Set up for Discipline – The Kingdom Curriculum VIII (5)

Set up for Discipline

“Remember and observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Exodus 20:8; Deuteronomy 5:12

And the LORD said to Moses, “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, “Above all you shall keep My Sabbaths, for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath because it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death.” Exodus 31:12-14

Whom the Father loves, He disciplines.

Apparently “above all” doesn’t communicate as forcefully as God intends. I don’t know, that seems pretty clear to me: “Above all you shall keep My Sabbaths.” Because God has a sign, a very important sign, that He wants us to receive once a week for a whole day. That sign, faithfully received and heeded, can change our whole lives for the week to come. So God sends the sign, and we send a sign back to Him saying–what? “Got it, Lord! See you in the morning. Then, of course, I’ll have the rest of the day for myself–my sports, my work, my leisure–whatever I choose.” Like we didn’t get the whole message, but only part of it.

Imagine a quarterback, after throwing a stupid interception, saying to his coach, “Oh, you meant throw it to one of our guys? I thought you just wanted me to throw it downfield.” That QB is headed for the bench. So God sends us the Lord’s Day as a sign, and we send back a sign saying, “Gotcha, Lord: Part of the day for you, most of the day for me. Works for me.” Anyone who tried to “remember” and “observe” the Sabbath of ancient Israel like that was headed for worse than a benching!

God may no longer require the death penalty for Sabbath-breaking (a question we’ll explore more fully in a later installment), but He does not simply wink and say, “Oh well, children will be children.” He loves us too much to let us wander off the path of His commandments without some straining and striving to get us back on track. Whom the Lord loves, He disciplines (Heb. 12:3-11). The Lord’s discipline is of two kinds: those which we readily take up ourselves (prayer, solitude, meditation, and so on), and those which He imposes (and which we might prefer He not impose). These latter include separation from His face for a season (Ps. 80.3), when we do not experience His presence or know the warmth of His favor and grace. His discipline can go further: He may allow us to be powerfully tempted, and even to fall into sin (ask David). Then the consequences of sin–fear, dread, doubt, anxiety, shame, broken relationships, disappointment, self-inflicted harm, and more–set in, and we do not experience the joy and peace of our salvation but the misery and anxiousness of a life given over to sin. Spiritual lassitude can follow, in which we express very little interest in the things of the Lord, find worship tiresome, and neglect to seek Him in prayer and His Word. God is prepared to go even further; He may even allow us to come under the discipline of our church because we demonstrate so little love for Him and so much love for the world. Sounds harsh, I know. But what do we expect a loving Father to do when, in the face of His “above all,” we respond by saying “Thanks, but no thanks”?

Get your copy of The Law of God today, and begin making meditation in God’s Law part of your daily discipline. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, point your browser to “Publications,” then click on the drop-down option, “Waxed Tablet Publications.”

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore.

T.M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.