COME AS A CHILD LESSON 144 - SIX DAYS SHALT THOU LABOR AND DO ALL YOUR WORK

THE OTHER SIDE OF KEEPING SABBATH

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Moses is still up on the mountain getting the ten commandments directly from God.  He has heard, and we have discussed the fifth commandment that states we should observe the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. 

There is, however; another part of that commandment that many people never seem to hear or pay attention to.  They forget about verse nine of Exodus 20 that proclaims “six days shall you labor and do your work.”    That part of the equation is equally important.  If we are going to set aside one day to rest; then we are to be keeping the six other days of the week by working.  That was God’s own pattern; and that is the pattern he set for our time.

Remember what extra emphasis God put on this particular commandment?  It would be careless to observe and keep a portion of it and leave the other portion out as if it were not necessary at all.

We are made to work.  God created us to be that way.  God wants us to be useful in tending to the earth and taking care of those that we love and those who need our help.  God wants our actions to be self-sustaining, in that we are constantly providing for our needs by the labor of our hands, minds and hearts.  Because we can work and provide for ourselves and our families, we are very blessed! 

God gave this commandment to ALL of us; not just part of us.  We ALL have something useful and good that we can be doing to make a contribution to the betterment of the society as a whole.  We are all to be active and doing some form of work.   If we do not work as best we can and are able; we break one of God’s commandments and we live in sin. 

This doesn’t mean that someone who doesn’t get paid for the worthwhile things that they do are living in sin.  

A housewife works just as long and hard, if not harder than a person with a professional career.   A mother tending to a child works harder than anyone I know.  

A senior citizen may not be able to do a lot of physically demanding things any more, but they can mentor and advise people with the wisdom they have gained through a well-lived life.  

A person who is not able to find employment can offer their services in other ways until they do find employment.  This is often the first step to finding fulfilling employment.  

If you can’t think of anything more worthwhile to do; try smiling at someone or making someone laugh.  We all have SOME type of worthwhile work that we can do on this earth.  God meant for all of us to be using the capabilities and gifts He has given us for good in sustaining life on this earth.  He COMMANDED us to be about our work for six days of the week when he gave the fourth commandment. 

The two sides of this fourth commandment balance out our lives.  We work and we rest, and we work and we rest.  That is the rhythm that Heaven has composed and life is the dance; staying in sync with God’s patterns makes for a much happier life.  

We soon find out that in regards to work and rest, it takes doing one thing to be able to fully appreciate the other thing.  These are the laws that God put into motion on the earth that help us to realize that work is best for us in every way.  Keeping this commandment of work and rest in balance gives balance to our daily lives.  Keeping Sabbath makes our work a pleasure.  Keeping work makes our Sabbath a joy!

All of the rest of the scriptures support the fact that men were created to work for six days and rest for one day out of every week.  This is the pattern of time that God created for us and set into motion.  We are MADE for this pattern of time. 

This concept is totally lost in our society today, and I find it a very sad fact.  When you leave God out of every equation of your life, the first thing to go in most cases is the work ethic of the people. They begin to make government their god and they stand there with their hands out and their minds empty. There is more time for anger and resentment and hate.  People who work are too busy to hate.  They don't have time to feel sorry for themselves!  They are all about loving those that they labor for and helping those who have no means of helping themselves.  Keeping the work six/rest one pattern that God gave turns the worldly chaos of too much time into peaceful moments and happy memories.   

There was once a time, not so very long ago, when blessed and free people earnestly followed scripture and tried to do what they thought pleased God because of what they learned from studying the Word of God.  Work was seen as good, honest, moral behavior.  People worked in order to be accountable to God.  They had reverence for biblical authority, and they had a healthy fear of God.  They KNEW if they did not work and do their part to maintain the world that they lived within; that they were breaking God’s fourth commandment. 

