When people think of the Book of Exodus, they often think of the 10 plagues upon Egypt or Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Yet as important as these events were, they do not dominate the Book of Exodus like the themes of slavery and Sabbath.
Deliverance from Slavery unto Sabbath Rest
After Israel had settled in Egypt under Joseph’s leadership, a new Pharaoh arose who enslaved them (Exodus 1:8-10). Pharaoh “set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens,” and the Egyptians “ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves,” which made “their lives bitter” (Exodus 1:11, 13-14). This slavery included Egyptians beating Israelites, which led to Moses killing an Egyptian (2:11). But God saw the “oppression” and “afflictions” of His people and “heard their cry.” As the Lord said, “I know their sufferings.” And He promised to deliver them from slavery and into a good land of milk and honey (3:7-9).
God “heard the groaning” of the Israelites who had been made “slaves,” and thus He would “remember” His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That is, He would act upon that covenant by delivering Israel unto the land of Canaan (Exodus 6:3-5). God declared:
I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD. (Exodus 6:6-7; cf. 16:12; 29:46)
So God’s promise to Israel was to take them to be His “people” and deliver them to the land of Canaan, as He “swore” to the patriarchs—“your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years… To your offspring I give this land” (Genesis 15:13, 18; cf. 17:8). But the fulfillment of this promise first required that God deliver Israel from slavery, from under the “burdens” of Egypt. God would not only deliver Israel unto the Promised Land, but He would also deliver them unto Sabbath rest. However, entrance into the Promised Land would take some time, and although Moses and that generation would not even experience it, they would all still experience God’s Sabbath.
The Sabbath stands in stark contrast to the “burdens” of Egyptian slavery (Exodus 2:23; 6:6-7; 21:2-11). Instead of oppressive work, Israel would now have a weekly day of rest, along with seasons of rest (16:23, 30; 20:8-11; 23:10-19). This theme of slavery to Sabbath is seen even in the Ten Commandments, which begin with God proclaiming, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (20:2). This point should not be missed. The foundation of the law of God—the Ten Commandments—begins with God’s proclamation of deliverance from slavery.
Notice God specifically says He delivered Israel from the “house of slavery.” Instead of dwelling in the “house of slavery,” Israel was to build a “house of Yahweh” (Exodus 23:19; 34:26, LSB). Thus, God not only delivered Israel from “slavery” to Sabbath rest (seen in the Fourth Commandment), but He also gave them a new “house” (tabernacle) in which He would dwell with them—“And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst” (25:8). The deliverance from the “house of slavery” to the “house of Yahweh” is seen in a clear division in the Book of Exodus, as the Ten Commandments are given in the very middle (Exodus 20). Israel had been in Egyptian slavery from the beginning of the book until the Passover and exodus in chapter 12, followed by the crossing the Red Sea and time in the wilderness. But after this deliverance from the “house of slavery,” God gave extensive instructions for His “house.” The second half of the Book of Exodus is dominated by the law (Exodus 19–24) and the tabernacle, as instructions for the tabernacle were given in Exodus 25–31 and then the tabernacle was built in Exodus 35–40.
Slavery in Exodus and Beyond
Exodus shows that Yahweh is the God who redeems slaves who cry out to Him. Yet God also protects slaves, seen in His provision of laws regulating slavery and freeing slaves. Modern men and women are often appalled at the practice of slavery, which makes the Bible’s teaching on it difficult to address today. Yet slavery was a common practice in ancient world, often serving as a last resort when a man had to sell himself into slavery because of debt or when a man sold his daughter in hope of a better life for her. The modern West has abolished such slavery but ironically still practices a form of slavery by locking criminals in prison for extended time or even life, a practice foreign to the Mosaic law. Contrary to modern imprisonment, God’s law implemented the death penalty for severe crimes and restitution for lesser crimes. While God did not abolish slavery but permitted it as part of this fallen world, He also placed important restrictions on its practice.
After the Ten Commandments, God gave mishpatim that Moses was to set before Israel, a term that can be translated “rules,” “ordinances,” or “judgments” (Exodus 21:1). These “rules” were circumstantial case laws deriving from the foundational Ten Commandments. They are found in Exodus 21:1–23:19 and as a whole are called the “Book of the Covenant” (24:7).
The rules of the Book of the Covenant include 10 laws on slavery—five laws for male slaves (Exodus 21:2-6) and five laws for female slaves (21:7-11). Of the subsequent laws concerning violence (21:12-36), many also concern slaves (21:16, 20, 26, 32). While man-stealing was a capital crime, the purchasing of slaves was lawful (Exodus 12:44; 21:2; Leviticus 22:11; Deuteronomy 15:12). Hebrew slaves could be purchased because a man voluntarily sold himself into slavery for debt or he was involuntarily sold because he was a thief who was unable to pay restitution (Exodus 22:3). Non-Hebrew slaves could be purchased from traders or taken from war (Leviticus 25:44-45; Numbers 31:26-47; Deuteronomy 21:10-14).
