Mental Musings

“The seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.” Exodus 20:10 (NIV) There is some controversy about what the Sabbath means and what day of the week should be observed as the Sabbath. Most would agree that Sunday is the first day of the week and that the actual Sabbath day falls on Saturday. That is still the day of the week that Jews set aside as the Sabbath. The Pharisees and Sadducees were very adamant that there would be no work done on the Sabbath. What constitutes work? Religious leaders were very legalistic about this point, even setting specific weight limits on what a person could carry on the Sabbath. Too much jewelry could have constituted work. Temple priests served as guards at the gates to ensure that nobody would enter the city on the Sabbath carrying any items as that was seen as work. The disciple...

“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” Acts 20:28 (NIV) Sheep dogs herding sheep God seems to like to shake things up. At times He seems to be very traditional in His ways by giving the Israelites all of these rules and regulations to follow and feasts and festivals to observe, but then He enters into the world in a very unusual manner that did not fit in with the understandings and expectations of His people and their traditions. The people of Israel were looking for a king to come sweeping in with force to free them from their oppression and rule victoriously in Jerusalem. Yet prophecies did make it clear that the Messiah would be born as a child (Isaiah 9:6); that He would be born among the smallest of the clans of Judah (Micah 5:2); that Jesus would be crucified for our transgressions, killed for our sins, and that through His blood we would be h...

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way." Isaiah 53:6a (KJV) Sheep seem to get a bad rap; they are called smelly, self-absorbed, and stupid. Smelly: anyone that has owned a wool coat can vouch for how easily wool collects dirt and odors. Sheep often have very thick coats of wool until they are sheared. Their wool continually grows thicker and sheep do not shed. If they are not sheared, sheep would become wool blind-the wool would grow so thick around their head that they would no longer be able to see. Wool blindness would lead to death since they could no longer see to find food or water. Shearing is necessary and it helps to cleanse them from a year's worth of filth. Sheep cannot simply walk into a pond to rinse off as this would make the wool too heavy for them to climb out of the pond and they would easily tire and drown. Self-Absorbed: like most animals, sheep are typically concerned with only a few things-and all ...