Then society evolved to a place where many began to say “God doesn’t really matter, as long as I’m “good” I can pretty much do as I please.”  After that new concept they made their own definition of “good” which included neither work or a Sabbath rest.    In this type of fearless immorality the work ethic has changed.  Many do not feel they need to be making a contribution; they feel they automatically deserve to be happy and cared for simply because they exist.  They are very pleased to be their own bosses and answer to no one except themselves.  They try to re-make the world and change the basic rules of the universe that God set into motion when He began creation.  They tend to believe all of that talk about work is just an old worn out fairy tale; so they quit having a work ethic, and they quit worrying about things that other people decided were moral.  Now they make their own rules; without thinking about the fact that they set themselves up as their own little gods.  As long as it makes them happy; they believe they are entitled.  They answer to no one. 

These people tend to see work as a punishment instead of the blessing that God intended it to be.  Then they wonder why they can’t find happiness.  Out of their own selfish reasoning, they miss out on something very crucial to human happiness.  

They miss out on the fact that our work can bring value and meaning to our days.  They don’t see that work can glorify mankind and make his days much more interesting and rewarding.  Even better the greatest work within all of us can glorify and honor God.   These people, by making up their own laws, miss out on the joy of providing for a family and loved ones, and being able to help another fellow human being who is having a hard time or a bad day.  Everything is simply taken for granted; nothing is special.    

By rejecting God’s ways they miss the dignity that comes from being created in God’s image and the joy that comes from being creative in the purposeful ways that God made each individual person unique and distinct from others.  They miss the blessing of seeing what work can do for civilizations and society as a whole.

Take a survey of the whole world in your mind.  What countries seem to be suffering and in despair?  Are these not mostly countries which have governments in strict control which have failed to implement a work ethic among their people?  There are starving people living in poverty all over the globe; many of these come from countries where their citizens are oppressed and not allowed the freedom to work under free enterprise in order to make their lives better and more abundant.  There is no answer for these people; the cycle of poverty goes on and on because either they are not allowed or they do not share the mind-set to work and improve their situation.  If they share God’s view of work; they cannot implement it because the governments have oppressed people and do not allow them the freedom to live out God’s ways and reap the joy that comes from a continuous pattern of work and rest in their daily lives.  Every day is the same old drag to them.  Nothing ever changes.  Nothing is ever new and fresh.  Nothing they do actually matters.  They lose all motivation to thrive.  

This isn’t ALWAYS the case; but it is true of many such cases where there is poverty around the world.   Well wishers go in hoping to make a positive difference.  They see good changes come about, but when they leave everything regresses back to poverty and want again.  The people have not been taught the pattern of work and rest provided by God.  Poverty and oppression isn’t the way that God wants His people to live.  God wishes for each person to have an abundant joyful life where they can use the gifts He has given them in their daily lives.  God set up the commandments so that we can learn the best ways to live and work.  It is greedy and selfish men who have brought poverty and troubles upon mankind and perverted the natural patterns of God that help a worker to thrive and survive in abundance.  

Then there are those countries that DO have the freedom we speak of; yet the people abuse it and take it for granted.  Perhaps too many generations have had life too easy and have not taught the ethics of work to their children.  So many do not appreciate the right to work and provide for themselves and their families by the fruit of their labor.  Honest work and a decent job seem to be beneath their dignity.  Some just want everything handed to them on a silver platter.  Unfortunately; someone has to do the work that makes those silver platters possible!  

God’s way is one of equality and equal distribution.  There is equal distribution of work and equal distribution of rest for everyone who wants to obey Him and take up His ways.  All who work get to enjoy the fruits of their labor.   

Work is one way that God gave us to help to redeem the curse originally caused by the enemy of God on the earth.  God’s enemy, Satan, used mankind to accomplish this.    The perfect redemption was the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for redemption of our sins; Jesus did the work that repairs our souls.  The work of Christ was the most important work ever done.  

Mere humans cannot repair our own souls; we are too sinful and imperfect. Christ was the only perfect sinless One qualified for that job and He came and He did the work that He set out to do for all of us.  He set the exmple, both in resting and in working.

All we humble humans can do now is try to repair the damage that our sin has wreaked over the earth.  Jesus redeems our souls and we go to work.  We bring about restoration through our work.  Things are in constant decay because of the results of sin; but our combined work with the work Christ has done in our souls helps to temporarily repair the decay until He returns to make all things new.

