This passage opens again with God's somber warning about keeping the Sabbath holy and the consequences for those who won't. This is the second time we see God has instituted capital punishment for people who disobey the Sabbath law. Interestingly, He doesn't say that He, Himself will take the person's life, but that the person "must be put to death." In any case, I believe what God is trying to say here is that the Sabbath is important!!
At the beginning of January, our Sunday school class finished going through Focus on the Family's The Truth Project (a "biblical worldview tour" hosted by Dr. Del Tackett, which I HIGHLY recommend for small group use!). In the second-last lesson, he addressed the subject of labour and the Sabbath law. He had a VERY different take on the whole thing! I'll share with you an excerpt of the discussion guide:
"What is work?" Present that question to a cross-section of the population and you'll probably receive a wide variety of answers. Unfortunately, within the context of contemporary culture it's increasingly likely that a preponderance of these responses will be negative in tone. Many people use phrases such as "a bummer," "what I have to do for money," or "the only way to get to Friday" to describe their feelings about work. Even Christians sometimes reference the fall as support of their view that labor is nothing but a curse.He likened our labour to playtime and that our Sabbaths or Sundays were God's way of lovingly, like a parent, telling us to put our toys away for a day to just rest and relax and concentrate on worshipping Him and being renewed in Him; like filling up at the gas tank in preparation for another week of creativity!
In this Lesson, Dr. Tackett makes the case that these disparaging attitudes toward work are completely at odds with the scriptural worldview. He even goes so far as to argue that they can be interpreted as yet another manifestation of the Cosmic Battle – in other words, that they are destructive lies. Far from being a curse, creative labor is a glorious privilege. It flows out of the heart of God Himself, who labored six days to bring the world into existence, stamped His inventive and energetic image upon mankind, and placed Adam in the garden to tend it, beautify it, and increase its productivity. The creativity of man, then, while subject to the effects of the fall, is nevertheless a mirror-image of the creativity of God. It is designed to be a source of joy so fulfilling and wonderful that the Lord deemed it necessary to give us the fourth commandment in order to insure that we would set our work aside and rest at least one day a week! (emphasis added)
I've done some research on this before, but still haven't really come up with any satisfactory answers: we here in North America seem to think we're entitled to at least TWO days of rest every week, but clearly that's not a biblical view of fulfilling our responsibility to work. I'd like to know when the 2-day weekend concept came into being. I suspect it's largely a "first-world" country idea and I'd be willing to bet it really only came into being within the last hundred or so years, when factories, unions and cities became the norm rather than small farming communities with self-sufficient family units. That's pure speculation though. Like I said, I haven't been too successful with proving any of this!!
Anyway, moving right along....
After the reiteration of the Sabbath command and consequences, we come to the commandment to bring an offering of valuable materials so the construction of the Tabernacle can begin. I'm a little confused about the use of the terms "free-will offering" and "everyone who is willing" when the section begins with "This is what the LORD has commanded: From what you have, take an offering for the LORD." It's like He commanded a volunteer offering!
And yet, the giving was obviously done without complaining ~ maybe even with great joy at the expectation of finally having a formal place to meet with God ~ because in Chapter 36 we come to a singularly peculiar problem: the people are bringing TOO MUCH!! They actually have to be RESTRAINED from giving more! Can you imagine if churches had this problem today?!
Throughout this passage we see repeated the plans for the Tabernacle and that the craftsmen and women carried out those plans precisely. By the end of Chapter 36, we've read through all the specifications three times and if you're anything like me, you may have just been skimming this time!
This commentary gave me a new perspective on this repetition though:
The repetition of chapters 25-31 and 35-40 underscores the fact that those things which God had commanded in chapters 25-31 were carried out to the letter. What is even more amazing is that God’s instructions were willingly and precisely carried out by this people who were “stiff-necked” and rebellious. All this happened in spite of the “fall” of the nation, the account of which interrupts the two major sections dealing with the tabernacle. The lesson to be learned is this: WHAT GOD PURPOSES TO DO, HE WILL DO, AND JUST AS HE SAID HE WOULD DO IT. This can be seen in all of the fulfilled prophecies of the Bible. Better yet, we can be assured that those unfulfilled prophecies of the Bible will be fulfilled to the letter. What God says, He will do. That is a lesson well worth a little repetition.I'm not sure why I always need reminding that everything is recorded in the Bible because it's important, but somehow, like Tammy mentioned one other time, the tendency is for the eyes to glaze over after a while and we lose the significance of what we're reading. Without focusing and digging a little deeper, we miss out on so much!