As for redemption from slavery, Hebrew slaves were required to be freed after six years, on the seventh Sabbath year (Exodus 21:2; Deuteronomy 15:12), unless the slave wanted to remain with his master and the wife that his master acquired for him (Exodus 21:4-6).[1] However, this was not the case for a non-Hebrew (foreign) slave (Leviticus 25:46), though he was still to be circumcised (Exodus 12:44; Genesis 17:12-13). The Hebrew slave belonging to a foreigner had the right to purchase his freedom (Leviticus 25:49). Otherwise, he with his children were to be freed every 50 years in the Year of Jubilee, which was a Sabbath of Sabbath years (7 x 7 = 49) (Leviticus 25:54). Severe injury to a slave required freeing him (Exodus 21:26-27), while the murder of a slave required punishment (21:20). (Exodus 21:21 teaches the delayed death of the slave assumes the master did not intend to kill him, and thus the loss of the slave was its own penalty.) If an ox gored a person to death, the ox was to be stoned to death itself, and the death of a slave was to be compensated financially (21:28-32). The stealing of a man and selling him as a slave, and even possessing the stolen man, warranted the death penalty (21:16).
If a man sold his own daughter as a “female servant,” there were additional protections upon her that were not placed on male “slaves” (Exodus 21:7). This “female servant” (amah) is different from the word for a male “slave” (eved), as the woman was purchased to become a wife or concubine (unlike the “Hebrew woman” sold only for labor in Deuteronomy 15:12). If she displeased her master, she was not to be sold to foreigners but given the right to redemption (Exodus 21:8). If she were married to the master’s son, then she was to be treated like the master’s daughter (21:9). And if the master (or his son) married her and took other wives along with her, he was still to provide for the wife, including meat (“flesh” in Hebrew, not “food”), meaning she was sold to a wealthy family and to eat meat like they ate (21:10). The woman purchased as a wife was not to be demoted in marriage and doing so required her freedom (21:11).
When we come to the New Testament, we see that there were Christians who were slaves—“For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free” (1 Corinthians 12:13). Paul did not tell them to flee, but rather they were to obey their masters (Ephesians 6:5; Colossians 3:22; 1 Timothy 6:1). Christians could also be slave masters, but they were to treat their slaves with fairness—“Masters, show to your slaves what is right and fair, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven” (Colossians 4:1, LSB). Thus, there will be slave masters in Christ’s kingdom, and we cannot condemn them as doing evil when God did not do so. The Bible does not condemn slave masters so long as they treated their slaves “justly and fairly” (Colossians 4:1, ESV). Yet the Bible also provided the framework for the regulation of slavery and its eventual demise. Earthly slavery points to the spiritual slavery that humans are born into (John 8:34). But like God’s deliverance of Israel from Egyptian slavery, He redeems those who are enslaved to sin and makes them instead “slaves of righteousness” and “slaves of God” (Romans 6:16-22).
The Sabbath as Sign of the Mosaic Covenant
Exodus provides foundational laws on slavery, but it also provides foundational laws for the Sabbath. It is noteworthy that the Sabbath first appears in Exodus prior to the Ten Commandments in Exodus 16. After Israel left Egypt and was in the wilderness, God provided manna in the morning only for six days, with a double portion on the sixth day that Israel was to bake ahead of time so they could rest on the seventh day—“a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD” (Exodus 16:23, cf. 16:5, 22). When Israel left manna till the morning on the other days, “it bred worms and stank” (16:20). But when they set it aside on the Sabbath, “it did not stink, and there were no worms in it” (16:24). Some people still went to gather manna on the Sabbath and found none, leading God to say of Israel, “How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? See! The LORD has given you the Sabbath” (16:28-29).
When Israel finally received the Ten Commandments, God began with a prologue declaring His redemption from Egyptian slavery (Exodus 20:2). The law included the Fourth Commandment to keep the Sabbath day:
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 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. 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. (Exodus 20:8-11)
As those freed from slavery, God gave Israel His good law, a law that blessed them with Sabbath rest. Thus, we see that the law is a good thing for those already redeemed by God. It is not a means of meriting anything before Him, but it is a means of blessing and sanctification for God’s people.
