1.6

This Book’s Order

The ancient argument over time as either changing or constant will never be settled because both are true. Its faceted nature continually changes at the same time that its unperceived dimension is constant. Time’s changes carve out handles for us to hold and order it into a past, present and future, and predictably anticipate its changing in space. We can measure changing time into precise lengths as short as a nanosecond and as long as a light year. Changing time feels familiar because it can be measured and its changes predicted. Unchanging time cannot be perceived and is beyond our ability to quantify or value. Despite eluding our efforts to measure or handle it, it never loses its hold on us and permeates our every moment. Both these facets of time - the changing and unchanging - are completely distinct from the holy time of God’s Sabbath when He completed creation and from the Sabbath day He gave Israel to observe in the forth of His ten commandments. God tells Israel that the Sabbath bears witness not only to His rest from creating, but also to His work of delivering and sanctifying her. Rabbinic teachings emphasize the Sabbath is essential to Israel’s relationship with God. The rabbis also know that no one in Israel nor in all the world has yet been able to perfectly observe the Sabbath

The quest to perfectly keep Sabbath law will forever escape us because the holy rest of God’s Sabbath is beyond anything we can attain or do.  There are two primary reasons why it is humanly impossible to keep God's rest.  First, it is in the nature of our will’s heart, mind and body to live by its active efforts. Our will is present in every aspect of our being and is continually in motion to keep alive, whether or not we are aware of its activities. The commandment to do no work contradicts the core of our life’s force and despairs of ever being done. Second, God's rest is not a thing or condition anyone can take up because it is holy and outside human reach.  When, however, God’s Sabbath is heard as His promise and not command, we discover His hope. As His promise, the Sabbath is proof that God completes not only His work of creation, but also His work beyond creation that enables us to know Him and be with Him. Beyond all our doing is the life God gives us and wants to transform, to be in Him. God has both desired and accomplished our deliverance from all that wants to drive and define us, and He has created a way to make us complete in Him. Throughout the Bible, God shows His love for us is sacrificial. In Jesus, He shows the full extent of His sacrificial love that completes all good things for us. We can rest in God’s rest when we trust His Son’s way to Him, the heart of Jesus resting in His Father

One of the more confusing and controversial aspects of the Bible has to do with God’s choice of Israel over all other nations and His choice of only some from among all nations through Jesus in His new covenant. How can we understand God’s choice of just one nation and the transition from His covenant with Israel to His new covenant with all nations? How can God ever be justified in fulfilling His promises for only a chosen few while rejecting the rest? We will search out this apparent inequity in God who is called just and gracious, choosing who He wills in His loving kindness