Exodus 20:8–11
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
You'll note as your read this passage that the Sabbath rest wasn't for the Jews or landowners only; it was for the slaves the animals and the sojourners. This points to it's cosmic nature from its inception. It was always meant to symbolize the harmony that existed on day 7 of the creation narrative.
The Sabbath rest prescribed in the ten commandments is a practice that is meant to give glory to God in humanities understanding and use of time. It serves as a reminder that our time does not solely belong to us; that our efforts are not solely what supplies our needs; and that each person is special to God and they have been given the same gift of time that we have. Ross and Oswalt in their commentary on Exodus sum it up nicely, "One day in seven is to be dedicated to the Lord, a day when we remind ourselves (20:8) that we are not self-originating, self-sustaining, or self-authenticating. Everything we are is a gift from the Creator."
Abraham Heschel in his book The Sabbath says, “The sabbath is to time what the temple and tabernacle are to space. The sabbath is a cathedral in time. On the seventh day we experience in time what the tabernacle and temple represented as spaces which is eternal life, God in the complete creation.”
Not only were the Israelites expected to practice the Sabbath every week but every seven years they were required to give the land a rest and not plant or harvest. Whatever grows in the field was to be left to the poor and the animals (Ex. 23:9-12; Lev. 25:1-7). Debts were to be canceled as well in the seventh year (Deut. 15:1-6).
After seven cycles of seven years they were to celebrate an ultimate Sabbath year—the year of Jubilee (Lev. 25). In the 50th year they were to practice the regular 7th year practices, ie. no planting or harvesting, debts released, etc. On top of those practices they were to return the land to it's original distribution by clans as it was when they came into the land under Joshua. This meant that when they purchased land they were to essentially lease it out based on the number of years remaining until the next year of Jubilee. This would have prevented generational poverty. This was to be a regular reminder that the land did not belong to them. It was God's and they lived there as foreigners and strangers (Lev. 25:23). The Israelite slaves were to be released in the year of Jubilee as well as a reminder that they also belong to God (Lev. 25:39-42).
Remember, this was to be a once in a lifetime, once in a generation event. Unfortunately, there is no historical evidence that the Israelites actually practiced the year of Jubilee. They may have viewed this more as an ideal to aspire to instead of a hard and fast imperative. This is such a beautiful ideal, yet it seems as if it were never fully realized. Keep this in mind. We will revisit this theme on Thursday.
As Tim Mackey says in the Bible Project podcast, "The Sabbath represents a burst of Eden rest into ordinary time." The description page of this podcast gives a nice summary of the Jewish festivals as well. Lots of sevens in there!