Holy Ground

Well, we've come out of the Days of Unleavened Bread, and I'm sure it was a profitable, profitable Days of Unleavened Bread and Passover for everyone. We learned a lot, got reminded about a lot that I hope is in our minds as we continue our journey forward toward the Kingdom of God.

You know, it strikes me as we've come out of the Days of Unleavened Bread this year, we've come out of a time in the country, a time of COVID, that has kept things kind of up in the air and for the last couple years. Now I hear that even the National Health Coordinator, whatever, has declared the pandemic over. But as we come back into a time where things have returned, at least for a time being, to a little bit of normal, it gives us time to reflect on what we have learned and what we should learn. You know, the period of Unleavened Bread reminds us, I hope, of the things that we need to be doing and how we need to be focused on God, focused on Jesus Christ, focused on what His will for us is and how we please Him. And COVID, you know, COVID had its effect. We've experienced things we never thought we'd experienced, you know, lockdowns, services being canceled, you know, the web presence on on Sabbath just escalated during the COVID time, which is expected, and it was great that we had that tool. But COVID may have had an effect on our thought process as well that we need to look at and think about, especially in light of, are we pleasing God and do we do what God wants us to do? As Israel came out of Egypt, God reminded them of the things that they needed to do to please Him. They'd been in Egypt for centuries. They still believed God, but they had lost a lot of the truth of God, the way of pleasing God, the way of worshiping Him, as needs be as they were in Egypt. And that can happen to us too during times that are different or even enduring in times that are good. And God, you know, it's one of the notable, excuse me, the notable event of the Old Testament is the exodus of Israel from Egypt. And when God brought them out, He did some very specific training with them. It wasn't all just about leaving Egypt. He was teaching them along the way. Last week we talked about some of those things. Hopefully that'll be the last time I do that. Last week we talked about some of those things and what God would have us learn from that. Today I want to look at that as well because that whole event of Israel leaving Egypt has some specific and very clear lessons for us today. So let's go back to Exodus and let's go right back to the beginning of when God began the process of the Exodus from Egypt. And we'll see things that we can learn that apply to us today and in a couple, well, actually a few occasions that we need or situations that we need to look at. In Exodus 3, God appears for the first time to Moses. And it's a very riveting account of how that happened. Let's just read through the first five verses here. Four, six in Exodus 3. It says, Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord, and we see later that is the one who became Jesus Christ, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, well, I'll now turn aside and see this great sight why the bush does not burn. So when the eternal saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, Moses answered, here I am. And God said, don't draw near this place.

Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

Moses, that's a great sight you're seeing. It's not anything ordinary. It is supernatural. It is God. Moses, don't approach with your feet, with your sandals on. Take your feet off, for this is holy ground. God said a lot when he said, this is holy ground. He was teaching something to Moses that was going to begin the retraining, the re-education of Israel. It started with Moses, who was their deliverer. But God taught them, when you approach God, when you're in God's place, this is holy. The things that happen every other day of the week, the things that you do normally, when you're in God's presence, it is a completely different situation. Moses, take the sandals off your feet, for you're standing on holy ground. God goes on, you know, to introduce himself to Moses and tell him all the things that need that, who he is and what his plan is, and that he's going to lead them to a promised land. The same thing that he tells us. But when we look at the word holy, that's a word that can be misused in this society, just like God's name is misused and abused and made common. You've all heard the, you know, the expressions holiness or holy that. I mean, it happens maybe not as much anymore as taking God's name in vain. But Satan and the world uses words and kind of can make words that apply to God more common. That should never happen. That's what God was showing Moses here. What's of me is not common. Don't make it common. When you're in my presence, when you're on my holy ground, be aware. Be aware of who you are, of whose presence you are in. And so, you know, we see that. And God, you know, tells him this in the very first time he meets him. Always when God does something, he has something in mind. Now, we look in the Bible, and these words that we read in the Bible, you know, today we have the advantage of having, you know, concordances, interlinear Bibles, and we can go back and see what do those words mean, how much do they occur, and we can look at them in context. The word holy, turns out this is the very first time in the Bible the word holy appears. Here's Moses being called to lead Israel out of Egypt, and God says, uses the word holy. It's number 6944 in the Strong's Concordance. Hallowed, sacred, special, a place set apart for God. When holy is used, it's of God. This is the very first time that the word holy is used in the Bible. Now, you may have heard, and I remember in a ministerial education class sometime in the past several years, that in the Bible there is a rule of first mentions. Now, when you see a word for the first time in the Bible, going back to the, you know, whether it's Greek or Hebrew, often indicates exactly what God means by that word.

So, when we see holy here, he tells Moses, take your shoes off, this is holy ground. This is special.

This is my place to be. So, this is the first time it's used, and we see God has it in association with him. It's a special place. You don't come to me as you normally would do anything else on the ground around because this is my, this is my space. So, we can look there and look at the other places because the word holy shows up a lot from now on in the Bible and in the Old Testament, and a lot when God is talking to Israel. So, Moses, God has schooled him in what the word holy means. Moses gets it, and as God goes through the process of teaching what is holy to Israel and what is not, it's a very valid lesson. Let's look at a few things here, a few verses later on in the book of Exodus where we see the word holy. Many, many times it appears as God is talking about the construction of his tabernacle, the tent of meeting, and he'll talk about the holy instruments. He'll talk about the holy garments. He'll talk about the things that are holy. He always prefaces with them, these are holy, these are of God. This is what you do in the presence of God, and of course, God was in the presence of that tabernacle, and then later the temple. Let's turn over to Exodus 26.