It is the law of God that keeps and redeems the earth and the creation.  The laws have all been broken over and over again.  They were broken to the point of the ruin of all the souls of mankind; but Jesus came to repair our souls.  Once He repaired our souls, we became able to participate with Him in this holy process by keeping the commandment to do our work which helps to repair the world by restoring what He has designed us to be.   It is a very small way that we can play into the redemption story along side of Christ.  There are so many broken pieces that must come together!  Keeping God’s laws in grace and love are how the brokeness begins to be restored.    

The Jewish people have a saying:  “tikkun olam.”   It is often spoken and taken out of context.  It means “repair the world.”  To repair the world one must begin to reverse the curse of sin.  God gave us His laws to help us with this.  We humans cannot fulfill the law; only Christ could accomplish that; but with His help, we all have a part to play on the stage of the world to restore what is left of what Christ has fulfilled.  Since the world was broken by men disobeying the commandment of God, after Jesus has purified us and through Him working within us, we can begin to make restorations and repairs by obeying God’s law and working.  It is a great mysterious reversal that is in continuous process through the saving of the souls of the earth.    We must all do our part and that part begins with us using our physical bodies, minds, and hearts to do the work that God has given to us.  This counteracts the death and destruction of the earth that was caused by sin. 

If Jesus has made our souls clean, we will have a great desire to do any of the work that is required to bring about the changes that are needed to repair the world.   It all starts with working six days and resting one.

We are to work for six days because it took six days to create the world.    So we work for six days and we rest for one day; and we start all over again.  

The fourth commandment is all about keeping God’s time and His ways in our lives.  It is just as important today as it was in the day of Moses; maybe even more so as time draws to an end and we anxiously await the coming of our Groom; Jesus Christ. 

How long O LORD?

 

 

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FOOD ART AND FAMILY TRADITIONS: LEMON GARLIC SALMON:

(From the recipe collections of Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Need a little fish in your diet?  Salmon is tasty, healthy and makes a delicious meal.  Be careful to buy wild Alaskan Salmon.  The best place to get this fresh in the south is Whole Foods Market.   This side dish of baked cauliflower will wean you off of mashed potatoes forever.  Just add the simple green salad and some hot buttered bread with your favorite beverage and you have a wonderful late winter meal.

FRESH GREEN SALAD

Ingredients:

2 cups shredded fresh spinach leaves

2 cups shredded lettuce

1 onion – chopped

1 cup cauliflower – chopped

2 cups fresh blue cheese dressing

Directions:

Mix spinach leaves and lettuce.  Add onion and cauliflower.  Pour blue cheese dressing over all and chill until time to eat.  Should be served ice cold.

 LEMON - GARLIC SALMON

Ingredients:

6 boneless salmon filets

3 lemons – sliced thinly

2 onions – sliced thinly

3 tablespoons minced garlic

1 cup lemon juice

2 sticks of butter – melted

1 cup Parmesean Cheese, grated

Pinch salt

Pinch pepper

Directions:

Place the filets in a baking dish and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Place onion slices over fish.  Place lemon slices over onions.  Sprinkle minced garlic over all.  Pour melted butter and lemon juice over all.  Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and cover with foil.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees and cook for 50 minutes covered. 

TWICE BAKED CAULIFLOWER

Ingredients:

1 head fresh cauliflower (cut into tiny pieces)

1 whole onion, chopped

1 quart sized beef flavored broth

4 teaspoons minced garlic

2 cups cheddar cheese (shredded and divided in half)

1 8oz. block of creamed cheese cut into small chunks and left at room temperature

1 stick butter (melted)

1 cup sour cream

1 pkg. bacon bits

Directions:

Chop the cauliflower pieces and the onion and place inside a medium sized sauce pan.  Pour in 4 teaspoons minced garlic.   Fill the sauce pan the rest of the way with as much beef broth as is safe to boil the cauliflower in and turn the heat on medium high until the vegetables are soft.  Drain the broth and mash the vegetables together.  While the mix is hot pour in one half of the cheddar cheese and mix well.  Pour in the melted butter, sour cream, cream cheese and bacon bits and cream all together.  The mix will have the consistency of mashed potatoes.  Grease a quart casserole dish.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Pour ingredients into casserole dish.  Top with remaining cheddar cheese and cook for 30 minutes. 

