Exodus 34:21  Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest.
22  And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end.
23  Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel.
24  For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year.
25  Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning.
26  The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God. Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.
27  And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
28  And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

Once again God reminded the nation of Israel of the importance of the seventh day. The seventh day was to be a day of rest for the nation. God would see to it that they could get all their regular work done in six days. There were certain things that still needed to be done on the seventh day such as milking a cow or pulling an animal out of a well, etc. Circumcision might need to be done on the seventh day as well depending on when the son was born.
There is a case for New Testament saints taking their day of rest on the first day of the week. New Testament saints do not keep the sabbath. We have already noted that was a particular day for the Jews. We are to treat the first day of the week differently. It is the day that the early churches met together for the preaching and teaching of God’s Word. It used to be quite common that the world did not do business on the first day of the week. Born again Christians would be wise to use the first day of the week for church and for visiting or spending quality time with family. Our bodies do need extra rest one day a week. We can accomplish all that is needed in six days.
There is no need for born again Christians to go shopping on Sunday, or going to a restaurant to eat out. Some years ago I was witnessing to a store owner in our area. I invited her to visit our church. Her answer was quite revealing. She stated that she needed to be open so that our church people could stop by and pick up their food items after the church service. That was quite a rebuke to me. We were keeping her from attending church because she knew we would want to stop by for whatever it was we wanted after the service.
From that time on, our family did not go shopping on Sundays nor do we go to a restaurant on Sundays. I have a card lock gas card so that if I get caught short of fuel on a Sunday, I do not have to bother a person to get fuel. I try to be sure I have enough fuel on Saturday so that I do not need to get fuel on Sunday.
God also reminded Moses that they needed to keep the specific feasts that He had designed for them. Again, they would not suffer financially by honouring God. God also commanded that the children of Israel needed to travel to Jerusalem three times in the year for special occasions.
God declared that He would cast out the nations that were currently occupying Canaan. He would expand the borders of Israel as the people needed it. God would also protect the land of Israel while the people were away from their homes for the feasts God expected them to keep in Jerusalem. God would not leave them vulnerable if they would honour Him.
In verse 25 God reminded them of the proper way to offer their sacrifices. We have noted before that leaven was a picture of sin. Thus their offering needed to be without leaven. The Passover also needed to be kept as commanded. Nothing of it should be left over until the morning.
In verse 26 we see they needed to bring the firstfruits of their crops to the house of the LORD. Notice that the LORD was to be their God. God also forbad them from cooking a kid in its mother’s milk. There were right ways to prepare food and there were wrong ways to prepare food.
Moses was responsible for recording these words for the nation of Israel. They would need them to be able to refer back to them as needed. That is the same thing we have with the Word of God. God guided His chosen writers to record all that He gave them and every generation is given the opportunity to read and study His Word. There is no need for the blindness with which our leaders are trying to lead us. There is no need for all the confusion there is today in religious matters.
Peter tells us there are some things in the Bible that are hard to be understood. However, there is much in the Bible that is not that hard to understand if a person is saved. Lost people will have trouble understanding the Scriptures properly. New Christians will also need help. That is why God gave evangelists, pastors and teachers to the local churches. These men need to be men of God who will rightly divide the Word of Truth.
We read that Moses was with the LORD a total of forty days and forty nights at this time as well. During that time he fasted. He did not eat bread, nor drink water. God would give him the strength he needed to listen and write down the things that God was telling him.
In verse 1 we read that God would write the ten commandments into the two stone tables. It seems Moses was commanded to write the other commands. God makes it clear that we understand that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. We can have full confidence in God’s Word. It is important that we have God’s Word, not man’s interpretation of God’s Word. Those in the English speaking world who accept the King James Version as God’s Word, have the Word of God in their hands. Those who choose any of the many perversions, do not have God’s Word in their hands. Even a child can understand that two books that do not say the same thing, cannot both be true. Jesus used a child as an illustration on several occasions. He was not doing so to try to embarrass adults. He did it to prove that His way of salvation and blessing is achievable by anyone who will submit to His will. We can know the truth today and be blessed in following the truth today.
Pastor Bartel