Ex 33:14, And He said, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest." This morning, we will begin a look at what is the heart of God for His people concerning the rest that He, Alone, can give. This is a season of year when there are so many things taking place and so many strains and stresses on our time and energy and minds and emotions, that it would behoove us to see that God has something better in place for those who love and trust and obey Him. It is always a worthwhile endeavor to consider and review even the most basic aspects of who we now are by the grace and the mercy and the power of The Lord God Almighty in Jesus Christ as His own beloved people.
We go right back to the beginning of the Word of God as we start this deliberation. In Gen 2:1-3, we discover that God, Himself, gives us the defined reality of the need for His rest. After He created the heavens and the earth, He rested. Gen 2:1-3, Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. 
	Throughout the Old Testament, the Israelites were continually reminded of the importance of the Sabbath as the day of rest from all their labors. They were to spend the day in commemoration of the fact that as God rested on the seventh day, so were they to follow His example. Not just that the day was to be a cessation from their labor, but it was to be a day in which they gathered together to fellowship and to recount the goodness and the blessing and the glory of God. They were to consecrate it and themselves as unto Him and so set themselves apart from all the other nations of the earth. 
	As we read in Ex 31:12-17, the Lord, Himself, gave this commandment to the people just as He established it through His own example. Ex 31:12-17, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. 'Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. 'For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death. 'So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.' "It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed." 
…but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord… This day of rest was to be set aside unto the Lord. It was not just a day to sleep in and to do nothing. It was a day of reflection on the fact that God was their everything. They were to honor Him in the cessation of their earthly labors for the sake of His spiritual reality. They were to fellowship as those who were created in His image, doing the work of their labor for six days. Then, they were to  settle in for that period of rest in the comfort of knowing that they were His Own People, Redeemed by Him for His purposes and His pleasure and His glory. 
That does not present us with a picture of slovenly conduct of heart and mind, but of learning to relish the fact and person of their Savior and Lord. He had redeemed them from the slavery of Egypt. He was giving them the goodness of the land of milk and honey which they worked and tilled and harvested throughout the week. It was a day to celebrate Him and His wondrous deeds as they rested in His saving grace and His Omnipotence, and His Omniscience, and His Omnipresence. 
This was to be the case especially in the times when the preparation of the fields needed to be done and when the harvest times were in season, as we read in Ex 34:21. Even at those critical times, they were to still recognize that what they had and all that they needed was supplied by The Lord God. This meant that there was no excuse for them to defame the day of the Lord’s rest, not even if they felt pressed that they needed to do the work. He would sustain and He would provide was the central reality of His Sabbath rest in holiness. Ex 34:21, "You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest. 
	There is a definite divide put into place through this day of rest. The division is between that which we do with our hands and that which we reflect upon as divinely appointed in our hearts and minds. We are Christians at all times as we toil throughout the week. That never changes. If we are doctors or plumbers or gardeners, we are always first and foremost living and working for Our Lord Jesus Christ. That is not the division of our consideration.
What is the fact is that in all that we do, we work as unto the Lord, and then we consciously acknowledge that truth by setting aside our defined time to honor and cherish Him above all else. Everything of this earth is set aside as we come to rest in His goodness and His grace. That is the type that the Sabbath rest represents to the modern church. Our hands are off the plows and grasped together in serious contemplation that all that we have and are and ever hope to be is set completely and absolutely in Him, Alone. 
	As we read in Ex 35:1+2, this was a serious and vital truth ordained by the Lord to His people. Ex 35:1+2, Then Moses assembled all the congregation of the sons of Israel, and said to them, "These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do. For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day, a sabbath of complete rest to the Lord; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. …but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day, a sabbath of complete rest to the Lord… There was no other way of it as the Chosen people of the Lord God Almighty. If He rested on the seventh day, so should those whom He had created for His own plans and purposes. They were not above the same duties and obligations under which He placed Himself. They were in no measurable sense any better than He to know what was for their own best interests and for the glory of His name within the entirety of His creation. He told them to find their rest in His provisions and that is what they were to do under even the penalty of death for disobedience to His command. It was not a choice on their part; it was a statue and an ordinance which they were to observe. It was not to be viewed as a drudgery and a curse, but as the blessed course of setting aside one day each week in which to honor the Lord’s holiness without any concerns for the affairs of work and toil. 
