COME AS A CHILD LESSON 143 THE JOY THAT COMES FROM THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT

KNOWING THE JOY OF KEEPING SABBATH

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Up to this point, we have been studying the Exodus from Egypt.  Last week we discussed how Moses received the ten commandments straight from the mouth of God up on Mt. Sinai; specifically we have discussed the fourth commandment in detail.  This is the commandment that admonishes us to keep Sabbath. 

God has called the Sabbath holy; He has sanctified this day and set it apart from all other days. 

As soon as the creation was finished God rested and began to celebrate a Sabbath that occurred every seventh day forward from that point.   It is amazing to think that this 24 hour period of sacred time has happened right on schedule every seven days just like clockwork since the world first began spinning.   Every seventh day since creation has been holy, set-aside and sanctified in time provided by God.  God intended for the Sabbath to be a very special day of rest and worship. 

The Sabbath isn't the only thing or time that God has sanctified and made holy.  He often does this act of sanctification for His people.  

The Ark of the Covenant was also sanctified by God, as we will note later in this study.  

Another thing we will study later is the sanctification of the Tabernacle.  The Tabernacle was set apart as holy by God.  

The holy scriptures have been sanctified and blessed as The Word of God.  

God gave us special holy days inside each year of our alloted time that He made holy and sanctified.  They are set-aprat days for rest, another form of Sabbath besides the weekly Sabbath.  

Most of all God set aside His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ as a holy, sanctified offering for the world for remission of sin.  

Usually when God sanctifies a person, a thing, or a time it is done to draw people closer to Him. This is true with the sanctification of the Sabbath Day.  God wishes for His people to set everything aside on the Sabbath and draw closer to Him in worship and rest.    

When God gave Moses the ten commandments; thirty percent of the time that God and Moses talked together up on that mountain was spent specifically discussing the ins and outs of keeping Sabbath.  The commandments are written down into 322 words in the scriptures.  98 of those words specifically refer to keeping Sabbath. 

Though the Jewish people are widely known for keeping the 7^th Day Sabbath, the Sabbath was created almost 2,000 years (at creation) before any Jewish nation ever existed.  This would mean the Sabbath commandment would apply to everyone on earth; and not just those who are natives of Israel.    

Adam and Eve and their children knew and kept Sabbath.  

All of God’s people right up through to Abraham and Sarah knew about and kept Sabbath.  

The giving of the commandment on the mountain to Moses was a refresher course, not a first time teaching. 

The Sabbath is tied to many of the facts concerning God’s resting after creation and also to many of the facts concerning God’s deliverance of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt. 

The Sabbath is all about freedom, and it is definitely NOT a yoke of bondage as some worldly scholars would have you to believe.  To understand this fact in fullness; you must dig deep into God’s ordination and establishment of this most sacred day. 

Typically, the Sabbath Day should always be a day of joy, rest, eating, study of the scriptures, fellowship with God and fellowship with other believers.  Unfortunately many seem to see this day as a legalistic burden instead of what God originally intended.  Try thinking of it this way:  What if the person who employed you full time came to you in the middle of a work shift and said he wanted you to take a break tomorrow in which you would have a whole day off to read, rest, relax and enjoy time with those that you love?  

How would that make you feel? 

He might even suggest that you don’t even think about work at all, not one tiny little bit, on this extra day off.  

Would you complain about that?  

Well, that is exactly what God has suggested for us to do on the Sabbath.  He wants us to put our daily work aside for one whole day and concentrate on rest, leisure and loving Him and one another.  

What could be hard about this? 

It should actually be our greatest joy! 

The Sabbath was designed by God to give us relief from the day-to-day stress of making a living. 

It is a holy time for worship and rest. 

Keeping Sabbath honors God and unifies families.  

This set apart time gives us time for reflection, something that we might not otherwise have during our normal work day.  

Keeping Sabbath also helps us to keep our priorities straight.  It refreshes us both physically as well as spiritually. 

Leviticus 23:32 gives us the time frame for celebrating Sabbath.  It is to happen from sunset on Friday evening till sunset on Saturday evening.  

The world typically makes most things start early in the morning; but God created this space of holy time to begin in the evenings as the sun is setting.  This aspect of Sabbath is patterned after the passages in Genesis where creation is spoken about and the scripture states:  “the evening and morning were the first day; the evening and morning were the second day; the evening and morning were the third day; etc..”  Each day is complete from evening (sunset) to morning (sunrise), then sunset again. The Sabbath is measured the same way.  A whole day would take you from one sunset to another sunset, from one rising of the moon to another rising of the moon. The calendar days of the Hebraic calendar are always counted from sunset to sunset rather than from sunrise to sunset.   

