Patterns in time

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 3 – Dancing in the Kingdom– Epilogue

[Bible references: Exodus 20:8-11; Deuteronomy 5:12-15]

Patterns of the time when Yahweh intended to be with his people

Scripture points to more than the place where God will dwell with us, it also points to what we should expect to do while we are in that place. This perspective helps us to understand the Genesis 1 creation account. Why would the all-powerful God who could have ‘created’ or ‘dedicated’ everything at once and who never gets tired take 6 days for the creation/dedication and then, on an unending 7^th day, take a rest.[1] That structure was not meant to indicate God’s needs or restrictions but was meant to create a template for us, a template we can use to find other similar patterns in scripture that will help us discover God’s revelation to us.

Patterns of Sabbath

One pattern, only seen if you know Hebrew, is that the consonants (original Hebrew had no vowel markings) used to create the number 7 (שֶׁבַע) are used as consonants for other words:  Sabbath (שַׁבָּת – to stop, to cease from), Shabbathon (ַבָּתוֹן – sabbath observance, complete rest), Shaba (שָׁבַע – to be full), Shavuot (שָׁבֻעֹת֙ – 7 weeks (feast day), Sheba (שֶׁבַע – seven), Shevua (שְׁבוּעַ – so swear an oath), Shmita (שְׁמִטָּה – release, a letting drop, the 7th year when slaves are released and debts are canceled). The pattern meant to be seen here is that whenever we see the number seven in scripture then we are to link that text to all these other terms: culmination, completion, perfection, wholeness, sabbath, cease from, full, oath, release.

The examples above are just a small sampling how “seven” is used as a pattern in the Hebrew bible. All the meanings associated with the 7^th day point to the 7^th day as the culminating day of creation/dedication and the temple/cosmos was now complete. Genesis 2:2 says that God stopped (Heb. “shabbat”) from all his work. Shabbat means to stop, to cease.[2] In Exodus 20, the commandment given to the Israelites was for them to remember the 7^th day when God ceased from his “work.”

However, the commandment says that God stopped his work so that he could “nuach” and that we should do the same.  “Nuach” is typically translated as “rest,” but it also means to settle down and to dwell in.[3] Which means that when God “stopped” his work of dedicating the cosmos as the temple for him and his image-bearers, it was so he could then settle into it and to use the cosmos for his intended purpose. The purpose of the cosmos was to be a place where God to be with his people for the rest of eternity.

The purpose of the commandment given to the Israelites about the Sabbath was to create a schedule where every 7^th day the normal work was to stop so that the Israelites could dedicate their time to be with God. The Sabbath was a reminder to the Israelites that they live and work in order to be with God, they did not live to work. Not working on the Sabbath also served as a reminder that they were dependent on God for their provision.

The Sabbath, then became a temple in time where the Israelites carved time out of the week to be dedicated to being with the Creator to help them remember their purpose for being. The purpose of stopping their normal routines (“shabbat”) was so that they could take time to rest in the presence of God (“nuach”).

When the commandments were repeated later in Deuteronomy 5, the Israelites were given another thing to remember on the Sabbath. They were to remember that they were slaves in the land of Egypt, but that Yahweh brought them out of there. So, there were two memories to be invoked on the Sabbath, memory of the purpose of creation and memory of God’s provision by bringing the Israelites out of slavery. And yet another memory would be invoked later, when Sabbath could be a time of remembering how God would release them from captivity in Babylon.

Both of the Sabbath memories 1) evoke the responsibilities given to God’s image-bearers at the beginning, to settle into the garden God provided with the responsibilities to fill the earth, to rule, subdue, and have dominion over other creatures, to serve (work) and oversee (guard) the garden, and 2) evoke the consequences of not trusting God which changed their service to a garden protected by God to a slavery of a land that resisted their efforts. The work that we were designed to do, to aid God as co-regents in the world was meant to be enjoyable. We originally were to serve the garden which was provided as a gift of God. But in the post-exile from Eden work, we have to work the ground until it kills us from the hard labor and the sweat. As God said to Cain, “The ground will only with difficulty, give you its yield.” (CSB)

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[1] The Genesis 1:2-2:3 creation week is most fruitfully read as a “calendar narrative.” It is a special kind of historical narrative in which historical events are given the dates of a festival observance (sabbath observance in the case of the creation week), without regard for the timing of the original occurrence … Genesis 1:1-2:3 provides a narration of creation events, but the timing and details of its telling are transparently “remapped” to the cadence and themes of Israel’s weekly sabbath festival.” LeFebvre, Michael. “The Liturgy of Creation” Understanding Calendars in Old Testament Context” Intervarsity Press 2019

[2] Benner, Jeff A. “The Living Words: Sabbath” Ancient Hebrew Research Center www.ancient-hebrew.org/living-words/the-living-words-sabbath.htm

[3] Benner, Jeff A. “No’ahh” Ancient Hebrew Research Center www.ancient-hebrew.org/mt/articles_names.html; Nabors, Amy. “Nuach” Ordinarily Extraordinary 1/31/14 ordinarilyextraordinary.com/nuach