The oppressor Pharaoh refused to let Israel “rest” from their “burdens” (Exodus 5:5). But God brought Israel out from under their “burdens” (6:6-7) so that they could “rest” on the seventh day like He did at creation (Exodus 16:23, 30; Genesis 2:2). Thus, we see that the Sabbath command is rooted in both creation and redemption. The Sabbath is a creation principle, but it is also the goal of God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery. This explains why the Fourth Commandment cites as its basis both God’s creation and His deliverance of Israel:
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God… 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. (Exodus 20:8-11)
Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God… You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:12-15)
Both Exodus 20:11 and Deuteronomy 5:15 conclude the Fourth Commandment with a “therefore” statement based on the prior verse. Exodus 20:11 indicates that God “blessed the Sabbath day” because “in six days the LORD made heaven and earth.” Thus, the seventh day was always holy. But Deuteronomy 5:15 shows God specifically “commanded” Israel to keep the Sabbath day because Israel was a “slave in the land of Egypt” and God “brought” Israel “out from there.”
Yet the Ten Commandments are by no means the last word on the Sabbath in Exodus. In fact, the following “rules” of the Book of the Covenant begin with slavery (Exodus 21:2-11) and conclude with Sabbath rest (23:10-19). Thus, just like the Ten Commandments (20:2, 8-11), these “rules” begin with slavery and move to laws for the Sabbath. God gave rules concerning time and rest broadly relating to the Fourth Commandment (23:10-19).
These laws show concern for the poor and servants, as well as the land and animals. Thus, the Sabbath is for all of creation. Rest was to be given to farm land (including the vineyard and olive orchard) on the seventh year, which also provided food for the poor and animals (23:10-11). But the best of the crop was to be brought to the house of Yahweh (23:19). Along with weekly Sabbath rest, God in Exodus commanded three feasts per year—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering (23:14-17).
The Sabbath was for the refreshing of animals, servants, and aliens—“the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed” (23:12). This is in the context of not “oppressing” the foreigner in the land (23:9). God was very clear in the Fourth Commandment that obedience to the Sabbath command requires giving Sabbath rest to those under your authority—“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” (20:10). Westminster Larger Catechism Q & A 118 summarizes this duty as follows—“The charge of keeping the sabbath is more specially directed to governors of families, and other superiors, because they are bound not only to keep it themselves, but to see that it be observed by all those that are under their charge; and because they are prone ofttimes to hinder them by employments of their own.”
God gave instructions for the tabernacle in Exodus 25–31 while Moses was still on Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights. Yet the last thing God spoke to Moses about while on Sinai was the Sabbath, which was central to the Mosaic covenant. God said, “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you’” (Exodus 31:13). The Sabbath was the “sign” of the Mosaic covenant between God and Israel, as God made heaven and earth in six days and rested on the seventh day (31:17). Not practicing the sign of the Sabbath (doing “work” on it) would result in being “cut off” from the covenant, just as would happen to those who failed to keep the Abrahamic covenant sign of circumcision (Exodus 31:14; cf. Genesis 17:14). Thus, he who “profanes” or “defiles” the Sabbath by doing work on it was to be put to death, showing the seriousness of the command (31:14; 35:1-3).
After Israel made the golden calf, Moses interceded for Israel and God renewed His covenant with Israel (34:10). Along with commanding the Feast of Unleavened Bread and other laws, God also repeated the Sabbath command—“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest” (Exodus 34:21). Then when Moses came down from another 40 days and nights on Sinai, he assembled all Israel and began with the Sabbath command (35:1-3). Therefore, the Sabbath dominates the Mosaic law in Exodus, seen in that it was commanded:
prior to the giving of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 16:22-30),
as one of the Ten Commandments (20:8-11),
as part of the Book of the Covenant (23:10-12),
as the conclusion of the tabernacle instructions while Moses was on Sinai (31:12-17),
as part of the covenant renewal after idolatry (34:21),
and at the beginning of construction of the tabernacle (35:1-3).
The Sabbath was not just another law that God gave to Israel. Rather, it was part of God’s moral law in the Ten Commandments, which are foundational for Christian ethics. The civil/judicial aspects of the Sabbath do not arise in the Fourth Commandment of Exodus 20 but in the case laws that follow, particularly in the punishment prescribed for disobedience. At its root, the Sabbath command requires God’s people to enjoy God’s redemption. It is a command to rest and worship Almighty God. The Sabbath was a day to be sanctified and set apart for Yahweh.
The Sabbath was the sign of God’s covenant with Israel, so to break it was a serious offense. The corporate breaking of the Sabbath would be a sign that Israel had apostatized from Yahweh. Thus, it is no coincidence that as Israel forsook Yahweh, highlighted by their breaking of the Sabbath, God returned them to slavery—this time not in Egypt but in Babylon and Assyria (2 Kings 17, 25). Israel failed to give the land rest, and as part of their punishment for disobedience, God gave the land rest by exiling Israel from it. The land would have rest from Israel’s wickedness and Sabbath-breaking—“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. 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” (Leviticus 26:34-35).
