Chapter 1
Good Monday Morning to this week 01 of 2022
From one month to the next, on sabbath after sabbath, everyone, every living thing, will come to this holy place to honor Me as God of all. This is My word to you.
Isaiah 66.23, The Voice
From one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another. This phrase, used by the prophet is intended to express absolute continuance without an interval. The prophet still uses modes of expression, though speaking of a time and circumstances to which they are no longer appropriate. The literal meaning, all flesh, in all regions of the new earth, or to this holy place, could not worship in one spot, and so it was plain that Isaiah spoke of a worship other than that at any given place” – of a worship such as that whereof Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman, “Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Following are a few thoughts of Macknight;
… a glimpse of perpetual sabbatism (occurring repeatedly; so frequent as to seem endless and uninterrupted), breathing into it an air of liberty and love necessarily unknown before, and thus making it the nearest resemblance to the eternal sabbatism
The prophet wraps up his writing and speaks of the nature of that rest which is as a glimpse of perpetual sabbatism for those that worship God. It will resemble the rest of the sabbath, both in its employments and enjoyments resting from work and trial, from evils we are subject to in the present life; and we shall recollect the labors we have undergone, the dangers we have escaped, and the temptations we have overcome. And by reflecting on these things, we shall be filled with unspeakable joy. Being admitted into the immediate presence of God to worship, we shall pass a perpetual sabbath in those elevations of pure devotion. The Hebrews considered the sabbath as an emblem for the heavenly rest, or as another writer puts it: Shadows of the good sabbath to come!
As we start back into a hectic, busy and not less uncertain new year. The brave new world we are looking for, might not be a world free of trouble, illnesses or viruses. The brave new world might be the world in which we learn the secret of the sabbath, in finding the holy place of God in the very situation we are in.
Wishing a great start to this new week and new year.
Philemon