Heavy Burdens in Exodus, Matthew, and Beyond

With the people of Israel standing at the foot of Mount Sinai in Exodus 19, there is a sense in which the initial redemption of God’s people has reached a key milestone. While a true and complete rest has not been achieved yet, the events leading up to Exodus 19 have firmly established freedom from the weariness and heavy burdens of Israel’s enslavement under Egypt. Rest and redemption have been inaugurated for the people.

It is fitting at this milestone to pause for a few weeks to reflect on rest and redemption as themes that wind through the New Testament. The first place we pause to consider rest and redemption is Matt 11:28-30. This is a familiar passage in which Jesus invites all those who are weary and heavily laden to find rest in him. Significantly, there are strong connections between Jesus’ invitation to rest and the rest and redemption that God’s people realized in part in the book of Exodus. Before diving into these connections, it is worth pointing out that linguistic connections between the Old and New Testaments have to factor in matters of translation. After all, the Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew whereas the New Testament was written in Greek. Moreover, Jesus may have spoken in both Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, depending on the situation. This means that the Greek New Testament may be preserving words originally spoken in another language. Translations are, by nature, interpretations, which means that linguistic connections are always subject to some variability.

That said, whatever language Jesus originally used to speak the words of Matt 11:28-30, there are linguistic and conceptual connections to Exodus that are worth exploring. First, the word for “labor” has the connotation of becoming weary or getting tired, whether that’s because you were working in the fields all day long or walking through the wilderness. This word is used by Moses in Deuteronomy (25:18) to describe the condition of God’s people when the Amalekites attacked them, an event that Jared preached on a few weeks ago. God’s people were “faint and weary” as they came out of Egypt. The people of Israel were at a low point; they could have used some rest. But here’s a question that is also worth considering: How much more would they have been “faint and weary” as they labored under Pharaoh’s thumb?

Second, the word for “heavy laden” connects back to the “heavy burdens” imposed on the Hebrews by Pharaoh, which we hear about in Exodus 1-6. For what it’s worth, the Greek translation of the Hebrew of Exodus uses the generic word “work” for “heavy burdens,” but the Latin translation (Vulgate) uses the word onerare, from which we get our English word onerous, in both Exodus 1-6 and Matthew 11. There is, then, a likely linguistic connection between Jesus’ invitation to rest and the experience of God’s people in Egypt. For those listening to Jesus, they had to have thought back to their forefathers’ heavy burdens and bitter service.

Taken together, these words describe a people who are in desperate need of rest, and if you remember the early chapters of Exodus, the people themselves acknowledged their need. Exodus 2:23 (ESV) says, “During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.” Here, then, is a connection between Jesus’ invitation to rest and God’s deliverance of his people in Exodus. What God provided for his people who were enslaved in Egypt, God in Christ provides for his people who are enslaved to the fear of death on account of sin. For those who had ears to hear, Jesus’ words would have been a welcome message of rest and redemption.

These linguistic and conceptual connections are also a helpful reminder that God’s Word is closely intertwined and consequently so are his purposes. The New Testament is not a side quest while the future of the people of Israel is put on hold. Rather, the Lord Jesus Christ closely connects his ministry to the themes of the Old Testament. He is the fulfillment of the partially realized rest and redemption of Israel as it settles at the foot of Mount Sinai for some time. The church does not supersede the people of God, but rather the people of God is, by and through Christ, enlarged to include all the true sons of Abraham by faith. In this way, Jesus himself is the true Israel by faith in whom we receive the right to be called sons and daughters of God.