Old Testament Sabbath

The Old Testament Text for this Sunday is Exodus 31:12-18.  This comes at the end of Moses' trip up Mt. Sinai.  In fact, this is God's last spoken communication to Moses before sending him back down the mountain into the devolved chaos of the Israelites' unsanctioned Festival of the Golden Calf (funnel cakes and carnival games for the kiddies.  Come one! Come all!)

It strikes me that God's last word to Moses is a commandment to rest & remember, a commandment with sobering consequences for disobedience.  But how many of us treat the Sabbath as the "cute" commandment -- like 9 commandments and 1 suggestion (for those who are less hearty, less important, less than...)?

I don't think you can read this text and come to the conclusion that God didn't really mean it with this one.  That Sabbath is optional in some way.  Or available if you need it but otherwise, off you go on your merry way.

What follows is some of my work in the original text (and in the Greek, which is easier for me than Hebrew).  Is there anything here -- a word, phrase or idea -- that piques your curiousity? You may as well say so now. Otherwise, I'm just going to end up preaching the sermon I think is interested and you'll be like, "What? No. That's not what I wanted to know about.  That's not helpful at all."  Well, listen up people, if you don't register your vote here, I don't want to hear it on Sunday! ;-)

¹² Then the Lord said (promised, declared) to Moses,

¹³ “Say (imperative) to the Israelites,

‘(Above all) You must observe (keep, guard, be careful, protect, obey, see, witness, experience, visit, perceive; also imperative) my Sabbaths.

This will be a sign (banner, standard, flag, miracle, wonder, mighty act) between me and you for the generations to come,

so you may know (find out, experience, acknowledge, choose, know “in the Biblical sense,” perceive, learn) that I am the Lord,

who makes you holy. (sanctify, consecrate, dedicate, hallows you.)

¹⁴ “ ‘Observe (guard, keep, watch, be careful of, defend) the Sabbath,

because it is holy (sanctuary, holy object, as distinct from corrupt & ordinary, “temple in time”) to you.

Anyone who desecrates (defiles, profanes, treats with contempt, pollute) it

must be put to death (die, put to death, murdered, mortified);

whoever does any work (make, create, engage in money matters, cause another to work, execute, perform, build, prepare) on that day

must be cut off (stopped, ruined, failed) from his people.

¹⁵ For six days, work (same as above) is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest (consecrated observance of rest, holy repose),

holy (sanctuary, holy object, as distinct from corrupt & ordinary, “temple in time”) to the Lord.

Whoever does any work (see above) on the Sabbath day must be put to death (see above).

¹⁶ The Israelites are to observe (keep, guard, be careful, protect, obey, see, witness, experience, visit, perceive; also imperative) the Sabbath,

celebrating (making, observing, fashioning, cause, bring about, execute, build, perform) it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant (pledge, promise, marriage, will, testament, treaty.)

¹⁷ It will be a sign (banner, standard, flag, miracle, wonder, mighty act)  between me and the Israelites forever,

for in six days the Lord made (make, create, engage in money matters, cause another to work, execute, perform, build, prepare) the heavens and the earth,

and on the seventh day he abstained (stopped, was quiet, kept the Sabbath, ceased, left off) from work and rested (was refreshed, passive voice).’ ”

¹⁸ When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai,

he gave (appointed him, charged him with valuables) him the two tablets of the Testimony,

the tablets of stone inscribed (written, engraved) by the finger of God.