The Days of the Lord--by Linden Malki

God created the universe with time, and cycles of day and night, the cycles of the moon and the sun, giving us seasons to our lives. He also gave us the requirement of periodically recognizing His provision in creating the food that sustains our bodies. One of the very oldest mentions we have of acknowledging His relationship to our lives is Cain and Abel bringing a portion of their harvests to God as an offering.  Noah's first action when he came out of the Ark was to make a thank offering to God; and we see this happening as a joint activity of a family or a community.

In addition to the obvious cycles of days, months and years God also gives us a a pattern of "weeks", seven-day periods that give us a time for work and a time to break from working.  He calls it a Day of Rest, but it is more than just a day to do nothing It is a day that makes a difference; a recognition that God made the "heavens and the earth" and enjoyed the result. There are positive things we are asked to do on this day; we are to bring a portion of the results of our labors as an offering to God. This is not just a personal task; it involves the family and the community, and it involves everyone, including slaves, outsiders, and even animals. So what is the meaning of the Sabbath? We are supposed to take the day off from our normal everyday work. We are to bring to God a portion of the results of our work, and we do it as a member of a family ad a community. This has been an integral part of Jewish communities for four thousand years.

A major shift in emphasis on this observance happened two thousand years ago, and we are approaching the remembrance of the reason for this shift. Think about the the events of an historical week that changed the world; beginning with the public recognition of one man as the Promised One who would change the world. It continued with a celebration of Passover that was different than any other yearly commemoration; that again we celebrate on a regular basis to this day. It continued with a trial and a execution. The next day is the one we don't usually pay much attention to, because we don't see anything "happening." This was probably the most sorrowful day in the small community of Jesus's followers, the day that they must have seen as the end of their world. We can assume that they probably kept it as a usual Sabbath, but I suspect that they did not go anywhere or do anything. What was there to do? Prepare the final tribute to the Man who had changed their world, and go back to where they had come in three years earlier.

We now know what happened the next day--not on a Sabbath but on a "First Day", the First Day of God's triumph over the force of sin and evil. This small group of people who saw what had happened on that day became a group of one hundred twenty people who broke out into a holiday crowd on the streets of Jerusalem and changed the world. This is why we now celebrate the First Day in remembrance of what  happened on the day after the saddest Sabbath ever, and in memory of those who gathered on the the First Day to celebrate the Resurrection of the Savior of the world.