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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 Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'.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!

July 24th, 2021

7/24/2021

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The Old Testament reading for this Sunday is directed toward part of the Flood account [Genesis 9:8-17], and much could be said about this. People have focused on the Flood for MANY years (although it has not been MILLIONS of years), especially since a worldwide flood left the earth, in some ways, as if it had evolved over millions of years.

The nice thing from a literary perspective is that what is given is not just accurate, both historically and theologically, but this account also an emphasis on God’s remembering (see Genesis 8:1). That is what is in the center of a concentric structure which is the account of the Flood, but actually it is the account of Noah’s ‘account’ (or ‘lineage’ or ‘generation’). This is an important word throughout the Pentateuch.

There are ‘accounts’ from Genesis 2:4 to Numbers 3:1. And at the middle of this account of Noah, there is the phrase that ‘God remembered Noah.’ That’s an important factor, and it makes a difference to the rest of the account.

What is interesting is that, after the text for this Sunday, within this account of Noah something happens that is somewhat negative. Noah drinks too much wine. It’s a dangerous thing, and other writers have brought that point up elsewhere.

That ‘situation’ about Noah is started with this interesting phrase (9:20a): ‘Noah began to be a man of the soil.’ For one thing, the word ‘began’ is related to the idea of profanity, and that is certainly not a good thing. The word is used before this at Genesis 6:1 when the so-called ‘sons of God’ do not begin to do a good job with the daughters of men, and, at this very point, God gives his first mention of the punishment of the Flood. Another point that could be made is that the word ‘soil’ is like the name ‘Adam’, and that also takes us back to a bad thing. Because of sin of the first two people, the LORD God curses the soil.
​

These negative points on the end of certain sections may be found elsewhere in the Old Testament. Sometimes things are left in a very bad situation. This happens at the end of Genesis, at the end of the Pentateuch, and at the end of the entire Old Testament. Comparisons can be made to the present. When something bad happens, that may actually turn into a very good thing. For both the ancient and the modern groups of people, it is a nice thing to remember that ‘God remembers’. A bigger perspective is usually much more helpful.

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