Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.
Exodus 35 opens the last stretch of the book, where Israel builds the tabernacle — but first Moses gathers the whole nation and repeats the Sabbath law. Why does a command to stop working open Israel's biggest work project, and why is death the penalty for breaking it?
Where the command sits
Before the building starts, God returns to the Sabbath. One writer sees a pattern in that:
Edward DennettThe Lord always reminds the people of the goal and object of all His ways with them: entering into His rest. This was the goal He set before them, however impossible it became for them to reach it because of their unbelief. So the Sabbath appears again here, as it always does whenever God forms a new relationship with the people. It becomes something like a preface to the account of the construction of the sanctuary.
No exemption for sacred work
This work was God's own commission. Surely that let it run through the week? The camp was about to become a workshop, and one day in seven the workshop shut down:
C E StuartThe stir of daily work stopped on each Sabbath day. The spinning wheels stood still. The shuttles lay unused. The workers put away saws and planes on that one day in seven — the Sabbath of rest to the Lord. Is this not why the reminder to keep the Sabbath comes before the instructions about building the Tabernacle (35:1-3)? It was work for God to prepare the Tabernacle, but that was to be no excuse for breaking the Sabbath. The Sabbath began in Eden, and God gave it to Israel as a sign. They first learned to keep it on the way to Sinai, when God gave the manna (Ex. 16). The fourth commandment reminded them of it at Sinai (Ex. 20). Then, after Moses had received all the directions for the Tabernacle… God charged him to impress that day on the people (31:12-17).
Rest first, then service
Why repeat a law the people already knew so well? One answer looks past the practical to the principle underneath:
Numerical Bible NotesIf we look for a spiritual reason, we may find it in this: rest is only possible in God. His divine sufficiency can bear every demand made on it. And is this not the first requirement for any sufficiency on our part, this rest in God? A Sabbath to the LORD, because we know the LORD as the God of all deliverances, acting from Himself and for the glory of His name? It is this that enables us to bring Him our freewill offering and build His tabernacle.
The same writer states the lesson in a single line: "if we are to bring to God, we must first receive from Him; if we are to work for Him, we must first rest in Him."
Why the penalty was death
The death sentence sounds severe to modern ears. One commentator meets the objection and contrasts how God acts now:
L. M. GrantAnyone who defiled the Sabbath came under sentence of death at once… Does this seem cruel? The answer is that any Israelite guilty of breaking the Sabbath was showing contempt for God… People today are no less guilty when they coldly disobey the Word of God. But God deals in patient grace. He does not judge yet, but gives sinners opportunity to repent and be saved.
Another writer reads the ban on "any manner of work" as a picture with a warning inside it:
C StanleyNo command was more strict. The people could do no work of any kind on the Sabbath, not even light a fire… Is there not something very unusual in this ban on all manner of work? Here the wages of works is death. The wages of sin is death, and not only that. If anyone does works — yes, any manner of works — for salvation, for rest, for peace, the wages of such works will be everlasting death.
What the seventh day was pointing to
The Sabbath stands at the head of the building work. It ties God's rest to God's dwelling:
Samuel RidoutIt is the rest of God… He can never rest in the presence of sin. He would declare that His dwelling place must stand on an eternal Sabbath… God's rest and God's dwelling place must be together, and that for eternity. But come back to now, to the basis on which God dwells with His people today. How precious the reminder of Him who is the true basis of rest — not our work or our worthiness.
Summary
- Preface — The Sabbath opens the tabernacle account. God ties His rest to every new relationship He forms with His people.
- Priority — Rest comes before service: what we bring to God, we must first receive from Him.
- Pause — Building God's house was no excuse to break God's day. The looms and saws stopped anyway.
- Penalty — Death for working showed how grave it is to despise God's word. Commentators also read it as a picture: works done to earn salvation pay only death.
- Purpose — God's rest and God's dwelling belong together. The true basis of rest is never our work or worthiness.