Yesterday I talked about the concept of Sabbath and how it pre-dates the laws surrounding it; how the seventh day was declared a holy day of rest in the very beginning. As legalists typically do, people tend to get caught up in the rules and regulations of spiritual ideas instead of the idea itself. Christians today still argue about Saturday vs. Sunday (Sabbath vs. the Lord’s day) and what you can and cannot do on those days. In the days of Jesus, the Pharisees had an elaborate system of man made rules that governed how much you could do before it was work, how far you could walk and a multitude of other hair splitting regulations for Sabbath observance. I find this fascinating when we consider the text before us in Joshua.
If you remember the story of Jericho, Joshua did several things to prepare the people for battle. First, they circumcised all the uncircumcised men and then they observed the Passover. The manna ceased appearing that day and they began eating directly from this new land of milk and honey. Then… they went to war. For six days they marched around Jericho in preparation for the coming battle. Then on THE SEVENTH DAY they marched around the city seven times. I wonder what the Pharisees in Jesus’ day would have said about that? Remember that in Joshua they already had the mosaic law; they were people who were keeping the sabbath and now the Passover. On what would have been the day of the conclusion of the feast of unleavened bread they went to war and destroyed their enemies. This was likely not very restful and it was obviously not typical Sabbath behavior 😊, but remember that God had declared the day holy and obeying Him in everything is always the right thing.
The sad note for me is the following chapter. Immediately upon their miraculous victory in Jericho, the very next verse states, “The Israelites, however, were unfaithful regarding the things set apart for destruction.” (7:1a) A glorious victory for the Lord is followed by an inglorious debacle at Ai, and a sad tale of an entire family who suffers because of unfaithfulness. Faithfulness is another concept we will pursue this year, and what is significant here is that our faithfulness (or lack of it) effects more than just ourselves. Often our family, our friends, our church and all those around us are blessed by the Lord when we are faithful. By contrast they also suffer the consequences when we are not. Faithfulness in all things, including keeping a personal sabbath, is not about man made rules… it is about demonstrating our allegiance to a God who has declared that we exist for His glory.
