Jesus, Our Sabbath

In Hebrews 4:9, the writer states, “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,” and he makes this claim amidst a book targeting those who would slip back into Judaism after being converting to Christianity. If, as the Hebrew writer writes, the entire system of sacrifices and feasts has been done away with, what kind of Sabbath rest would he be describing?

The Importance of the Sabbath

Of all the aspects of the old law, the Sabbath is the most messianic, and it is the only of the Ten Commandments left unrepeated in the New Testament. This command was more than a day of physical rest; it was a system of fellowship and complete faith in God. Exodus 20:8 establishes the principle of the Sabbath day and invokes the Creation in the description, a time when man had perfect union and fellowship with God before sin entered the world. Deuteronomy 5:14-15 expands on this command by additionally commemorating the Exodus from Egypt through keeping the Sabbath.

The Sabbath system was more than the seventh day, though. It included every seventh year as well as every forty-ninth and fiftieth year, where debts were forgiven, slaves were freed, property was restored to the original owners. Redemption, forgiveness, and restoration were all present – including an unfathomable amount of faith required to forsake tending fields, generating income, and preparing provisions for an entire year. Not only were the affluent among the people to sacrifice providing for themselves, but they were to let go much the of wealth they had accumulated between Years of Jubilee. This required absolute and complete trust in God.

Rejecting the Sabbath

In passages like Leviticus 26:34-35 and II Chronicles 36:17-21, Sabbath imagery is tied closely to the benefits of following God’s word as well as in the consequences of forsaking God. This was more than a simple day off. To reiterate, it is the most messianic of the Old Testament commandments. In Jeremiah 17:24 and Nehemiah 13:17-18, among other verses, Israel’s problems are boiled down to dishonoring the Sabbath.

Think of the number of times God’s people failed to show faith in His power to save, in His power to give them rest. Remember the lack of faith prior to the Exodus. Think of their despair before the Red Sea. Think of the many times the people would wish to return to Egypt. Remember their reluctance to enter the Promised Land, again looking back on their slavery in Egypt as preferable to trusting in God’s deliverance; even after Joshua leads them to victory in Canaan, the people fail to drive out the idolators inhabiting the land, failing to possess the land as God would have them. Finally, in Jeremiah 7:24-26, God sums their attitudes up by saying they insisted on going backward instead of forward.

The Old Testament is a story of unrealized rest. The Hebrew writer, in chapter 4 of his book, quotes Psalm 95 in saying that those generations failed to enter God’s rest. He cites that Joshua could not give them rest because of those failures, and he says to us that we must not miss the rest that our spiritual forefathers failed to grasp.

The Sabbath of Christ

In Jesus’ ministry, He demonstrates that He not only provides rest to us, but He is that rest for which we not grasp. In Luke 4:16-21, Jesus reads from Isaiah, and the passage from which He reads contains clear overtones of forgiveness of debt, redemption, and release from slavery and captivity – elements of the Jubilee Year. Jesus is saying that He provides that Jubilee.

In Matthew 6, Jesus speaks about not being enslaved to providing for ourselves. Again, this is Sabbath terminology. He calls on us to seek the spiritual first and to trust God when it comes to the physical. Instead of consuming time and energy worrying about our provisions, our faith and trust should be in God so we may dedicate our lives and our energy to Him.

Matthew 11:28-29 reads: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” It is an invitation to rest, even quoting Jeremiah in rest for our souls. Think of the miracles performed on the Sabbath – healing, restoring, cleansing. In Luke 13:10-17, Jesus heals on the Sabbath, and He asks if it is not right for the healed woman to be loosed from the bonds of her illness – released and set free on the day of spiritual release.

