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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 Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'.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 27th, 2019

7/27/2019

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Last week, the Old Testament reading was from Genesis 18:1-10a, with the option of the reading going until verse 14. This week, it is interesting that the Old Testament reading essentially follows last week's reading. 
There is the option of verses 17-19, but the main text is Genesis 18:20-3. 
It often happens that the Gospel texts follow one another, and this also often happens with the Epistle texts, but, when it comes to the Old Testament, this is extremely rare.

I would also like this week to look at a slightly bigger picture of the book of Genesis. 
There will still be other chances to look at a particular text. But it is often nice to see 
the bigger perspective.

The structure of Genesis is NOT a structure of chapter and verse. That structure was 
imposed upon it at a later time. The main structural format within Genesis is a 
concentric structure, in other words, ABCBA (although there are usually a lot more 
letters involved). We are basically used to ABC. And I think we are also used to ABCA 
when, for example, the preacher brings up the same point that he made at the 
beginning of the sermon. It helps to 'go back to the beginning' in a way. And the 
important things should be emphasized repeatedly. But, in this case, the middle thing 
is even more important.

The writer of this book, traditionally Moses, did a good job making sure the structure fit together well. A literary work can fit together well historically, and it can fit together theologically, but it does not always have to fit together in a literary way. This work happens to do that though.

This concentric structure can be seen in the Flood account. It is also in the story of 
Abraham, and it also comes up later with Jacob and Rachel (and it is also present in a 
slightly different way in the story of Joseph). I like to look at the 'opposite' text, the 
text that is a negative one that goes along with another text on the opposite, positive 
side of the structure. The negative text happens to be the text for this Sunday.

With a concentric structure, the outline turns around in the middle and switches from a negative theme to a positive one. Some think that the turning point in this part of 
Genesis is the birth of Isaac or circumcision. But I think the turning point here is the 
same that is seen in the Flood account, and it is the same one that is seen later with 
Jacob and Rachel. It is this: 'And God remembered....' That is a very nice and important 
thing.

In Genesis 8:1, God remembered Noah, and things started to get better. In Genesis 30:22, 'God remembered Rachel', and she started having children. And, in the part of 
Genesis that we are looking at, there is hidden away, in Genesis 19:29, 'So it was that, 
when God destroyed the cities of the valley [Sodom and Gomorrah], God 
remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when 
he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.'

So, in Genesis 18, we are looking at Abraham 'interceding' for Sodom. This is the 
'negative' interceding. Abraham starts by saying that, if fifty righteous people lived in 
the city, it would not be fair to kill them as well. He then 'works' the Lord down a 
ways; he goes from fifty, to forty-five, to forty, to thirty, to twenty, and then, 
finally, to ten. Obviously, there were not ten good people there.

After the turning point of 19:29, things get much better. And I see the opposite of the 
above text in Abraham 'interceding' for Abimelech. This guy had just taken Sarah for his 
wife, and God came to him in a dream and literally said that he was a dead man (20:3).
 Abimelech makes the case that he did not know that Abraham and Sarah were married. And God accepts that. He also says this: 'Now then, return the man's wife, for he is a 
prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live (verse 7).'

This happens to be the first use of the word 'prophet' in the Old Testament. Now I 
thought THAT intercession went much better ... and faster. And God turns out to be 
very gracious--not a big surprise.

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