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Tag: exodus

  • Another Sabbath: No Rest

    Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy:

    Exodus 20:8

    Sabbath? So what?

    We were making plans for Sunday shopping after church, but then we missed church. Some Sundays we hurry out of time-extended gatherings at our church to join the crowds in local restaurants. This week we had no Sabbath and no rest.

    As Christians we were raised to know that actually Saturday is the Sabbath – שַׁבָּת – shabbath, the seventh day of the week; however Christians call Sunday, our ‘day of rest.’ Yet when was the last time you felt like you had ‘a day of rest?’

    closed on sunday
    Closed on Sunday – Rest in the Lord (it’s a Commandment).

    So what’s this “rest day” all about?

    And what does the Sabbath have to do with God?

    After all, when we attended church last week for more than three hours, it seemed alright to slip out early (before the music and worship mercifully concluded).

    Lot’s of rules, but little holiness

    You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God.

    You must not do any work ​— ​

    Exodus 20:10


    —you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the resident alien who is within your city gates.

    So who’s working?

    We are shopping… and we have to eat. It’s all those kitchen and superstore slaves who are working, not us.

    Isn’t a day off a sort of ‘Sabbath?’

    The Bible seems to have a lot of old rules that don’t apply to Sunday.

    Rest from Above

    “Observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Whoever profanes it must be put to death. If anyone does work on it, that person must be cut off from his people. – Exodus 31:13

    Imagine anyone, even devout Christians and most Jews, calling for capital punishment for someone profaning the Sabbath. Yet the Lord established this holiness of routine for a set-aside culture to make us different.

    שָׁבַת shabath: Rest, when no one else rests; worship, when no one else acknowledges the LORD.

    Holiness and rest require separation.  These are more than a command, but a gift from the Lord to set us apart from the world.

    “Observe the Sabbath because it is holy to you… 

    LORD, who is like you among the gods?
    Who is like you, glorious in holiness,
    revered with praises, performing wonders?

    Exodus 15:11 CSB

    The One True God is unlike any other god!

    He is not like the angels nor is the LORD like a man. We were created in His Image from the dust of the earth and the Lord breathed spirit into our lowly being. GOD is above all, separated by the glory of His holiness, and He commands us to rest, making the Sabbath holy.

    An archaic common understanding was that the LORD is like a King, therefore man is a common subject of this heavenly King or Kings. Mankind is separated from the Eternal Highest by His own holiness.

    We are commoners, yet made in His Image.

    Chaos reigns in the life of man, while in the creation of God righteousness will reign, providing rest in our purpose and meaning.

    Rest requires our holy separation from the chaotic fallen daily drudgery of this selfish failing flesh.

    Jesus and Sabbath Controversies

    Mark 2:

    23 On the Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to make their way, picking some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

    25 He said to them, “Have you never read what David and those who were with him did when he was in need and hungry — 26 how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest and ate the bread of the Presence —which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests —and also gave some to his companions?” 

    27 Then he told them,


    “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. So then, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

    Mark 2:27

    A Sabbath for mankind

    Dear sojourner through this difficult life,

    Are you not famished for the bread of heaven?

    Jesus journeyed from town to town with good news for all and as he does so, even on the Sabbath, the Lord and His disciples snack on the grain of the fields.

    (You eat on the Sabbath, right?) It is no sin, according to Jesus.

    In fact, the Lord refers to a time when David, anointed King of Israel, fled Saul and was fed by a priest, who replaced the Bread of the Presence set aside for worship with warm bread.

    John 6:51

    “The Sabbath was made for man,” Jesus assures us; but rest a little.

    It is the Lord’s will that we separate this day of rest from our week, dedicating our Sabbath-rest to Him.

    Lord of the Sabbath

    Jesus also assures us that “the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

    In another place in scripture Jesus refers to Himself as the manna – the bread of heaven. Jesus IS the bread and wine, the body and blood Present on the altar of Sacrifice. He IS the manna of life sent down from heaven, that we might have eternal life.