Exodus 26 is God is giving the instructions of how to construct this. He is very detailed in what needs to be done, and in verse 33, he talks about a place that is really, really, really special, and God says exactly how that place is going to be used. In Exodus 26 and verse 33, in the midst of what God is, the instructions he's giving here, he says, and you shall hang the veil from the claps, then you shall bring the ark of the testimony in there behind the veil. The veil shall be a divider for you between the holy place and the most holy. Now, when you look in the Greek, the word holy appears three times. They've translated it. What God is saying, this place is holy, holy, holy. I remember in the holy of holies, one person went in there one time a year. That's how special that place was, and God said, when you're going in this place, only one person, only one time a year.

That's how holy that place was, and when he inspired the Bible, it was not the holy place and the most holy, it was holy, holy, holy. If we go a couple of chapters forward in Exodus 28 and verse 1, we see that even as Aaron and the priests were going to serve God, they had special things that they were going to wear only when they were serving in the tabernacle. Chapter 28, verse 1. Now take Aaron your brother and his sons with him from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to me as priest. Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eliezer, and Ithamar. And you shall make holy garments reserved for God, reserved for service of the God. Those garments are not to be used every day. Those garments are for when you come into the tabernacle, priests, you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. And then you go through there and you read how God even inspired people to be able to believe that those garments would be constructed exactly the way that God wanted them to be constructed, exactly the way he wanted, because they were holy garments used in his servants. Not Moses, but when Aaron and his sons and the priests down through the ages put those garments on, they didn't wear them to the nicer occasions, the weddings and funerals and everything else. They wore them just at that time. That was what God had designated for them. We go over to chapter 30. And again, the word holy appears in all. I'm just picking out a few of the things here. In chapter 30 and verse 22, again remembering how holy, the holy ground that Moses was standing on, that sets the precedent of what holy means. In chapter 30 and verse 23, it says, take for yourself quality spices. And then he gives this recipe, right down in verses 23 and 24. He says, and make, and 25, you shall make from these a holy anointing oil. Not just any anointing oil, a holy anointing oil. It's of God.

An ointment compounded according to the art of the perfumer, it will be a holy anointing oil. With it you shall anoint the tabernacle of meeting in the Ark of the Testimony, the table, its utensils, the lampstands, its utensils, the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering, with all its utensils and the labor in its base. Consecrate them that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them must be holy. You shall anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them that they may minister to me as priests. In verse 31, speak to the children of Israel saying, this shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations. It shall not be poured on man's flesh. This is used, this is God's holy anointing oil, not be poured on man's flesh, nor shall you make any other like it.

Don't go out and try to duplicate it and sell it. It's of God. It's used for his purpose. It's to remind people of God used in his service. Whoever compounds, verse 33, it's holy, keeps repeating it, it is holy and it shall be holy to you. Whoever compounds any like it, or whoever puts any of it on an outsider, shall be cut off from his people. So what is holy is important to God. When he says something is holy, Moses learned just from the very first incident in his exposure to God, this is really, really important. What God says, and if he says something is holy, we must, we must pay close attention to it, not allow it to become common or ordinary in our mind. God should never become common. He should always merit our fear, our reverence, our awe. And so, so we go down to, you know, if we go back to Exodus 12 and we now see this word holy and what it means, we come to Exodus 12 and we see another place. This is actually the second place in the Bible that the word holy is used. The first one was when Moses was approached, when Moses approached God at the burning bush, but the second place the word holy is used is in Exodus 12 and verse 16.

God is talking about the days of unleavened bread that we have just completed. Talks in verse 15 that you must eat unleavened bread for the, for seven days. And in verse 16, he says, on the first day there shall be a holy convocation. This is something that God has determined, a holy convocation. On the first day of unleavened bread, there is a, and if you look at the Strongs, convocation means an assembly, means being called out. God calls out people to come to a holy convocation. It is of God. It is a special sacred oport assembly, an opportunity to come before God on his terms as we honor him. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and on the seventh day there will be a holy convocation for you.

No manner of work shall be done on them, but that which everyone must eat, that only may be prepared by you. So now we have, you know, we have holy ground. We have, we've seen later on in the chapter about holy oil, holy garments, the holy of holies, the whole host of holies we could go through. But God says on this, these days in Unleavened Bread, the first and seventh that we've just been through, there will be holy convocations, holy times when you are called out, where you are called out to come before God in his holy convocation. It's his ground. When we come to a holy convocation, we're in God's ground.

That's his convocation. Not mine, not yours, his convocation that we are coming to. If we go on and, you know, when we think about the holy convocations that we come to and how God instructed Moses, Moses, take off your sandals. The ground you stand on is holy. When we come to God's holy convocation, what might we learn from that? If Moses was told to take his sandals off when you come on holy ground, how should we approach God's holy convocations?

Are there sandals we should take off and leave home? What would we bring to a holy convocation that is of God? What would he have us bring there if we honor him? Well, he would say, certainly bring your Bible, right?

It's the Word of God. When he calls us out to meet with him, we do read the Word of God. We do study the Word of God. We go to the Word of God, and it's quite helpful to have the Bible in your lap so you can see that the words that are being spoken to you are exactly the words that God has prepared for us. It could be helpful to have a pen and paper and jot down some notes of things that you want to think about later or go back and check.