Tomorrow's passage: Exodus 37:1-39:31.
12 comments:
I think it's great if people enjoy the work they do and don't find it to be drudgery or something they just get through to bring home their paycheques, but I don't believe for one second that having a two-day weekend is not fulfilling our responsibility to work. I've worked full-time all of my adult life (with the exception of maternity leaves), and the two days off from my job is NOT two days of rest. It involves getting things done at home that can't be done while I'm at work, which in my opinion is still fulfilling our responsibility to work, in that it is a part of providing and caring for our families. It's very common for most people not to take a day of rest at all - certainly not as it's described in the Bible where they couldn't even start a fire.
The weekends also include spending time with family that you don't get to see much of all week long, normally. In the past, families worked together to provide for their needs, and some still do, but most of us do not. Maintaining good relationships is very important and can't be done if you don't spend time together.
Yeah, funny how moms don't get ANY days off!! Even on Sundays, the family still expects to eat!
I meant more where does this idea come from that we seem to feel we DESERVE to not have to do anything (and I mean this as a general societal mentality ~ obviously there will be some exceptions); like because we grudgingly slaved away at our jobs all week, we have a right to be completely self-absorbed for two days? And when we realize it wasn't as relaxing as WE wanted it to be, we're resentful because we didn't get our ME-time in. You know the attitude I'm talking about?
I agree having a weekend doesn't mean we aren't working, but it does seem that the general view of the weekend is rather selfish. At least, that's how I perceived it all the years that I worked full-time. Even now, I still treat it that way a bit, especially if it's a weekend that hubby's home. "Good, FINALLY I get a break from looking after the girls!" ~ that kind of thing.
You know what I'm getting at?
I know what you're getting at and I agree.
I, too, was struck by the fact that they gave so abundantly that they had to stopped from giving more. Wow! And these were the very same stiff-necked people that threw an idol orgy just before this happened!
Hmmm I would disagree about the whole weekend thing. My husband works 14 hours 5-6 days a week, if he didn't have the saturday or atleast the sunday off we would never see him and he would collapse in a heap. When I worked full time I still had to do things on my days off, it wasn't a full time of rest and I think the majority of people are the same. I don't think its selfish to want to have a break or feel that we need to have a break to rest ourselves, spend time with family and friends, and spend time with God.
Thanks for pointing out or linking about the repitition, I know I start to skim and find those parts "boring"
I'm with you Miriam and Nicole, if it weren't for having time to rest on the weekend, how would some of us deal with the stressful work week. Unlike in Biblical times, the work week can be extrememly strenuous both physically and mentaly. I don't think we should sit on the couch all weekend, but we do need to unwind and spend time with family and fellow believers. Otherwise, we would burn out and not hold a very good testimony throughout the week. Even though my "job" is 24 hours a day, seven days a week, I try to take it easier on the weekend, not because I feel I deserve it, or I'm entitled to it, but because I need it!
I don't think we're disagreeing, Nicole ~ I just seem to be having trouble communicating what I'm trying to say today!!
Wow, I must go back and reread that paragraph because it really seems like I'm making the wrong point!!
I don't mean we DON'T deserve a break. I don't begrudge anyone a one or two-day break from their occupation, whatever that may be. Physically, some people wouldn't survive without one!
What I'm trying to get at is more the attitude with which we view those precious few hours each week when we are virtually the sole determiner of how our time will be spent ~ whether it's a couple of hours or two whole days.
Here in North America, it seems the general tendency is to be quite selfish about that time. Again, not that no one deserves down time, and it's one thing for me to say my husband deserves it because he's worked 10 days straight, 16 hours a day, but it's entirely another for me to say I deserve a break and I darn well better get it because I worked my butt off this week! Do you get what I'm saying, or is this still not making any sense?
