Exodus 34:17-21 (NKJV)

“You shall make no molded gods for yourselves.

“The Feast of Unleavened Bread you shall keep. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, in the appointed time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib you came out from Egypt.

“All that open the womb are Mine, and every male firstborn among your livestock, whether ox or sheep. But the firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb. And if you will not redeem him, then you shall break his neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before Me empty-handed.

“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.”

This section basically repeats, with some clarifications, commands the LORD gave before. First and foremost, God says, “You shall make no molded gods for yourselves.” Just in case it’s not obvious, the golden calf was not OK. It’s funny how sometimes stating the obvious is useful, even necessary. My favorite example of this is from Please Don’t Eat the Daisies by Jean Kerr.

Christopher gets up ahead of the rest of us on Sunday mornings and he has long since been given a list of clear directives: ‘Don’t wake the baby,’ ‘Don’t go outside in your pajamas,’ ‘Don’t eat cookies before breakfast.’ But I never told him, ‘Don’t make flour paste and glue together all the pages of the magazine section of the Sunday Times.’ Now I tell him, of course.

We love children who do this, just as God loves His people. Still, it’d be cute if there was a Hebrew expression for “piece of work” because that describes the Israelites (and us) to a tee.

One other clarification is a thing of wonder. “Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; in plowing time and in harvest you shall rest.”

The Sabbath rest is more important than any deadline.

People bend rules. We make up clever excuses for why something doesn’t apply to us or doesn’t mean what it sounds like it means. At harvest time, the Israelites will think, “Surely God wouldn’t want us to jeopardize the harvest.”

Wrong! Honoring the Sabbath means taking it seriously. We don’t kid around with the, “Thou shalt not” commandments. Why kid around with this one? Ask God to show you where you’re bending the rules.

This doesn’t mean you should keep the Sabbath the way everyone else does. You should rest from whatever is work for you. Studying history is work for some people (e.g., students) but a pastime for others. Dedicate the day to God and ignore the rat race.

And make sure you put deadlines on hold.

The weekly study guides, which include all six devotionals plus related questions for discussion or meditation, are available for download here:

https://www.ailbe.org/resources/itemlist/category/91-deep-studies