The story of the Bible can be thought of through the lens of the seventh day, Sabbath rest, as we are doing this week. When viewed through this lens the macro story of the OT becomes a sad story of a repeating cycle that the people of Israel simply cannot break free from. The cycle is: God rescues and gives rest (creation, promised land) — rest partially attained (Eden, promised land) — rest forfeited by sin (Exile). This script can be seen time and time again in the micro stories as well (think Kings, desert wandering, etc). The most despairing loss of rest comes in the story of the exile.
The context of this Exodus 33 passage is Moses' intercession on Mount Sinai after the incident of the golden calf. Remember they are wandering in the desert on the way to the promised land. God threatens to not go with them into the promised land "lest he consume them along the way." (Ex. 33:3) After Moses' intercession for the people of Israel God agrees to go with them as expressed in v. 14.
Exodus 33:14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
God is the one who will give them rest when he brings them into the land. Here we see God bringing them into the promised land as a promise of rest. So entrance into the land symbolizes the opportunity to attain the 7th day rest again. But, as we are talking about today, this rest was never fully realized.
Part of the covenant stipulation was to give the land it's rest every 7 years. If they didn't, the punishment would be exile and the land would receive it's rest that it was robbed of.
Leviticus 26:34–35
34 “Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies’ land; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its Sabbaths. 35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, the rest that it did not have on your Sabbaths when you were dwelling in it.
The land promised and given the people of Israel represented the potential return to Eden that they had longed for. They had everything set up for them if they followed the covenant stipulations of obedience to the Law (See Lev. 26). Yet, despite having these warnings they failed and God, through the exile, brought about the exact situations he warned them of.
Yet, even prior to this sending into exile God promised that he would bring them back.
Jeremiah 29:10–14
10 “For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
These are famous words that are often taken woefully out of context. These words were spoken as hope for return to the people of Israel in exile. This he does through the events described in Nehemiah.
In the midst of the exile Isaiah prophecies in the language of the Jubilee and he "moves the concept for Jubilee from a law to a concept of future deliverance." (Bradley C. Gregory, “The Postexilic Exile in Third Isaiah: Isaiah 61:1-3 in Light of Second Temple Hermeneutics”)
Isaiah 61:1–3 1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.
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