April 11, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath, from doing as you please on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the LORD’s holy day honorable, if you honor it by not going your own way or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words, then you will delight yourself in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the land and feed you with the heritage of your father Jacob.” (Isaiah 58.13-14)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD TO US:

Some of you may be familiar with a love ballad first played by the Dorsey Band in the 1930s and later made famous by Dinah Washington in the late 1950s. The title of that song was “What A Difference A Day Makes.” The last line is pivotal, “What a difference a day made and the difference is you.” Of course, the song is sung to a person who has made love real in their own life but we can borrow its expression to think upon a spiritual truth as present in Isaiah 58. Indeed, what a difference a day can make if we pour ourselves into “falling in love” with it. That day which “the mouth of the LORD has spoken” is the Sabbath. Look, I admit that I do not honor the Sabbath as I ought. The paradigm of honoring the Sabbath and keep it holy (the Fourth Commandment in the Decalogue) is established by Jesus in His ministry. He was often accused of dishonoring the Sabbath by His detractors- the Sadducees and Pharisees. Of course, they had established their own parameter for understanding the fulfillment of that valuable command or rule of righteousness. As was their penchant, the literal expression became the dogmatic implementation: Remember the Sabbath by keeping it holy…NO WORK SHALL BE DONE…as the LORD blessed the Sabbath Day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20.8-11) As Moses recorded the words given to him at Mt. Sinai, it was evident that God did not merely make the rule but expounded on details which were critical to the people so they would not misunderstand. But misunderstanding happens, especially where sin abounds, and still does to this day. While the “between the lines” of the Fourth Commandment speak of the cessation of labor and work for twenty-four little hours, what is missed is the call “to keep it [the Sabbath Day] holy. Over the years that followed until the days of Jesus’ ministry on earth (nearly 1400 years), the empowering of “works righteousness” was the rule of the day. Actually, it might be better said “no works righteousness.” The interpretation of the Fourth Commandment was to make it one’s work to not work for twenty-four hours. That sounds an awful lot like a New Year’s Resolution. It sounds like a dare. It sounds like a self-defeating attempt to do what seems to be impossible. Why impossible? I suggest it becomes impossible to “not work” on the Sabbath, if that is indeed what God truly intended as the meaning and purpose of the commandment, because of what we do with the other six days of the week. The lack of self-discipline for the rest of the week heaps great pressure on the one day of the week. It is exacerbated by the focus on “work” instead of “holiness.”

What a difference a day makes for the week ahead, the month ahead, the year ahead and the lifetime ahead! We focus on work to sustain us even when God promises us He will provide. How will He provide? Jesus declared, and you should know what verse I am about to share, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and what is needed shall be provided.” (Matthew 6.33) What does it mean to “seek first” if not “…keep it holy.” We can go through the gospels and find those occasions when Jesus, and His disciples, labored on the Sabbath. They crushed grain from the wheatfield they walked through. Their walk most likely exceeded the “two mile” limit which the Pharisees determined beyond which was excessive and thereby labeled as “work.” Jesus healed on the Sabbath. Wasn’t healing a means of “keeping it holy”? What holier work might there be in this world, apart from preaching the gospel and leading others to accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, than to “heal” someone. That healing which Jesus did was an act of restoration and reconciliation. The call to “go and sin no more” defines the act as one of “redemption.” These three elements (redemption, restoration and reconciliation) are the fruit of the pursuit of righteousness. In other words, they are a means if not the means of declaring holiness. Those who were healed were made holy, without blemish or flaw (at least in the moment) and thus worthy acts of worship and praise of the One True God without whom none of that would have been possible. What we find is that Jesus made the pursuit of righteousness the proper work for the Sabbath.

Such pursuit should be done over the six days we work, but is it? Do we consider our labors in the office, in the manufacturing plant, behind a desk, on the retail floor, in the car driving to and back from work, etc. acts of holiness in the pursuit of righteousness as to express the truth of the gospel so that others hear it, listen to it, receive it, believe it and then conceive in their own lives how to live in accordance to the fruit of the pursuit of righteousness? Are we really supposed to see our “six days of labor” as the means to provide for ourselves? Or are we supposed to see all the work we do as the means of demonstrating our truth in God to provide while we use our gifts, talents, abilities and opportunities to promote righteousness among the people of the world? If we did that wouldn’t we be fulfilling the Great Commission which our Lord and Savior has given to us as His disciples? And if we kept the six days holy as unto the Lord, then what of the seventh day? Would we then find it a day of celebration and acknowledgement that what God had promised is fulfilled day after day, week after week, year after year knowing our tomorrow will become forever? Wouldn’t such a decision for making “that” day different make a difference in the way of the world? Wouldn’t it at least make a difference in “our world”? Seems impossible? Sounds impossible? Well, the word of God says, “What is impossible for human beings is never impossible with God.” Seeking to make one day holy will hold sway over making all our days holy and a pleasing work unto the Lord for His glory and the benefit, the welfare of others. Shalom!

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness which we know is folly but righteous works which declare Your glory and further witness the truth that can set all who believe free from death. So may we live by the name of Jesus our Christ. AMEN.