Jesus came to offer us redemption, forgiveness, and release. He frees us from the bonds of sin. He provides us perfect fellowship with God. We cannot reject this. Instead, we should be continually diligent to take hold of and maintain our relationship with Christ that gives us a rest beyond anything this world can provide. This is the Sabbath that remains, for, in Christ, every day is the Sabbath, and the New Testament is a perpetual age of Jubilee.

lesson by Tim Smelser

Abigail's Strength

Abigail, in I Samuel 25, is one of the more minor characters in the Old Testament, but she is one from whom we can learn a lesson. She is a strong woman, a wife and eventually a mother, wed to a man defiant to God’s servant David. In a time when women were seen as property, when women had little independence and could face terrible treatment if disobedient to their husbands, Abigail defies hers to give comfort and help to this man protecting their lands. She risks her reputation as a wife and her safety as a woman to do what she knows is right.

God, in contrast, treats women as very valuable in the scriptures. Psalm 128:3 refers to a good wife as a fruitful vine. Proverbs 12:4 compares an excellent wife to a crown; chapter 18:22 calls a wife a good thing. Furthermore, Proverbs 31 heaps great praise upon wives and mothers. In the New Testament, we see Christ, time and again, treating the women in His life with kindness and respect, and Ephesians 5 calls on husbands to care for their wives as they would themselves.

The Story of Abigail

Back in I Samuel 25, we meet Abigail, married to an ill-tempered and poorly behaved man named Nabal. David sends servants to this Nabal for provisions while protecting the region, but Nabal callously turns them away. In response, David and his men prepare to attack Nabal’s household, and this is where Abigail comes in. In verse 14, she learns of David’s intentions, and she quickly collects food for David and his men without involving her husband at all.

In verse 23, Abigail humbles herself before David and asks to bear the guilt for Nabal’s faults. She offers the gift of food she has brought, and she begs forgiveness from David. David praises God for her gift and her presence and sends her home. When she returns home, she finds her husband drunk, so she waits until the next day to tell her husband of the anger David harbors against him. In verse 37, it says Nabal’s heart dies within him. After he dies, David takes Abigail’s hand in marriage, seeing her value and worth.

Lessons from Abigail

We see amazing strength in this woman in her prompt actions, her desire to protect her household and unworthy husband. We see a woman who respects God and His servants. She gives God credit where due, and she demonstrates wisdom and discernment in her actions and her discreetness. Her qualities are numerous, and she is a great example of quiet strength and faithful service, even to a master less than worthy of her respect.

Ephesians 5:22 and 33 as well as Colossians 3:18 talk about wives respecting their husbands, and Abigail somehow manages to show kindness and respect to a man difficult to love, a man who even set himself against a servant of God. She seeks to protect him, even in quiet defiance, and she looks out for his reputation and well-being. She protects her home where her husband does not. She leads where he fails. In doing so, she not only honors her husband, but she shows honor to God as well.

This is the strength of Abigail, a woman in a poor relationship who sees her husband hurtling toward self-destruction, towards harming his own household, and she takes action to protect her husband and those affected by his unwise decisions. We all have times in our lives when we have to be the ones taking initiative. We all have times when we need to look out for others, even when they won’t look out for ourselves. There are times when we must take risks to do what we know is right. There are times when we must all be Abigail, and we can take hope and strength in the example she leaves for us.

lesson by Alan Miller

The Miracle at Cana

A study of Jesus’ miracles is challenging in itself, and we know that these miracles were designed to inspire faith and to teach about the very nature of Jesus. The wedding feast at Cana, however, can present a challenge. It occurs on the fourth day of Jesus’ ministry, and, in many ways, it seems very mundane and unnecessarily secretive or private. Yet this is the first way Jesus chose to reveal His miraculous powers. Nothing in Jesus’ ministry was accidental or haphazard, so there must be lessons about Him and ourselves in this seemingly simple act.

We begin at a wedding feast. Think about times in our lives we hold dear and cherish in our memories; how many of these center around friends, family, and a shared meal? In Matthew 22:1 and Luke 14:15, Jesus compares God’s kingdom with great feasts, and, in Matthew 9:10-11, we see Jesus sharing meals with tax collectors and sinners. Time and again in Jesus’ ministry, meals play a part of the message of His ministry, so it should be no surprise that Jesus would begin His miracles at such an occasion.

