25/10/2023
🌼Deuteronomy 5:14, 15🌼. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shaltnot do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thymanservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any ofthy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservantand thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thouwast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brough thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm:therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.”
💛Some people draw from this text that God gave the Sabbath as amemorial of the exodus from Egypt. But the Genesis story of the makingof the Sabbath (Genesis 2:1-3) and the wording of the fourthcommandment by God Himself (Exodus 20:11) reveals the Sabbath as amemorial of creation.
💛The key to understanding these two verses rests in the word “servant.”
💛God said, “Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt.”
💛And in the sentence before this one, He reminded them “that thymanservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.” In otherwords, their experience in Egypt as servants would remind them to deal
justly with their servants by giving them Sabbath rest.
💛In a similar vein, God had commanded, “And if a stranger sojournwith thee in your land, ye shall not vex him … for ye were strangers inthe land of Egypt …” (Leviticus 19:33, 34).
💛It was not unusual for God to hark back to the Egyptian deliverance asan incentive to obey other commandments. In Deuteronomy 24:17, 18,
💛God said, “Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor ofthe fatherless; nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge … thou wast abondman in Egypt and the LORD thy God redeemed thee thence: therefore
I command thee to do this thing.”
💛Neither the command to be just nor the command to keep the Sabbathwas given to memorialize the exodus, but God told them that Hisgoodness in bringing them out of captivity constituted a strong additional
reason for their dealing kindly with their servants on the Sabbath andtreating justly the strangers and wido
