PILGRIM LUTHERAN CHURCH
  • Home
  • About Us
    • What We Believe
    • History
  • Pastor's Blog
  • Bulletin
  • Contact

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 Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'.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

June 6th, 2020

6/6/2020

0 Comments

 

This Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost, traditionally Trinity Sunday. And this year starts the season of Pentecost with a significant text, the text that quite literally started it all, the creation account [Genesis 1:1-2:4a].


Where to begin when the topic is the beginning? First of all, it should be said—but it also should be obvious—that beginnings are important. They are important for many reasons, but I would like to focus on the structure that they give.

The first words out of the mouth of man have a structure. In his first statement concerning his wife [2:23], the first word that he says also happens to be the middle word and the last word. I do not consider that a coincidence, especially when you look at the text somewhat literally:

        “This, the now bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh, to this, she shall be                called ‘woman’, for from man she was taken, this.”

In the very beginning there was no human being to write down what was happening. And so, we must rely upon God for that information. And God can literally give that information in any way that he wants. Here are the first two verses of the text, the very beginning of the bible, both in Hebrew and in a later Greek translation (usually called the Septuagint), again in a literal translation.

         In beginning God created the heavens and the earth; and the earth was formless             and empty, and darkness over the face of the deep, and spirit of God hovering
         upon the face of the waters.


        In beginning God made the heaven and the earth; and the earth was unsightly and          unfurnished, and darkness was over the abyss; and spirit of God moved over the              water.

It should be said that, first of all, Hebrew is very different from Greek, and there are also a lot of ways in which words could be translated, and often it is better if they are translated in more than one word, but I hope that what is lacking in the Greek translation is somewhat obvious, the mention of ‘face’. To learn a structure of a text, it is important to know what common words or phrases COULD be used, but rarer words or phrases are used instead.
​

The word ‘face’ also appears at a significant point in the second creation account, the one that starts where the Sunday text leaves off. Here, again, is a somewhat literal translation, with some significant words given in bold:

        And any shrub of the field not yet appeared on the earth, and any plant of the                  field not yet sprung up for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and man            was not to work the ground; and a stream came up from the earth and watered all          of the face of the ground; and the LORD God formed man from dust of the
​       ground… (verses 5-7). And the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden            of Eden to work it and care for it (verse 15)….


In the first creation account, the beginning is important. And in the second one, the turning point is important, it is from negative to positive, and this will be the structure for the rest of the book. And both of these important sections contain the word ‘face’.
The word ‘face’ is important because God is important. He is the ultimate king, and it is an important thing to come into the king’s presence, to see his face.

God does other things in this first account that are similar to what a king would do. He calls things a certain name. He sees things with his eyes. He blesses things with his words (the Greek word for ‘bless’ is basically ‘eulogy’, literally ‘good words’).

So, a ‘face’ is mentioned in the creation accounts. And the face of God is important. Does that make a difference? How God is involved with his creation certainly makes a difference. And the beginnings of that involvement are laid out in the rest of Genesis.

Almost from the beginning there is a confusion between who God is and who man is. The woman is tempted with the words, ‘You will be like God (3:5).’ There is also a significant phrase that is repeated twice within the book of Genesis, ‘Am I in the place of God?’

The first time this happens, the favorite wife of Jacob, Rachel, has had no children yet. She says to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or I will die.’ Jacob responds with that question (30:1-2). The second time, the eleven brothers of Joseph have to deal with him after their father dies, and they think that they are going to be punished by him since he has so much power in Egypt now. But Joseph says to them, ‘Do not be afraid.’ And then he tells them those same words (50:19). (It is interesting that the Greek translation here does not make it a question; it has Joseph saying, ‘I am God’s.’ It looks as though there was some debate over the meaning of a Hebrew preposition.)

‘Am I in the place of God?’ is a significant question and can be answered in more than one way. Since we have the luxury of looking back at the past, we can now see how important that question was, especially in the light of Jesus’ death on the cross for us.
Sometimes the luxuries that we have can distract us from a serious study of the text. It is good to be reminded that the first few words or so of a book often gave a hint as to the book’s structure. It may be distracting, with our study bibles, to check out the outline that someone thought up. But the text itself often has the outline within it in some way.

I think this may be the case with the first creation account. Although that account is what most certainly happened, how it is described also provides a summary as to what will happen throughout the book of Genesis. In the same way that the first three days set the stage and the last days fill that stage, the first eleven chapters (which is yet another artificial structure) set the stage, and the rest of the book of Genesis fills that stage with a salvation story, a story which has God extremely involved.

So, it may be just a coincidence that there are two more uses of the word ‘face’ within the creation account, one during the fifth day (verse 20) and the other one during the sixth day (verse 29). It is impossible to say for certain that these words have structural significance, but they may get the reader or the listener prepared to hear something even more significant about God’s involvement in his universe at the middle and the end of the second part of Genesis—that identical question, ‘Am I in the place of God?’

Genesis does not leave us with the answer, in the same way that Deuteronomy does not; and even Malachi falls short as well. The mention of God or face is not to be taken lightly, especially when he has one of them.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About Us
    • What We Believe
    • History
  • Pastor's Blog
  • Bulletin
  • Contact