	This was emphasized over and over again, as in Lev 23:3, for the sake of the continued encouragement that such a day of rest was vital to the fellowship that God established with His people. Lev 23:3, 'For six days work may be done; but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings. 
	Please note the emphasis that this was to be …a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings. All the people were to partake of this day of rest with its prominence and importance centered in the Lord. Each home was to be a place in which there would be a sancutary of complete rest in the communion with the Lord, a holy convocation a feast of celebration unto the Lord. 
	The Holman Bible Dictionary describes convocations as, quote, Regular religious celebrations remembering God's great acts of salvation in the history of His people. Traditionally called "feasts" in the English Bibles, these can conveniently be categorized according to frequency of celebration. Many of them were timed according to cycles of seven. The cycle of the week with its climax on the seventh day, provided the cyclical basis for much of Israel's worship: as the seventh day was observed, so was the seventh month (which contained four of the national festivals), and the seventh year, and the fiftieth year (the year of Jubilee), which followed seven cycles each of seven years. End quote. (from Holman Bible Dictionary. Copyright © 1991 by Holman Bible Publishers. All rights reserved.)
	The fact was that even the land was to be given rest by the people. They were to till and toil the land for six years only. On the seventh year it was to sit fallow and uncultivated so that it could regenerate the needed nutrients for the following six years. The truth of letting the earth rest is a reality which has just relatively recently become engrained in understanding of the current day. It is a scientific truth that the soil needs time to reestablish itself with the necessary nutrients and minerals to continue to produce good crops. God designed this and caused His people to practice this, as outlined in Lev 25:2-7, in the measure of their faith in His provision. For that seventh year, the entire nation, including even the livestock, was to utterly rely upon what God supplied in the course of the previous years. 
	Lev 25:2-7, "Speak to the sons of Israel, and say to them, 'When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the Lord. 'Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. 'Your harvest's aftergrowth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year. 'And all of you shall have the sabbath products of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves, and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with you. 'Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its crops to eat. 
	The entire nation with all its inhabitants participated in this process in order to receive the manifest blessing of the Lord upon themselves and their land. This also indicated the full measure of their faith in the provision of the Lord throughout that year of sabbatical regeneration of the land. They needed to count on His gracious supply through the course of the six years leading up to that seventh year in order to make it through. 
They obeyed God because they had trust in and devotion unto Him in the course in which they lived their lives. If He told them to let the fields and the vineyards rest every seventh year, they did it. This was despite the practices of those nations surrounding them who would try to eek out every last crop from their lands until the their fields became barren and wasted. Then they had no choice but to move to other, more fertile lands, often through the course of conquest and war and violence in order to obtain new lands for themselves.
	That was not the case with the Children of Israel when they practiced this sensible and God-ordained manner of dealing with the land and with their hearts. As they allowed the land to recuperate, they were filled with no need to expand into other areas. Their land was sufficient for their every need, just as the Lord was sufficient to meet their every need. Their honoring of His edict kept their hearts and lives close to their reliance upon Him as their everything.  
	That same principle held true in the seventh day rest each week. For six days, they struggled with the course of making a subsistence effort from the fields and vineyards and endeavors of their own hands. They toiled and sweated and worked in order to bring in the fruits of their labors. Then, on the seventh day, they offered themselves wholly to the Lord, with the hearts and minds that gave Him thanks for all that they had accomplished and that they had. 
The essential truth of this day of rest was that they continually acknowledged that all they had - came through and because of His work on their behalf. It kept them attuned to the fact of who they were and to Whom they owed their freedom and their livelihood and their joy and their peace and their rest. 
	Next week will be our Christmas message, so, Lord willing, in the New Year, we will continue this consideration of the rest that the Lord provided for the nation of Israel in their obedience to His ordinances. We will see it as the type of our Sabbath rest in Him which is now ours in Jesus Christ. We are brought into a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ. He supplies us with the opportunity to know a complete rest in Him every moment of every day of our lives, if we will but seek to honor Him in our diligent and obedient service. He is our rest, as we will further consider. So be it!
And He said, "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest." Amen. 

This morning’s benediction is Phil 4:6+7. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.