Dear Church Family,
Most of us wear a watch or (much to the chagrin of Timex) use a cell phone to let us know the time. Many have a calendar to help remind us of things we need to do and to get us there on time. Yet over the last six months time has seemingly taken on a new dimension. For a lot of you the routine of life has disappeared. As one writer says about her life, “Every day is ‘Blursday” and she first wrote that in early April. After just two weeks of being isolated with her family due to the virus restrictions, her life had become a train wreck. I need to check back and see how she is coping after six months. Another commented that after six months “Our sense of time is still broken.” With the help of the Bible I hope to repair that sense of brokenness.
Genesis 1 lays out a basic understanding of time. It clearly states several times that God created all things in the space of six twenty-four hour days, “There was evening and there was morning.” In verse 14 we learn that God put the sun and moon in the sky “as signs to mark out the seasons and days and years.” God created time. Man did not invent it. God created the order of time. After six days of creating all things “God rested from all His work.” Being all powerful, God did not need to regain His strength. He did so to set a pattern for all humanity to live by as taught in the Fourth Commandment.
Years later in Leviticus 23 God instructed His people to observe certain dates to help them remember His works of salvation in their history. First, there was to be the weekly observation of the Sabbath. This gift reminds all people that God created all things and calls them to rest in Him. Then God tells Israel to have a sacred assembly on the most important day of celebration – the Passover. This yearly feast reminds them of God’s incredible act of delivering Israel out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt as detailed starting in Exodus 12. This points to the Passover Lamb’ who would come 1,400 years later.
This coming Friday Jews around the world will celebrate Rosh Hashanah as a new year starts on the Jewish calendar. It serves as a time to seek forgiveness of sin and celebrate the faithfulness of God. Today a rabbit blows the shofar (ram’s horn) to call people to rejoice as they eat bread with honey as they look forward to “a sweet new year.”
Ten days later comes the sober observance of the Day of Atonement. On that day the high priest entered the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle (and later in the Temple) to offer up sacrifice for the sins of the people. Only then Moses writes, “will you be clean from all your sins.” This yearly commemoration forced Israel to acknowledge their sin and rest in the mercy and grace of God. Looking at time as God instructs points us to His holy character and His great love for us.
I am out of time today and will have more to say tomorrow.
Living by grace to His glory,
Pastor Gillikin