365 Reflections

Jeremiah 17:19–21 (ESV) Thus said the LORD to me: “Go and stand in the People’s Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, 20 and say: ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. 21 Thus says the LORD: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. Sabbath rest is of supreme importance in the economy of God. Here Jeremiah calls on the leaders to practice the Sabbath "for the sake of (their) lives." It's very clear, Sabbath rest is a life and death issue. When leaders do not practice rest, the people are overburdened and the nation suffers.  But what else is this calling for in our lives?  The Sabbath is modeled by God in creation.  Genesis 2:2 (ESV) And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his...

It's amazing how much the Scriptures speak of rest . It is in the Garden of Eden, it's the goal of the deliverance of Israel and establishment in the Promised Land (see Joshua 14:15). It is there after Othniel's judgeship over Israel (Judges 3:11). It is also now here in 1 Kings 8 (the longest chapter in the book) after  Solomon's dedication prayer. 1 Kings 8:54–57 (ESV) Now as Solomon finished offering all this prayer and plea to the Lord , he arose from before the altar of the Lord , where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven. 55 And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, 56 “Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant. 57 The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, This is the desire of God: rest for you with Him. I...

The third and seventh days have great significance in Scripture. Life comes out of the ground on the third day of creation. Jesus rises on the third day. The third day is mentioned far more than the second, fourth, fifth or any other day in all of the Bible. We are the people of the third day. But the seventh day is another important concept in the Bible. Creation is finished and God rests with man on the seventh day in the beauty of the work He has accomplished. The seventh day runs throughout the Bible as almost equally significant as the third day. In Numbers 19, while talking about a very long and hard to understand passage about water for purification, the third and seventh days come together to bring Israel an understanding of their need for cleansing from the defilement of death. Numbers 19:11–13 (ESV) “Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. 12 He shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be cle...

Numbers 15:30–31 (ESV) But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the Lord , and that person shall be cut off from among his people. 31 Because he has despised the word of the Lord and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be on him.” This is now the second time we hear about the stipulations for those who sin in "high handed" ways. There is to be no reconciliation, no forgiveness, and no chance at right standing with God for these people. The word in Hebrew for "high hand" literally means to raise a fist up to heaven. It would seem that natural tendency to pose in such a way when men hate God has been around for thousands of years.  But what do we learn from this strange stipulation? I learn most of all this fact: God knows there will always be those who completely and utterly disregard Him. We should not be surprised when they appear in our lives as well. ...

When you really think about it, all we have is land. Our homes come from the trees that the land produces. Our precious metals are hidden in the land. Our vitamins and healing agents come from mixtures of the components in the land. The Bible opens by telling us that we come from the dust of the land. The land is our life. We eat its produces, we enjoy it's shade, we marvel at it's natural undisturbed beauty. The land is truly God's gift to us. And yet the land reminds us constantly that it is NOT ours. It is unruly and hard to manage. It requires extraordinary patience and incredible amounts of work to get it to produce for us. It is also subject to the curse of sin and awaits its own redemption at the appearing of the Son of God. We need the land, use the land and we must appreciate the land. Leviticus 25-26 is about the Land that God is going to give to His people. Leviticus 25:2 (ESV)   “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the lan...

The Sabbath regulation is one of the key repeated themes in the book of Exodus. From the moment of their deliverance, God reveals the Sabbath in providing bread for 6 days and not the seventh in Exodus 16. Then the 4th Commandment pertains to keeping the day of rest as holy to the Lord. The command is repeated after the specifications are laid out for building the tabernacle to Moses on the mountain of God in Exodus 31. In Exodus 34, God speaks of the Sabbath shortly after the Golden Calf incident and the re-affirmation of His Covenant with Israel. Now again, here in the beginning of Exodus 35, the Sabbath is commanded! This time reinforced by Moses himself. Exodus 35:1–3 (ESV) Moses assembled all the congregation of the people of Israel and said to them, “These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do. 2 Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord . Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. ...