You know, we live in a day and age now where just about everything is recorded, so you can always go back and listen to it later as well. But when we come before God, when there's some things we probably might think about that we should not be bringing into holy ground, right? Things that we would use every day of our lives that make the day common, that may tempt us to take our attention away from what God has brought us here to do. We are in his presence. We're here for what he wants us to learn and for what he would have us be here for in an act of obedience, in an act of submission to him, but also in a way that we learn to delight in one another, and in a way that we actually do come together and have the opportunity of getting to know each other, because that is why God would say there has to be a holy convocation.

I want my people to come together before me. So we might think about some of those things. You know, I think about some of the things that are common that we use every day that over the decades, I guess, in the last 10 years, have seeped into maybe when we come into holy convocations, things like phones that we might use instead of a Bible, things that iPads that we might use instead of a Bible, things that can tempt us into having our minds distracted and do something else and whatever, rather than having the focus on where God wants it to be.

Some of those things we might want to think about and ask God, what are the things? What are the things you would have us bring? And what are the sandals we should leave behind when we come on your holy ground? God, it is your convocation. It is your time that we are in. So it's interesting when you go through the progression of God's education and training of Moses, he introduces the word holy. The first time that he uses the word holy, it's in these convocations that God is going to call.

First and seventh day of unleavened bread, but then more holy convocations later, as Israel is trained. And so as we come out of a period of COVID, a time where we might have lost some of our focus on what God's calling is and what his will is, and we're reminded we might want to sit back and remind ourselves of what God's will is. Why does he want us in a holy convocation? What does he expect of us? What is the benefit? Because God doesn't do anything that doesn't have a benefit from us. Let's go forward to Leviticus 23, because Leviticus 23, he mentions a whole lot of holy convocations that God says he wants his people to be in.

Leviticus 23, and verse 1, of course you know that these are where the appointed times that God lists for us. And the Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, verse 1, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, the feasts, now that's the, if I can remind you of what the Hebrew word there is, that's the Moed, that's the appointed times. God did the appointed times, first time using that law first mentioned, the first time we see Moed in the Bible, it was back in Genesis 1, verse 14, where God made the great lights of the sky and said that they were there for appointed times, days, years, and appointed times, so we know that God had this in mind from the very beginning.

It wasn't something he just added for Israel. He had to remind his people what his will was. So speak to the children of Israel and say to them, the appointed times, I'm going to use what that there, are the appointed times of the Eternal, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations. On each one of these days that he lists, these days that you proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation.

What does God expect on the Sabbath day? He expects people that follow him and that honor him, and that, well, we'll talk about Sabbath in a little bit here, that there's a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it. It's the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwelling. Verse 4, these are the appointed times of the Lord, holy convocations, which you shall proclaim at their appointed days, and then he goes through and lists them. So we have 52 weekly Sabbaths that are appointed times, and then we have seven holy days that are appointed times, and for baptized members, we have the Passover. That's an appointed time that God says, holy convocation. That's what time is to be. One of the ways we keep the Sabbath and honor the Sabbath is, we're in a holy convocation, as God would have. Now, in the first few verses there of Leviticus 23, you know, we see the Sabbath. We're here today, and we're all gathered together here today on on the Sabbath day, and the Sabbath is holy. If we go back to Exodus 16, we see the third time in the Bible that the word holy is used. First time, Moses, take off your sandal. You're standing on holy ground. Second time, these are my holy convocations. Third time, we find in Exodus 16 and verse 23. Now, Exodus 16, you will remember, is the time when the children of Israel were complaining about the man or complaining about being hungry, and God gives them manna. And remember, he said when he gave a manna, I'm giving you this to test you. So we'll get back to that a little bit later. But in verse 23, in the context of manna, God says, or says, then he said to them, This is what the Lord has said. Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the eternal. Bake what you bake today, and boil what you boil, and lay up for yourselves all that remains to be kept until morning. Well, he's talking about the manna, right? Okay, so the Sabbath was so important. God even said, Here's what you're going to do on the preparation day for the Sabbath. It's so special, and it's so holy. You're not going to do what you do every other day of the week. You've got six days to do your work. You've got six days to do all the things you do every day of the week. Play, entertain, watch TV, watch movies, whatever it is. The seventh day is holy to God. It's set apart for him. When we enter the Sabbath day, we are entering on holy ground, just like Moses was in God's presence. You and I and everyone listening knows what the Sabbath day is. We've proven to ourselves, this is God's day. This is his time. He set it aside at creation. It's holy time and everything that that means to all of us. Later, later in Exodus 20, now notice he said this. He said this before the Ten Commandments were ever given, right there at the outset, as of the Exodus from Egypt, holy ground before the Exodus, holy convocation on the on during the days of Unleavened Bread as they left Egypt, holy Sabbath when he was giving him the manna and he's teaching them how to serve him and the important things to him and what people do who worship God, the Sabbath, right? The holy Sabbath. So in Exodus 20, then God gives the Ten Commandments.

And let's turn over there and look at verse 8. Verse 8 of Exodus 20, God says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Keep it holy. Now, this holy is a little bit different than the other holies that we've been talking about. First one was 6944 in Strongs. This is 6942. They mean basically the same thing, but this one will talk about it being hallowed, that the Sabbath day is sanctified. Keep it set apart. It's separate from the other six days of the week. It's part of the week, but the other six days are what someone thinks of the set of things that we do. The seventh day is completely different than the other six. Okay, so in this commandment, he says, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. It's 69-6942 means hallowed. Okay, now the first time we see hallowed, by chance, is back in Genesis 2.

