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Seven The Sabbath of Rest On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made.—Genesis 2:2
Fred Binns Seven, and the ordinal seventh, has been made a feature of a specific ordinance in Scripture, circumscribed by the severest penalty: “Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death” (Exodus 31:15). This certainly demonstrates the importance of this number as a symbol. Its continual use in the Scriptures respecting the divine purpose has naturally given rise to the idea of divine perfection. Not surprisingly, the essential idea of rest in the text above is clearly stated in the first instance of its use: “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made” (Genesis 2:2). Thus our first definition of this important Scriptural symbol is rest. As to its importance, we need only quote from the epistle to the Hebrews: “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it” (Hebrews 4:1). What then is this rest? After all, if it were so important that we enter into it, would it not be well to ascertain its true nature? Our heavenly Father has certainly not ceased from working. As Jesus said, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work” (John 5:17). So how do we understand the “rest” of this Genesis text? The later use of this “rest” concept by Moses may help: “Ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein” (Leviticus 23:7). Here the operative word is “servile.” Holy works were both permitted and appropriate. But “servile” works have no place in the sabbaths of the new man, and are a positive danger, as intimated in the typical warning of Exodus 31:15. The apostle Paul explains this matter in Romans 8:1-14. Quoting in part: “God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit” (verses 3 and 4, RSV). This pattern of seven applied also to rest for the land which was to be tilled for six years, but lie fallow during the sabbath year. When Israel neglected these sabbaths, the Lord stepped in to ensure their observance by removing Israel from the land, permitting it to lie fallow during the period of desolation. This occurred during the seventy years of 2 Chronicles 36:21, which again highlights this symbolic number. These seventy years may also represent seventy weeks of years, that is 490 years—note the connection suggested by comparing Daniel 9:2 with verse 24. That Unique “Week” This leads us to the familiar seventy weeks of Daniel, a period of special favor to Israel, and to that unique seventieth “week” of all weeks which marked the sacrifice of our master. Upon this work of this week the entire weight of the eternal purpose still rests. This in turn introduces the Gospel age, bringing us to the door opening in heaven (Revelation 4:1), and to the breaking of the seven massive seals that only one fitted for eternal things could loose (Revelation 5:2)—to the holy “work” of redemption which God is accomplishing, through Christ, in this seventh creative day of his “rest” from mundane creation. If we stand now with the apostle John, “in the Spirit [and] on the Lord’s ‘day’ ” (Revelation 1:10) and, at the “voice” of the seven-sounding trumpets, turn with him to cast our gaze backward from our day upon the history of the seven stages of the church, we see that the entire eternal purpose has been marching to the beat of this divinely ordained number. Thus we have in Revelation’s representation of the Gospel age, when we enter into his rest, seven churches, seven angels, seven seals, seven trumpets, culminating in seven judgments (plagues). In Revelation 7:12 we have even seven praises to the heavenly Father for these marvelous works. Jacob’s Service The incident of Jacob’s service for Rachel is a type of Christ and his church. In this light the words ascribed to Jacob seem full of deep meaning: “Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her” (Genesis 29:20). Just as in Revelation the number seven occurs repeatedly, so in this narrative respecting Jacob and Rachel. After serving seven years for Rachel he was given Leah, then after seven days he received the bride he desired, and again had to serve seven years more for her (seven years, seven days, seven years). Now that we see the constant beat of these sevenfold “times and seasons,” let us look further into this figure. Our heavenly Father expended the wealth of many ages on a creation which he knew would fall into ruin through sin, and thereby develop a new creation—the “Rachel” class. Can the constant rhythms of these sevenfold ages suggest the very divine heartbeat, and that the long ages of creation “seemed unto him but seven days, for the love he had to her”? The Work of Redemption Let us return to the prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 and to the wonderful holy work committed to that last, unique “week” on which so much depended. The details of this work are placed before us at the commencement of the prophecy, though sixty-nine weeks of preparation had to precede it. “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy” (Daniel 9:24). Does it surprise us that this work is six-fold in nature?