Hence, in order to be authentic, the Sabbath and our observance of it should always begin when the sun sets on Friday evenings.  

Genesis 2:2-3 states how God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that was the day that HE rested from all of HIS work of the creation.  

When we follow the seventh day Sabbath we are patterning our lives in rhythm with the time of God’s clock.  He works six days a week, starting on the first day of the week and working through the sixth day until sunset.  God rests on the Sabbath; the seventh day.  When we do this too; we are living in sync with God’s patterns.  

Life with God is like a beautiful dance, and the dance is better if we are in sync and in rhythm with the one leading us.  Of course we know that God is outside of time and we are inside of time.  He created time just for us.  Our time should be kept in perfect rhythm with our Creator.

God re-emphasized this pattern of keeping Sabbath with the children of Israel when he rained down the Manna from Heaven for six days and the Manna did not fall on the seventh day, because God was resting.  

On that seventh day God was not feeding the people; He was resting.  It is appropriate for us to rest on this day too.  This is how God re-set the clock for the Israelites who had lost track of sacred time during their slavery and bondage.  Now while living in the wilderness and following God they would be keeping the right Sabbath day space in time from that point forward.

 From that time forward we all have been able to continue tracking sacred time, with the keeping of our clocks staying in sync with God’s timing.  

Whenever the people tried to gather manna on the Sabbath Day God noted that they were refusing to keep His commandments and laws.   It mattered to God that they keep Sabbath in this same sacred seven day period that He had started so long ago.  

The day wasn’t to be just any day that the people chose; God chose the specific day, and the people were to keep the day that God chose, and not just any day that they wished to keep.  Again we see this in the way the manna fell from the sky.  

 

The New Testament did not do away with God’s laws in the Old Testament; it simply became the fulfillment of the law.  

The New Testament is the rest of the SAME story that resulted in and from the Old Testament.  It is a further continuation of what God had already begun with mankind; but with the sacred blood of Jesus now given as a sacrifice to confirm the fact that we are free under the new covenant because we are sealed with the blood of Christ.  

The Sabbath day of the Old Testament is still the Sabbath Day of the New Testament.  No scripture ever changed the date, time or space of the Sabbath day.  

1 Corinthians 11:1 confirms that the New Testament Christians were also called out to keep the 7^th Day Sabbath.   This was The Apostle Paul stating that the Christians were to follow his example; as he was following the example that Christ had lived out before us.   

Some stood their ground in keeping Sabbath even when men later tried to change the day of worship and rest from Saturday to Sunday.  

A man named Bar-Kokba organized a revolt against the Romans in 132 A.D.   In a terrible war that resulted in fifty percent of the population of Judea being killed; thousands of the Jewish people living back then (keeping Sabbath) were again sold into slavery.  Jews were forbidden to ever live in Jerusalem again, and the province was renamed and called Palestine. 

These days were very dangerous times to be living as a Jew and observing the Sabbath.  It was during this very dangerous time that the day of worship among the Christians began to change from Saturday to Sunday.  People were afraid for their lives, so this was easily enforced upon the land.  This change was partly due to the Romans needing to be able to tell the  Christians of that day apart from the Jewish people as they were all living in the same nation.  Up until that time, those who had been following the ways of Christ had all worshiped together on the seventh day Sabbath.

Later in an attempt to stop the people from conforming back to Jewish ways again, the Council of Laodicea made this statement:  “Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, the Sabbath, but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day (Sunday) they shall honor, and as being Christians, they shall, if possible, do no work on that day.  If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ.”

These were pretty strong words, and the acts that were used to reinforce the edicts of these words were even stronger!   

To make matters even worse, many could not read during those days.  The majority of the common people were uneducated.  They just accepted that everything the church fed them was scriptural.  Some changed their day of worship out of ignorance; because they did not know any better.  Hence, their descendants lived in a different kind of ignorance; that of blindly trusting in the ways of their parents and those who had gone before them more than listening to God and educating themselves with the truth of scripture. 

Can you imagine living through a time like this?  

Let us hope we never have to do so! 