    The Son of God IS the Son of Man, He who commanded us to rest on the Sabbath. He IS Lord of the Sabbath and the rest of your week.

    Will you set aside a time of holiness to worship the Lord?

    Consider the Lord of שָׁבַת  [the Sabbath] this Sabbath. Set aside a time of rest.

    To be continued...
  • Give Thanks to the Lord – Psalm 136 & Psalm 95

    Give Thanks to the Lord – Psalm 136 & Psalm 95


    His faithful love endures forever.

    Psalm 136

    I don’t know about you, but once again Thanksgiving seems to be upon us as a prerequisite observance preceding the rush of the Christmas holidays. Some would observe in political correctness, ‘the holiday season,’ which promoted for lights in darkness and gifts seemingly endures forever.

    menorah Knesset

    I have previously mentioned this hustle and bustle of black Friday having overtaken the archaic imagery of worshiping pilgrims. Yet each year’s commercial focus on a relatively minor Jewish holiday and formerly insignificant Christian observance grows more and more into a worship of our prosperity (for which we give thanks).


    Puritans forbade Christmas, considering it too pagan. Governor Bradford actually threatened New Englanders with work, jail or fines if they were caught observing Christmas.

    Christianity.com

    Perhaps our 17th century Puritan forefathers, who celebrated on this uniquely American Thanksgiving holiday, weren’t so far from the truth of this holiday season. For these brief days provide little rest and even less thanks.

    Thanks giving in two Psalms

    Set aside your devices and distractions for a moment as you gather together with family and you will see much bounty, a recurring theme for America and also Israel of the Psalms and Scripture.

    Who will you thank?

    Your host and hostess? Sure. Or maybe family who have made this gathering possible? Perhaps. Yet the thanks giving of those faithful to the Lord is always to God.

    No book better expresses our worship, our praises, and singing with joy to the LORD than Psalms, which is the hymnal of Jewish and Christian worship.

    One simple form of praising God for the worshipers is to simply repeat a single phrase, when the worship leader praises the LORD. One example of several with thanksgiving of the worshipers for God is Psalm 136.

    You could give thanksgiving to God right now simply by repeating your response out loud after reading every praise of the Psalm [linked below].

    Psalm 136

    Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. [136:1 הֹודוּ לַיהוָה כִּי־טֹוב כִּי לְעֹולָם חַסְדֹּֽו׃]

    His faithful love endures forever. OR 

    For His mercy endures forever. OR

    For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

    Different translations all reinforce God’s love in our response of worship to the LORD. The Psalmist praises God in many ways:

    v.4 He alone does great wonders.

    v.7 He made the great lights

    v.23 He remembered us in our humiliation

    25 Who giveth food to all flesh:

    for his mercy endureth for ever.

    26 O give thanks unto the God of heaven:

    for his mercy endureth for ever.


    King James Version (KJV)

    This is giving thanks as the Pilgrims of America’s founding would have given to God – not only on this holiday, but also in other worship.

    Thanks is often a theme of worship, therefore thanking God is the first fruits of harvest for believers of all faiths who landed in this new world.

    Yet we have forgotten the lessons of the Lord — He who has preserved us for bounty and blessings of a new land.

    Are we so unlike those who worshiped the Lord before, yet then neglected to thank their Provider?

    Psalm 95

    Worship 

    1 Come, let us shout joyfully to the Lord,
    shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation!

    2 Let us enter his presence with thanksgiving;
    let us shout triumphantly to him in song.

    Psalm 95 CSB

    3 For the Lord is a great God,
    a great King above all gods.

    If the LORD is God, then as worshipers giving God thanks, what must we do?

    Hear this caution from the Psalm, that we might not give our thanks lightly, forgetting the worship of Almighty God our Creator.

    6 Come, let us worship and bow down;
    let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
    7 For he is our God,
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    the sheep under his care.

    The Psalmist then reminds worshipers of those who had previously turned from the Lord.

