What's The Purpose of the Sabbath?

Ezekiel 20:12: "Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the LORD made them holy."

In Ezekiel 20, the elders of Israel had come to inquire of the LORD, but the LORD would not respond to them due to their rebellion in following false gods. Their licentious behavior was worthy of God's wrath; still, God had chosen these people from all the nations of the earth to inhabit His Promised Land. Although each generation of Israelites from the past seemed to defile themselves by following after their selfish desires, God still wanted them to know that if they were submissive and obedient to Him as Lord, He would bless them with the land "flowing with milk and honey."

The LORD mentioned that the purpose of the Sabbath was for His people to see that they were set apart for the purpose of God's pouring out His blessing upon them uniquely, if they would simply surrender themselves to His Lordship. As the Sabbath was one day set apart from the others as a time of rest and meditation upon the LORD, so too it was a teaching tool of the LORD to let the Israelites know that they were called out and set apart by God as His chosen people. Tragically, the chapter continues by stating that the Israelites desecrated the LORD's Sabbath through their rebellion, idolatry, and immorality. They did not take the time to reflect upon the unmerited goodness of the LORD by His choosing them to receive His divine blessings.

For Christians today, we would do well to reflect upon this passage as a reminder that we should take time to meditate upon the goodness of our God in calling us out to receive His divine blessings. When we succumb to the demands of this ephemeral life, we can lose sight of the gift of grace that God has bestowed to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. We MUST consecrate time from our hectic schedules to meditate upon the LORD and His choosing us to be part of His royal family. To fail to reflect regularly upon our God and His gift of holiness to us is to fall into the temptation of self-centeredness. And when we lose focus on our Lord, we will most assuredly become the rebellious, self-indulged people not unlike the Israelites mentioned in Ezekiel 20.

Obedience over Ritual

I Samuel 15:22b-23: “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.”

This familiar passage comes from the somewhat unfamiliar background of Israel’s first king. King Saul previously had been anointed king by God over all of Israel; however, Saul’s arrogance would lead to the loss of Divine blessing for his royal rule. In I Samuel 15, the prophet Samuel had instructed Saul to destroy the neighboring enemies, the Amalekites, who since the time of Moses had sought to destroy the Israelites and thus prohibit their entrance into the Promised Land. God had been specific; everything was to be destroyed so that no remnant would remain of these pagan people.

Despite this explicit command from the Lord, Saul decided that he would handle his victory over the Amalekites according to his own choosing. Saul decided to keep the choicest livestock and harvest for himself and encouraged his army to do likewise; Saul also decided to preserve the captured Amalekite king, Agag, as his tribute for victory.

God responded with grief at the recalcitrance of the Israelite king. He sent Samuel to find Saul; however, Saul was busy at Mt.Carmel setting up a monument in his own honor. When Samuel confronted Saul for his disobedience, Saul attempted to deflect the blame to his army, saying, “the soldiers brought the best from the Amalekites” (15:15). King Saul then attempted to challenge Samuel’s rebuke by saying that he had been obedient to the Lord’s command. Saul conveniently reworded the command of the Lord to be consistent with his defiant behavior. The Israelite King thought if he could re-phrase what the command was originally, then he may be exonerated for his rebellious spirit.

Samuel would have nothing to do with such lying and excuse making. He told King Saul that God had rejected him as the king, for Saul in effect worshipped himself over God through such acts of rebellion. Even after this divine edict, Saul confessed to Samuel that he had sinned, but this “act of repentance” was merely an attempt to avoid punishment, for again the king blamed the people for being so demanding of him to commit such sin.

As Samuel turned to leave the presence of the king, Saul caught the prophet’s robe to halt his exit. In his attempted restraint of Samuel, the prophet’s robe was torn; in response, Samuel decreed that Saul’s kingdom would be torn away from him and given to “one better.”

As the verse quoted above mentions, Saul’s rebellion was not unlike the practice of divination. From this word, “divination” one can see the word “divine.” In effect, Saul attempted to assert his own pursuit of divinity by renouncing the command of the Lord in favor of his own appetites. His attitude of arrogance clearly was demonstrated by his pursuit of his own victory monument; and his subsequent attempts to blame others and to distort the truth of God’s command was nothing more than a subversive move to justify his behavior.