It is clear that Israel is a new creation of God from the fall of man in Genesis 3. After the long detailed account of the Tabernacle, God reinforces the necessity of Sabbath keeping: Exodus 31:12–13 (ESV) And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “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. Remember what happened at the close of creation? God rested and made the Sabbath Holy. Man and God at rest together, not at odds with each other was the intention of the Creator for His creation from the beginning. Now a new nation has been created. A new tabernacle has been formed with illusions back to Eden throughout the description. God's dwelling with man once again will happen as Israel, the new people of God have a place distinct and separate from the world where they experience the life giving presence of the Creator.  Notice...

I love the theology of the Sabbath. It is the first thing God designates as holy in the Bible. It is made for man and yet restricts man from working to produce for himself trusting in the God who called him into the rest which points to the ultimate rest to come in Christ! The Sabbath is where man gets to remember he is made in God's image to reflect God's character and ways.  The Sabbath is where we remember we are most creaturely dependent upon another for all that we have and are. The Sabbath is where God's liberation and power are at work in Jesus.  The Old Testament and the New Testament hinge on the Sabbath. The Sabbath is where God's Word for us and our obedience to it come together. in the Sabbath we learn by experience how obedience is a blessing to our lives. When we obey the Sabbath we find the blessing of God's rest. You could say the Sabbath is the day in which we most learn doing what God wants us to do is actually what is good for us to do m...

Every seven days, Israel was to stop everything and remember who made it. Exodus 20:8–11 (ESV)   “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 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. 11 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. In Genesis 2, the Sabbath is the first thing God calls Holy. Think of this commandment in light of God's own reference to creation. "The Sabbath is made for man" , Jesus says to those who stifle His healing of the man with the withered hand.  The Sabbath is a gift to reorient ourselves around God's sovereign power over all His creation. Christians get a reminder ev...

It's good to rest. We were made to rest. God formed us in His image and on the 7th day God rested. It's important we do not neglect our day to sit back, enjoy our lives, and worship our God. Yet so many of us disregard this command at the whim of a hat. Psalm 92 is a song for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was that good they wrote a song about it. Here's what it says: Psalm 92:1–4 (ESV)   It is good to give thanks to the Lord , to sing praises to your name, O Most High; 2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night, 3 to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre. 4 For you, O Lord , have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy. The Psalm opens with God's own words on His Sabbath: "it is good." When we Sabbath we are reminding ourselves that our work is made good because God's first work of Creation was good. We have all that we do because of all that He did! ...

I read something powerful from Warren Weirsbe about the Sabbath being changed from Saturday to Sunday for those who follow Christ. The Sabbath referred to the work of God being completed in Creation.  God worked to create and rested AFTER the work was done.  The Jews were taught to obey the Sabbath as a testimony to their special covenant relationship with God.  It was Holy.  That means it was "separate."  Their 7th day to rest in a largely agricultural society was a sign that separated them from every other nation that served the "gods" of fertility and prosperity. Today in Christ, we celebrate the "Sabbath" on the first day of the week.  That is, we celebrate it BEFORE any work gets done for that week.  Why?  Because the WORK of our salvation has already been done!  It was accomplished on the cross and completed in the resurrection - which appropriately happened on the first day of the week!  You see, in the NEW CREATION of our hea...

Jesus has been doing some remarkable stuff so far in Matthew.  In chapter 12, He allows the disciples to eat grain and heals a man with a withered hand.  After these two incidents, the religious establishment set out to kill Him. Matthew 12:14 (ESV) But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him. This verse strikes me funny.  Here are men fully devout to the law.  They have a list of rules on how to obey the real rules.  They maintain "obedience" to the highest standard.  And yet, when Jesus doesn't fit their agenda or threatens their authority... they are ready to "KILL" Him.   Isn't there a commandment that says, "Thou shalt not kill?"  Funny how they failed to see the log in their own eye. What bothered them most was the authority Jesus took over the Sabbath.  He entered, "their synagogue" and broke "their rules." Religion kills.  And by religion, I don't mean caring for orphan...