I think I understand what you're getting at, Tammi. There are a lot of people who are "working for the weekend" because then they get to do things they WANT to do rather than things they HAVE to do. However, I'm sure if you asked most of those people, they're still doing a lot of "have-to" stuff on their weekends as well. They just don't think of it as work in the same way they do their jobs. Those people often have a less-than-stellar attitude at work, as well, because they'd rather be doing something else, which is unfortunate. They're making their own lives harder with such a mentality.
It's of course a curltural thing and not really good or bad, it just happened that way.
I see what you are saying, I think, Tammi. I picture more the people who DON'T have kids look for thost TGIF moments where we don't think of it much except that we don't have to get up for school!:)
I do like that we can do work on Saturday to make Sunday even more restful. I actually try to think of Saturday as mostly a work day so that Sunday is more rest and fellowship. I don't do that for any OT reason, just because it helps our family out.
Back to your post though. I thought it was very good. It reminded me of reading what Randy Alcorn wrote about work on the New Earth.
Here on this earth, I think we really have to concentrate to put our toys (as you say) and our work asside to focus on resting in God and sitting at his feet. TO absorb ourselves in worship and reminders of who he is rather than some of the work or outings that would take that time of worship from us.
Another aspect of work that was not good for this day of the week was that work was for the profit of man's provision. God want's us to give him the day in trust that He is our ultimate provider and we can trust him as we rest for a day. I think some people work all they can to get more money. I even have to remember that some of my housework will still be there for me on Monday. It often makes me think of Martha too, I need to not be Martha all the time!
Can I just candidly say something I've observed from blogs lately and it's happened to me before on other blogs too (including my own and I've done it myself). IT's very hard to say what is in your head sometimes in a blog circle. Not only can this be hard, but everyone reading it is in their own little world coming at what they are reading from their own life perspective and they can take it to mean something it does not, or that it has a tone it doesn't...so much more as well. I'd just like to say as I'm reminding myself of this too lately that these blog groups require a great deal of Christlike grace as we try to patiently hear eachother properly. It's so easy to jump to very drastic and dramatic conclusions from anything we read here.
If we were all in living room together speaking our hearts and able to toss about opinions and ideas and hear the tones, see the facial expressions etc, we would have a benifit we don't have. We are narrowing down communictation down to one level and that can leave room for way too much speculation on the rest of the elements of communication we don't have here.
It's hard to understand eachother, and not to jump to conclusions that would be unfair. I would hope we could lovingly ask questions and be humble. I speak to myself as I say this. Even having a strong idea can come accross stringently to the reader when it's really not intended that way at all! A hypothisis can sound like a staunch conclusion. There are so many variables.
I hope to rememeber to tread lightly and with grace. Try to see the humor when it's there, the random thoughts that may just be bubbling, the excitement of conviction, or whatever it is, all with grace.
Have you guys ever heard this poem? As sisters in the Lord it's a good reminder.
"Oh the comfort,
the inexplicable comfort
of feeling safe with a person - having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out,
just as they are,
chaff and grain together;
certain that a faithful hand
will take and sift them,
keep what is worth keeping
and then with the breath of kindness
blow the rest away."
Do you have friends like that? They are wonderful friends. I hope I can be that kind of friend to anyone here. It's even harder in cyberspace. Cyber conversations take more "breath's of kindness" than talking in person.
I too noticed this attitude more so amongst people who work full time and don't have kids. They seem to live for weekend where they can finally have their ME time.
I think it is easy for everyone to have that attitude.
It's easy for husbands to come home and not want to help out around the house because he's worked all day and wants to relax, and besides it's his wife's job, that's why she's staying home instead of going to work, right?
It's easy for the wife to expect her husband to take over as soon as he gets home because she's exhausted from taking care of the kids all day and just needs a break.
I think so much boils down to attitude.
We need to find work that we enjoy - whether that's staying at home with the kids or working 9-5 or whatever.
We need to remember that we're working for the Lord.
We need to remember that it is a blessing to be ABLE to work.
We need to remember that the Sabbath is a day of rest - for us to both recuperate from the work week, and to find our rest and focus in God.
If our rest days are God focused, and not completely self-focused me-days, we will be rejuvenated.
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