It is a sign between Me and the Israelites forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’”It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.’”It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
3 sermons cite this verse
… Are you busier than God? The Bible tells us this on the screen, Exodus 31, verse 17. One day a week, God says, will always serve as a reminder that I made the heavens and the earth in six days, and then on the seventh day I rested and relaxed. Now, why did God rest and relax on the seventh day? Well, he certainly wasn't tired because God doesn't get tired. God never gets tired. But he was modeling for us what he wanted us to do, to rest and to relax, to keep a Sabbath, to have balance and to relax in the goodness of God. Now, we're in this series we've just started called Living in the Goodness of God. And we're looking at Psalm 23, which actually models for us ten ways that a good shepherd takes care of sheep. He feeds, he leads, he meets their needs. and the 10 ways God's goodness wants to benefit you, how God wants to take care of you. And a lot of your worry and a lot of your hurry and a lot of your scurry and a lot of your restlessness actually comes from not understanding the goodness of God in your life. …
… look with me at one of these other places in the Bible where God gives his people the Sabbath commandment. Look with me at Exodus chapter 31, verses 16 and 17. Therefore, the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath. There it is, the command, observing the Sabbath throughout the generations as a covenant forever. It is a sign. Remember that. I'll talk about that later, but it's a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth. So We're starting to see the same language. On the seventh day he rested, but listen to this, and was refreshed. What a word. The Bible adds, we've seen how he rested, but God was refreshed? That's fascinating. God being refreshed? And this word is actually pretty rare. It's only used two other times in the Old Testament. One other time referring to how people are refreshed This is refreshed. Exodus 23, verse 12, how God designed for our refreshment on the Sabbath. …
So that here is great encouragement for us to keep holy the sabbath, as we would seek God’s grace and our own spiritual good. The sabbath-day is an accepted time, a day of salvation, a time wherein God especially loves to be sought, and loves to be found. The Lord Jesus Christ takes delight in his own day; he delights to honour it; he delights to meet with and manifest himself to his disciples on it, as he showed before his ascension, by appearing to them from time to time on this day. On this day he delights to give his Holy Spirit, as he intimated, by choosing it as the day on which to pour out the Spirit in so remarkable a manner on the primitive church, and on which to give his Spirit to the apostle John. Of old God blessed the seventh day, or appointed it to be a day whereon especially he would bestow blessings on his people, as an expression of his own joyful remembrance of that day, and of the rest and refreshment which he had on it. Exod. xxxi. 16, 17. “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath-day. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.” As princes give gifts on their birth-days, on their marriage-days, and the like; so God was wont to dispense spiritual gifts on the seventh day. …