Whenever I study the Old Testament, I am enthralled with the strong visual tools the Lord implemented to teach the children of Israel how to know Him and trust Him. I know He tailors these teaching tools for each dispensation according to our lifestyles and our spiritual capacity but I sometimes wish for the teaching tools of old because they speak to my soul.
This year more than ever I have come to understand the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy. The Sabbath was so seriously regarded under the Mosaic law that violation of it was punishable by death. Since the Sabbath is the day of sanctification which leads to eternal life, I rather think this physical death was symbolic of spiritual death that comes upon us if we are not sanctified (cleansed from sin). To teach Israel the importance of this, the Lord used the tool of trust through this commandment, which actually became a dual object lesson: to believe in the importance of the sabbath, and to trust Him.
The Sabbath was not only intended for people and animals in ancient Israel but also for the land. The commandment was to let the land rest every seventh year, which was called the sabbatical year. Imagine the amount of trust it took for agrarian people not to work the land for a whole year but to trust in God’s providence rather than in the labour of their own hands. Here is where the motivation to develop such trust was: After giving this mandate, the Lord said, ‘you will ask, what will we eat in the seventh year when we will not sow nor gather in our increase but I will not only make up for this year on the sixth year but I will give you enough food for THREE years ‘ (Leviticus 25:20-22). Remember how they had to gather double the manna on the sixth day because there would none be forthcoming on the Sabbath? Well, the sabbatical year took this lesson in trust to another level.
Drawing from the scriptural base dealing with this commandment, we have been promised three major blessings if we observe the Sabbath: temporal plenty, divine protection and spiritual power. Think for a moment of where the world is today and what threat it is to our temporal and spiritual well-being. Do we have enough trust to obey a commandment that has been given us to ensure that we will have enough food to feed our children, that we and they will be protected from the evils surrounding us and that we will have the spiritual power to see us home? I stand amazed at the Saviour of the world whose providence has secured this well-being for us. I stand amazed at the way He teaches us and I sorrow for my own failure to trust Him every minute of every day as I struggle to live by faith in my mortal weakness.
Let me mount up upon the wings of faith
And trust all Thy promises to me;
Help me know I am in the palm of Thy hand
And that power to manifest is in Thee;
Increase in me strength to follow
And help me believe
In the dawning of tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment