Leviticus 2:3 ‘There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the Lord.
Many people today rebel against structure in their lives. They want freedom from just about everything. I read in the news that several million people quit their jobs recently, much larger than the usual number. Are they just wanting more for less?
As I have been moving dirt in my back yard following some construction, I remember some of my early jobs in life. They were hard physical labor jobs, sweat until you drop kind of jobs. I have had a number of those jobs over the years. Farmers know hard work more than most of us do. So do the servants who safeguard our communities.
Hard work teaches us many lessons that nothing else can. We learn the value of the income we earn. We learn that getting ahead is hard work. We learn that nothing is truly free.
Our text tells us about how the Israelite community was structured to force trust, not in a coercive sense, but in a disciplined and structured sense. Their whole life as a community revolved around the number seven. Work six days and rest on the seventh.
What this meant is that every week they had to trust that the LORD would provide enough during the six days of work to meet the needs during the seventh. It was exercise in simple trust. It started with the manna in the wilderness, gathering six days and not gathering on the seventh. It was a simple act that said, “I have heard what the LORD said, and now I will trust what He said.”
This chapter talks about the religious gatherings that would take place every year as part of their discipline and structure of their community. And as you read these two chapters, take note of how many times the number seven appears. Seven days, seven months, seventh day, seventh month, sabbath (means seven). You would think the author was trying to get our attention!
There are no exceptions to this first instance of the seven, the sabbath day. Our text lays it out, and the Jewish readers would have immediately been reminded of the first pages of Genesis, the creation account. The LORD worked six days and then rested. They were to mirror that in their community.
What is added in our text today is that it is a “sacred assembly.” It is one of, wait for it, seven sacred assemblies that are outlined here in the chapter. These yearly gatherings become an integral part of the calendar and life of the Israelite communities down through history. These are still practiced today in some Jewish households. Six of the gatherings are called sacred assemblies, that that are timed and connected to the calendar. The offering of firstfruits is connected to the crop and not the calendar.
This weekly reminder of their distinctive relationship of trust in the LORD became one of the key markers of them as a community of faith. Even in Roman times, the observance of the sabbath was viewed by outsiders as laziness, rather than as a sign of faith. It is amazing how outsiders can misunderstand what our symbols mean.
The Christian Church for the most part does not observe these seven sacred assemblies. In one sense, I think this is a shame. We have adopted the calendar of our culture. We don’t have the reminders woven into our weekly and yearly life together that bring us together as a community to declare our collective trust in His provision. I think we are poorer for it.
The Arnold Journey 