Page 88 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

The seventh day is a Sabbath rest. No work is to be done (Lev. 23:3). Religious festivals highlighted rest.
The Passover with its Feast of Unleavened Bread ends on the seventh day with no regular work (23:4-8).
The First Fruits is celebrated with a wave offering on the day after the Sabbath (23:9-14). The Festival of
Weeks begins the day after the seventh Sabbath. It too involves a sacred assembly and no regular work
(23:15-22). The Festival Trumpets has a day of Sabbath rest (23:23-25). The Day of Atonement is a day of
rest when people deny themselves (23:26-32). The Feast of Tabernacles has two Sabbaths (23:33-43).

Israel was regularly reminded to rest. Woven into their lives each week and each year was the practice
of resting. The word simply means “to stop or cease.” The sense is illustrated by God’s promise that the
seasons “will never cease (Gen. 8:22).” The implication is to rest in God. His people are taught about the
limits of their own strength and abilities and intelligence and even the minutes and years of their lives.
Humans have limits. YHWH does not. Rest in him! Resting in him is actually the best part of life. It is
better than work or any other activity for he is better than work or any other activity.

The instructions in Leviticus continue with references to lamp oil and show bread (24:1-9). The setting is
not accidental. Lamps were to burn continually just outside the holy of holies. Bread was made fresh
and placed before the Lord “Sabbath after Sabbath” (v. 8). Without going through all the items in the
tabernacle, we are shown how these two are a reminder to Israel of the importance of the Sabbath.
Coming to God is less about what they do for him than what God does for them. He gives food and light.
They come because he is great. He does not need their coming.

Strangely Moses includes at this point another historical event in the middle of all this instruction. A
man blasphemes God’s name. He is put in custody until God speaks. The response comes, “Anyone who
curses their God will be held responsible; anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD is to be put to
death. The entire assembly must stone a blasphemer (24:15-16). Additional instructions are given to put
this command into the context of the death penalty and the law in general (24:17-22). Then the penalty
is carried out.

As with the incident with Nadab and Abihu, we are stunned. Besides the ordination of Aaron, these
deaths are the only events recorded in Leviticus. They punctuate with an exclamation mark the
importance of the instruction given just before and after them. With Nadab and Abihu the point had to
do with a priest approaching God. How do we come into his presence? With this son of Shelomith taking
God’s name in vain (v. 11), the point has implications for the Sabbath. One who blasphemes does not
want to rest in YHWH in any sense. He does not find God great. He wants to rely on himself instead. The
theological teaching on an unforgivable sin in the NT is very close to these illustrations. “How much
more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God
underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who
has insulted the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29)?”

Sabbath instruction is resumed after this Sabbath event. Six years Israel could plant and harvest. The
seventh year the land was to lie fallow (25:1-7). Seven cycles of Sabbath years, 49 years total, would
pass, and the fiftieth year would be another, deeper Sabbath (25:8-55). For two years in a row the
nation is to trust God for enough to eat. In addition, in this Year of Jubilee all property that had been
sold during the previous 49 years is to be returned to the original owner. Sabbath jubilee includes
freedom for someone sold to pay a debt. A variety of additional instructions are given about foreigners
and Levitical towns and dealing with one another kindly. The main point is rest in God. He owns the
land. He owns the people. He redeemed Israel from Egypt. They are never to forget this basic truth.

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