Remembering The Sabbath

Jeremiah 17:19-27

19 Then the LORD said to me, "Go and stand in the gates of Jerusalem, first at the gate where the king goes out, and then at each of the other gates. 20 Say to all the people, 'Listen to this message from the LORD, you kings of Judah and all you people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem. 21 This is what the LORD says: Listen to my warning and live! Stop carrying on your trade at Jerusalem's gates on the Sabbath day. 22 Do not do your work on the Sabbath, but make it a holy day. I gave this command to your ancestors, 23 but they did not listen or obey. They stubbornly refused to pay attention and would not respond to discipline. 24 "'But if you obey me, says the LORD, and do not carry on your trade or work on the Sabbath day, and if you keep it holy, 25 then this nation will continue forever. There will always be a descendant of David sitting on the throne here in Jerusalem. Kings and their officials will always ride among the people of Judah in chariots and on horses, and this city will remain forever. 26 And from all around Jerusalem, from the towns of Judah and Benjamin, from the western foothills and the hill country and the Negev, the people will come with their burnt offerings and sacrifices. They will bring their grain offerings, incense, and thanksgiving offerings to the LORD's Temple. 27 "'But if you do not listen to me and refuse to keep the Sabbath holy, and if on the Sabbath day you bring loads of merchandise through the gates of Jerusalem just as on other days, then I will set fire to these gates. The fire will spread to the palaces, and no one will be able to put out the roaring flames.'"

Of all of our Lord's warnings and pleadings with ancient Israel (assuming that you've read them), what stands out to you about this one? Of all of their multitude of sins and offenses at the time, He chooses to point out, to name one of them in particular. Keep this in mind, we'll revisit it later.

I've been studying the Old Testament lately with renewed diligence. Not out of a sense of duty, nor out of a desire to boast of the accomplishment, but with a heart burning for my God. I've read again about the sins of Israel and Judah. Once again the hearts of their Kings and the people are revealed through the history of our Lord's word and I'm reminded painfully of the depths of their offenses to our Lord ... and it all seems so familiar to me. Not as a history of ancient times, but as a manifest of the world's current evil. I can see so clearly the desires and generous intentions of our Lord to the people He cherishes ... and also with great sadness, their response.

It's a double anguish, because not only can I witness in my reading with great sadness, the horror of their actions of old, but I can also see it in the world today. It's history repeating itself. Our God had repeatedly shown His great favor to the Children of Israel, and performed what we would deem miraculous works in their midst (What we see as miraculous is the product of just another effortless work for the Omnipotent God). He had made generous promises to them to encourage them to walk in life giving obedience (Our obedience unties His hands to release His blessings to us because no good Father would reward his children for disobedience or evil). He prospered them in so many ways when they were obedient. He provided for them bountifully and made them victorious over their enemies. He stood before them faithful in everything He told them. But even after witnessing and benefiting from all of these things, their faithfulness to Him not only waned, but unfaithfulness to Him grew in its place to astounding levels of offense.

The omnipotent, yet generous and tender hearted God over all that exists was forced to bear witness to what they offered as repayment for all that He had done and all that He had promised. Not only did they fall to a lack of obedience, but their actions took on a nature of outright offense. They began to worship other "gods" right in front of Him. Instead of honoring the One God who has all power of life and death over them, they chose to believe in lifeless entities that had no power to bless or take away and offered them sacrifices - even murdering their own children as sacrifices to them.

But their actions are no worse spiritually than what many choose to do today. The implications of the things that any of us think and do are measured equally in terms of sin. Their actions brought His powerful judgment against them in this life, but it's not over. One day we'll all stand accountable and it's only by His grace and mercy that any will be allowed to enjoy the life that He actually created us for.

Christians abhor adultery in human relationships, but there's a form of adultery that stands far above that in it's dangerous consequences - spiritual adultery, adultery in our relationship with our God.. We were created for one purpose - for our Gods' pleasure. Our spirits, the part of us that's eternal was created to be married with the spirit of our God - to live in harmony with, and to serve Him as His children. For that reason, anything that we give value to above our relationship with Him becomes adulterous to the purpose that He created us for - and adulterous to Him. The history of scripture should make it clear to us that He's a jealous God, who in the end will weed out those who've been unfaithful without having received redemption and forgiveness.

The day is coming when we'll stand before our King and all things will be revealed in the light of His judgment. The day when we'll be judged on our faithfulness, our obedience to Him and all that He's spoken. Even if by grace we managed to escape at the last minute His punishment for our unfaithfulness, when all else that matters to us fades away, what would our relationship be like to the only one who matters. When the moment of truth comes, the only moment in this life that really counts, will we be called faithful or just barely saved by the skin of our teeth? We'll continue to live out eternally the relationship that we've built with Him. What do we want that to look like?

As He often does, He's recently given me something to think about. It's a term: "generational sin". So naturally wanting to understand what it means and its importance, I've sought Him about it and I've come to an understanding. Generational sin consists of things we've been taught or have learned by our own understanding that take away from the truth of what God has said about anything and that are passed down from generation to generation. These are likely things that we don't even think to question - they just are. I'm going to use a silly, overly simplistic, but true example just to jog your thoughts: "What goes up must come down" - not when the very God who wrote the laws of nature is involved. But if we believe that saying, then we'll have trouble having faith that if God told us to throw up a rock and it'll fly away to never be seen again, that it'll happen like He said. We've unconsciously limited Gods power in our own minds without recognizing that in fact, He has no limits.

