Likewise with the meaning of "holy" in the Bible. If it means set apart, we will flock to meet or hear the person that demonstrates a morality that is out of this world. If it means moral wholeness (holy consists of more than righteousness, but also includes truth, etc.), then we will try to live morally healthy lives consisting of more than one moral character trait. If on the other hand, it means pure, we will practice keeping ourselves pure from contamination as one of our highest goals and activities.
My next post (planned for tomorrow) will point to what blessed and holy are. In this post, I will assume [if you are uncomfortable with assuming temporarily. then jump to the next post] the meaning of "blessed" as being integrity, based on a working definition. A specific example of this is: "I am who I am". In this post, I will also assume [again, jump ahead if you like] the meaning of "holy" as being moral wholeness. The next post will answer the question of definition, but for this entry I hope you will allow me some indulgence in working out the practical actions with regard to treating the beginning days of generations and the six days of work and the Sabbath rest appropriately.
The first thing in deriving practical applications from this unit of Scripture is to be aware that this is primarily a relationship text. In turn, this also means it has a large portion of the text that is narrative. Genesis as a whole is laying out for us the beginnings and endings of some things and also the ongoing relationship of many generations in places and times. In telling us about the opening days of generations for the heavens and the earth and ourselves, it tells us also what God did and also what we should do.
Besides the practical relationship advice a person can pick up from the stories of Biblical characters in Genesis, there is in this story of creation the opening of work or action by God. He both creates and makes. So here is where we might be able to learn some great action lessons.
First, I wonder, if the creation story does not mean that each time we work we are creating and we are making and that without our working, the world reverts back to a kind of chaos and void. Is that perhaps why the world of neglected buildings tells a story of reverting back to chaos and nothingness to the point of needing even demolishing? Is our work part of the necessary part of sustaining creation beyond its beginning? Are we in any way supposed to be imitators of God and pumped up about going to work rather than reluctant to get to it? What obviously separates us from God is that we in no way started things at the beginning. Rather we ourselves are a part of the beginning. But should we see human work in a much more positive manner?
Let me give you a classic example from my own love of nature as to how work has become a negative rather than a positive. When I was in my junior high years, I acquired a book from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. That pamphlet is my Bible on trout stream habitat. In there, it showed how to do thing with regard to developing trout habit and how not to do things. But in the last decade or more, the DNR has taken a much less active role in creating trout habit in trout streams. As a result, just the other day, I witnessed a former trout brook that no longer supported even one trout in its entire stretch of water. I mean not even one! The entire day that I spent walking (not fishing) the stream, as I scouted this stream for good opportunities to fish later, I never witnessed one fish darting from my approach. What I did see were three major and old "log jams" that I knew would prevent trout from being able to survive in the stretch that I was investigating. By doing no work on this stream, rather than basic regular maintenance, it had led to the death of that stream in terms of trout. It was an instance where our fear of working and of making a mistake on behalf of the trout had led to our entire failure to work and therefore create and make habit for a species who would thrive in these waters. That is a great illustration of why work needs to be seen more positively, like what I saw in playing football where doing something correctly was supposed to replace doing something incorrectly rather than either being replaced by doing nothing.
Second, I think this passage teaches a relationship component, when it comes to work. There should be a limit on the work week or better perhaps a line drawn between weeks. Work it appears is not supposed to be endless. The other day, I ran into a person who bragged to me that she worked every single day. She was a great person and I admire her hard work ethic. But I think one danger is like the danger for Jack in the old saying, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". Another danger is that one becomes a slave. Working all seven days in ancient times was considered to be the mark of a slave. Right now, this person is being enslaved without seeing it.
A further danger is the obvious danger of burnout. For me, working six days a week for about seven hours per day seems to be the best schedule. That one day break is just enough to re-invigorate me and also only seven hours per day allows me other things in each day besides work. I don't have any idea that I would ever work something like ten to eleven hours per day for four days and take the next three off. I find that when I work that long each day, things like my capacity for quality work diminish. I can work, but the mind is not there. So I think that God's work pattern should be ours. Six days on, one day off is my personal favorite and I think I like it because God liked it. Again, I love work as much as I loved playing football. As long as I accomplish something in reasonable time, leaving time for other things every day, what is not to like? And this little vacation each week maybe is the pattern for all the longer ones as well. Check out the Hebrew Old Testament sometime for all their times off. I think ample time off is part of the practical outcome of the creation story.
Third, because God blesses and makes holy the Sabbath Day, we should do the same. If bless means to call a person by a name that fits them (or has integrity with who they are), then that action likely needs to be part of our day. I would think that it would have the effect of what we call affirmations. God in this day, called his rest day by a name that means rest day. Maybe we should be more thoughtful in choosing names for children or nicknames for friends.
God in this day, called his rest day
by a name that means rest day.
Also in making the day holy, if holy means moral wholeness, this would then mean observing the whole day as a day of rest without any mixture of work in it (impurity), and as seeing it as distinct (set apart) from the others in that they are work days while this is a rest day the entire day and maybe not just the better part of it like our work days. I think the idea of keeping the Sabbath a Sabbath for the entire day can do the whole of who we are a lot of good. God seemed to be pleased by it in not doing any work that day. He did not seem the least displeased with having to end his work for the week, before moving on to the next week. I got a feeling God is not done working or making each week until his own Sabbath arrives. The question is not what God is doing now however, but what are we doing. Do we work and rest? Or do we work and work? Or do we rest and work? Or do we rest and rest? Are we like God in our actions?
So ask yourself first, "Do I love working - creating and making?" Ask second, "Do I know when to work and when to take a break?" Ask third, "Do I affirm others in a way that fits with who they are? And do I not work at all for a whole day as far as my wage earning job is concerned? "
I hope you have answer affirmatively to some of those questions, because then you are living out this passage, not just reading it and never looking in the mirror at yourself. Take a good look. Do you have God's demeanor when it comes to creating and making? Get out there and do something!
In Christ,
Jon
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