We would do well to learn from the patterns of this once famous first king of Israel. Although King Saul went through the motions of religious ceremony; he was more interested in worshipping himself than the true God. This idolatry led to his untimely death as well as his loss of the kingdom for his descendants. The king was stellar in external action, but his heart revealed a sinister corruption and defiance that would be reckoned with by the Lord. We must remember that obedience to the Lord is of utmost importance; merely going through the motions of “religiosity” will never suffice.

The Holy Spirit Transforms Lives

1 Samuel 10:6: "The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy with them; and you will be changed into a different person. Once these signs are fulfilled, do whatever your hand finds to do, for God is with you."

This chapter is the account of Saul, a Benjamite, being anointed king by the prophet Samuel, under the direction of God. The Israelites had cried out to the LORD to have a king so that they could be like the other nations; and God granted them their request, although He knew that these obstinate people were rejecting Him as their Sovereign Ruler (1 Samuel 8:7-8). When Samuel first approached Saul, Saul questioned Samuel's declaration that the Benjamite was to be made king. He said, "But am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of the tribe of Benjamin? Why do you say such a thing to me?" (9:21).

But because God had ordained Saul to be the first king of the Israelites, the Holy Spirit came upon Saul in power; and as a result of that divine encounter, Saul was transformed into a different person. First Saul's heart was changed (10:9). Saul realized that this calling was from the LORD, who would give him the strength to fulfill that calling. Secondly, Saul was anointed with unique gifts. In I Samuel 10:10, one reads that Saul received the ability to prophesy with the prophets before the people. Such a transformation was quite noticeable to the people and they said, "What has happened to the son of Kish?" They were amazed at the transformation that had taken place through the power of God.

God then changed the hearts of the valiant men of Israel, who received confirmation in their spirits that God had appointed Saul to be king. When God calls one to a task, He will raise up His followers to affirm such a calling in one's life.

Saul quickly faced a serious issue when his people were faced with an invasion by their Ammonite enemies. The once timid personality who previously questioned God's decision to anoint him as king, would now under the power of God make a demonstrative statement to his people that they would fight to protect their brothers in Jabesh Gilead. Saul took two of his own oxen and cut them into pieces and had the pieces distributed throughout Israel. Packaged with the pieces of flesh was a dictate that anyone who would chose not to support Saul and Samuel would see the same fate for their livestock. If there were any who questioned Saul's leadership, they were silenced now by this declaration. Scripture says that the "terror of the LORD fell on the people, and they turned out as one man" (1 Samuel 11:7). God had changed the hearts of the people to respect their new leader, and the people were unified under this new king.

After their military victory, some of the early supporters of Saul wanted to put to death those who once questioned Saul's calling as king; however, Saul demonstrated mercy to his subjects in his kingdom. Saul declared that no one would be put to death, for the LORD had brought victory to the Israelites. Saul knew that it was not his own innate abilities that had brought the deliverance of the Israelites at Jabesh Gilead, but it was the power of God working through the king and his people. Thus having received mercy from God through the military victory, Saul now wanted to continue that mercy to his people.

This entire story brings to mind the passage in the New Testament found in 2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new had come!" Just as king Saul was transformed in his heart, in his giftedness, and in his bestowal of mercy to others, so too the follower of Jesus Christ experiences these same blessings through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our hearts are changed to be receptive to the direction and leadership of the Lord in our lives. God then blesses us with demonstrative gifts to be used to transform lives and further His kingdom. Lastly, God gives us the ability to project mercy to others, since we have received God's grace through Jesus Christ.

God initiates these blessings in our lives, and to Him is all praise due for His abundant grace and love.

Death is Swallowed in Victory

1 Corinthians 15:26,54-55: "The last enemy to be destroyed is death. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.'"

When man chose to rebel against the holiness of God by partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he knew that God had declared previously that death was the consequence for this rebellion. Still Adam and Eve, the first humans to be created by God, chose to commit cosmic treason against the Sovereign Lord by trying to usurp His Rightful Throne. God then pronounced His Divine judgment upon humanity, and banned our fore-parents from the Garden of Eden and placed guardian cherubs with flaming swords at its entrance to protect the tree of life from being consumed. At first glance, it seems that God's prohibition of our consumption of such a tree that would bring life is rather calloused and hardhearted; however, when one begins to reflect upon this protective response to our sin, one can see that God really loves us and desires to save us from the terrible effects of our sin. For if humanity would have consumed the tree of life after having sinned against the LORD, then our eternal state would have been one of witnessing the ever wasting away of our bodies without the deliverance from the consequences of sin. Many of you may have visited people whose declining health had led them to a point of incapacitation. What a tragedy it would be for us to experience this process of continuous, eternal, physical and spiritual decline without the hope of deliverance through death. In God's act of judgment of proscribing death for man's sin; He in fact was merciful in providing a way of escape. Death separates us from the physical effects of sin, whereupon we are ushered into the presence of God Himself.