The Importance of the Feast
This was more than any wedding feast, though. This first miracle occurred during a Jewish wedding feast, a celebration that could last up to seven days, the first time the new couple has an opportunity to extend hospitality to family and friends. This feast was a sacred duty, and failure of provisions would bring shame and disgrace. When they run out of wine at the feast in Cana, it is not a small problem.

This wine was seen as a symbol of blessings, peace, prosperity, and the Lord’s blessings. In Deuteronomy 7, God promises blessings upon the flocks and the vineyards of His people with their faithfulness, and this imagery is repeated in Deuteronomy 11:13-14, Deuteronomy 33:28, as well as numerous other passages. New wine was an indicator of God’s presence, and the absence thereof would indicate the removal of God’s blessings as illustrated in Deuteronomy 28:30 and Joel 1:10.

The Significance of the Miracle
In this context, we come back to John 2 and a wedding feast in which Jesus’ disciples were involved. The wine runs out; Jesus makes His first statement regarding “my hour;” Mary commands the servants to follow Jesus’ every command; the water is changed; and the miraculous wine is better than any served thus far in the feast. What was the point of all of this? Here, Jesus shows Himself to be the Messianic bridegroom. He steps in and intercedes to supply that symbol of God’s presence and blessings.

In Acts 3:19-20, Peter calls on his listeners to receive seasons of refreshing from the Lord, again making reference to the rest and refreshment offered in our meals. A physical element is used to teach a spiritual lesson. He supplies for every spiritual need, and Jesus’ first miracle illustrates that power of provision. He is the bridegroom whose refreshments never run low, and John 3:25-30, while John the Baptist is discussing purification (the same purification for which the water pots in John 2 had been purposed), John refers to Jesus as the Bridegroom.

Finally, consider Jesus’ reading of Isaiah 61 when He returns to teach in Nazareth. By verse 10, the Messiah of that chapter refers to Himself as the bridegroom who provides garments of salvation. What does the miracle at Cana tell us? It tells us that Christ came to bring God’s peace and protection. It tells us Jesus came to bring seasons of refreshing to His people.

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, Hallelujah!

For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure – for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, Write this: “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”

- Revelation 19:6-9

Throwing People Away

I want to challenge you to do something today – or, rather, to stop doing something, as the case may be. I want you, me, us to stop throwing people away. Just stop. Don’t do it anymore. Take that proverbial garbage bin we carry around in our psyches, and toss it in the recycling bin. When we look around at those around us – at our friends, our colleagues, our coworker, our peers, our waiters and waitresses, our telemarketers – we need to stop seeing something that’s disposable and worthless and instead see something to be treasured and preserved.

I guess something needs to be cleared up first, though. What do I mean by “throwing people away?” It’s simple. Someone says, or does, or condones, or writes something we don’t like, and that’s it. Suddenly, that person is trash. They are anathema. It may be something they said in a planning meeting; it may be a comment they made in Bible class; it may be a political view they have; it may just be that they had the audacity to disagree and hurt our feelings. Whatever it is, we hold onto that event like a precious treasure, and we then cut that person out of our lives.

Throwing People Away

We effectively throw people away for the various petty reasons we have, and it has to stop. People see these behaviors among us, and they don’t see a people of peace. They don’t see a nation of priests. No, they see Pharisees. They see fools. They see a people of hate and resentment, and who would want anything to do with that? What do we do to ourselves? When we start throwing people away, we start throwing away the divine. We remove the Prince of Peace and Mercy from our lives and instead enthrone an idol of bitterness and hatred – an idol that is much harder to serve than our Lord of forgiveness.

Disposable Individuals of the New Testament
There are a few people in the New Testament about whom I have to wonder: if they did these things to any of us, would we toss them aside?

John Mark. In Acts 13:13, we see John Mark abandon during the first of Paul’s missionary journeys. We aren’t really given a reason, but we can see Paul is still upset about it in Acts 15:37-39, even to the point of parting ways with Barnabas. That could have been the end of the story. We could look at that and feel justified in our eternal feuds, but that’s not the end. Some time later, in II Timothy 4:11, Paul calls this same deserter “useful to me for ministry.” We might have disposed of John Mark as “weak,” as “spineless,” or as “useless,” but Paul found the time to restore their relationship and gained an encourager in Christ.

