06 July 2005 Devotion for Today "Hallow My Sabbaths" Ezekiel 20:19-20

06 July 2005  Devotion for Today  “Hallow My Sabbaths”  Ezekiel 20:19-20

            In many counties in rural North Carolina there is no curbside garbage collection, but there are several refuse and recycling points where one can drop off the trash collected from the week.  On a Thursday last week I had taken the trash “to the dump,” only to realize that I had forgotten that the dump was closed on Thursdays.  I should have known that, but I had been so harried by my hectic schedule that it just slipped my mind.  As I read over the sign “Closed Thursday,” I looked over at the other days of the week that the dump is open.  Saturday and Sunday it has an almost normal schedule except that it closes at 5:00PM instead of 7:00PM.  It made my heart sink. “What a travesty,” I thought.  That there is so little regard for God that they would accommodate someone taking their trash to the dump but not give the same time to come to church and worship Him.  I suppose I am still recovering somewhat from the culture shock of Europe where very few places of business- except for restaurants and gas stations- are open on a Sunday.  They would never think of taking a bag of garbage to the dump on Sunday.  This just underscores the spiritual climate of America: not only have we made it possible to take a bag of garbage to the dump, but we have thrown out God with it.  Oh we still make available the worship of God on Sunday, but we have made the worship of everything else available as well.  

            Ezekiel echoes my sentiment in chapter 20 when he says, “I am the Lord your God: Walk in My statutes, keep My judgments and do them: hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God.” (Verses 19-20).  Ezekiel tells us that one of the compelling indicators of what it means to be devoted to God is the time we take to worship Him.  That is what is meant by the word Sabbath in this context.  Of course we know that the Jews considered Sabbath as the time period between sundown Friday evening until the same time the next day on Saturday.  Before we make issues out of days, we might understand the principle of the Sabbath is the designation of a certain day as the time period to dedicate to worshipping and serving the Lord.  The point is that we are making Sunday just like any other day, and that there is cultural pressure to crowd the worship of God out of the weekly schedule altogether.  We must not allow this to happen.

            God has no sympathy for a society that is always complaining of being stressed out and overworked.  There was a time when people worked six days and the only day they had for rest was on Sunday.  They went to church and then came home and rested and visited with friends and relatives.  They went to work for ten hours on Monday fully refreshed to start the week.  When we take the time to honor God, He will also honor us.  What ever day this devotion finds you, have a blessed day!

Rev. Jeffery C. Russell
Salem Baptist Church
Elizabeth City, NC
jefferyrussell@earthlink.net

 

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