Just as the old creation required six days before God would rest, so it is with the new creation. The Word (Logos) had to work on that first primal chaos: “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). Just so with the new creation; our Lord had to descend and move amongst fallen man, “Born in sin and shapen in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5). But then, “The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up” (Matthew 4:16). So it was on the first day of the new creation. This wonderful work of making “reconciliation for iniquity” will end (in its complete sense) when the whole of creation is brought to a glorious state of “everlasting righteousness,” when at its conclusion the kingdom will be “delivered up” to the Father. Then he will rest for all of eternity, the rest of which our cipher so eloquently speaks. But for his saints, and in his saints, this rest is already a reality. “For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it” (Psalm 132:13,14). The apostle calls it God’s own inheritance: “Being enlightened, that ye may know … the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:18). It is an amazing inheritance, graced by words from the lips of our own dear Lord: “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23). Iniquity Must be Purged God cannot rest where there is iniquity, nor can his saints rest unless he has “made an end of sins.” How blessed we are “being made free from sin,” that our Lord has “put away sin” for us (Romans 6:22; Hebrews 9:26). How important to understand this, and to fully enter into this spiritual condition. We may believe the Word, but unless there is an entering in of faith, no spiritual development will be achieved, and worse, if no progress is made, eventually the blessing will be withdrawn at great loss. “For the time, ye ought to be teachers” (Hebrews 5:12); progress is expected and required. No less than three times God had to demonstrate this principle in his people. First, when Moses was obliged to remove the first tent of meeting far out of the camp after the idolatrous worship of the molten calf (Exodus 33:7). Second, when idolatry reached its climax in the time of the kings when the prophet saw the glory of the Lord depart (Ezekiel 10:18). Third, when Israel was brought down to the “lowest hell” (grave, Deuteronomy 32:22) after crucifying their Messiah. “So that they will say in that day, are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?” (Deuteronomy 31:17). Strictly speaking, these three examples are judgments and therefore could be shown under their appropriate number forty (for example, the forty years of their opportunity, from 29 A.D. until 69 A.D.). But when the Lord prophesied of their coming judgment because he was still Israel’s Savior, he did so under the prescribed number, seven: the seven “woes” pronounced upon that nation and its leaders in Matthew chapter 23 (verse 14 is spurious, leaving seven woes rather than eight). Jesus warned the nation that their house was soon “to be left desolate,” and he warned them in accordance with the sevenfold figures of the law. Specifically and pointedly he addressed them as hypocrites (Matthew 23:23-29). “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness” (verse 27). Ceremonially they were clean, but they little appreciated that outward “works” belonged to the sixth day. Respecting the seventh day, the touch of Adam’s death was all about them. They could not enter into God’s rest. The prescribed remedy was a sevenfold exclusion from the presence of a holy God. The definitive figure is found in Numbers 19:16 and 31:19. “Whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days … And do ye abide without the camp seven days.” Parallel Application The parallel between the above mentioned seven woes on the hypocritical leaders of natural Israel, and the seven last plagues on the apostates of the Papal system, is obvious. The exclusion will be remedial, God be praised. But both must be first “thrust out” (Luke 13:28) that this eternal lesson may be fully learned. “And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye shall come into the camp” (Numbers 31:24). Thus the work of the great septennial day will be complete and God and his creation then will have entered the eternal rest which has always been the object of the “eternal purpose which he had purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ephesians 3:11)—the “at-one-ment” between God and man. “That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him” (Ephesians 1:10). This “dispensation of the fulness of times” has been marked out by divine overruling in sevenfold stages, a demonstration of the perfection of the creative will operating unimpeded even in a fallen and imperfect world. A Final Set of Seven We have considered just some of these “times,” regrettably passing over others. With one final “set” of sevens we close. These pertain to the principle that God has determined that a period of time must elapse before the cleansed individual can return to the camp and fellowship with the creator. For an individual or a band of men, this was to be seven days. We have seen it of a nation for seven times ten years at the time of the Babylonian exile. We now note that same nation cast away from their kingdom for 7´360 years, the 2,520 years of Gentile rule. There is an even larger sevenfold period, the 7´1,000 years, extrapolated from the use of seven in the Scriptures and made venerable by tradition. Chronology supports this approach, and as Ecclesiastes 4:9 puts it, “Two are better than one.” With a Scriptural principle at hand we now have a “threefold cord which is not quickly broken” (verse 12). For in Adam the whole of creation was cast out of Eden and our number suggests this be a sevenfold period of seven thousand years. Let us, however, who have been called with a heavenly calling, mark again the admonition of Hebrews 4:11, “Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest.” |