Peter. We could look at a few events in Peter’s life where you or I might have given up on him, but my mind returns time and again to Jesus’ conversation with him after those terrible denials. We know the story of Mark 14:66-72, how Peter denies Christ time and again in the temple courtyard, even to the point of cursing and swearing. When Jesus restores Peter, in John 21:15-19, Jesus doesn’t demand an apology. He doesn’t wait for Peter to make the first move. He simply reaches out to one that we might have considered a backstabber and heals their relationship and Peter’s faith.

Onesimus. Onesimus, in the book of Philemon, is one we might not even realize we would dismiss, but consider this: Onesimus was an “illegal.” He was on the run from his master; he was not a true Roman citizen; he was a lawbreaker; he deserved imprisonment and perhaps worse. In verses 8-16, Paul reveals to Philemon that Onesimus is now a brother in Christ and encourages him to treat the slave accordingly. Here’s what he didn’t do: he didn’t send Onesimus packing. Paul didn’t write Onesimus off because of his secular citizenship. He was more concerned with the slave’s spiritual citizenship. Where we might have turned Onesimus over to the first Roman guard we saw, Paul, instead, turned him to the love of Christ.

Whether we’re talking about wanting to throw someone aside because of their history, or if we’re wiling to toss them aside because of some way we feel they affronted us, that’s not the conduct we see reflected in the lives of Christ and His apostles. My friend Derek once told me that we tend to judge ourselves by our intentions, but we judge others only by the consequences of their actions. Let’s think about showing others the same amount of mercy we show ourselves.

Setting Down the Weight
The problem is, when we look at people, sometimes we have a great deal of access baggage we are carrying around that we blame on them. We call these grudges. And these grudges needlessly weigh us down. There’s an old Zen proverb that illustrates this burden:

One day two traveling monks reached a town and saw a young woman waiting to step out of her sedan chair. There were deep, muddy puddles and she couldn’t step across without getting mud on her silk robes. She impatiently scolded her attendants, who were burdened with heavy packages.

The younger monk walked by the young woman without speaking. But the older monk stopped and picked her up on his back, carrying her across the mud. Not only did she not thank the monk, she shoved him out of her way when he put her down and scurried by him haughtily.

As the two monks continued on their way, the younger monk was brooding. After a long time, he finally spoke out. “That woman was so rude but you picked her up and carried her! She didn’t even thank you.”

“I set the woman down hours ago,” the older monk responded. “Why are you still carrying her?”

That’s what it comes down to, then, doesn’t it? We throw people away because we can’t unburden ourselves of the weight of our own grudges. We choose to bear the weight of our anger rather than the weight of friendship.

We put our strength and our efforts into holding onto our grudges rather than humbly letting them go. In Matthew 18:22, Jesus tells Peter (and later demonstrates) the innumerable times we must be willing to forgive. Colossians 3:12-14 calls on us to put on love, compassion, kindness, patience, and forgiveness. Finally, Hebrews 12:1-2 admonishes us to lay down those weights that slow down our run of faith. Jesus and His followers were able to lay aside the weight of grudges to pursue and share the hope within them. Why are we still carrying them?

Again, Perspective
Again, it comes down to what we see when we look at others. If we look at each other the way God looks at us, we won’t see each other as disposable commodities to be casually thrown away when suddenly inconvenient. Matthew 18:1-4 calls us to become as little children if we are to be of His kingdom. Romans 8:15-17 calls us adopted children of the Father, and I John 3:2 again says we are now God’s children, waiting to see Him in His glory.

