Project 5782 | Day 19

Respond in Faith
~ Sabbath Day ~

Scripture Portion

Job 37.1-13

¹ “At this also my heart trembles
and leaps out of its place.
² Keep listening to the thunder of his voice
and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.
³ Under the whole heaven he lets it go,
and his lightning to the corners of the earth.
⁴ After it his voice roars;
he thunders with his majestic voice,
and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard.
⁵ God thunders wondrously with his voice;
he does great things that we cannot comprehend.
⁶ For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’
likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour.
⁷ He seals up the hand of every man,
that all men whom he made may know it.
⁸ Then the beasts go into their lairs,
and remain in their dens.
⁹ From its chamber comes the whirlwind,
and cold from the scattering winds.
¹⁰ By the breath of God ice is given,
and the broad waters are frozen fast.
¹¹ He loads the thick cloud with moisture;
the clouds scatter his lightning.
¹² They turn around and around by his guidance,
to accomplish all that he commands them
on the face of the habitable world.
¹³ Whether for correction or for his land
or for love, he causes it to happen.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.

Hebrews 11.1-3, 39-40

¹ Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ² For by it the people of old received their commendation. ³ By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

³⁹ And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, ⁴⁰ since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

ESV

Sacrifice of Our Lips/Praise

Fruit of Our Lips

Liturgical Portion

Note: When reading the Psalm, if you are with another person or a group, the “leader” can read the first part of each verse, then pause at the * mark. The next person or the rest of the group can read the remainder of the verse after the * mark. You can also split the verses by groups, e.g., a traditional split is the men in the group will read one part of the verse and the women read the next part (another traditional split would be one side of the room and then the other side of the room).

Psalm 37

¹ Fret not yourself because of the ungodly, *
neither be envious of those who are evildoers.

² For they shall soon be dried up like the grass, *
and be withered even as the green herb.

³ Put your trust in the Lord, and do good; *
dwell in the land, and surely you shall be fed.

⁴ Delight yourself in the Lord, *
and he shall give you your heart’s desire.

⁵ Commit your way unto the Lord and put your trust in him, *
and he shall bring it to pass.

⁶ He shall make your righteousness as clear as the light *
and your just dealing as the noonday.

⁷ Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; *
do not grieve yourself over the one whose way prospers,
over the one who carries out evil counsels.

⁸ Refrain from wrath, and let go of anger; *
fret not yourself, lest you be moved to do evil.

⁹ For evildoers shall be rooted out, *
but those who wait patiently for the Lord, they shall inherit the land.

¹⁰ Yet a little while, and the ungodly shall be clean gone; *
you shall look for their place, and they shall not be there.

¹¹ But the meek-spirited shall possess the land *
and shall be refreshed with an abundance of peace.

¹² The ungodly plot against the just *
and gnash at them with their teeth.

¹³ The Lord shall laugh at them in scorn, *
for he sees that their day is coming.

¹⁴ The ungodly have drawn out the sword and have bent their bow *
to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay those who walk aright.

¹⁵ Their sword shall go through their own heart, *
and their bow shall be broken.

¹⁶ The little that the righteous has *
is better than great riches of the ungodly.

¹⁷ For the arms of the ungodly shall be broken, *
but the Lord upholds the righteous.

¹⁸ The Lord knows the days of the godly, *
and their inheritance shall endure for ever.

¹⁹ They shall not be confounded in perilous times, *
and in the days of famine they shall have enough.

²⁰ As for the ungodly, they shall perish, and the enemies
of the Lord shall be consumed as in a fiery furnace; *
even as smoke shall they vanish away.

²¹ The ungodly borrow and do not repay, *
but the righteous are merciful and generous.

²² Those who are blessed by God shall possess the land, *
but those who are cursed by him shall be rooted out.

²³ The Lord orders a man’s steps; *
he makes his footsteps sure and preserves him on his path.

²⁴ Though he fall, he shall not be cast down, *
for the Lord upholds him with his hand.

²⁵ I have been young, and now I am old, *
yet I never saw the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging bread.

²⁶ The righteous is ever merciful in lending, *
and his seed shall be blessed.

²⁷ Flee from evil, and do that which is good, *
and dwell in the land for ever.

²⁸ For the Lord loves that which is right; *
he forsakes not those who are godly, and they are preserved for ever.

²⁹ The unrighteous shall be punished; *
as for the seed of the ungodly, it shall be rooted out.