    Warning

    Today, if you hear his voice:
    8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah,
    as on that day at Massah in the wilderness
    9 where your fathers tested me;
    they tried me, though they had seen what I did.

    Psalm 95, referring to exodus 17:17

    Wilderness of the Negev 

    Meribah מְרִיבָה means testing and is the place where the Hebrews escaping Egypt tested the Lord, rather than giving thanks to the Lord. And Massah מַסָּה means quarreling, the politics of an ungrateful saved people in the wilderness.

    The Lord saved many who had fled to the New World from persecution and death in the seventeenth century. The Pilgrims and others gave God thanks for this. Yet the Psalmist reminds worshipers to not harden our hearts.

    Those escaping to a new land had far to go and much to learn of community, about authority and of thankfulness. Because of their testing and quarreling, the promise of the Lord would not be fulfilled in their generation.

    Therefore let us heed these cautions of the Psalmist in our attitude of thanks to the Lord. Even today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.

    10 For forty years I was disgusted with that generation;
    I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray;
    they do not know my ways.”
    11 So I swore in my anger,
    “They will not enter my rest.”

     Would you enter the eternal rest of the Lord? Do you thank the Lord this day?

    We will have more to say of this rest in our Lord after this holiday of Thanks giving.

  • A River of Redemption Flowing from Eden – to Goshen

    Pulled from the Torrent, a Redeemer Forgotten

    Perhaps you recall that the name Moses or מֹשֶׁה Môsheh means drawn; from drawing out (of the water), i.e. rescued. He is revered as a rescuer of Israel, but how did Moses get to Egypt in the first place? As a baby fleeing harm in a wicker sarcophagus, Moses was plucked from certain death in the waters of a river in Goshen.

    Psalm 18:

    16 He reached down from on high
    and took hold of me;
    he pulled me out of deep water.
    17 He rescued me from my powerful enemy
    and from those who hated me,
    for they were too strong for me.
    18 They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
    but the Lord was my support.
    19 He brought me out to a spacious place;
    he rescued me because he delighted in me.

    Pharaoh’s daughter then brought Moses into the house of the King of Egypt where he was raised in the best of privileged circumstances. She takes him from a wicker ark closed over him by his Hebrew mother and draws the child from the water into her saving arms. 

    Exodus 2:

    5 Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe at the Nile while her servant girls walked along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds, sent her slave girl, took it, 6 opened it, and saw him, the child—and there he was, a little boy, crying. She felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew boys.”

    She most certainly would have known her father’s command:

    Pharaoh then commanded all his people: “You must throw every son born to the Hebrews into the Nile, but let every daughter live.” – Exodus 1:22

    2:10 When the child grew older, she [Moses’ mother, hired as a mid-wife] brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

    Migrant Tribes in the Lands of Others

    Perhaps you have not thought of it: peoples or tribes are homeless families looking for a place to live.

    The Hebrews were one such people; yet the Lord God is their ever-living חֲיָא Patriarch, even more so than Moses or Abraham. Ever since Abraham they raised sheep, migrated to lands where they could sustain life and became merchants trading with citizens and travelers in lands to which the Lord would lead.

    Recall that the persecution of the Hebrews in the time of Moses was consequence of envy of their prosperity by the rulers of the land.

    Exodus 1:

    8 A new king… said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are. 10 Come, let’s deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply further, and when war breaks out, they will join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.”

    11 So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh.

    In the first hall of the Temple of Rameses II

    Egypt’s and Israel’s Forgotten Redeemer

    Genesis 46:

    The words of Zaphnathpaaneah:

    “I will go up and inform Pharaoh, telling him, ‘My brothers and my father’s family, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me.

    32 The men are shepherds; they also raise livestock. They have brought their flocks and herds and all that they have.’

    33 When Pharaoh addresses you and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’ 34 you are to say, ‘Your servants, both we and our fathers, have raised livestock from our youth until now.’

    Then you will be allowed to settle in the land of Goshen, since all shepherds are detestable to Egyptians.”

    All about Goshen

    Goshen & Ramses

    To be continued…