If God sees us as His little children, we should see the same in each other. How easily do you stay angry at a small child? Against which children do you harbor long-lasting grudges? Are there any children you seek to cut out of your lives, that you give dirty looks to, that you assume the worst of the moment they enter the room? Of course you don’t because that would make you a pretty terrible person, don’t you agree? Wouldn’t you be a sad case if you couldn’t get over the fact that a five-year-old clumsily broke a vase in your home? What kind of person would you be to hold that over their head for the next several years, even if the break was the result of carelessness or malice? Yet, this is how we treat each other. Just like that younger monk, we can’t seem to lay aside the burden of our indignation, and we let those burdens weaken us. Gandhi said, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

Galatians 5:13-15 warns us against biting and devouring one another. We have many euphemisms for this: we say we are “calling it like it is;” we may feel someone needs to be “put in their place” or “taught a lesson;” we may say that we are “saying what needs to be said;” but all we’re doing is consuming each other in fits of temper. We also consume one another when we bear grudges instead of bearing each other’s burdens. We devour relationships. We decide our personal feelings are more important than a person’s soul. This must not be. Once we see each other the way God sees us, we have no choice but to tear down our idols of bitterness, indignation, and self-justification. We have no reason to carry around the weight of grudges and resentment. Once we unburden ourselves of these, we will have the strength to carry one another’s loads and to bear each other up in love and mercy, and we will finally stop throwing people away.

lesson by Robert Smelser

Necessary Changes

We know Psalm 51 as written by David after being confronted by Nathan over the sin with Bathsheba. He calls upon God, numerous times in the psalm, to cleanse him, to make him whiter than snow, to heal his broken spirit. He promises, in return, to teach others of God’s mercy and His forgiveness, and He praises God for that forgiveness working in his life. David is aware of a change that has to happen in himself to bring himself closer to his God.

Acts 3:20 talks about this change as repentance, and Romans 12 emphasizes this change as a transformation. Paul goes on to talk about how this change manifests itself in our lives, in our morality, in humility, and in our treatment of others. Time and again in Christ’s teachings and those of His apostles, we are instructed to change ourselves, and there are many areas in which we can strive to change and improve ourselves.

Improvement Through Change
We need to change our ignorance into knowledge. Hebrews 5:11 warns us against becoming “dull of hearing,” for such dullness leads to spiritual immaturity. I Timothy 1:7 warns that spiritual ignorance leads to false teachings, but Hebrews 5:14 reminds us that experience and exercising our knowledge is what develops spiritual maturity, helping us discern between good and evil.

This leads us to our second necessary change. I Corinthians 3:1-3 warns against maintaining spiritual immaturity, and they remained worldly-minded because of this immaturity. Hebrews 6:1 calls on us to push on to perfection, full growth in Christ, but this comes with more than time. Our conduct, our attitudes, our spiritual knowledge – these tell others how spiritually mature we are.

Romans 13:11 calls on us to wake out of sleep. He admonishes us to change our laziness into zeal. If we are simply drifting along, we have to awaken and take an active role in our spiritual growth. In verse 14, Paul calls on us to adorn ourselves in Christ and abandon the cares that cause us to languish in worldliness. Also, I Corinthians 15:34 encourages to awake to righteousness, to awake to knowledge, and to sin no more. Ephesians 5:14 merely calls upon us to awake.

Our lack of reverence must then be turned into true worship. In Mark 7:6, Jesus quotes from Isaiah: “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me…” In Luke 18:9-14, Jesus reinforces this point with a parable of a tax collector and a Pharisee going up to pray. The Pharisee honors God with his lips while praising himself where the tax collector, in his humble confession, truly approaches God in reverence, awe, and humility. Our worship must not only please ourselves, but it must also please our God.

We must furthermore turn our weariness into gladness. We must not let our fatigue do us in. Galatians 6:7-10 and Ephesians 2:10 remind us that we are here to do good works. Look to Jesus as an example. How tiring His ministry was! How discouraging to face opposition time and again! Yet, He never abandoned His mission. He never ceased in doing good for others. Likewise, we must always look for opportunities to serve others.

Giving All
We must stop making excuses. We must stop giving less than our best. We must change our minimums into maximums. In all of these things – our knowledge, our service, our worship, our reverence, our maturity – it comes down to just how much we’re willing to give to God in our lives. We have many necessary changes to make, and we can accomplish them all by giving our all to serving and honoring our God in every aspect of our lives.

lesson by Tim Smelser