³⁰ The righteous shall inherit the land *
and dwell therein for ever.

³¹ The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, *
and his tongue talks of judgment.

³² The law of his God is in his heart, *
and his footsteps shall not falter.

³³ The ungodly lie in wait for the righteous *
and seek occasion to slay him.

³⁴ The Lord will not leave him in their hand, *
nor allow him to be condemned when he is judged.

³⁵ Hope in the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt you
so that you shall possess the land; *
when the ungodly perish, you shall see it.

³⁶ I myself have seen the ungodly in great power, *
and flourishing like a tree in full leaf.

³⁷ I went by, and behold, they were gone; *
I sought them, but their place could nowhere be found.

³⁸ Mark the blameless, and take heed of the upright, *
for there is a future for the peaceable.

³⁹ As for the transgressors, they shall perish together, *
and the end of the ungodly is that they shall be rooted out at the last.

⁴⁰ But the salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord, *
who is also their strength in the time of trouble.

⁴¹ And the Lord shall stand by them and save them; *
he shall deliver them from the ungodly and shall save them,
because they put their trust in him.

The Psalter, Book of Common Prayer, Anglican Liturgy Press: Huntington Beach, 2019, pgs. 314-316

Prayer

Prayer of Faith by Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626)

Coming unto God,
I believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him:
I know that my Redeemer liveth;
that He is the Christ the Son of the Living God;
that He is indeed the Saviour of the world;
that He came into the world to save sinners,
of whom I am chief.
Through the grace of Jesus Christ
we believe that we shall be saved
even as our fathers withal.
I believe verily to see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.

[You can find more prayers by Lancelot Andrewes here.]

Threads of the Divine Nature of Jesus | Week 3 | The High Priest

Saturday! The Sabbath day! A day of rest and worship. The day to refocus your attention on the Most Hight and to evaluate your past week and your priorities. The day to really spend time focusing on the eternal and not temporal.

Yet, we live in the temporal and still have temporal needs. The disciples, spending time walking around with Jesus on the Sabbath, were no different. They got hungry! While walking through a grain field, they took some of the heads of grain and ate them.

 

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

 

The problem with this? They were Sabbath breakers! Or, so said the Pharisees. Jesus chides these leaders and explains that neither he or his disciples broke the Sabbath. They just didn’t abide by the rules set by the Pharisees regarding the Sabbath. These are very different things. Jesus ends this part of the conversation by saying that he is the Lord of the Sabbath. Now, there is much there that speaks to the divine nature of Jesus, but I want to touch on something a bit more subtle.

Here is the passage in view; Matthew 12.1-8:

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

I find verse three very interesting. Jesus is making the point to these leaders that what the disciples are doing is okay because, well, David broke the rules and ate food he wasn’t supposed to eat, so why can’t the disciples, right?! At least, that’s how it seems to read to us. However, it is highly likely these leaders knew the details of this David story well and caught some of the subtleties of it. Let us go to that story and see what takes place. We find it in 1 Samuel 21.1-6:

Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” ² And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. ³ Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” ⁴ And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” ⁵ And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” ⁶ So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.

Did David eat bread that he wasn’t allowed to eat? Yes, he did! However, did he unlawfully go into the Temple and take the bread, breaking God’s holy Laws? No, he did not! He beseeched the priest for bread and the priest granted David the shewbread – the bread that was consecrated only for the priests. David received permission from the one that had lawful access to the bread, took it as a gift and then he ate it. So, what are we seeing with the disciples?

 

Picture used from bcooper

 

We see the disciples being accused of breaking the laws of the Sabbath. We see Jesus standing up in their defense. We see Jesus make a parallel to David, lawfully beseeching a priest for bread and the priest making the decision to grant David bread that he did not have access to.

Jesus, by his actions and then his defense, is declaring, as the Lord of the Sabbath, that he is the priest granting permission to his followers access to what was “not allowed” for them. He granted them legal access to partake. He is the eternal and divine priest. He is the one who was serving when the Father showed Abraham the pattern of the Tabernacle in heaven. As declares Hebrews 6.20, “where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

He is the eternal one! He is the divine one! He grants us legal access to places we dare not tread alone. Indeed, the vail is torn asunder!

May your thoughts abide in Christ on this day. Shabbat Shalom!

 

[Scriptures taken from the ESV]

7-Word Story | Erev Shabbat

 

 

As Friday dwindles, may worship be sweet!

 

© Joshua Curtis, 2019