THE GOOD NEWS (i.e. TRUE GOSPEL)
We have good news for people who are troubled by the intellectual and spiritual conflicts in following the literal understanding of the Fourth Commandment.

A quick look at the definition of the Hebrew word translated as rest makes that point very clear. This definition is affirmed in the New Testament where the Greek word translated as rest also speaks of ceasing from labors.

When we apply this definition (i.e. resting equals ceasing) to our natural lives, we confront other real issues that are hard to reconcile with the demands of maintaining a job and earning income. And we are further confused about what God might have meant by the commandment when the notion of religious work is introduced to our vocabulary and menu of religious doctrines.

We need to be careful, therefore, not to think of physical labor when thinking of rest. If we take the time to think about it, those of us who know that we are created in God’s image would have guessed that physical rest was never the real issue. After all, why would God need to rest on the seventh day after six days of creation? He does not have a physical body that tires out, or a mind that is taxed intellectually so that he would need to rest after his creative work mentioned in Genesis 1. It is not like he needed to take a break and relax after six days of intensive work so he could renew his creative efforts the following week with renewed energy. If those were not God’s reasons for resting on the seventh day, why would we think that those are the reasons he would command us to rest?

Or, if we consider that resting from work actually means ceasing from work, we must wrestle with the fact that God did not cease his creative efforts after the first six days of creation. In fact, he remains actively involved in the world by recreating people into his image. This is God’s primary spiritual work.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: Since the fourth commandment is framed in an attitude of “remembering” the Sabbath (i.e. the seventh day of creation) it is necessary to understand the seventh day in the context of the entire creation story.

If the Fourth Commandment is not about physical and occupational rest, we wonder what is left from which we could or should rest or cease that God would see fit to make a commandment about it?  The quick and simple answer is that it is about resting (i.e. ceasing) from our religious labors (i.e. religious works).  Before looking at the logic of this answer, however, we must considered the following facts about the language of Exodus 20:9 where the Fourth Commandment is first introduced:

When God said to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, he was referring to the seventh day of creation in which he rested (i.e. ceased) from his work with natural things (i.e. things that can be seen, touched, heard and smelled with our natural senses).

“What?” most people will say.  “That is not what the scripture says. It does not mention that God rested from his religious work.” This is true, but what God does rest from is his work with natural, religious things (i.e. religious people) after he guides them into the seventh day. Entering into the seventh day (i.e. the season of their lives in which they are no longer religious) represents the conclusion of the transformation/creation process. Symbolically speaking, God rests when his people rest from their religious lives. His creative work is done.

Clearly we do not get this “religious work” interpretation directly from the Fourth Commandment scripture. Nor do we find any clear, direct interpretation about religious work in Hebrews 3-4 or anywhere else in the Bible. But, like other Bible topics, the explanation about a topic does not appear in the same place the topic is introduced. It is generally, true, however, that the details about a topic are explained in many different places later in the Bible.

In the matter of the Sabbath, religious work is equated with God’s creative spiritual work in Genesis. There God uses the symbolism of creating natural things (e.g. heaven, earth, animals, etc.) to represent the spiritual transformation of Old/First Covenant religionists to New Covenant disciples. And there he also equates that creative spiritual work to the physically creative work/activity that is the substance of religion.

With this understanding, then, we can appreciate why God says that his people should rest and do no work (i.e. religious work/activity) on the Seventh Day. They have spent a period of time (i.e. six days) practicing Old/First Covenant religion, but when they repent of being religious and become New Covenant disciples, they enter into the spiritual “Seventh Day” in which they practice none of the religious habits of their previous religious life. In other words, they rest from doing creative religious work just like God rested from his creative spiritual work.