Weekday World
This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 NASB
Day – Yom, the Hebrew word for “day,” is the most common word describing time in the Tanakh. You might think that this is to be expected. After all, the common experience of life is day-by-day. The regular occurrence of day and night not only establishes the routine of our world but also affects the biological clocks of all living things. If you don’t think that is true, just trying staying awake for three or four days.
So far, so good. But now we run into a very interesting oddity. In spite of the fact that “day” is so common in Scripture, no words exist for the names of days. In fact, in Hebrew, the days are simply numbered one to seven with all of the emphasis and reference taken from the seventh day, the Sabbath day. Our words for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc. all come from other languages. All of our day names were originally associated with the names of pagan gods. The names of our days carry with them what was once the worship of a false god. Isn’t it interesting that Hebrew never had any names like these? In the Hebrew mind, all days were the same except one, the one day that God called for rest, the day set aside for Him.
Cultural worldview is often revealed in the distribution and emphasis of the culture’s language. For example, the languages of some Eskimo tribes have more than forty words for various kinds of snow. We have one word. Why? Because snow is not a major determining factor in our lives. But we have hundreds of words for machine and technology. What does that say about what is important to us? Now think about the names of days in our culture. In the Hebrew mind, only one day really matters and no day deserved to be held in respect to another god. God was in charge of all the days equally. But what about us? Do we treat every day as equally unimportant with respect to God’s day of separation and rest? Or do we think of the horrors of Monday (the beginning of the work week), the Wednesday hump, the Friday relief and the weekend of freedom? Have we not really assigned practical deities to each of these days? Are we not actually serving the false gods of named days as we prioritize, categorize and idolize some days more than others? And here’s the real revelation: Do we evaluate all of our days in reference to the only day that God named? Do we have the same view of days that God does? Do you practice Hebrew thought by honoring the only day YHVH set aside for rest? Do you think of your week as culminating in the glory of Shabbat? Or does Sunday (for the sun god) start your next seven sequence?
The world serves its own gods. Some of those gods are deeply hidden in our language. Just using the remnants of ancient names reorients our worldview. Language inherits packaged perspectives. God’s point of view asks us to see our world through His eyes. What does that mean for the way you think about the days of your life? What does it mean for you today?
Topical Index: day, yom, Shabbat, Psalm 118:24
This is the day that the LORD has made; I will be glad in it (YOM)!
I was raised in a “Sabbath keeping” legalistic denomination, As a child Sunday was my favorite day, no school & could do pretty much as I wanted, Friday was not so good as Mom was frantically cleaning house and baking for Sabbath and was no fun to be around. Sabbath was a countdown to sun down when we could do as we pleased again.
Praise be to YA. Shabbat is now may favorite day and I love the other Sabbaths as well.
Also, “six days shalt thou labor”. sunday is not a weekly vacation!
I’ve slowly migrated over to observing Shabbat. It is a difficult task to unlearn so many years of habit in order to make this day set apart. So many things come in to play and challenge the endeavor. Sometimes my work interrupts it, but I do what I can to set this day apart and to simply focus on YHWH. I do know that I have made Sunday a regular “work” day now and I do not feel the guilt of not attending a church service any more. I don’t want this to be a negative statement, but the few times I’ve ended up attending a familiar church service for whatever reason, each time it has felt like a hollywood performance. The big screens, the “shows” on stage and the DisneyWorld like atmosphere hasn’t really been missed.
Shabbat observance, on the other hand, is a whole new way of life, particularly since the day starts on our Friday night and ends on a Saturday night. Totally against the grain of the world we live in these days.
I visited my work office in Atlanta, GA recently (I live in Columbus, GA) and our Mormon secretary that sits at the front door greeted me with “Did you have a good Easter?” I answered, “I had a great week end and Shabbat!” She asked, “Oh, are you Jewish?” I said, “No.” She then inquired, “Oh, don’t you celebrate Easter?” I mentioned I am thankful and glad Yeshua rose from the dead and conquered death, but I pretty much celebrate that all throughout the year.” She asked, “Who is Yeshua?” and then quickly answered her own question by saying, “Oh, that’s another name for Jesus, right?” I answered, “Well, actually, Jesus is another name for Yeshua.” She said, “Oh,” and then stated that she thought I was a christian. I said, “Well, I love Yeshua and do my absolute best to love and follow him.” And being the friendly person that she is, said, “Oh, Ok. That’s cool.”
I have so many interesting conversations these days. Answering questions that put a puzzling look on people’s faces has been sort of fun when you answer them in a friendly and non-confrontational but uncompromising way. I usually have a grin or smile on my face when I’m answering these questions and most just ponder and move on to other subjects.
I use to be more confrontational about these differences, but now just go with the flow and answer whatever questions that arise. The atmosphere stays friendly and respectful, however, I can usually tell that my unexpected traditional answers tend to leave them with that wondering and thoughtful disposition.
It has been kind of fun of late.
I think that’s the key, Michael. Be friendly, and honest in our answers. If people are curious, they will ask the questions they are ready to consider.
Yepper. 🙂
“untraditional” answers
“Do we evaluate all of our days in reference to the only day that God named?”
So Skip for the new readers could you very briefly explain the significance of naming something?
How about I just refer them to things already written on this site. There are lots of them on this issue.