Another example, one provided by our brother Israel: The Lord had told King Saul to eliminate all of a particular enemy - taking no prisoners. But Saul decided to do something other than exactly what God had told him to do. One consequence of this (which is something the Lord knew would happen and why He told Saul exactly what he was to do ...) is that the Children of Israel now had people living among them that worshiped idols and brought their own foreign ways and traditions with them. These were people who did not worship God in the ways that He had instructed Israel.

Over the following generations, the ways of these people infected the ways of the Israelites to an increasingly greater degree until Israel, Gods' "very own special possession" was worshiping foreign man made gods and even various parts of creation - Gods' creation while still expecting His' favor. It was like a cancer that spread from generation to generation until it became so prevalent and so commonplace among them, that even the priests who served in Gods' temple were worshiping these false gods not only in front of Him, but even in the Lord our Gods' very own house. There's a huge multitude of things I want to say here, but I'll stick to the course I'm on.

So how could this happen? How could the very children of God sink to such open adultery against our God? In part because they were influenced by the "world" around them and this influence was passed from person to person, family to family, and generation to generation. If you were taught as a child by someone that this kind of thing was ok, you might never think anything of it. If you weren't taught the importance of God's laws and ways as the foundation of your life, you might never know anything different. But that wouldn't change or excuse what it is, nor would it affect the severity of the consequences ...

As true Christians we have unmerited grace, but in our true and heartfelt efforts to grow our life giving relationship with our Father and to please Him, we have to consider that what's important to Him should be supremely important to us regardless of what others do or what the society around us would choose to accept or give it's stamp of approval to. There will be life after the day of judgment and it will revolve around our ongoing relationship with Him. So in the end, the only one we really need to concern ourselves about pleasing is Him. But we also know that our relationship with Him is by no means one sided. He gives outstanding motivations and benefits to joining our hearts to His and for following His wisdom and ways. Again, there's so much my heart would say here, but on to our goal ...

So, you might ask, what does all of this have to do with the Sabbath? Well, I found it interesting as I read this passage in Jeremiah, that of all of the huge variety of sinful things that they were doing that He could have sought their attention to, He chose the Sabbath. It puts emphasis on its importance to our Lord in my own mind and it reminded me once again that we live in times not so different from those. So many people in the world now just see it as another day. But our God obviously doesn't see it that way. Some will argue over what day of the week the Sabbath really is. I won't get into that argument. I don't think that it's nearly as important as our obedience to what the Lord would put on our hearts to do when He moves us to do it. I think if we're truly desiring to be faithful to Him in spirit and in truth that He'll deal with our hearts about these things if we're in error. But I think that our desire and the effort we make to be faithful is what He's watching for and what has real meaning to Him.

As Christians and children of the Most High God, we're to be set apart. We're to learn and follow His ways and be identified with Him. But if we blend into the worlds society and do as they do, then who are we really? The Israelites did that very same thing and it brought His judgment and their destruction more than once in an effort to get them back on course. How are we any different? If we disregard the things that we know are important to our Father for whatever reason, can we still please Him? Because we have grace, are we excused from obeying the things that He's told us? Don't these things affect our relationship with Him and His ability to bless us?

Aren't we punishing ourselves if we choose to be disobedient? Don't we tie His loving and generous hands and keep Him from blessing us when we're disobedient remembering that no good father will reward his children for disobedience? When we disregard His desires doesn't our relationship with Him suffer and restrict His favor on our lives? If we claim to bear His name and yet walk like the world does aren't we just dragging His name through the mud with us in the eyes of the world?

What He's told us has always been for our benefit and His ways are without exception, life giving and bringing peace and all of the fruit of His promises. Disobedience removes or preempts His blessing and favor, but it also does something else - it makes us look like the rest of the world. We're called to be set apart, different from the rest of the world. Are we? In everything?

Have we sought to compare our lives and the things that we've learned over the course of our lives against everything our Father has said to be sure that we're not committing and perpetuating generational sin? Are we allowing changes to our thinking and our habits to bring us into compliance with the holy words of our Father? What are we really willing to do for Him? If we're not in complete obedience, what are we willing to do to release His blessings on our lives and stop suffering disappointment and failure from our disobedience? Are we ready to respect the desires of our Fathers heart in earnest and allow ourselves to be set apart? Are we willing to be different from the world?

Remembering the Sabbath and to keep it holy is only one of many things that obviously meant a great deal to Him in the days of Jeremiah. But knowing that He's unchanging, we can easily conclude that they're still just as important to Him now. Are these things just as critically important to us to observe and obey as they are to Him? Yes, I said the four letter word, but He said it first and He's been pleading with us to do it from the beginning so that He can bless us as He so desperately wants to do.

So in reality we're talking about more than the Sabbath, but the passage in Jeremiah just caught my attention. It's clear that it's important to Him, so as His children desiring out of true love for Him, to serve Him in spirit and in truth, it's very important to us. The world will do what it will do, but we are the children of God. Food for thought ...