Okay, in Genesis 2 and verse...

I'll read verses 1 through 3. Genesis 2, verse 1, right at the beginning of the Bible, Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the hosts of them were finished, and on the seventh day, now mind you, the six days God created lights, he created seas, he created dry earth, he created plants, herbs, animals, on the sixth day, the sixth day he created man, and then he created the Sabbath day, the crown jewel of creation, sixth day man, and then on the seventh day it was God's time. On the seventh day God ended his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work which he had created and made. He sanctified it.

Now sanctify is a word that we've heard a lot too. It means set apart. Almost always when you sanctify, it does has to do with God. You know Jesus Christ said to you and me in John 17 when he gave his prayer he said, Father, they're not of the world. Sanctify them by truth. Your word is truth. Set them apart. They're not of the world. The seventh day is sanctified. It's not of the other six days. It's of God. The other six days are for work, for the things that we do every day of the life. This is of God and a very, very necessary part of our creation and a very, very necessary part of man's salvation. That's why God created it and put it at the capstone of his creation. He kept off everything else physical with the Sabbath day that he said is holy because the man has to have the connection with God in order to ever attain what God created man for. He didn't create the physical earth and physical man just to spend, you know, however many years that he allows us to spend on this earth and for things to go on. He had a specific purpose. We will never achieve that purpose unless God is part of that. And so he reserved that day as a blessing to us, right? We'll see that here in a minute and as a gift to us. Now, when you look at the corresponding word sanctification or sanctify in the Greek, here's what it says. It means that this thing or day is separate from profane things and completely dedicated to God. Dedicated to God. So the seventh day, if we're worshiping God, we dedicate to God. We know that. We know that. Maybe we have some time to contemplate that and realize when we're on the Sabbath day or in the Sabbath day, we're on holy ground. It's not time that God has given us to do whatever we want. He's given us as a gift so that we would do what he wants and learn what he wants us to learn. So if we go back to Exodus 20, and read the commandment, we see some other words in there as well that we should take the time to just look at briefly because, again, they're English words that can have a meaning that's a little bit different than the Hebrew that God inspired. In verse 8, he says, remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy. Sanctify it. It is a sanctified day. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. Oh, the word keep. I want to look at the word keep for a moment. You know, we would all say we keep the Sabbath day, right? All of us don't go out to our times of business. We don't go out and shop. We don't do all those things we do the other six days of the week. We would say, no matter how we keep the Sabbath day, we keep it.

The word keep is another one of those words. If you look at where it's first used in the Bible, because it's translated. It's number 8104. Yeah, number 8104 is translated in different ways as the translators looked at it and put their thought as to how that fits into the English language. Let's go back and let's look at the first time that we see the word, number 8104, the word translated keep there. It too is back in Genesis 2. And that's in Genesis 2 verse 15, the same chapter where we're in where God created the Sabbath day. Apparently on the Sabbath day, that seventh day, here's Adam. God created him. Their eyes opened and all of a sudden they're in a place that's beautiful, outstanding. They have no idea. So God would take the time to train them, etc., etc., teach them, let them know who they are. And in verse 15 of Genesis 2, it says this, the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it. That's the same word that's used in the Sabbath commandment. Now, keep it doesn't make any sense in the way that you and I think of keep. It doesn't even make any sense if you use the word observe instead of keep, because when you look at the Hebrew word, it say will translate it observe, but it has the sense of guard it, treasure it, keep it, keep it in that way. And here I am even using that word. So when God said, here's the Garden of Eden, tend and keep it. He wasn't saying, well, keep it, defend it from, you know, invaders or people who will take it from you. Keep it, take care of it. It's special. This is a blessing that I have given you. He uses it again in chapter 3, chapter 3 of Genesis in verse 24. This is where Adam and Eve have sinned and God is driving them out of the Garden of Eden. In verse 24, Genesis 3 says, so he drove out the man and he placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

The word guard there is 8104, the same word that's used in the Sabbath commandment.

Put an angel there. They're not going back into the Garden of Eden. They've sinned. They've lost that. Guard the way. Guard the Garden of Eden. They're not going back in. Chapter 4, verse 9. Cain. Now we know what Cain did, kills his brother, and when God confronts him with his sin, Cain has excuses. He's a little bit insolent in his responses to God. He's not showing God at all the appropriate respect that he has. He's not repentant at all. In verse 9, it says, God said to Cain, where is Abel your brother? And Cain retorts, I don't know, am I my brother's keeper?

Keeper is 8104. Am I supposed to be the one taking account of my brother? Am I supposed to be the one doing this? Am I supposed to be doing that? Not keeping him as in supporting him or keeping him tucked away in a pocket. Am I my brother's keeper? So as you go through the Bible and you see where the words are used and we come to the Sabbath commandment and it's 8104, what God is saying there is, keep that, yes, keep the Sabbath, yes, observe the Sabbath, guard the Sabbath, count it as special. Remember the Sabbath day, guard it, put a hedge around it, some of the translations to say. You've heard that in the past. Put a hedge around the Sabbath day. It's separate than the other six days of the week. It's not for our use. It's not for our pleasure. It's for God's pleasure. We do what he wants in it. And later on, we're not going to get to it today, we'll talk about the Sabbath again. Next Sabbath. What do we do? What do we do on the Sabbath day? How do we make use of the time? What would God have us do? You know, sometimes I get that questions from people who are new. What do you do for those whole 24 hours? What do you do when you wake up in the morning and you wait until 1.30 or 2.30 to come to church? Sometimes we may even think the same things, right? But there's plenty to do in the day if we're guarding that day and if we value that day. You know, just as an aside, let's go back to Isaiah 58 for one moment.