Education and knowledge do not always free people.  Things are going on in the modern world even as we ponder these points that would suggest we may come to the same day in our own lifetimes.  It is so important to know where you stand in relation to the things that God has commanded we carry out for living our best life before Him here on earth.  

This very prejudiced statement by the ancient Romans was a very bold and horrible thing for the church to proclaim.  Mere men tried to take on the role of God and change what God had proclaimed to be true.  

Why would God ask certain people to shut other people out from knowing His Son, Jesus Christ, simply because they were following the ten commandments that God had given to Moses?  

Is there anything truly logical about that?

This was the beginning of or the unraveling of unity among brethren that had shared their hearts even when they had differences, and the divisions have lasted up until and through this present day.  

Many, many Christians still follow along with the results of this same path without really knowing or realizing the history behind what they do; or without realizing what or why they do certain things in certain ways.  God did not leave us in ignorance.  The scriptures make this clear.  Many no longer care about the words of the scriptures; they simply conform to the teachings of men.

Unfortunately the Jewish rejection of Christ was triggered and made worse by the Christian acceptance of Sunday worship.  

The Jews look at Sunday worship as a form of abandoning the law of God.  It has often been said "to ask a Jew to reject the law is like asking them to tear our their hearts."  If only Christians today could have the laws of God written so firmly upon their hearts; our whole world would be a better place.  When you keep a law rotely; you do it in vain.  When you keep a law from your heart based on the fact that you love and honor God; it is never a legalistic act; it is an act of love and devotion to God.

It is also true, on the other hand, that asking a Christian to strictly observe the Jewish rituals could become a stumbling block to salvation.  Grace does not abound.  We must find a balancing act somehow between grace and law.

  

Thist balancing act must begin with love.  Love is the key to everything in God's Kingdom.  It opens doors that have been shut tight for ages.  The essence of all love is truth.

 

And so how should these historical acts be interpreted by the people of God today? 

Historical knowledge is easy to obtain and widespread across the world.  There is presently no good excuse to ignore the truth.  I can only give you the words of The Apostle Paul found in Romans 6:15; “What then?  Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?  God forbid!”

Yet we do!  We do not keep the REAL set aside time for the seventh day Sabbath. There is no real scriptural basis for the Sabbath Day changes.  It is all a work of man.

How ironic; since Jesus Himself once said that the Sabbath was made for man!  Every day is to be holy unto God.  Our God does not want us to be divided over the issue of focusing on a day; but He wants us united by focusing on Christ.  

What a wonderful world we would be living in if everyone decided to return to following the commandments and worshiping God once again on the Seventh Day Sabbath as God originally designed for men to do.  This probably will not happen until Christ returns.

Yet; some people HAVE opened their eyes and seen the truth of this matter and are already reaping the fruit that follows from obeying God and keeping a seventh day Sabbath.  Their Sabbaths have given them rest and restoration and brought true joy into their homes and families, just as God intended. 

These people will quickly point out to you that their peace and harmony amidst a chaotic world comes from keeping Sabbath and remembering God’s Holy Days.  Something about this act of obedience just puts everything into focus and brings about the proper order.  This rich and wonderful blessing of true Sabbath keeping gives true perspective to the rest of your week.  It helps us to maintain a proper balance in our thinking and our doing.

 God's own model of work and rest demonstrates how much of our own lives are to be spent in labor and how much of our own lives are to be spent in worship.  This is NOT a yoke of bondage but a joyful rest.  

It is a time for families and friends to share meals together and be in a time of fellowship that isn't ruled by the ticking of a clock.  

It is a time to ponder the meaning of the scriptures and discuss them among ourselves.  

It is a time for holy prayers to be lifted up and for sacred worship to be carried out.  

Those in the habbit of observing this Seventh Day Sabbath have learned to use the day of preparation to get ready.  

They try to get the cooking done ahead.  

They try to get the cleaning done during the week days after work; before the Sabbath arrives.

They try to have their clothes prepared and ready and every little last minute bit of personal business taken care of before the Sabbath arrives.  

They take care of their common everyday business transactions during the working week.

They plan ahead.

This allows them freedom and comfort during the special day.  It keeps them from being distracted from what they should be focused on during the Sabbath.  

It is customary for families to share a dinner after sunset.  

In many homes Sabbath candles are lit and a blessing is recited by the woman of the house. 

 The rituals that women go through to welcome in the Sabbath are said to reflect the fact that women bring light into the home.  

On the beginning and ending of the Sabbath day it is traditional to light candles.  

