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 Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'.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

The Start of "A Sabbath Day's Journey"

10/1/2016

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​The Jews weren't supposed to work on Saturday. "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy."
They were supposed to rest. They were supposed to remember that their Creator rested on that seventh day. They were supposed to remember that their Creator was also their Redeemer when he rescued them from their slavery. Now that's real rest.
By the act of resting, the Jews were to remember the bigger things. The best way to do that is in worship, really 'worthy-ship'. At worship a person remembers the things that are really worth something.
So the Jews weren't supposed to walk too far. That would be a distraction.
A Sabbath day's journey is only about a half of a mile. Officially it's two thousand cubits--with a cubit being about eighteen inches. It wasn't much, and it was designed to be that way. It was that way because something else was much bigger, much more important.
That's the idea behind this 'blog'. It's meant to be weekly. It's also meant to be brief. More importantly is that it will reflect that there's something else out there that's much bigger, that's much more important.
I hope you see it.
I hope you walk it.
I hope you enjoy it!
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