And I've been using the analogy of what God told Moses to take his foot, take the sandals off of his feet. He's standing on holy ground and God uses that analogy in other places regarding convocations and Sabbath. And Isaiah 58.13 is one of those interesting places that God has that common analogy spreading through it. Isaiah 58.13, talking about the Sabbath, he says, if you turn away your foot, if you turn away your foot, watch the holy ground you're on.

Don't do your will on that day. Let's do God's will on that day. Let's refrain from the business that we are supposed to be doing. If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable and will honor him, not doing your own ways, not finding your own pleasure and not speaking your own words, then you will delight yourself in the eternal. God never meant the Sabbath day to be a time of burden, or we would sit around looking at our watches and thinking, will the sun never set? God even talks in Amos 8.5. He talks about people who really can this holy day be over? When will the sun set so we can go about our own business again? Maybe some of us, myself included, have in times past thought, wow, another couple hours and I can do this, or another hour and I can do this, or whatever it is you want to do. If we're keeping the Sabbath the way God wants, it will be a blessing. We will delight in it and we will not be looking for the time to end.

We will be wishing we had more time in the Sabbath day. So if we go back to Exodus 20 here, you know, God would say, put a hedge around that Sabbath day, even to the point that on this preparation day, get everything ready. Do all your menial, everyday activities of living. Get that done on the preparation day. So on the Sabbath, you're not finding yourself having to cook meals, prepare this, or wondering what's going on. You've thought about all that ahead of time, just like the ancient Israelites gathered up double the amount of manna on the Sabbath day. So they didn't have to go out that morning and pick up the manna. It was already there. It had already been done ahead of time. So in Exodus 20, we learn again, as God gives us the commandment, how to worship Him, what we do if we want to follow Him. Remember the Sabbath day, guard it, put a hedge around it, keep it holy. And He says there then, on the seventh day, you shall do no work. In verse 10, six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day the Sabbath of the Lord, in it you shall do no work. Now, work, I don't have to spend a lot of time on that. It's 43.99 in Strong's. It means dear everyday labor. It's the same word that God uses. You can mark this down in Genesis 39. 39 in verse 11, when Joseph went into Potiphar's house and he was doing his business. In many places it's translated business instead of work. God says, do your business the other six days of the week. The Sabbath, you don't do any of that. Right? And He's very specific in here. Your entire household, not just you. You shall do no work. You, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger, who is within your gates. For in six days the eternal made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them. And he rested the seventh day. Therefore, he blessed the Sabbath day and he sanctified or hallowed it. 69.42. He set it apart, just like he set it apart when he did creation. So the word rest. The word rest is another okay translation, kind of misused, you know? And when we think of the English language today, when I rest, you know, I lay down at night to rest. And when we rest, we think, you know, I'll take a nap, do nothing, let your mind wander, nothing at all going on. And so some people will look at the Sabbath day and say, you know what? All I need to do on it is rest. I don't need to do anything else. I can just sleep the entire day from time to time. I hear people say, I'm so tired, I can't come to a holy convocation. They don't say that. I can't come to Sabbath services. I'm so tired, I need to rest.

Now, I don't think that's what the Bible is saying. Yes, there is a time for rest. And when you look at this word in Exodus 20, 8-11, it does talk about a time for repose. And God does want us to rest from our labors on that. There is a time for extra sleep. And in this day and age we live in.

We have cars, we have services that meet later in the morning in Jacksonville in the afternoon here in Orlando. There's plenty of time for people to sleep and get the extra work they need. I know there's heavy workloads and a lot of things that go on on those other six days of the week.

But God didn't create the Sabbath day to just be a sleep day, just kind of tuck it in and, you know what? I'm too tired to go. You've got to ask yourself your question. If that's what God intended, why did He create holy convocations? What He's saying is that they're called out. I'm calling you out to come to a holy convocation on these Sabbath days, on these holy days. That's what He's saying. That's why He ordered, commanded, holy convocations on those days. Not that we lay in bed for 24 hours and think that's wonderful. I wish I could do that every week. Isn't God great? That's what the modern-day connotation to some would be, rest. That's what it indicates in 51-17 when it says, repose for a while, be renewed and whatever. But when God rested on the seventh day, that's not the word that was used at all. In fact, it's not the word that was used back as God was teaching about rest in Exodus 12. Let's go back to Exodus 12.

Oh, not Exodus itself. Exodus 23. Looked at the wrong Exodus there. Exodus 23. A few chapters passed. The Ten Commandments. Exodus 23. And make sure this is the right one. Yeah. Verse 12.

As God explains to Israel how to keep these commandments, six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest. That your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed. But this rest is different than the rest that's in the commandment. This rest is number... Did I write that down? Yes. Number 76-73.