FOOD ART EASY MEALS DINNER COLLECTION CHICKEN MARRAKESH

( An Everyday Simple and Good Recipe Collection Collected and Tested by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

THE BEST FRUIT SALAD

Ingredients:

1 (20 ounce can) peach slices

1 (20 ounce can) pineapple chunks

1 (3-1/8 ounce ) box dry vanilla instant pudding mix

1 lb. strawberries (quartered)

1 banana (sliced)

1/2 pint blueberries

1 bunch of grapes (red works best)

1-2 tablespoons sugar (optional)

Directions:

In a large bowl combine peaches, pineapples and vanilla pudding mix.  This includes the juices from the cans.  Mix well until the pudding is dissolved.  Stir in strawberries, banana, blueberries, grapes and sugar if desired.  Chill until time to serve.  

CHICKEN MARRAKESH

This is one of my family’s favorite dishes and I often serve it for company.  It is enough for eight people, so half or quarter however you need.  It is good left-over, so you might want to make the serving for eight even if you don’t need it and have it again.  I collected this from The Haddasha Cookbook, one of my favorites!

Ingredients:

4 Whole chickens (2-1/2 lbs. each), cut into eighths

12 large cloves of garlic, finely minced

3 tablespoons dried thyme

1 tablespoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup red wine vinegar

1 cup best quality olive oil

8 teaspoons green peppercorns, soaked in water and drained

2 cups whole pitted black olives

3 cups dried apricots

2 cups dried small figs

½ cup packed brown sugar

1 cup good red wine

2 large pecan pieces

Grated zests of 4 lemons

Directions:

1.  The day before combine the chicken, garlic, thyme, cumin, ginger, salt, wine vinegar, oil, peppercorns, olives, apricots and figs in 2 large bowls, dividing the ingredients equally. Marinate covered in the refrigerator overnight.  Mix several times during the day.  Remove the bowls from the refrigerator one hour before cooking.

2.   Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

3.   Arrange chicken in 2 large, heavy, shallow baking pans.  Spoon marinade evenly over both pans.  Sprinkle with the brown sugar and pecans and pour the wine evenly between the pieces in both pans and bake, basting frequently with the pan juices for 50 minutes. 

4.  Using a fork and slotted spoon, transfer the chicken, olives, dried fruit and pecan into a large serving platter.  Drizzle with a few large spoonfuls of the pan juices. 

Creamy Peach-Berry Dessert

Ingredients:

• 2 cartons (6 oz) Yoplait® Light or Original Harvest Peach® yogurt
• 1 package (8 oz) gluten-free fat-free cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 of a container (8 oz) frozen light whipped dessert topping, thawed
• 1 cup chopped pitted and peeled fresh peaches or thawed and drained Cascadian Farm® frozen peach slices
• 1 cup fresh or frozen unsweetened blueberries, raspberries, and/or strawberries, thawed and drained if frozen
• Fresh mint leaves (optional)
• Fresh berries (optional)

Directions:

1.      In a medium bowl, combine yogurt and cream cheese. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Fold in the whipped topping, peaches, and the 1 cup berries.

2.    Spoon mixture into a 2-quart square baking dish; spread evenly. Cover and freeze about 8 hours or until firm.

3.    To serve, let stand at room temperature about 45 minutes to thaw slightly. Cut into squares. If desired, garnish with mint leaves and additional berries.

SEASONS - DID THANKSGIVING COME FROM SUKKOT?

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

The Hebraic harvest celebration of Sukkot (The Feast of Tabernacles) is close to the time that Americans call Thanksgiving.   The two feasts have similar qualities.  We always hear the details of why we celebrate Thanksgiving in America, but why would anyone celebrate The Feast of Tabernacles, or as the Jewish people call it:  Sukkot?

There are many good reasons that compel both Christians and Jews to celebrate these Holy Days.  Part of the reasons pertain to the future and part of the reasons pertain to the past. 