This reality makes Jesus Christ's resurrection even more significant. His victory over death through His bodily resurrection assures the believer in Christ the hope of being resurrected imperishable and immortal. And when the follower of Jesus Christ experiences this wonderful reunion of body and spirit in the state of sinless perfection, free from decay (as God originally intended), then he can truly say, "Death has been swallowed up in victory."

When God Hides His Word

I Samuel 3:1: “In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions.”

The early chapters of I Samuel reveal a people whose spiritual leaders were corrupt . . . completely devoid of submission and obedience to the LORD. The sons of the chief priest, Eli, were particularly despicable in their handling of their office as priests. These two men, Hophi and Phinehas, gorged themselves on the sacrificial food offerings brought by the people. They were supposed to commit the sacrifices first to the Lord by placing them into a boiling kettle, then they were to pick out with a pronged fork a portion that they would consume themselves. The first fruits were the LORD’s; they were to honor the LORD first before their own physical needs. In contrast, however, these priests would threaten the people who brought food sacrifices to the LORD by demanding these offerings for themselves immediately. They warned that if they did not receive the uncooked meat, they would take it by force. God referred to their actions as “treating the LORD’s offering with contempt” (2:17).

These same religious leaders were also known for engaging in sexual acts with women who served the priests at the Tent of Meeting. They were men who in effect considered themselves their own gods; they used their position of influence to satisfy their own lustful desires over serving the LORD.

Eli, their father, attempted to rebuke his sons for such detestable practices, but he did not strive to remove his sons from their positions. As 2:29 & 4:18 suggests, Eli may himself have been benefiting from his son’s flagrant disregard for the sacrifices of the LORD. Nonetheless, Eli was not proactive in his calling as priest to remove evil from the sight of the LORD. He continued to allow his sons to use their offices to exploit the people and desecrate the worship of the LORD by seeking their own selfish desires over God Himself.

The Lord declared that He would “disdain those who despised Him.” He proclaimed that Eli’s sons would be killed, leading to the severing of the priestly line through his offspring.

What is ironic was the way in which Eli’s sons handled themselves when danger was presented to the Israelites by their enemies, the Philistines. When a war ensued, the Philistines gained a quick battle victory, which resulted in the death of 4000 Israelites. Hophni and Phinehas thought that if they took the Ark of the Covenant with them into battle, God would have to provide the Israelites with victory. Even though their hearts were estranged from a true relationship with the LORD, they believed that the mere association with a tangible object associated with the LORD would compel God to provide victory. Never do we find that these sons showed remorse for their sins; in their brazen arrogance, they expected God to come to their rescue.

Sadly, the Israelites were soundly defeated by the Philistines. 30,000 foot soldiers were killed in a second battle, and Eli’s two sons also perished in the battle. When word returned to Eli that his sons were killed and the Ark of the Covenant was captured, the elderly priest fell out of his chair and broke his neck. Eli’s death was the final act of judgment upon his family by the LORD for the egregious acts of rebellion perpetrated by his family. God would be vindicated in His holiness; all who attempted to challenge this sovereignty were destroyed.

The focal passage of which I have mentioned at the beginning of this devotion deals with the lack of God’s Word being given to a wayward people. We would do well to hear from history; when we are wrapped up in our own selfish desires instead of being submitted to the LORD, we should not expect that the LORD will open the portals of heaven to reveal the blessing of Himself to us. When our intimate walk with the LORD is compromised by sin in our lives, we will find that God will seem to be noticeably absent in our lives. What we need to remember is that the LORD can be found when we repent of our sin and seek Him above ourselves. This truth is wonderfully declared in Jeremiah 29:13: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart.” God will be found when we passionately pursue Him and are obedient to Him above all other persons and things.

Making Yourself More Attractive

Ruth 2:11-12,19-20: “Boaz replied, ‘I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband-how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD’ . . . . Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. ‘The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,’ she said. ‘The LORD bless him!’ Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. ‘He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.’”

Being a single adult pastor, I’m often asked questions by single adults about dating relationships. Specifically, singles like to ask me the “why” questions: “Why hasn’t God brought Mr./Miss Right into my life?”; “Why doesn’t God hear my prayers to be married?”; or “Why doesn’t God understand that I don’t like to be single?”