The Sabbath dinner is accompanied by wine and the man of the house recites a prayer over the wine sanctifying the Sabbath.  From the symbols of this Sabbath tradition we get our patterns for communion and the using of bread and wine in our community services.  

It is also traditional to serve a sweet, eggy bread called Challah on Sabbath.  These Sabbath loaves of bread are often covered by a fine white linen cover for the Sabbath meals.  

Some people are fond of using fresh floral arrangements on their Sabbath tables; this is all in sync with the celebratory mood of welcoming God into the new upcoming week and worshiping Him with your family in your home as the first act before the beginning of the working week.

There are many traditional blessings that can be recited around your table on the Sabbath.

You are also free to offer up your own blessing; one straight from your heart to God.  
The short ceremony at the end of Sabbath is called The Havdalah.  The Hebrew word "havdalah" means separation or distinction.  This is the line that "separates" the sacred time from the "ordinary" time in our week.  Six ordinary days are for work and taking care of our needs.  One day is sacred and set aside.  

The Havdalah ceremony uses a cup of wine, a braided candle and a box of sweet-smelling spices.  Participants stand close together in a circle.  Blessings are said over each item.  The wine is poured until it overflows and then the cup is lifted up again.  Psalm 116:13 is recited:  "I will take the cup of Salvation and call upon the name of the Lord."  Then the braided candle is lit.  It is customary for a child to hold the candle.  A blessing is said over the wine.  The spices are shaken and passed around for all to enjoy the aroma.  A blessing is said over the spices.  The wine is passed around for everyone to take a sip.  The candle is extinguished in the remaining wine as the final blessing is said and the Sabbath is ended with a song.   These things are all symbolic and have interesting meanings for anyone who wishes to study further. A new week begins.  We come into seven more days of living in God's protection and blessing.  

Is all of this commanded or necessary?  

No!  

It is just a beautiful tradition that many have chosen as a way to follow because they find it honors God and draws the Sabbath to an orderly close.  

The things we have found on the Sabbath in our hearts live on inside of us all through out the new week and they comfort us and guide us in all that we do as we go through our ordinary days. 

Of course it is more imiportant to focus on the messianic significance of the Sabbath.  Joyful homes do  carefully incorporate the recognition of Christ as Messiah!  

The Sabbath reminds us that God created the world and that God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt just as Christ delivered us from the penalty of sin at Calvary and assures us that God living in our hearts will make us holy, just as He made the Sabbath holy.  It reminds us all that God will finish His work in our lives, just as He finished HIs work of the creation and our redemption.  It reminds us that God is our Lord and that it is in God that we have rest through Christ.  

But.....even if you believe all that I have said, you probably will not find a Christian church practicing all of these things together.  

How do you deal with that?  

What if you have found a church that worships on Sunday but truly keeps the ways of God in all other areas?  

I know exactly how you feel.  I've been dealing with these aspects of KNOWING and DOING all of my life.  I too have found churches that are ignorant of God's true Sabbath yet worship God with their whole hearts in all other ways.  

We live in a broken world.  The devil has wreaked havok on the earth for thousands of years. We are all victims of our culture and our society.  

It is a type of spiritual bondage that is just as sad as the physical and spiritual bondage the Israelites went through in Egypt.  

What did they do when the whole culture was against them?  They kept the Sabbath as best they could in their own homes.  Sometimes they were FORCED to work.  Our society tries to force this on us too.  Whenever possible they did not work on Sabbath, but kept a day of rest unto God.  They were people in bondage.  

This is what I have come to accept as a standard way of living for now; until the LORD returns and corrects the ways of the world we too live in a type of bondage. However, you can still keep Sabbath in your home by doing the things I have described above.  

There is no excuse for you not to do so.  It is perfectly acceptable to go to a building and worship on the other days of the week yet still keep the seventh day Sabbath in your home.  The more worship you put into your life the happier you will be.  Just remember to stop and set aside the Sabbath in your home and teach your children while they are young to do so too.    Perhaps when they grow up; we will see a different world!  We can always hope that our children will grow up to be more authentic and more faithful than our generation has managed to be.

It will not do any good to fret or try to change others, let God handle their salvation.  Simply work on your own heart and your own little family inside your own home.  Let the light of Christ reflect out from you own home's windows.  This is where all things begin.  This is another way that God uses to make all things new.  Teach your children the truth.  Show them what the Sabbath is by honoring the day.  Rest and plan family fellowship on the seventh day and worship God together around your table at sunsets on Friday evenings.  

