“Blessed is the man who does this, the man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
~ Isaiah 56:2
Hi James and Ellen,
Are you keeping the Sabbath? The Sabbath was a day that was mandated in the Mosaic Covenant. The Sabbath that was mandated in the Mosaic Covenant was a designated day of rest. The last day of a seven day week was the Mosaic Covenant’s mandated day of rest. The Mosaic Covenant’s designated day of rest was mandated by God for His specially chosen guys and gals to obediently and faithfully observe. A eunuch or a foreign guy or gal who was living among the Israelite people group guys and gals – who are God’s specially chosen guys and gals, in the land area that God had given them to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . , could intentionally bind himself or herself to the Mosaic Covenant – which meant that the eunuch or foreign guy or gal was mandated also by God to obediently and faithfully observe the Sabbath. Isaiah – in Isaiah 56, reflects on the Sabbath. The Sabbath was one of the signs of the Mosaic Covenant. Circumcision was another sign of the Mosaic Covenant. If a guy or gal was an Israelite people group guy or gal he or she was to observe and obey the signs of the Mosaic Covenant. Why do you think that God within the Mosaic Covenant would institute or mandate a Sabbath – or a designated day of rest, which required His specially chosen guys and gals to observe and obey? Verse 2 says, “Blessed is the man who does this, the man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.””
Sabbaths today are usually equated with Sundays. A Sabbath about 3500 years ago would be the last day of a seven day week – which is today’s Saturday. The Sabbath about 3500 years ago was the weekly designated day of rest when guys and gals were to desist, cease or abstain from doing any kind of work. Sabbaths became the time for God to be worshipped. The Sabbath about 1950 years ago was changed to the first day of a week – to be a day of celebration. The first day of each seven day week is a Sunday. Sundays today are the designated day of celebration of the resurrection of God – as God the Son, from the dead. Even though God – as God the Son, when He – as Jesus walked on planet Earth, expressly pointed out that the legalistic Pharisaical works centered belief paradigms were depriving God’s specially chosen guys and gals from enjoying a spiritually free life, a works component invariably continue to infiltrate every belief paradigm. Seventh Day Adventist adherents think that they are honoring God when the fellowship together to worship Him corporately on Saturdays versus on Sundays. (Over sixteen years have gone by since your grandpaa wrote this missive. Your grandpaa recently spent eight years in a church that – to your grandpaa, was leveraging good works to prove one’s faith as a way to get the guys and gals in the church to ‘move’ into ministry roles.) Social pressures – such as what is found in the United States, have guys and gals showing up in churches just to be identified with within their social circle a church brand – such as Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic, etc. A Sunday morning church service has become the time that many guys and gals have designated for themselves to be their weekly God time. These are your grandpaa’s observations which . . .
Your grandpaa does not think that God’s purpose for ordaining a Sabbath was to ensure having a day when He would be worshipped; your grandpaa thinks that God’s purpose for a Sabbath was to insure having a day when guys and gals would do physical downtime. Working six consecutive days – whether doing a job that requires physical strength or a job that requires mental acumen, is physically and emotionally taxing. God – as God the Father, Who uniquely made you, knows the limits of your physical and emotional abilities. God – as God the Father, because He knows the limits of your physical and emotional abilities – because He is Who hardwired your personality character schematics, knows that you need to take a daylong, weekly timeout from your regular routine – which would be for your dad and ma from the work that they do and for you from the school that you are attending. Your grandmaa and grandpaa sometime say that a Sunday can be one of the most exhausting days of a seven day week for them. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have been in a way – for the past 35 years or so, living their lives in a church context. For the past 35 years or so, your grandmaa and grandpaa have been in constant daily mode of being in interrelationships. Because both your grandmaa and grandpaa are introverts, both your grandmaa and grandpaa find it really tiring to be around guys and gals for any length of time. When your grandmaa and grandpaa were living in Bolivia as field team missionaries on the South America Mission missionary team, your grandmaa and grandpaa made it a practice to go to a Sunday church service every week. During the twelve years that your grandpaa was an assigned missionary in Bolivia, your grandpaa probably averaged being in a church service four times a week. During the seven plus weeks that a South America Mission summer team of mostly college age guys and gals were in Bolivia and in Guatemala on an OC International STEP summer team – summer teams that your grandmaa and grandpaa administered and led, your grandmaa and grandpaa would invest all their time and energy into these summer teams of mostly college age guys and gals. It did in your grandmaa and grandpaa to be with a summer team every day but . . . your grandpaa now encourages all Christ-follower guys and gals to always set aside one day a week to do something different than what he or she normally does during a week. Your grandpaa knows that he needs to practice what he ‘preaches’. What does your dad and ma do for a Sabbath downtime each week – something that will take them away from their desks?
Isaiah 56 (824)