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A Sabbath Day's Journey

By: Rev. Paul Landgraf
What is a Sabbath day's journey? First of all, it is a Jewish expression. We measure distances in meters or yards. The Jews had a certain distance that they could walk on Saturday before it would be considered work. So their synagogues that they went to on Saturday could not be very far away. The word appears only in Acts 1:12 and indicates a distance of about three-quarters of a mile.

With that in mind, I think it is important to remember the origins of Christianity. Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'. Much of the Old Testament has a literary structure that we are not aware of because of our modern emphasis on chapter and verse divisions. Within many of these blogs, I try to get the reader to see a bigger picture, a larger perspective that often includes the Old Testament and the environment that was present when the New Testament was seeing the Light of the day.

Second, a Sabbath day's journey is intentionally short. These 'journeys' with a text, almost always one of the three readings for that Sunday, are deliberately brief discussions. This blog was never designed to be a comprehensive look at any text. Sometimes a specific word is studied in detail. But, as a whole, a blog entry, by itself, is meant to be quite brief.

Finally, since the term 'Sabbath day's journey' appears in Acts, it is meant to appeal to a wide variety of people. This blog is meant for those who cannot come on Sunday mornings. And it is also for those who do come on Sunday mornings but would also like a further study of the text. It is also for those who live somewhere else in the world (besides Drake and Freedom, Missouri, USA) and would simply like a further study of the text. It was meant to get these different groups of people to start thinking about the biblical texts. Part of the reason for this blog is that I am not able to have a bible class on Sunday mornings with either congregation, and so, to have a blog like this seemed like a good idea. I hope it is helpful for you, in whatever situation you may be.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. And thank you for taking the time to read this!

January 2nd, 2021

1/2/2021

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The Old Testament reading for the Second Sunday after Christmas is near the beginning of First Kings [3:4-15]. Several weeks ago, we looked at the beginning of 1 Samuel. The point was made then, and that point also applies to this book, that we should not look at this part of the Old Testament as simply information. The point of its presence in the Old Testament is much more important than that. SALVATION—not information—is the more important topic.

The argument was made several weeks ago that the translation of the Old Testament into Greek (the Septuagint) seems to support that emphasis. That translation happened between the Testaments, sometime after the rise of Alexander the Great, and that translation is helpful in understanding both testaments and their connection to each other. Will a similar emphasis on salvation appear within First Kings?

It probably should be said at this point that, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, this book is called THIRD Kings. This different title helps a little to get the focus off a particular person and on to more important things—the job of those who were called ‘kings’ and especially the ULTIMATE King.

This book of First/Third Kings starts at the point of the transition between David and Solomon. The text for this Sunday has Solomon as the official king, and the Lord appears to him in a dream at night and basically says that he has one wish—he can ask for anything. Solomon ends up asking for wisdom, and the Lord ends up giving him that, along with several other things he did not ask for, because what he asked for was something so special.

Here is a somewhat-literal translation of the Hebrew text, the last verse of the reading for this Sunday:

And Solomon awoke, and, behold, a dream, and he came, Jerusalem, and he stood before the face of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and he offered burnt-offerings, and he made peace-offerings, and he made a feast for all his servants.

Here is that same verse, but in a somewhat-literal translation of the Greek text:

And Solomon awoke, and, behold, a dream, and he arose, and he comes into Jerusalem, and he stood before the face of the altar, which was before the face of the ark of the covenant of the Lord in Zion, and he offered whole-burnt-offerings and made peace-offerings, and he made a large banquet for himself and for all the servants of him.

As always, much could be said about all the differences between the two texts, but this is the very first time in First (or Third) Kings that there is an historical present. Instead of saying ‘he came to Jerusalem’, the Greek text said that he ‘comes’. It almost looks like a mistake since the verb right before the word is in the past tense.

If Solomon would simply come to Jerusalem, that would not be an important event. But the ark of the covenant is there, and that is where the Lord promised to be. And Solomon had just talked to the Lord in a dream. And the emphasis on being before that special place, with the word ‘face’ being twice in the Greek text (when it is only once in the Hebrew), reminds us that it is an important thing to be before the Lord.

Being in the Lord’s presence has ramifications, and those can be indicated with the present tense. The book of Exodus has one of its first historic presents in a somewhat-similar situation. Moses talked to the LORD in the burning bush, and then he went to his father-in-law, and the Greek text has it that he SAYS something to his father-in-law—the text does not say that he ‘said’ something [the Septuagint, Exodus 4:18]. Talking to your father-in-law is not always important, but when the LORD talks you, the ramifications of THAT talk ARE important.
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Ramifications are like a weight or significance, and that is the word for ‘glory’ in the Old Testament, and that is what the living creatures of the LORD’s throne show—the LORD’s glory, his ramifications, his significance. And it should not be surprising, then, that we have four gospel accounts and that these accounts are connected to these four living creatures of the LORD’s throne. We do not need four history lessons; we need one way of salvation. And those four accounts ultimately point to one very special thing.
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