I promise you once you step up and honor God in the way that He has requested in this fourth commandment; He will begin to fill your heart with joy all throughout the week. You will see a change!   

Here's to the blessings of a million happy Sabbaths!  

May the whole earth be filled with His Glory!

SEASONS - HOW HISTORY AND THANKSGIVING ARE CONSTANTLY RELIVED

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

As we go through the calendar months of October and November in America, I find myself in a continuous pattern of thankfulness.

The joyous season starts with the Hebrew Festival called The Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot, which has already come and gone for this year.  

America’s Thanksgiving Holiday follows this bringing more reminders of thankfulness. 

I’ve often considered that Sukkot was probably the first original form of Thanksgiving.  During this whole season my eyes are constantly being opened to the fact that the Christians of America have been so blessed to have a God that perfectly orchestrated both the history of His people Israel and the history of His church in America.   One could never replace the other, but both complement each other as a living testimony to God at work in the history of all nations.

The Hebrew Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths) begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after the crops are all gathered in for the winter.  So  we see a similar pattern between the two celebrations in that both occasions are a part of the fall harvest activity.  The harvest  celebration called Sukkot is very much of the same nature as The American Thanksgiving holiday.   

God instructed the Israelites to observe the Feast of Tabernacles by building and living in temporary booths for seven days so that they would always remember the exodus from Egypt when they lived in tents, or booths, in the wilderness and realize how God brought them to a promised land.  It was to help them to remember how God dwelt among them and tabernacled with them as they sojourned to a new land.  In other words; it was a time to remember all the good and great things that God had done for them in bringing them out to a better place; just as we Americans remember God leading the pilgrims to a new land at Thanksgiving. 

Exodus 25:8 speaks of the commandment to the Israelites:   “Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them.  Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.” (NIV)

The booths were temporary tabernacles until this real and permanent tabernacle was built.  This foreshadowed the building of the permanent Temple.  Now, so many years later, even with the Temple destroyed; we once again find ourselves dwelling in the temporary tabernacles of our bodies and building our sukkas to celebrate the feasts.  We so often take comfort in knowing that God still dwells with us - everywhere we go.  The pilgrims had a great grasp of this truth and they lived it out.  They spoke of these things in their Thanksgiving celebrations.

Back in the pre-tabernacle days of Israel, and pre-temple days, there were also other reasons for dwelling in booths near the threshing floors.  Threshing floors were the place of the harvest.  The harvest was a chief source of income for the people.  The threshing floors were always in danger of being robbed.  This was less likely to happen if someone was sleeping in a temporary booth in the fields until all the grain was removed.  It was customary for the family to move out to the vicinity of the threshing floor in order to work together as well as to protect the harvest.  

The mother would prepare meals there in the shade of any nearby trees and she would take her turn with the father and the children to ride on the sledge.  

This was what was going on when Ruth approached Boaz.  He was sleeping in a Sukkah near the threshing floor guarding the grain of the harvest.

In the days beyond Ruth and Boaz, the ancient people gladly added God’s commanded instructions for the Holy Days to this tradition, and they turned this time into a joyous celebration full of Thanksgiving.    Isn’t that just like our Great God to turn a time of dread and fear into a time of celebration and joy?  He is a God of great reversals. Instead of fearing that their hard worked harvest would be robbed and taken away from them, they stayed in the fields and lived there temporarily, guarding their bounty and celebrating their blessings until it was all gathered safely home.  They lived in temporary dwellings.

We look at the Hebrew people dwelling in booths during The Feast of Tabernacles/Sukkot and welcoming strangers into their sukkahs  and we can't help but think of the lean-tos on the sides of the first log cabins that the settlers built.  They were temporary dwellings with three sides and a door, much like a sukkah.   They were often the shelter offered with genuine hospitality to strangers passing through.  The stranger would spend the night in the lean-to much like a sukkah was used for sleep-over guests in The Feast of Tabernacles.  The lean-to was an extended temporary room.  They were a form of extended hospitality, just like a sukkah in today's festival of The Feast of Tabernacles.

Historians now note that the first Jews arrived in America with Christopher Columbus in 1492.  Jews, newly converted to Christianity, were also among the first Spaniards to live in Mexico with Conquistador Hernando Cortez in 1519.  In North America in 1654 Jews arrived in New Amsterdam which later came to be known as New York.  There were 23 Jewish refugees from Recif, Brazil.  Hebraic thought and customs were well known to the settlers and pilgrims in America.    

