Thought for the Day – 131 – Rope Yarn
Proverbs 13:3 – Nose
guard, eye guard and even a teeth guard; but the world around us does not use a
guard for the tongue to keep from harming oneself or others. Many broken and
despondent people suffer from a tongue with no guard; the tongue is a sinful poison
out of control. James 3:8
Comments and challenges
Rope Yarn Sunday, is
a U.S. Navy term meaning that there would be an intermission of work during the
middle of the week, usually Wednesday. The last half of a Wednesday, say from
midday until midnight and this time was used by sailors to repair tears the
sails of the ship and working to the more personal items like mending holes in
their clothing as the remainder of the day allowed.
In similar ways
although not exact; Sabbath is a day of intermission; six days of work and on
the seventh day God graded a rest for His people. While the everyday Jew lived
and worked he or she also sought to keep the law; that is to obey God. Since
the Law exposes sin, it did not take long for the leaders to adopt religious
practices to “keep holy the Sabbath day” and say that “no work” was the order
of the day and with that they were satisfied that the whole of the Law of God
was being carried out.
Now was there abuse
in the rope yarn Sundays; yes, men were found sleeping, playing cards and
telling sea stories. Did the Jew abuse the Sabbath? Notice, Ezekiel is speaking
of the Exodus generation and Mark to the Jewish nation, please read Mark on
your own.
Mark 2:22-28 and
Ezekiel 20:11-20 “And I gave them My statutes and showed them my judgments,
which, if a man does, he shall live by them. Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths,
to be a sign between them and Me, that the might know that I am the LORD who
sanctifies them. Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness;
they did not walk in My statutes, they despised My judgments, which, if a man
does, he shall live by them; and they greatly defiled My Sabbaths, then I said I
would pour out My fury on them in the wilderness and consume them.
But I acted for My Name’s
sake, that it should not be profaned before the Gentiles, in whose sight I had
brought them out. So I lifted My hand in an oath to them in the wilderness,
that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with
milk and honey, the glory of all lands, because they despised My judgments and
did not walk in My statutes, but profaned My Sabbaths; for their heart went after
their idols. Nevertheless My eye spared them from destruction. I did not make
an end of them in the wilderness.
But I said to their
children in the wilderness, do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor
observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols. I am the LORD
your God: Walk in My statutes, keep My judgments and do them; hallow my
Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am
the LORD your God. The Jew failed God by using His Sabbaths to play and idol
their day away. Yes God rested on the seventh day and called it Holy, yet He
still maintained the universe, He did not distract Himself with play and sleep
time.
Are we are called to
a Sabbath, yes we are called just as Israel was called to enter into the Rest
of God. The work of God and man is completed in Jesus Christ the Son of God and
Son of man. God looks for you and me to have faith in the completed work of
Jesus Christ when we do we enter into God’s Rest and we stop working out our salvation
and begin resting in our salvation. This work of faith and rest was completed
when the foundations of the earth were set in place, so do you not see that it
is futile to try to do some personal work or idolatrous penance to please God?
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