This morning, at least, I’m thinking that Deuteronomy 11:26-28 and Exodus 20:8-11 are two of the more amazing Scripture snippets that New Covenant believers will rarely, if ever, give the time of day. The “thinking” goes that we are “delivered from” such Old Covenant legalism. After all, Jesus has fulfilled (literal translation: “filled”—Matt. 5:17) the law for us, i.e. grace has “set me free!”.
The problem I see is this: Too often, I fear, our supposedly walking in new covenant “liberty” looks a lot more like either license, lapse, lethargy, or lassitude. My brethren, these things ought not to be so!
Deut. 11:26-28 — Is obedience any less important or required under the new Covenant just because we think “grace” somehow means that, since the cross (and modern psychology), God is now “more understanding” of our frailties?
And Ex. 30:8-11 — Just because the apostle Paul clearly and rightly labored to free his fellow Jew from a works-based understanding of righteousness and devotion, was he now dismissing us from the gift, wisdom, even discipline and — gasp! — command to have an intentional and regular rest (“sabbath”)?
For many of us, have we effectively tossed these two into the back of the closest like an old pair of shoes — worn out, but not sure if we should send them to the landfill, or into the garage like yesterday’s newspaper — relevant then, but not today? You might convince me of the soundness of such actions, if I saw that you were now more in love with the Lord, more at peace, more in daily pursuit of the Lord’s pleasure and of treasures in Heaven, less frantic and distracted, more at rest even in the challenges of living. Wait — did I say “you” in that last run-on sentence? Yeah, let that be inclusive of yours truly.
With today’s musings occurring on a particular Sunday morning (some would say, the Christian “Sabbath”), I invite you (read: “us”) to find the courage to take the off-ramp to the country road named “Pause”, where lingering, even meandering in His presence, where pondering the value of our recent endeavors, where inviting a renewed rush of the Holy Spirit into His temple that is our body, all might have a chance to happen…if we’ll have the courage to be so “legalistic”.
May we thereby remember who is God, and who is not. May we be still in the presence of His holiness. And may we then carry that holy sabbath rest with us when we reengage the “rush hour” that can too easily reduce us again to confusion, collusion, confusion, and/or compromise.
“Come to me, all you weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest…” Jesus, our Sabbath rest (Mt. 11:28; Heb. 4:1-12).
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