In my particular Bible, the "heading" for this week's psalm, which we'll look at tomorrow, is "God's Appeal to Stubborn Israel." Indeed the commandments, and all of the law, are for the purpose of mitigating bad behavior which results from our stubborn, "I'll do it my way, thank you," attitudes. Like a mother reproaching her child, "Don't sass me," God needs to break the bad out of us and make us ready to enter polite society.
But the commandments, like the best understanding of a mother's instructions, are perhaps better received as gift. "Observe the sabbath day" urges us not only to "get our lazy bodies out of bed and go to synagogue," but reminds us of the blessing that we can be to one another. Days of work are necessary and beneficial, but so is the opportunity to connect with others, even strangers. Perhaps, like Jesus, we can do good for them.
Make us thankful for your gift of rest Lord, and remind us to share our lives with others. Amen.
Scott Thompson, '96
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Kalispell, Mont.
Deuteronomy 5:12 Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.
13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work.
14 But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work--you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you.
15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day. (New Revised Standard Version).
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