Whereas I am sensitive to the longings of some singles in the area of companionship, I do take time to remind singles that they have a wonderful opportunity to make themselves even more attractive by the way that they conduct their lives now, even though no prospect for dating is evident on the horizon. Godly, mature singles are attracted to other singles who demonstrate the same qualities of Godliness and integrity. These mature singles are looking for characteristics in a prospective dating partner that reveal a person committed in his/her faith to Christ, that have goals to accomplish that commitment, and that look to bless others through the pursuit of those goals.

The story of Ruth mentioned in the Bible is a wonderful example of two single people who became more attractive and attracted to each other the more that they demonstrated integrity and self-sacrificing love toward others, without any expectation of return. The story begins with Ruth, a Moabite who had married into the Jewish family of Elimelech, her father-in-law. Elimelech’s wife was named Naomi and Ruth was married to their son. Elimelech had moved his family from Bethlehem to the land of Moab because there was a severe famine in Palestine, and Elimelech’s family had moved to find food for the family. Within 10 years of living in the land of Moab, Elimelech and his two sons had died, leaving both Naomi, Ruth, and another daughter-in-law as widows. Naomi encouraged her daughters-in-law to return to their birth families so that they might be able to remarry, and one daughter-in-law did in fact return home. But Ruth vowed to stay with Naomi in order that she might be able to minister to her aging mother-in-law. When the two returned to Bethlehem, Ruth took on the responsibility of gathering food for the two, knowing that Naomi was not physically able to handle such tasks. Ruth would go to the fields and gather grain that had been left behind by the harvesters. She would look for the fields of those who would be gracious and permit her to gather the leftover grain, and she would work tirelessly for a large part of the day in order that she might be a provider for her mother-in-law. One will notice that Ruth was not embittered by her circumstances. She was not angered at God for the loss of her husband, her lost financial security, or her lost dream as a future mother. She also was not looking for an opportunity to “ditch” her mother-in-law so that she could pursue her own life and find a husband. Ruth put the needs of Naomi before herself.

The irony with the story is found in the response of Boaz, the owner of the land of which Ruth worked. He noticed Ruth in the fields and was made aware of all that Ruth had done for Naomi. Ruth’s integrity was attractive to Boaz, who was a Godly man, and he began to take notice. Whereas Ruth was not necessarily looking for a husband, God was orchestrating something rather beautiful in her life by intersecting her life with Boaz, and Ruth was making herself more attractive through her life of godliness and integrity.
Boaz in return was making himself more attractive to Ruth by the way he treated her. When Boaz learned that Ruth was working his fields and when he had heard of the way she selflessly ministered to her mother-in-law, Boaz was determined to be a blessing to Ruth. He encouraged Ruth to continue to harvest from his field, and he instructed his workers not to prohibit her from working the fields but to leave some of the choicest sheaves for her to pick up. Boaz also made certain that Ruth had ample water to refresh herself during the day as she worked the fields. Ruth took notice of the graciousness of Boaz and shared with Naomi all that Boaz had done. Just as Boaz was attracted to the selfless devotion that Ruth had demonstrated, so too Ruth was attracted to the generosity of Boaz.

Later in the book, one finds that the relationship eventually led to the marriage of Ruth to Boaz. It’s one of those blessed stories that ends wonderfully with the two of them sensing God’s leading to commit to each other their love through covenant. This covenant of marriage would lead to children being born and a lineage furthered, ultimately culminating in the birth of a Messiah, Jesus Christ, years later.

Hatred for God and His People

John 15:18f: (Jesus said) "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also . . . . They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me . . . . In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God . . . . In his world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Here is the evidence why the world is hostile to Biblical Christianity. Those of the world, who are controlled by the adversary, Satan, are hostile to Christ and to His true disciples. We should not think that our life experience will be immune from persecution. The world will attempt to rise up and label followers of Jesus Christ as extremists, worthy of vituperative assaults. In reality, they hate the message of truth, for it challenges their ultimate desire to be their own god on the throne of their lives. The irony of these debased brigands is their belief that such vehement attacks against followers of Christ will in some way be an act of worship to God. They will certainly be surprised and will mourn bitterly the judgment that befalls them when the True Messiah, Jesus Christ, returns.

The blessedness for those that are obedient and submissive to the Lordship of Christ is the assurance that God has overcome the world and stands victorious. If we stand with Him, we are victorious today and will be victorious with Him for all eternity.