It is extremely clear that the laws of the first colonies were based on biblical principals from the scriptures.  The New Haven legislators adopted a legal code called the Code of 1655 that contained 79 statutes.  Half of these 79 statutes included biblical references, and it is very clear that they came from the Hebrew bible.  The Plymouth Colony had a similar law code, and so did the Massachusetts Colony.  In 1641 the Massachusetts Colony adopted The Capital Laws of New England.  These laws were based almost entirely on the Mosaic law. 

It is highly possible that some of our American heroes might have been from people of Jewish roots who had come to the shores of America long before the Mayflower ever sailed.   Already living in the land at the time, they may have been among those who came to the aid of the pilgrims that first year.  Many wanted to turn these Jewish brothers away and chase them out of the area, but The Dutch West Indies Company depended heavily on their investments and helped them to stay.  

By the time of The War of Independence, there was an estimated 2,000, mostly Sephardic Jews living in America.  Their contributions to the causes of the country were very significant.  Not only did they fight alongside of the Patriots, but these Jews provided great financial contributions in the years after the first colonies arrived.  One of the greatest among them was Haym Salomon, who lent a great deal of money to The Continental Congress in the last days of the war.  He was never paid back a dime and died bankrupt.

There was also a well known metallurgist named Gaunse who had come to America with a Spanish expedition from the Queen of England.  Jews were not allowed to go to the colonies at that time, but this man was so knowledgeable about copper that an exception was allowed in his case. 

So it is highly possible that some Jewish thoughts were floating around among the colonies.  This coupled with the strict interpretations and emphasis on the scriptures might have contributed to the first
American Thanksgiving celebration.

Their feast was held after their fall harvest, just as the Hebrew’s feasts were held.  

The chain of events leading up to the first Thanksgiving in America is amazing when you think about it.  The Pilgrims too had made a great exodus to come to a new place where they would be allowed to worship God as they chose to do, in the way that they thought God intended.  

The Israelites crossed the Red Sea; the Pilgrims crossed the Atlantic Ocean.  

Both journeys were filled with dangers and perils.  Upon arriving at their destination both groups experienced apprehension and adjustments.  They had to gather their courage to be brave in an unfamiliar land, and they had to learn to get along with strange people who had totally different cultures.  

Both brave groups of people had to learn how to live in peace and harmony with those around them even if they had great differences in lifestyles.  

For these Pilgrims America had become The Promised Land.   

So it was that they recognized and followed the customs of the Israelites who had for many years given thanks for abundant harvests in the eight day celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles. 

The land of England from which the colonist hailed also had a traditional custom of observing a Harvest Festival, but the Pilgrims chose not to associate themselves with their homeland’s festivals because of the many pagan customs their homeland had incorporated into this day.  No mention was made of God in the traditional festival of old England.     So the brave pilgrims chose to follow a nation to whom God had dictated customs and traditions.  Once they arrived in America, they made every effort to observe things in their days that were accurately associated with God.  They were much more concerned with religious matters than politics or social issues.  

It is also thought that the early settlers adopted a Sabbatarian view of observing the Sabbath from sunset on Friday till sunset on Saturday, similar to the custom of Israel.  They were heavily influenced by preaching and teachings on millennialism.  They believed there would be a “Golden Age” or “Paradise on Earth” in which Christ will reign for 1000 years prior to the final judgment of mankind.  This reign and rule of Christ is recognized today by Christians who keep The Feast of Tabernacles.

All of these historical celebrations play into the theology and the Christian symbolism in the celebration of Sukkot, which many Christians today live out once a year in sort of a “dress rehearsal” of The Millennial Kingdom of Christ.  These fundamentals of Hebraic/Christian doctrine are now more and more being commonly taught practices and observances in most evangelical based modern day churches. 

The Puritans chose to separate themselves from The Church of England based on the following scripture passage:  “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.  When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” (Matthew 10:22-23). 

These Puritans/Pilgrims did everything according to the truth they found in the scriptures.  They followed The Word of God in a strict and detailed manner.  In other words they believed in living out the scriptures in their daily lives.  

