Today's Daily Lesson comes from Jeremiah chapter 17 verses 24 through 27:
24 "But if you listen to me, declares the Lord, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, 25 then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever. 26 And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord. 27 But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched."
Work is good; but work all day and every day is not. God has made for us a day for sabbath and we ought to seriously consider setting it aside to rest. We need time for our souls to catch up with our bodies. We need time set aside to remember that we are more than what our bodies can produce.
Keeping sabbath requires a community. It is very difficult to keep sabbath alone when everyone else just assumes you'll be available to work. And for the working poor, it is impossible to keep sabbath when six days of wages still isn't enough to make ends meet. We recall that sabbath was given after the Israelites came out of Egypt. In Egypt Pharaoh was the task master over the Israelites. He demanded more and more from the Israelites. "Work, work, work," was his motto; but work never made them free. Sabbath was given as a protection against that kind of exploitation. A community which has lost the concept of sabbath rest and sabbath protection edges towards the fate of Pharaoh's Egypt.
Today's Lesson has the LORD warning the Jews that if the sabbath is not kept holy and set apart but becomes a day of burden like all other days then He will set a fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will never be quenched. This is still a word of warning for us also. For if we create a community where the sabbath is only a luxury for some but for the rest a day for work or chores getting ready for more work then the fire of consumption and exploitation and the demand for more, more, more will be lit and will never be quenched.
This kind of life destroys the human soul and the human community. We have been given sabbath to guard against it. That is why it is holy and why we need to work (less) hard to protect it.
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