                                  

 Jesus was very bold in going to The Feast of Tabernacles to teach.  There came a time when this actually meant risking His life to do so.  Most of the religious rulers of the day were not at all happy when He showed up.  He distracted from their personal glory, politics and profit margin.  The common people admired Jesus for His boldness, and His assurance of the ways of The Kingdom.  They drank in His every word.  His enemies, the rulers of the day, were not prepared for his boldness, his courage, or his lack of fear.  

On the last and greatest day of the feast the rabbi’s always held a water ceremony.  It was then that Jesus stood and loudly proclaimed that He was The Fountain of Living Water. (John 7:37-38).  The traditions that the common people had so rotely observed for years came alive when Jesus explained them at the feast.  The Feast of Tabernacles, as well as the other feasts and festivals all prophetically scream of the fact that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Savior of The World.  

As a Christian I celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles because I am following the example of Jesus Christ, The Messiah, and I know the feast speaks of God's people in the past as well as our future with Christ when He returns again.  



 
So what is most important, the past or the future?  Both are equally important when you consider the facts.   We know that the Feast of Tabernacles was a week long harvest festival.  God commanded it to be kept through out the generations of Israel.  This was to be a time to remember how God brought them out of the wilderness into a promised land.  It was much the same for the pilgrims coming to America.  They came from what they considered to be a wilderness of sin and hoped that the new land would be a place where they could worship God as they chose and that God would bless them for doing so.   


The ancient people built temporary dwellings to remind each other of how they dwelt in tents or temporary dwellings for 40 years in the wilderness.  Possibly the American pioneers did the same.  Have you ever examined the part of old log cabins called the "lean-to"?  It was often used as a temporary place to sleep for guests traveling through the area.  It might have been a pilgrim's design of a sukkah.   Most of the pilgrim settlements had these structures on the sides of their houses.  Not to mention the fact that they also had to dwell in "temporary dwellings" until they had the resources to build their permanent homes once they arrived in America; the land of the free.

The Israelites were poor slaves and had nothing, but God brought them to The Promised Land and provided them with great blessings.  The pilgrims had been slaves to their oppressive government and they had come to America to escape this.  They had come hoping to be able to achieve a better life full of blessings.



 
Much like the Jewish people, the pilgrims chose this time to remember that all blessings come from God.  The ancient Hebrews were to remember that God came down and dwelt among them in the tabernacle that He had them to design.   The pilgrims remembered how God led them safely across the ocean to another safe place where they could worship Him in freedom and peace.   

God journeyed with the Israelites through the hard times in the dessert. God journeyed with the pilgrims through the hard times of crossing the ocean and beginning to establish settlements in America.    

God fed the Israelites and clothed them and protected them from their enemies.  God did the same for the pilgrims as they settled in a new land with different customs.

God provided water for the Israelites from a rock.  He also provided water for these pilgrims.   

Both people groups experienced the physical and spiritual blessing of God because they stepped out on faith and obedience and moved in the direction that God was showing them.

On the eighth day of The Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot)  the Israelites would leave their temporary dwellings and go back to their houses in the promised land.  This would remind them of how God had kept His promises to provide for them and bless them as a nation.   They were told to keep the holiday before God in thankfulness for the year’s blessings and abundance.   In the same spirit of thankfulness the pilgrims offered up their thanks to God who had kept His promises to them and was beginning to bless them as a nation, and for the time and space that our nation honored God and kept His ways, we flourished in the land!


I think of this every year as I sit in my own temporary dwelling (my physical body as well as the physical sukkah we build as a family) and look at the evidence of the abundant blessings in my own home and my beautiful family who sit as a pleasant harvest all around me.  There are no words to properly describe my joy!   One cannot come to Sukkot without being thankful, nor to the American Thanksgiving.  I chose to keep them both and just let one be an extension of the other.  It is thankfulness multiplied by two!  How could that go wrong? 

There have been many wilderness experiences in life, but God has blessed us in every journey.  These two holidays are the time to notice and give thanks for the abundant ways that He always provides for us in every circumstance.    