What it means is cease from your work. Cease from your everyday work. Stop the work you do the other six days of the week. Now, I could have gone back to Exodus 16, where God is first and should have, where God is first teaching Israel or reminding them of the Sabbath day. In Exodus 16, verse 29. I know I wrote down 29. It doesn't reference rest here, but that's the little point I wanted to make based on something I've heard in the recent past here. Verse 29, you know, God is reminding Israel, you know, gather the manna. Gather the manna on the sixth day, and yet people disregarded his command. They went out of the seventh, and it wasn't there.

And so God is chiding them, you know, or Moses is. Verse 28, he says, How long will you refuse to keep my commandments? In 29, he says, See, the Lord has given you the Sabbath. Given you. That's bestowed, right? Bestowed. It's a gift. God has given us this as a gift. For the Lord has given you the Sabbath. Therefore, he gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. There are some, not widespread, but I have heard it said in the recent past, doesn't that mean God says, don't go out of your house at all on the Sabbath day? That isn't what it says. He commanded holy convocations.

Some will take one sentence out of the context. You've got to read the context. What God is saying, when you go out, don't go out on that seventh morning looking for manna, stay in your house. It's not there. Gather it on the sixth day, and on the seventh day, it's not going to be there. Stay there. He's not saying don't go out. He would only have a major contradiction in the Bible. Why would he say holy convocation? Why would Jesus Christ have been in the temple as his custom was? Why would Paul have been in the temple as his custom was? Why would all of them have done that if God said that? He was talking about a specific service, a specific purpose here. So if anyone thinks that God said it's okay if you're not sick, I mean if you're sick, and yes, of course, stay in your house and whatever, you know the situation's there, but he's not saying don't come out of your house, right? That was for one occasion. No one should ever think any differently of that. Now let's go back to Genesis, where God created the Sabbath.

Okay, Genesis 2, verse 2. On the seventh day, God ended his work. That's everyday tasks. His work for the six days of the week was creating dry land, creating plants, creating mankind, etc., etc. He didn't do any of that. He created the seventh day by resting on the seventh day. God ended his work, which he had done, and he rested. Means ceased. He ended doing that work. He didn't do that on the Sabbath day. He rested on the Sabbath day from all his work, which he had done. That's what he did. You know, ceasing our work, we could say that's resting. I'm not going to, I'm not going to, you know, do what I do the other six days. I'm not going to worry about my work emails on the Sabbath day. I'm not going to take calls from my company on the Sabbath day. They know that I keep that holy to God. I'm not going to worry about my lawn service coming on Sabbath. They know no work is getting done in my household. All that gets done the other six days. He ceased from doing his work. That's what you and I do. Nowhere in the Bible does God say no work should ever be done on the Sabbath day. If we look at Jesus Christ's example and we see what he did in Matthew 12, I don't know, well maybe we should just go ahead and turn over to Matthew 12.

You know, he tells us he is Lord of the Sabbath. And the Pharisees liked to always call Jesus Christ on, you know, you shouldn't be doing this on the Sabbath day and this on the Sabbath day. It was their idea and, you know, their idea of how to keep the Sabbath day. But Christ taught a lot about how keeping the Sabbath day in Matthew 12. And if we come down to verse 5, of course, we see in the very first verse of Matthew 12, he and his disciples, they're out of their house. They're walking through the grain fields. They're hungry. They, you know, pluck a little ear of corn or whatever grain it is that's going on. So it would be in the springtime, most likely, that this was happening. They pluck a little grain of corn or whatever, wheat, barley, whatever it is. The Pharisees are all over their case. You know, what are you doing? You're working on the Sabbath. And it's like, you know, no, it was just a matter of what they did because they were hungry. And then in verse 5, you know, Christ talks about, you know, the eating of this stuff and whatever. But in verse 5, he says, haven't you read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? What's he talking about there? Well, he's talking about the fact that there is work that has to be done on the Sabbath. If you look back at what ancient Israel, God commanded there to be offerings on the Sabbath day. They had to go out and actually sacrifice animals.

Now, I've never done that in my life, but I can't imagine that's pleasant or delightful. But God said, this is what you do on the Sabbath day. This is what your sacrifice to me is. That's work.

Not what they did on the other seven days. They sacrificed, but this sacrifice was different. On the Holy days, you see how many sacrifices were going on? That's some work. But Christ says, but they're blameless. There's work that we do for God on the Sabbath day. We come here each week, but there's work that has preceded all of our arrival here, right? Sound systems have been set up and other churches, chairs have to be set up. We've got things that have to happen, you know, get set up. That's work. Sometimes we have potlucks. There's work that's associated with that, but those are the things of God. They're there to bring glory to Him. It's His holy convocation. It's His time. And in the temple, they had a lot of work that went on in those times. And Jesus Christ said, did you see what they did? They ceased their everyday labors, but they did what was right and appropriate on the holy ground of the Sabbath. Later on, Jesus Christ says, later, I think it's in the same chapter here, He talks about, yeah, down in verse 12. He talks about if a sheep was to fall into a ditch, and we might go out and pull Him out on the Sabbath.

And, you know, the Jews and Christ said, you know, these are these things that are happening, that you do it. That's not something that you foresaw or planned or premeditated. And He says, if how much more value than is a man than a sheep? Therefore, it's lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

There are things that are good to do. God didn't intend for us to just sit at home, twiddle our thumbs, watch the clock, come to a service, spend some time fellowshiping, and go home and just wait for the time. There's things we can do on the Sabbath, because it is holy ground, and we'll talk about some of those things that we could, that we can do. But there were not, there was not ever the intention that there would be absolutely no physical work done, not the physical work of the other six days of the week. But the work of God, the work that goes with keeping the Sabbath, happens. So, if we can just kind of recall a little bit here and take a break and think about what we've learned so far. We've learned what the word holy is and how God instructed Moses in what the word holy is. And He said, Moses, this is holy ground you're in. And then He talked about holy convocations, the very next thing that He taught Israel. These are my convocations. These are times where I call you out to meet with me, God said.

