Monday August 23, 2010

Text for the Day -- Nehemiah 13:15-19
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In those days I saw in Judah people treading wine presses on the
sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys;
and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they
brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day; and I warned them at that
time against selling food. Tyrians also, who lived in the city,
brought in fish and all kinds of merchandise and sold them on the
sabbath to the people of Judah, and in Jerusalem. Then I remonstrated
with the nobles of Judah and said to them, "What is this evil thing
that you are doing, profaning the sabbath day? Did not your ancestors
act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us
and on this city? Yet you bring more wrath on Israel by profaning the
sabbath." When it began to be dark at the gates of Jerusalem before
the sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave
orders that they should not be opened until after the sabbath. And I
set some of my servants over the gates, to prevent any burden from
being brought in on the sabbath day.

Devotional
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How often commercial concerns override religious concerns. The
Sabbath was sacred to the Israelites, but it had started to become
profaned by working and buying and selling. Nehemiah put a stop to it
and brought back the Sabbath rest to Jerusalem. It appears that we
may have succumbed to the same temptation to forget the Sabbath and
honor it. Do you yearn for a Sabbath Rest?

Prayer
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Call me into your Rest, O Lord, and renew my spirit. Amen