Christians truly believe they should conform to the image of Christ.  That means doing the same things that Jesus did, and living as much like Him as possible.  Imitating Jesus would mean keeping The Feast of Tabernacles.  Imitating Jesus would mean being thankful such as we are at Thanksgiving.   Perhaps all of this is part of the reason we call The Holy Eucharist The Great Thanksgiving.  God's blessings are so great in our land and they tend to multiply when we take notice of them and thank God for them.  

It is a well known fact that Jesus Christ celebrated Sukkot.   Scriptures clearly state that Jesus taught from the Temple on The Feast of Tabernacles.  People looked forward to hearing from Him.  They wanted to know His teachings.  They gathered around him eagerly, especially on feast days.  Some of the pilgrims to Jerusalem had come from miles away, just hoping to get to see Jesus, to touch Him, to hear His words, to be near Him.  He did not disappoint them.  He taught on Solomon’s Porch and in other areas around the Temple. 

So why do the Jewish people celebrate?  They do not yet recognize Christ as the Messiah.

While we Christians are more focused on the future, the Jewish people are more focused on remembering the past and the lessons God showed them through history.  They bring these lessons into the present by remembering and honoring God on the days He has proclaimed.    Sukkot for them is a week long harvest festival.  It is a time for giving thanks to God for his abundant blessings.   They recognize that God commanded these days to be kept through out all their generations. This was to be a time to remember how God brought them out of the wilderness into a promised land. They were told to build sukkahs, or temporary dwellings, to remind each other of how they dwelt in tents or temporary dwellings for 40 years in the wilderness. They were poor and had nothing and God brought them to The Promised Land and provided them with great blessings. 

This is a time to remember that all blessings come from God. 

They remember that God came down and dwelt among them in the tabernacle that He had them to design. 

He journeyed with them through the hard times in the dessert. 

He fed them and clothed them and protected them from their enemies. 

He provided water for them from a rock. 

On the eighth day of the feast they would leave their temporary dwellings and go back to their houses in the promised land. This would remind them of how God had kept His promises to provide for them and bless them as a nation. They were told to keep the holiday before God in thankfulness for the year’s blessings and abundance.

As Christians watching the Jewish people celebrate the past and learning from it, we can clearly see that God was showing them the future by commanding them to remember the past.  God is like that!  He shows up in unexpected ways and speaks without speaking.

All believers of God have much in common on this feast day.   When we study the scriptures with open hearts, the balance comes.  We begin to realize that all of God's people have a lot to learn from each other. 

Israel and America are both great nations with so many of their native people being servants of God.    Long ago the natives of Israel wanted to please God with all their hearts.  They wanted this enough to leave all that they found familiar.  They were willing to cross the sea and go out into a strange and dessert land in order to worship Him in the way that He chose to be worshiped. 

In such a similar way, the pilgrims in coming to America wanted to imitate Christ as much as possible and they loved Him with all their hearts.  They wanted this so much that they were willing to leave all that was familiar to them and cross a sea and go to live in an unknown wilderness-like place.  

Perhaps those early pilgrims who crossed the sea to come to America chose to celebrate the first Thanksgiving because they too had read about a great God who commanded His people to honor Him annually with their harvest. 

 More and more people are beginning to realize that our traditional American Thanksgiving very likely had its origins in this historical fall festival called Sukkot.  

In that first American Thanksgiving the very religious puritan pilgrims came before God to give thanks for helping them to survive their first very hard year in America.  Don’t you know they thanked God for the fact that they had food, had shelter and had been able to survive the very harsh conditions of the pioneer life that they had needed to live when they arrived on those golden shores?  It seems a lot like the children of God remembering their time in the wilderness and giving thanks for the Promised land.  As they were giving thanks for the first year of survival it is quite possible that one pilgrim might have pulled out a bible and read Leviticus 23: 39 and had a lot of heads nodding around the table and thinking they would follow the example of those brave Israelites and give God the glory for bringing them to the day of thanks and for furnishing a harvest from a harsh year in the wilderness that was America.

And so we come to The Season of Joy to begin our Thanksgiving.  We will worship God with all of our hearts and this will carry over to the time of thankfulness that our nation calls Thanksgiving.  It is an American holiday.  It is a good holiday.  It is a time to confirm all that God has shown us at The Feast of Tabernacles.