These are holy convocations. Then the third time He used the word holy, He talks about the Sabbath day. The Sabbath is holy. The commandment is the Sabbath is sanctified. It's set apart. It's reserved for God. It's His time. It's not our time, per se. It's not what we do the other six days of the week. So important that even in the New Testament, there's a word for the preparation day of the Sabbath. That's specifically different. Just like we read in the book, the Bible, now, there is a preparation day. It's different. We don't do the things, God said, of the other days, but we do learn how to delight in Him. The Sabbath, if we are when we're keeping it properly, will be a delight. We've learned that we put a hedge around the Sabbath. We guard it. It's something special. It's a gift of God, He says from Exodus 16 verse 29. And we cease from our labors. We don't use it as a, I'll sleep in for 24 hours a day or ever think that it's okay to use I'm just too tired. Now, again, if we're sick, we stay home, right? If we might bring something to someone, I don't want anyone to think that I'm not saying that. There are times we do stay home, and that would be fine. But we need to be thinking about what we do on the Sabbath day as God reminded Israel. And as we've come out of a period of time where, you know, we've been, it's been okay to do this and okay to do that when we haven't been able to have Sabbath services and we have this proliferation of webcasts from just about every church anymore, what is God's will for us? And so we know that it is lawful. There are some things that should be done on the Sabbath.

We rest and cease from our other labors. We do take the time for extra sleep. God gives us that time to be refreshed and whatever. Not saying that either, but there's a way we keep the Sabbath.

Before I end here today, let's look at one more, one more word associated with the Sabbath.

And let's go back again to Exodus 16, where God began teaching Israel and teaches us about what His purpose for the Sabbath day was before He ever issued the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai, you know, a few weeks later. Back in Exodus 16 again, where God first teaches Israel through the manna, we see a word come up again. Let's look at 1625. Now, remember the first time, or I'm sorry, 1525. The people are at the waters of Mara. Remember, the waters are bitter. They're complaining. They're thirsty. They're out in the middle of nowhere here. And God makes the waters sweet. They're drinkable. So in verse 25, Moses cries out to the eternal. He showed him a tree. When Moses cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. And there God made a statute and an ordinance for them. And there He tested them. He tested them. So we see this word test appear in conjunction with the Sabbath and in conjunction with God's law that He would later give them. Now, He had just given them sweet waters. And He said, okay, I'm worthy. I'm worthy. This is what you're crying out for. I'm capable of giving you what you need. Later on in chapter 16, I'm capable of giving you the manna, even though there's no visible human sign that you could be fed in this wilderness. I can provide what you need. But there it says He tested them. And here's what He said in verse 26. If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep, okay, that's guard, that's the same number 8104, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you, which I have brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Eternal who heals you. Okay, so what He's saying in a way, because this word test that's used there is number 5254. It's N-A-S-A, right? We'll just say NASA, because everyone's heard of NASA, but that's the Greek or the Hebrew word that's there. So this word test is there. Israel, you can see that the word test is a lot like the word trial and temptation in the New Testament. God will try us, or He'll send tests our way for what purpose? So that we become stronger in God. We develop our trust, we develop our confidence in Him, those opportunities that we talked about last week. Satan, the same word is used, Satan tempts us. And so Satan, he might send, God allows him to send little trials and tests and temptations our way, not for a good purpose, but to lure us away from God, that we would fall. But it's the same, it's the same Greek word here in the Old Testament, it's the same thing. Test, NASA, you can test God, and you can, God can test us.

As we go through, you know, and do I want to do that now? Yeah, keep your finger there in Exodus 16. Let's look at Deuteronomy 6. Deuteronomy 6 in verse 16.

Moses, as he's reminding Israel about all these things, in verse 16 he says, you shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted him in Masah. Same Hebrew word.

What they were doing in Masah and at Mara and at Marabah and the other places that they tempted God along the way 10 times that he says they did, they were like, really? Can you do that? Prove yourself to us. Prove that you can bring water in a wilderness. Prove you can feed us when there's no visible signs of feeding it. Now, they weren't saying that word. They were loudly complaining, but they were complaining against God as if you brought us out here to die.

And God showed them, I can take the test. I'll prove to you water will be here, even from a most unlikely source like a rock. I will prove to you food will be here, even from the most unlikely source like manna falling from heaven. God showed them, I will prove myself to you. And he did. The word tests there. When you look at the Hebrew, prove. Prove. God wants, you know, prove your loyalty to me, Israel. I'll prove you from these. I've given you something I've said here in verse 26. If you obey me, if you diligently do what I say, I'll put none of those diseases on you that you've seen back in Egypt. Did Israel ever do what God said?

Did they fail the test or did they pass the test? He said, here's the test. You follow what I say?

