Nehemiah 13 “During this time, I saw in Judah some people who were treading out winepresses on the Sabbath, also bringing in heaps of grain and loading donkeys with it, likewise wine, grapes, figs and all kinds of loads; and they were bringing them into Jerusalem in the day of Sabbath. On the day when they were planning to sell food, I warned them not to. There were also living there people from Tzor who brought in fish and all kinds of gods, and sold them on Shabbat to the people in Judah and even in Jerusalem. I disputed with the nobles of Judah, demanding of them, ‘What is this terrible thing you are doing, profaning the day of Shabbat? Didn’t your ancestors do this, and didn’t our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Yet you are bringing still more fury against Israel by profaning Shabbat!’” Nehemiah 13:15-18 When I was a kid, growing up in Arkansas, the city I lived in had a “blue law” which prohibited retail businesses from being opened on Sunday. Apart from a few restaurants, everything in town was closed for business. The city’s managers, along with the voting public, felt it was best for our community to rest on the Lord’s Day. Truth be known, the majority of our city council were deacons in their local churches. While they could not enforce whether people went to church, they could make it almost impossible for anyone to do anything else! I remember when that law was amended to allow businesses to open after noon on Sunday’s…and I recall when the law was repealed, altogether. At the time, I was not a follower of Jesus, so I rejoiced when I finally had the opportunity to skip church and go shopping. If you were to ask Nehemiah, he would say it was blasphemy! A friend of mine recently challenged me by asking how well I felt I was following the 4th commandment: “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy,” as the Lord commanded us to observe it. I thought about it, and realized I am not doing a very good job at setting aside a day of complete rest for the purpose of reading God’s Word and reflecting on Him. You don’t hear a lot of pastors teaching on this subject, primarily for two reasons: 1) It is hard enough to get people to go to church for an hour every week, and 2) The people being preached to are the ones who are already in church. But the idea about Sabbath is not simply to go to church; Sabbath is about committing a whole day to do nothing but worship the Lord. When was the last time you committed a whole day to simply worshipping the Lord, forsaking all other opportunities? For the most of us, sadly the answer would be: never. I challenge you to try it and see how the Lord refreshes your soul. As the Lord says, “Test me on this…” Malachi 3:10
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 18:59:41 +0000
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