Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
I imagine you’ve never forgotten your birthday and maybe you even have some special things you like to do on that day, don’t you? I wonder if you feel the same about other special holidays too… like Christmas or Thanksgiving? Do you think God has a special holiday which He invites you and me to celebrate?
Recently we’ve been traveling with a huge throng of about 1 million people, most of them Hebrews who only 90 days ago, or so, were in Egypt living as slaves. But God delivered them miraculously, as you know, and God led them through the Red Sea to a mountain in the Sinai desert known as Horeb or Sinai. Here these people are actually having a multi-sensory encounter with Almighty God, the Creator of the universe. This encounter is recorded for us in Exodus 19 & 20, and I left you yesterday with these people actually hearing the voice of God speak His instructions to them about how to live a life of freedom from slavery that He has designed for His people to live in relationship with God! The Exodus record says God spoke these words next: “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six day you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God… For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Ex. 20:8-11)
So let me ask you my friends, all around the world… in the traditions of your family heritage, what is ‘Sabbath’? In the customs of the country or city where you live, what is ‘Sabbath’? And finally, in your heart, in your personal life… what is ‘Sabbath’? Here in Exodus 20 it’s really quite clear isn’t it? ‘Sabbath’ is a day of physical rest and spiritual refreshment, which memorializes what God did in His creation week and especially what He did on that seventh day of rest. These were slaves… the only time they got some time off was when their slavemasters decided to give them time off. There was no ‘slave union’ in Egypt in those days!! God was here introducing a radical new lifestyle! ‘Sabbath’ is God’s design for keeping a human life in proper balance. In fact, I just discovered something as I’m writing this… add one letter to the word REST and you’ll find the purpose of ‘Sabbath’… RESET! You understand what the ‘reset’ button does on almost everything electronic, right? That’s what ‘Sabbath’ should do in our lives…R E S E T us for living another week of life!
Our bodies need rest from the work, busyness and burdens of the week. Our minds need rest and renewal from the pressures of life. Our spiritual hearts need refreshment and realignment with the heart of God. That is what God intends ‘Sabbath’ to accomplish! So for you, how do each of these things happen best? I have found ‘Sabbath’ needs to be a day of intentional, strategic use of the time, as well as activities which refresh us and realign us with God, and then will position and prepare us for the week ahead. Do you know yourself well enough to know what each of those key elements to a healthy “Sabbath” are for you?
So again I ask, in your childhood family, what did you learn about ‘Sabbath’? In your adult years, what has ‘Sabbath’ been for you and what have you taught your children and grandchildren about ‘Sabbath’? What is your life like WITHOUT any ‘Sabbath’? What if ‘Sabbath’ for you is simply a day off from work without any spiritual refreshment? How would you benefit if ‘Sabbath’ became for you all that God intended ‘Sabbath’ to be, every week, for the rest of your life?
Now, have you noticed my friends, that each of the first four “Commandments” which God spoke to the people at Sinai were about God’s design for their healthy, fulfilling relationship with God? Why? Because that is the most important relationship each person has in their life and our relationship with God defines and aligns all our other human relationships. So the next six Commandments focus on how to live God honoring inter-personal relationships with others, beginning with our family. “Honor your father and mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” (Ex. 20:12) There it is my friends, a glimpse into God’s PRIORITY on healthy relationships.
First… a healthy relationship between each of us and God, personally, individually. No relationship is more important in any life than their relationship with God!!
So in a few words, how would you describe your relationship with God, my friend? ________________________________________________________
Is it all God wants it to be?
Second, a healthy relationship between each of us and our parents should be a relationship which honors our parents as the man and woman who partnered with God in our conception and brought us into the world!
Conception is impossible without the partnership of male, female and God! So let me ask my friends, do you think God is speaking Exodus 20:12 primarily to little children or perhaps teenagers? Is this a command intended to instruct children on obedience and give parents freedom to discipline as needed? Or, is this a life long command… that each of us should honor our parents from the moment we are old enough to know them till the day WE die… not the day THEY, our parents, die! If your parents are already deceased, are you living in a way which honors them?
Now in a perfect utopia this would be easy for everyone, but with so many broken marriages, broken families, and so much dysfunction in relationships between parents and their children… how do you suggest we practically live this God command? How do children honor alcoholic parents, or adulterous or abusive or absentee or addicted parents? How do children honor parents who have lived or are living wicked lives? How do children honor incarcerated parents, or parents who abandoned them, or even parents who attempted to abort them before they were born!?
Did you know the Apostle Paul quoted this commandment in the letter he wrote to the Christians in Ephesus? After writing about what a God honoring marriage is in Eph. 5:21-33, Paul writes: “Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother – which is the first commandment with a promise – ‘that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.’ Fathers, do not exasperate your children, instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” (Eph. 6:1-4) So what is God saying to you and me here? Did your father bring you up in the training and instruction of the Lord? And how do you honor your father if he did not?
My guess is God paused right here for a while and let these Hebrews, of all ages, ponder this powerful statement: “Honor your father and mother so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” (Ex. 20:12) Which of those Hebrews knew the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and the God they worshipped well… because even though slaves, their parents made sure the children knew of God? Which of those Hebrews had grown up in families which had turned away from God?
Every person standing at the mountain that day had to deeply internalize what God was saying… just like every person today must wrestle with the life long implications of these words. I invite you… ask Jesus to show you how can you bring glory to God by honoring your parents, whether they are alive or dead, whether they knew God or not, whether they pointed you to God or not… let’s spend the rest of today wrestling with how to obey this commandment for the rest of our lives!
Regardless of the type of parents you had or have, here’s a song to help us consider how to thank God for our parents and honor them:
Today’s Scripture is Exodus 20:8-12.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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