All God's promises come with signs. It's really cool the way God does that because the Lord makes the sign fit the promise. The promise for Adam was that in the day he disobeyed God he would surely die; the sign was animal skins. The promise for Noah was that God would preserve the earth from another disastrous flood; the sign was a rainbow. The promise for Abraham was of blessing and the multiplication of his offspring; the sign was circumcision. The promise for Moses was that God would protect and provide for His people as long as they trusted and depended upon Him; the sign was a day of rest (Sabbath).
Exodus 31:12ff says, "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: 'Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed."
The Sabbath was "holy" to them, meaning it was set apart. For what purpose? It was a sign between the people and God. Sabbath literally means to rest, cease, desist. Resting in the LORD says, "God I trust you enough to stop striving to do it all on my own. You will protect and you will provide." God took this so seriously that He warns the people twice in this passage that the penalty of not resting in Him was death. Seems paradoxical, "rest or die!," but perhaps this also pointed them to Christ.
Grace is simply God being our God for us. When we go it on our own we essentially say to God, "I don't need you." When we say that to God regarding eternal salvation, the end result is death. When we rest in Christ and His provision for us, then we shall live... forever. Heaven is in fact portrayed as the ultimate Sabbath, rest in the Lord. This does not mean inactivity. For God rested on the seventh day of creation, but He is never inactive. Our rest is in relationship to God as an act of worship. Remember how the Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath? Of what did they accuse Him? They accused Him of working, but Jesus was only busy about His Father's business, therefore, He was not breaking His "rest," but was fulfilling His purpose. Rest is not about doing nothing, passed out in front of the TV on a Sunday afternoon. It is about resting in the Lord, trusting Him, and depending upon Him to be our God as we are His people.
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