From Cheryl on Today’s Webinar
I had the pleasure of participating in a group gathering for Dr. Skip Moen’s Hebrew Word Study Group
from “At God’s Table” Ministry. This is a community of believers daring to investigate and think about what they believe from a truly Biblical Perspective with other believers across denominational and faith barriers. I hope you will check it out. Also, sign up for the 30 Days of the Hebrew Worldview so that you can get up to speed on some of the concepts that are foundational to these often erudite discussions.
This morning’s discussion was about the Sabbath, which has been a frequent topic in Today’s Word, Dr. Moen’s daily blog. There was a power point presentation which we all got a copy of later, and the topic was one we all need to deal with. Here is my take on what I learned.
Very much like parents mandating activities for their kids, because they understand more about what their kids truly need; God ordains Sabbath so we, His Children, get off our too busy Hamster Wheels and realize what we are missing. As an old saying opines, “It’s a have to be there moment”.
Additionally, as busy as we are, we do not even notice how much time we spend on said Hamster wheel, nor do we feel the effects until and unless we experience the opposite of the continuum, REST. The supposed time that is saved on the various electronics and other devices is really a misnomer. We just do more with the time…like a junkie. Like an intervention, Sabbath puts us in touch with the “atsav” we avoid.
The time we spend with the various diversions we have, alienates us to some degree from people or distorts our view of face to face relationships. That being said, Sabbath, confronts us with the reality of reality, which is iconoclastic to the virtual reality that consumes our other six days. The reality of the Kingdom, its timeframe, while it is different, beckons us like a Homerian Siren.
The REAL reality we face in Sabbath faces us with the limits of our tech savvy world and our progressive genius. It shows us a place where time goes on forever (or at least seems that way), and it slows and quiets us to hear what is important in our relationships to HaShem and His creation.
Sabbath is a required healing space that God has created and ordained according to His time and His space to keep us from dissolving into our self-destructive pursuits.
When we give our control of our time (chronos) to a God who can transform it into His time (Kairos) , then we are awakened to the possibilities of a life that we have not even imagined. By stopping our striving for control, we see that we really didn’t have any of that; nor did we need it, really.
We are always in a hurry to get somewhere; but where are we going? In our Greek, linear, thinking, we are in a hurry to move forward. Like the kid in the car, always saying, “are we there yet?”, we strive to get there faster or first.
What if there isn’t anywhere to go? What if the Kingdom that we are looking for is not a place at all? What if, as we speed along in our go fast cars, we are missing the mark? (Chata) Hmm? that’s the same root for the word sin. What would the other end of the continuum be for that? Yara! Hey, isn’t that the root word for Torah? Wow, what an insight. What if the things we thought of as places, were only that way because of our world view? What if what we thought were places were really people or relationship? Like, Kingdom of God, an evasive synonym for God Himself, or the personification of Torah, Yeshua Himself? Maybe we ought to stop, and spend a little time with the person who has the answers. Maybe in sitting with Him, and resting like He says we should do, we will find the place that we are rushing toward; a relationship with God could just be that place.
