EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/8/2026
6:24 PM
My
Worship Time
Focus: PT-1 “In The Grainfields”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Luke
6:1-5
Message of the verses: “1Now it
happened that Jesus was passing through some grainfields on
a Sabbath, and His disciples were picking the
heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating them. 2But some of the
Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not
lawful on the Sabbath?” 3And
Jesus, answering them, said, “Have you not
even read what David did when he was hungry, he
and those who were with him, 4how he entered the
house of God, and took and ate the consecrated bread,
which is not lawful for anyone to
eat except the priests alone, and gave it to his
companions?” 5And He was
saying to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
This evening I begin what could take a few Spiritual
Diaries to complete writing about these first five verses in Luke chapter
six. It is better to take it slowly and
so I don’t miss things than to rapidly go through them in what I call an “Airplane
View.
Let us begin by writing about the Sabbath,
and where it originated from in the Word of God, and what a person was to do or
not do on the Sabbath, according to God’s Word.
Now originally this was given by God in the Mosaic law, and not before,
in order to be a day of rest. MacArthur
adds “the Hebrew word translated ‘Sabbath’ comes from a verb that means, ‘to
cease,’ ‘to desist,’ or, ‘to rest’ [cf. Gen. 2:21]), refreshment, and worship
for His people (Ex. 20:8-11).”
(Ex. 20:8-11)
“8 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it
holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do
all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath
to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or
your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or
the sojourner who is within your gates. 11
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is
in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath
day and made it holy.”
“But by
the first century, it had accumulated an enormous number of extrabiblical
restrictions and regulations, so much so that it had become the most oppressive
and burdensome day of the week.” As you
look at the verses from Exodus above you can see what happens when unregenerated
man gets involved in something. You go
from a day where there is no work to be done making it enjoyable to a day that
has so many restrictions that it takes all the joy out of it.
MacArthur writes “The Talmud devotes
twenty-four chapters to Sabbath regulations, describing in painfully exhaustive
detail what was and was not permitted to be done.” The following is a very
brief description on what the Talmud is:
“The Torah is the foundational written text of Judaism, while the
Talmud is the expansive oral commentary and legal discussion that explains and
interprets the Torah.” Back to
MacArthur’s commentary “The result was a ridiculously complex system of
external behavior restraints—so much so that one rabbi spent two and a half
years studying just one of the twenty-four chapters.
“For example, traveling more than
3,000 feet from home was forbidden. But
if one had placed food at the 3,000 foot point before the Sabbath, that point
would then be considered a home, since there was food there, and allow another
3,000 feet of travel. Similarly, a piece
of wood or a rope placed across the end of a narrow street or alley constituted
a doorway. That could then be considered
the front door of one’s house, and permit the 3,000 feet of travel to begin
there.
“There were also regulations about
carrying items. Something lifted up in a
public place could not only be set down in a private place, and vice
versa. An object tossed into the air
could be caught with the same hand, but if it was caught with the other hand,
it would be a Sabbath violation. If a
person had reached out to pick up food when the sabbath began, the food had to
be dropped; to bring the arm back while holding the food would be to carry a
burden on the Sabbath. It was forbidden
to carry anything heavier than a dried fig (though something weighing half as
much could be carried two times). A tailor
could not carry his needle, a scribe his pen, or a student his books. Only enough ink to write two letters (of the
alphabet) could be carried. A letter
could not be sent, not even with a non-Jew.
Clothes could not be examined or shaken out before being put on because
an insect might be killed in the process, which would be work. No fire could be lit, or put out. Cold water could be poured into warm water,
but not warm into cold. An egg could not
be cooked, not even by placing it in hot sand during the summer. Nothing could be sold or bought. Bathing was forbidden, lest water be spilled
on the floor and wash it. Moving a chair
was not allowed, since it might make a rut in a dirt floor, which too much like
plowing. Women were forbidden to look in
a mirror, since if they saw a white hair, the might be tempted to pull it out.
“Other forbidden things included
sowing, plowing, reaping, binding sheaves, threshing, winnowing, grinding, kneading,
baking, shearing, washing, beating, dyeing, or spinning wool, trying or untying
a knot, catching, killing, or skinning a deer, salting its meat, or preparing
its skin. (For a detailed discussion of the rabbinic Sabbath restrictions see
Alfred Edersheim, ‘The Ordinances and Law of the Sabbath as Laid Down in the
Mishnah and the Jerusalem Talmud,’ Appendix XVII in, The Life and Times of
Jesus the Messiah [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974], 2:777-87.)
“It was to people crushed by the
unbearable burden (Matt. 23:4; Luke 11:46; Acts 15:10) of manmade, legalistic
regulations that the Lord Jesus Christ said, ‘Come to Me, all who are weary and
heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in
heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light’ (Matt. 11:28-30).”
(Matt. 23:4; Luke 11:46; Acts 15:10)
“4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and
lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move
them with their finger.”
“46 And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For
you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the
burdens with one of your fingers.”
“10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to
the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our
fathers nor we have been able to bear?”
6/8/2026
7:09 PM
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