*Every Friday afternoon I dash about madly trying to get ready for the weekend and trying to get the weeks washing hung before dinner time. On Friday afternoons I find myself thinking on the Jewish women of old, and the Jewish women of today who still live this way – all busily preparing for the Sabbath, getting all the work done by sundown the end of the 6th day, bringing in the 7th, the day of rest till sundown 24 hours later.
I think about how not just Friday, but the preceding days are lived and ordered with this end goal of being ready for the 7th day. I think about how the time of sundown changes according to the season – for instance today sundown arrives in Jerusalem at 4.34pm whereas in June it will be 7.49pm. I think about how knowing ‘about when, but not exactly when’ is a foreshadow, and I think about the richness of a culture designed to attune its people toward their Creator. And I continually see new aspects, new insights, new lessons within the object lessons that the Law provided and still provides in fact.
Every Friday I’m looking forward to a friend who lives there, posting as she regularly does, about the quiet that descends on Jerusalem on Shabbat.
The Law is a hotly contested topic… but I feel an affinity with David who said “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.” – because I do love it, and I do meditate upon it, or portions thereof, throughout much of my day. And drawing from the practical aspects of what it looked like to LIVE the law, has taught me so much… of Who God is, what He loves and desires, what He has designed for us to learn and see and be watchful of.
Right down to hanging my washing on a Friday afternoon.
The OT law (Genesis through to Deuteronomy) created a culture that simply would never have existed without God speaking to Moses as He did. It was not a ‘live like this if you’d like to’ kind of arrangement, but one with implications if it was followed and if it was not.
While Christians are quick to say “we’re not under law, we’re under grace” and that’s true, the law is rich with insight and not to be seen as irrelevant. It is a trove of gems and a storehouse of living lessons. And that is why I love it.
So while it’s true that I’ve tried to step through some of the practical aspects of the law, its not remotely out of a sense of having to, its ENTIRELY out of a sense of discovering the unknown, of seeing more deeply into His design. Its love, not law. A means through which I can’t HELP but meditate on His works.
Jesus Himself said He came not to abolish but to fulfil the law…
Its awesome.
His plan.
Stunning.
Huge.
Amazing.
It began before time and extends to the other side of time.
Yet ever since Jesus resurrection, God the Father has been using the law for the continuance of His plan.
You see, part of how I see the OT law, is this:
Through the Law, God created a context in which the prophecies written both after and BEFORE Moses, could be recognised.
No two cultures are the same. Some are similar. But Israel is unique.
Many of the laws seem so bizarre… yet put them all together and the result is a culture entirely unlike any other.
Food, clothing, land, rest days, celebrations, remembrances, moral laws, not cutting beards, just to mention a few areas of it…
No other culture has maintained an identity for nearly 2000 years without a homeland. People spread all over the earth maintaining ways of life both dear and divinely given to them.
Again:
Its awesome.
His plan.
Stunning.
Huge.
Amazing.
Without this culture, the prophecies concerning the Messiah could never have been recognised. God has used the seeming strangeness of this culture to bring light to a fine point upon the One He intends us to be able to recognise. In past, present and future.
Israel has always existed throughout my life span. So the incredulity of it not having existed for 1900 years didn’t hit me until fairly recently. Dispersed 30 years after the crucifixion, not coming together as a nation till relatively recent times. Arab/Israeli politics are waaaay beyond me, but I am certain, that through the law creating a culture, creating a nation and reforming a nation which didn’t exist when my parents were born, we STILL have a context in which to be watchful. He is still at work. He is still about the business of completing His plan. He still means for us to be watchful and ready.
Just like the coming of sundown on the 6th day.
PS *I wrote the above during a time of’living out’ some of the OT laws as a means of ‘living meditation’ – exploring their depth and revelation. Not as a set of commands.
28/01/2019