Laodicea
vs
A Sabbath Test
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exodus 20:8
O ver twenty-four hundred years ago, God Almighty inspired a Jew serving under the Persian king Artaxerxes, to boldly confront the nobles of Judah and excoriate them for defiling the Sabbath. The man’s name was Nehemiah and his words and actions are legendary in scripture. His indictment of the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem was provoked by the calloused indifference God's people had for a day He consecrated as HOLY at the very beginning (Gen. 2:3). Instead of treating this time with deference and respect, they had profaned it by engaging in commerce. God's people had come to a point to where they thought nothing of allowing unbelievers access to Jerusalem on holy time and then paying these Sabbath-breakers for their goods and services.
Nehemiah's reaction to this sin was passionate and forceful. He saw buying and selling as a clear breach of the fourth commandment. Furthermore, he made a direct link between this sin and Judah’s CAPTIVITY (Neh.13:15-21).
Little did this courageous man know that his voice would once again ring out to the last generation of God's Church. Today, the nobles of God's people promote a sin that is strikingly similar to the one condemned by the Almighty in Nehemiah’s time. Furthermore, if these leaders persist in teaching that God's people may now seek out merchants who sell their wares and victuals on the Sabbath and holy day and purchase their Sabbath-breaking services, they will find themselves in the same position Nehemiah warned of so very long ago. Tragically, it appears that they will have to learn this lesson the hard way.
This wing of our site identifies how today's nobles try to justify the very behavior Nehemiah sought to extinguish. Regrettably, each of these leaders seem more interested in justifying their sin than in honoring the Lord of the Sabbath and His law.
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