Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Exodus 20:8-11 (NIV)
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Deuteronomy 5:12-15 (NIV)
12 “Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the Lord your God has commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest, as you do. 15 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
All of our teaching on weekly worship grows out of God’s gift of the Sabbath. Sabbath is the Hebrew word for seven. God commanded this radical idea that humans should rest and worship every seventh day. Today we will look at how the Sabbath is explained, within the two different places in the Bible which list the ten commandments. Notice how God gives us two different explanations for why we should observe this command. The Exodus version, connects us to the story of creation, where God himself rested on the seventh day. This shows that weekly worship and rest is built into the fabric of creation. We need this weekly reminder to trust in God’s grace and rest in God’s love. Deuteronomy emphasizes the Sabbath as a day to remember that we have been rescued by God. Just as the Israelites were rescued from their bondage to Pharaoh in Egypt, we need a weekly time to remember that the cross and resurrection of Jesus has rescued us from sin and death. Meditate on how worship isn’t a chore, but it is a gift: God commanding us to rest in his grace, and remember how we’ve been given new life through Christ.