The passage of God’s Holy Word they read said to “flee” when you are persecuted for worshiping God; and so they did, in a ship called The Mayflower.  102 passengers began the long voyage.  Though the mast of their ship broke in a severe storm, they were able to repair it and eventually found themselves on the shores of Provincetown Harbor, Massachusetts.  

When the mast was broken there was discussion of turning back.  Everyone decided to take the risk and keep going forward.

The first use of the word “Pilgrims” appeared in William Bradford’s writings ‘Of Plymouth Plantation.’  In his writings he used the imagery of Hebrews 11:13-16 for those who had an opportunity to return to their homelands but instead longed for a better, heavenly country.   “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” (Hebrews 11:13.

These pilgrims were highly educated.  There was nothing in this new land that required the education of the founder’s children.  Yet, these brave people felt education was very important and established their own unique system of studies.  John Winthrop declared that their schools should be the beginning of “A City Upon A Hill” that all the people turned to for education and learning.  The founders were not amateurs; most of them had attended either Oxford or Cambridge and before coming to the new land they had communicated with intellectuals throughout Europe.  Eventually the school they established became known as Harvard University.  

My point in explaining this is to express that these were well educated men, highly capable of discerning mistakes and blunders of bad choices and totally capable of interpreting the scriptures with great intellect.  They had something special that many others did not, however; they had heart and passion for the fruit of their intellectual endeavors.  Their studies confirmed the truth of God.  Oh that Harvard would return to its original roots.

So we see that even in the field of education, these very educated and knowledgeable men –patterned their lives after the culture of The Hebrew people and their stories that are played out in our Bibles.  

Just think of all the similarities we have discussed so far.  Both the Israelites and The Pilgrims  were people who set themselves apart in order to worship God in the way they thought He desired to be worshipped.  The Pilgrims considered the scriptures found in Deuteronomy 14:2: 

"For thou art a holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto Himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth." (Deuteronomy 14:2)

The Pilgrims chose to pattern themselves after the nation that God chose and put His name upon; The Nation of Israel.  This being true, it is highly possible that these well learned men studied and followed the feast and festivals of God found in our Old Testament scriptures.  Perhaps they had read and understood the significance of Deuteronomy 6:3: 

"Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you - ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’" 

That first winter proved harsh and forbidding.  There were many illnesses and they were to the point of starvation in the first settlement.  They found the Hand of God was with them as they learned to get along with an unusual culture of people who were already living on the continent.  They cooperated with these Indians and combined their resources.  This is how they were able to rise above their problems.  This is how they were so different from other settlers in the land.  They were humble before God and were willing to learn new things, and most of all they were willing to reach out and receive and return love from those that were not familiar to them. 

As we keep looking at the patterns of that first Feast of Tabernacles of the Hebrews and also observing our national ancestors, we see so many parallels.  It has been discovered that some of the Jewish New “Englanders kept track of these historical parallels too; that both people groups were persecuted for their beliefs, left their homes and came to a new land, survived the first year and celebrated a time of Thanksgiving before God after their Fall Harvest. It seems that William Bradford, who was the first governor of the Pilgrims proclaimed the first Thanksgiving by using the Scriptures – both from the Old and New Testaments for guidance in governing the colony. 

So we conclude that the hard and dangerous journey that led to Plymouth Rock, in a very real sense began with that earlier migration from Egyptian slavery toward Mount Sinai and led onward toward Ellis Island, and every other landing place where the later generations of pilgrims arrived at on these shores.

Today, as we approach Thanksgiving 2016, the journey continues for America, for each of us, in our own lives and for all the people of our country as a whole. The Pilgrims were the first to sense that America had a unique destiny in human history.  Governor Bradford wrote, ‘just as one small candle may light a thousand others, and lose none of it’s own light, so too will we — but few in number — become a beacon for all people!”

May Governor Bradford’s words once again be so.  We Americans stand at a critical crossroad in our nation’s life. The challenge of keeping our freedom and liberty, of being able to work to provide for our families and the fight for living and raising our children in a godly manner and worshiping in a land that provides freedom and justice for all people to pursue and fulfill their dreams is still unrealized, even after 397 years since the Mayflower found its way to a safe harbor.  

We too, may well have some dangerous seas and painful trials ahead of us, before we can gather with all our neighbors in a pure celebration of Thanksgiving once more.  But the example of our Pilgrim ancestors can continue to inspire and guide us as we reaffirm the freedom of conscience and independent spirit they stood for.  Let us all strive to again be “one nation under God” and continue our quest for peace on earth, good will to man.