should become of them. Now God thought this to be a better land for his people than Egypt,..the Lord looked upon it as more suitable to the state of his people, who were to live by faith, that they should be continually depending upon Heaven, upon himself, and not have a constant settled way in the creature for their outward dependence.
-The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (1599-1646), (Banner of Truth Trust : Carlise, PA), 2013, 200.
Oh, dear sister! The Scriptures are a rich, rich story of our need to place our faith in Christ alone and to depend on this grace alone for our every breath and our very lives! We may grumble and complain that we cannot have ‘water from the Nile’, like we used to before this Plague. All the while we miss the beautiful provision of the 12 springs of Elim where we have been led by the One who heals (possibly) not our bodies but our very souls! The Son of Man is lord over our eternal rest. If we trust Christ as our rest, our eternal plague, our sin-debt has been healed.
Finally, because I just have to resolve this completely. Do y’all remember John the Baptist? Do you remember his ministry was a ministry of repentance in preparation for our Saviour? You know John. He lived, and then emerged from, the wilderness where he was dependent upon God…and baptized not in the Nile, but in the Jordan in the land of Canaan. We can be certain of this: Jesus Christ, himself who was baptized in the Jordan, is able to wash us from all unrighteousness when we are dependent on him for that righteousness!
The weather is an inconsistent force in our lives, as are these times. Yet everytime, EVERYTIME we see snow (I’m actually watching it right now) or rain or whatever we can know that our rest is not found in how good the weather is but in the one who provided the 12 springs in Elim. If we are believers we have identified with him in his New Covenant by baptism – we are now by faith called to live as if he were Our Father.