Another statement of the law of the Sabbath in Exodus reads as follows:

All of these translations pass the test—The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath^[1]—in my opinion.  Here rest was תִּשְׁבֹּ֑ת (shâbath) in the clause but on the seventh day thou shalt rest in the Masoretic text, and ἀνάπαυσις in the Septuagint.  The Hebrew root is the same in and He rested (shâbath, וַיִּשְׁבֹּת֙) on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.^[2]  The Greek root is the same in Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest (ἀνάπαυσιν, a form of ἀνάπαυσις) for your souls.^[3]

The second rest—that thine ox and thine ass may have rest—was יָנ֗וּחַ (nûach) in the Masoretic text and ἀναπαύσηται (a form of ἀναπαύω) in the Septuagint.   The Hebrew root is the same in the ten commandments: in six days HaShem made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested (nûach, וַיָּ֖נַח) on the seventh day.^[4]  The Greek root is the same in Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (ἀναπαύσω, a form of ἀναπαύω).^[5]

I looked up may be refreshed out of curiosity: It was וְיִנָּפֵ֥שׁ (nâphash) in the Masoretic text and ἀναψύξῃ (a form of ἀναψύχω) in the Septuagint.  There is only one occurrence of a form of ἀναψύχω in the New Testament (2 Timothy 1:16-18 NET):

May the Lord grant mercy to the family of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed (ἀνέψυξεν a form of ἀναψύχω) me and was not ashamed^[6] of my imprisonment.  But when he arrived in Rome, he eagerly^[7] searched for me and found me.  May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day!  And you know very well all the ways he served me in Ephesus.

I was about to return to Exodus when a question came to mind: Did Paul consider Onesiphorus a fellow believer?  May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day!  Is that the way he would write about a fellow believer?  I won’t argue yea or nay here.  But it sent me back to Jesus’ teaching as it shed some light on something I had heard the night before.  I’ll try to put all this back into perspicuous form.

I don’t listen to Todd Friel often.  He is a bit snarky for my taste.  (Perhaps, I should say that his snarkiness appeals way too much to my flesh.)  Apparently, he did stand-up comedy^[8] in another life.  The night before I began this study a YouTube video titled, “The #1 reason there are so many FALSE Christian converts,” was the clickbait I needed to deviate from my usual course.  Mr. Friel explained:

The problem is they aren’t presenting the gospel…God will pull the rug out from under anybody to get their attention.  But it’s not that He wants them to come to him so the rug can be replaced.  He wants to get their attention so that they recognize: You’re at the end of your rope because I hold the rope, and one day I’m going to pull your rope in and I am going to judge you for every thought, word and deed.  And if you are not hidden in the cleft of the rock, My Son the Lord Jesus Christ, I will grind you to powder.

The next morning Paul’s prayer for Onesiphorus—May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day—sent me back to Jesus’ description of that day (Matthew 25:31-40 NET):

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.  All the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats [Table].  He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.  Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited^[12] me.’  Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you?  When did we see you sick^[13] or in prison and visit you?’  And the king will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me.’

The Greek word translated brothers or sisters was ἀδελφῶν (a form of ἀδελφός).  Paul wrote believers in Rome (Romans 8:28-30 NET):

And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, because those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters (ἀδελφοῖς, another form of ἀδελφός).  And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.

Those who were accursed demonstrated no care or concern (Matthew 25:42-45) for Jesus’ brothers and sisters: “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels!’^[14]  And these will depart into eternal punishment, but the righteous (e.g., those who demonstrated some level of care or concern for Jesus’ brothers and sisters) into eternal life.”^[15]

For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, Jesus taught his disciples, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes (John 5:21-24 NET).

Furthermore, the Father does not judge anyone, but has assigned all judgment to the Son, so that all people will honor the Son just as they honor the Father.  The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him [Table].

“I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, but has crossed over from death to life.

Jesus defined eternal life for us in a prayer to his Father: Now this is eternal life—that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.^[16]  And the Holy Spirit reminded me of more knowledge of the Judge the Father appointed, who He is, how He judges.  Jesus taught his disciples (Matthew 10:40-42 NET):

Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.  Whoever receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive^[17] a prophet’s reward.  Whoever receives a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive^[18] a righteous person’s reward.  And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple, I tell you the truth, he will never lose his reward.

