Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “Rhythms of Rest“. Once again, we look at the Seventh-day Sabbath. But this time, from the point of view of “rest”. I like the way the lesson gives us reasons for this day and the reasons for this “rest” (see Wednesday’s title). And if there is a reason (or reasons) for this Seventh-day Sabbath, then the command to “keep” it holy is not arbitrary (the definition of the word “arbitrary” from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary… “existing or coming about seemingly at random or by chance or as a capricious and unreasonable act of will”). The Sabbath-day rest, the Sabbath-day command, is not arbitrary. There are reasons for it. Just as there are reasons for all God does, for all He commands. And the overarching reason for everything God does is “Love”. Agape-love. Love that will do right for the “other”. At all costs to Himself.
This idea of arbitrariness is not just semantics. Not just a matter of “words”. If (or when) we claim that God does anything arbitrarily, then we are supporting Satan’s claim. We are voicing Satan’s interpretation of the Father. Satan’s accusation. Here is a quote from EGW that says so much about this:
Christ came to save fallen man, and Satan with fiercest wrath met him on the field of conflict; for the enemy knew that when divine strength was added to human weakness, man was armed with power and intelligence, and could break away from the captivity in which he had bound him. Satan sought to intercept every ray of light from the throne of God. He sought to cast his shadow across the earth, that men might lose the true views of God's character, and that the knowledge of God might become extinct in the earth. He had caused truth of vital importance to be so mingled with error that it had lost its significance. The law of Jehovah was burdened with needless exactions and traditions, and God was represented as severe, exacting, revengeful, and arbitrary. He was pictured as one who could take pleasure in the sufferings of his creatures. The very attributes that belonged to the character of Satan, the evil one represented as belonging to the character of God. Jesus came to teach men of the Father, to correctly represent him before the fallen children of earth. Angels could not fully portray the character of God, but Christ, who was a living impersonation of God, could not fail to accomplish the work. The only way in which he could set and keep men right was to make himself visible and familiar to their eyes. That men might have salvation he came directly to man, and became a partaker of his nature” (Signs of the Times, January 20, 1890).
Have you noticed that keeping the Sabbath “holy” is the same thing as “resting”? Holiness is equated with resting. Resting in the finished work of God. Just as it was for the holy-pair in Eden. God finishes the work, we are but to “keep” it (“keep” meaning to nourish and cherish). If we nourish and cherish God’s finished work in our hearts and minds, we will not destroy that finished work, not do things that poison and pervert His work in our minds and hearts. We will endeavor to cooperate with Him in all things. Trust Him by following Him in all things. And “keep” (nourish/ cherish) that finished work in ourselves… in our minds and in our hearts. This is the “rest”. So that the tumult of sin and self-centeredness does not wash over us and carry us away. So we can fully live in perfect peace. “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (Isaiah 26:3).
With brotherly love,
Jim