No diseases. Now, not in the wilderness, but later on they did. He tells us the same thing. What he tells one, he tells all, right? If you follow me, this is what will happen. If you learn the tests, if you take the opportunities to build the faith and look at me, look to me, and trust that I can bring you through because I've shown you I can bring you through anything. I will bring you, ancient Israel, to the promised land. I will bring you, children of Israel today, spiritual Israel. I will bring you to the kingdom, but you have to follow me. Prove me, because I'm looking at you and these commands are a test. Will you obey me or not? Now, we're in Deuteronomy 6. Let's go ahead a couple chapters here to Deuteronomy 8.

And verse 2. Now, I'm going to read verse 1 because we can't be reminded of this enough. Every commandment, which I command you today, Deuteronomy 8.1, you must, not an option, you must be careful. That means detail. You must be careful to observe. That's guard. Count as important. Understand the value of it. That's Psalm 81.04. You must be careful to observe that you may live and multiply, and that you may go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers.

To them, the physical land. To us, eternity. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble you and to test you. To give you the opportunities. To know what was in your heart. This is why they're there. What will you do when you're in the kingdom? How well do you stand on holy ground? What do you do when you're in the presence of God? What do you, how do you handle it? How are you keeping the Sabbath, the holy things of God? To test you. To know what was in your heart. Whether you would keep his commandments or not.

He gives us the time. He gives us the opportunities. He gives us the spirit.

But he is looking and testing. Will you do what I say or not? Will you have every excuse known to man to not do it? Will you or will you simply learn over the course of your time, your life, to do it? Carefully observe. Count them as special, the way of life that God wants us to, because he wants to lead us to his kingdom. It's a test. A test. We know he can deliver.

We don't have to tempt God. We don't have to prove him anymore. We don't have to say, I don't know if I trust you, God. We know we can trust God. If we don't have faith, then it's impossible to please him, and we need to work on that. But God is testing us. Can I trust you?

That in eternity, you would follow me exactly the way I've trained you and led you to do. Will you do that? Or will you hold back and say, most of it, but not all of it, remember, all heart, all mind, all soul? Now, this word, NASA, right? Again, let's use the law of first mention here, and let's see the first time in the Bible God uses this word that is translated test. We find it back in Genesis 22, and it tells us a lot about what the word test that God is using there, that I'm going to give you this as a test. Now, I didn't read in Exodus 16, but in Exodus 16, I'm going to just kind of remind you of what it says there. You can look it up. In 16 verse 4, he says, I'm going to give you the manna, but I'm going to test you. I'm going to, I should go back and read it. I'm going to test you in this. I'm giving you the manna. I'm capable.

Now, here's the test, and the test is the Sabbath. How are you going to keep the Sabbath? Are you going to listen? When I say, gather twice as much on the sixth day, will you do it? When I say, don't go out on all on the seventh of gather manna, are you going to go out anyway and do it?

Now, the test, what will you do? What will you do? So, if we go back to Genesis 22 to see how this word test is used in verse 1, it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham.

Abraham has been walking with God for many years now. When God said, get out of your country, Abraham, go to a place that I will show you. Abraham didn't have tons of excuses and say, no, why can't I just serve you here rather than there? What difference does it make? What place I'm in? He simply went. Whatever God asked Abraham to do, he did. He followed him. And so, Abraham built up this trust in God, this reliance in God, this obedience to God. So, it comes time that God's going to test him with Isaac. It came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abram, Abram answers dutifully and he says, I want you to take Isaac, the person you love most in the world, and I want you to offer him to me. Now, that's a supreme test, right? God is going to prove who does Abraham put first, God or Isaac, or his own will. This is a supreme test. This is not like anything you and I have ever been asked to do. Abraham does it through the years he's been trained, through the years when God has tested him, he has been built up this automatic obedience and complete trust in God that whatever God wants, that's what's best for him. It's the same opportunities God gives you and me today that we talked about last week. Through the years, through the courses, through now, until the time as we continue on our journey out of Egypt into the promised land, the kingdom of God, he will give us the opportunities and if we fail to use them, and if we fail to develop the trust in God and the complete submission to him, then we will find ourselves most sorry people. Christ says there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. You can imagine what weeping and gnashing of teeth is when you realize I've wasted my life, I've wasted those opportunities, and I always put something else before what God's will was. So Abraham, here's a test. We know that Abraham passed it. That's the first time that that word is used. Shows us what God is doing there. The second time it's used is what we just read in Exodus 15.25.

The same thing that God was doing with Israel, I mean Abraham, he was doing. Here. Here's the plan.

Here's what I want you to do, Israel. Will you do it? I'll test you. Will you? And then in 16 verse 4 is the third time that he uses that same word test. 16 verse 4, God says, I'm going to do this. I'm going to test them with manna about the Sabbath day. I will test them. What's he going to prove? Whether they will walk in my law or not. Whether they will walk in my law or not. That's the test. That's what God looks at us at as well. That's the test. That's where he is looking to us. Now I have a few more words associated with the Sabbath as we delve into this because I think we do need to look closely at what we call holy, how we approach holy ground, how we do the things that God said, why he set it up that way, and what he is preparing us to do.

And I hope, and my prayer is, is that as we look at these things in detail and look at God's word, that the Sabbath, that the holy things of God, that the holy convocations of God, that what he gives us to do and what he tells us to do, we will be more inspired and realize there's a commitment we have to make toward it. So I would ask that you would think about what we've talked about so far today. Next week we will look at a few more words and we'll begin to talk about how do we keep these things holy? What is holy to God and what is not? Maybe some of the modern day, modern day things that that we would do as we keep the ground, the holy ground we tread on holy.