I received a gospel similar to the one presented by Mr. Friel: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or burn in hell for all eternity.  I was five.  I don’t recall any of the emotional baggage that would be so offensive to adults.  It was simply another fact, like cross at the crosswalk with the light, or a bus will run you down.  But there was always an undercurrent, and since I wasn’t availing myself of the word of God as a precision diagnostic and surgical instrument, I didn’t recognize that undercurrent as the flesh or the old man.

That undercurrent became progressively more vociferous throughout my young life:

I wanted to save myself from an eternity in a lake of fire.  And now, lo and behold, I find that I have become—inadvertently—a Christian!  Not a day goes by that I don’t discover yet another restriction in an endless list of prohibitions to which I must conform because I am a Christian!  On top of that there is another endless list of things I must do because I am a Christian, chief among these is to rope my friends into a way of life I would not wish on my worst enemy.

If that undercurrent sounds a little like Joe Pesci in the movie My Cousin Vinny, well, that’s a bit of literary license.  As a hilariously triumphant example of all things working together for good, even that undercurrent has become a strong motivation to rest in the fruit of the Holy Spirit—once I began to recognize that the voice of that undercurrent wasn’t mine.

I was one of the most false converts to Christ.  But God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit hasn’t given up on me yet.  Mr. Friel also mentioned substitutionary atonement as something important to the Gospel: For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received—that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.^[19]  For the wages of sin is death.^[20]

Clearly substitutionary atonement is of first importance.  Given my history, however, I’m wary whenever the doctrine of substitutionary atonement substitutes faith in punishment for faith in Jesus Christ.  David Instone-Brewer in his essay, “Did God Punish Jesus on the Cross?,” offers a better introduction to this concern than I have done or am doing here.

None of this is to discourage anyone from answering the call of God in Jesus Christ, just a reminder that God is not the enemy here.  Sin is the enemy.  For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received—that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures^[21] because this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him.^[22] I will not speak with you much longer, Jesus told his disciples, for the ruler of this world^[23] is coming.  He has no power over me, but I am doing just what the Father commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.^[24]

When Joeseph considered divorcing Mary because she was already pregnant, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit [Table].  She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”^[25]  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we may cease from sinning and live for righteousness.  By his wounds you were healed.^[26]  John Piper preached a sermon—Christ Died for Our Sins That We Might Die to Sin—that is clearer than anything I’ve written.

It is true that there was wrath in the past.  The Grand Canyon in Arizona is a visible memorial to a time when The Lord regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was highly offended.^[27]  There is a time of wrath and revelation of Jesus Christ yet to come.  Now, dear friends, Peter wrote, do not let this one thing escape your notice, that a single day is like a thousand years with the Lord and a thousand years are like a single day.  The^[28] Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you,^[29] because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.^[30]

Different believers estimate the strength of μακροθυμεῖ (a form of μακροθυμέω; NET: patient; KJV: longsuffering) and βουλόμενος (a form of βούλομαι) in different ways.  The NET translators, for instance, chose wish for βουλόμενος where the KJV translators chose longsuffering.  The Koine Greek Lexicon online indicates that forms of βούλομαι with a negative, as it is here (μὴ βουλόμενος), mean “to refuse, not to consent.”  Likewise, I may have a different experience of God’s patience than one who has never strayed far from Christian faith.

To end this excursion where it began: the man who marveled at Jesus’ definition of eternal life in my musical composition not only alerted me to how illiterate I had actually become, caring more for the sounds of words than their meaning, he also provided me with a handy tool—this is—to begin to understand the Bible better.  This Jew who found philosophical comfort in Buddhism, who thought that salvation by faith was too non-human to be true the last time I had any contact with him, was a great help to me in my journey to know the only true God and Jesus Christ.  May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day.

Tables comparing Exodus 23:12 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and Exodus 23:12 in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor) follow.  Following those are tables comparing 2 Timothy 1:16, 17; 25:36; 25:39; 10:41; John 14:30 and 2 Peter 3:9 in the NET and KJV.