From Sin’s Enslavement to Christ’s Sabbath Rest
So we see that slavery and Sabbath are significant themes in the Book of Exodus, with the particular theme being God’s deliverance from slavery unto Sabbath rest. God allowed slavery in the Bible, but He always regulated it and gave provisions for freedom. Slavery is always seen as an undesirable circumstance, and thus God did a great work for Israel by freeing them from slavery, particularly the oppressive slavery of Pharaoh.
Yet the Bible is clear that slavery is still very much a problem today, as those who do not know Christ are enslaved to sin. Such slavery is far more undesirable than earthly slavery, as slavery to sin leads to evil behavior and ultimately judgment before God. Thus, slavery in the Bible carries rich symbolism for the redemption found in Jesus Christ. We were all once “slaves of sin” and “by nature children of wrath” (Romans 6:17; Ephesians 2:3). But we who believe in Christ have been brought out of slavery and into Christ’s Sabbath rest. We are now striving to enter God’s eternal “Sabbath rest” (Hebrews 4:9-11).
But until God calls us home, we still enjoy a foretaste of that rest in the weekly Sabbath. The Sabbath is a type of our eternal rest in Christ (Hebrews 3:7–4:13). It finds new covenant fulfillment in the Christian celebration of the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week on which Jesus was raised from the dead (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1). Every Sunday—the “Lord’s Day,” on which Jesus was resurrected—is a day of rest from our labors and consecration to the worship of our God (Revelation 1:10). It is a day for our good. As Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27)
The Sabbath was tied with the Mosaic covenant, but that does not mean it has been abrogated with the coming of Christ.[2] Rather, the Sabbath has been transformed in Christ. It is a glorious day of rest and worship in Christ—“to be sanctified by an holy resting all the day, not only from such works as are at all times sinful, but even from such worldly employments and recreations as are on other days lawful; and making it our delight to spend the whole time (except so much of it as is to be taken up in works of necessity and mercy) in the public and private exercises of God’s worship” (Westminster Larger Catechism Q & A 117).
Sadly, much of the modern church has ignored or outright rejected God’s command to keep the Sabbath. This is the design of Satan, who seeks “to blot out the glory, and even the memory of” the Sabbath, “to bring in all irreligion and impiety” (Westminster Larger Catechism Q & A 122). The devil wants us to consider every day of the week to be the same, but God calls us to pattern our week after His at creation. Thus, He calls us to “remember” the Sabbath day.
And what a glorious day it is. Once per week we as Christians get to enjoy a day fully devoted to Christ, apart from worldly labors. It is a reminder of God’s deliverance from the slavery of sin, as we are set apart from a world that neither rests nor seeks salvation in Christ. The Sabbath is a foretaste of what is to come in the new heavens and earth, where we will enjoy eternal Sabbath rest. We look forward to that day. But for now we enjoy the glimpses we have from Christ on the Lord’s Day, the Christian Sabbath.
[1] Leviticus says that if a Hebrew man sold himself because of poverty or debt, his fellow Hebrew was not to make him serve as a “slave” (eved) but as a “hired worker” (sachir) who would go free with his entire family at the Year of Jubilee (apparently not after six years) (Leviticus 25:39-43). Thus, the Hebrew who voluntarily sold himself to a fellow Hebrew was to be treated better than a typical slave (a form of indentured servitude). It seems the seventh-year freedom laws of Exodus 21:2-7 and Deuteronomy 15:12-18 applied at least when a Hebrew man was involuntarily sold as a slave because he was a thief who was unable to pay restitution (Exodus 22:3).
[2] Some Christians appeal to Colossians 2:16-17 as abrogating the Sabbath. It speaks of not passing judgment “in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” However, the context of this passage shows Paul is speaking of ceremonial laws, such as a “festival” (heorte, see Exodus 23:15-16, 18, LXX) or a “new moon” (neomenia, see Numbers 28:11, LXX). These three terms (festivals/feasts, new moons, Sabbath) are commonly connected as ceremonial laws in passages like Nehemiah 10:33[10:34, LXX]; Ezekiel 44:24; 45:17; Hosea 2:11; 1 Chronicles 23:31; 2 Chronicles 2:4. Thus, at most, Colossians 2:16-17 teaches the ceremonial and civil aspects of the Sabbath laws are done away with. We no longer celebrate these festival days or offer sacrifices on them, and the civil government should not administer the death penalty for Sabbath-breaking. However, Colossians 2:16-17 by no means abrogates the moral law of the Sabbath found in the Ten Commandments and rooted in creation and redemption. God’s people are still to rest and give rest to those under their authority one day per week, and such rest is found in the resurrected Christ who arose on Sunday.
