When I was working at a television station, we had a farm program that aired each weekday morning.
The host was a great guy named Gene Reagan. One morning he told us that a farmer had called him to
complain about Daylight Savings Time. He claimed that the extra hour of daylight was killing his
tomatoes!
That is funny because Daylight Savings Time doesn’t change the amount of sunshine in a day, it just
means we change what time we go to work or school. The amount of sunlight in any given day is
determined by the earth's rotation and position regarding the sun. There will be days with less daylight
than others, but it is not determined by where we set our clocks.
There are only two periods of time created by God: day and night. Seconds, minutes, hours, days,
weeks, months, and years are man-made designations to help organize and manage our days and nights.
That’s why there have been different calendars throughout history…humans are involved. In fact, I’m
tempted to invent and live by a new calendar. I’ll call it the Barberian Calendar and a year will consist of
24 of our present months. By my calendar, I’d only be 36 years old! But regardless of what my calendar
…or any calendar…says, I will live the same amount of nights and days, as established by God.
I say all of that to make my point that the day we set aside as a day of rest and to honor God is not the
most important aspect of a Sabbath (which means rest). In Egypt, as slaves, the Hebrews had no “day
off”. As they started their journey across the wilderness, they traveled every day. God introduced a
time of rest to them and told them to honor Him by doing so. Note that He did not name the days he
was referring to, He just said work six days and rest and honor Him on the seventh day.
In fact, the international standard is to start the week on Monday. However, several countries, including
the US and Canada, count Sunday as the first day of the week. Christians in Germany, for instance,
celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday because Sunday is the seventh day of their week. Do we really think
that God would allow an arbitrary, man-made calendar determine whether or not we are obedient to
God? If I choose to say that Monday is the first day of my “work week” and thus honor God with a time
of rest on Sunday, what is that to anyone? I’m certain that the Lord will not be angry with me.
Say good things about your Savior and about His church on the bluff.
The host was a great guy named Gene Reagan. One morning he told us that a farmer had called him to
complain about Daylight Savings Time. He claimed that the extra hour of daylight was killing his
tomatoes!
That is funny because Daylight Savings Time doesn’t change the amount of sunshine in a day, it just
means we change what time we go to work or school. The amount of sunlight in any given day is
determined by the earth's rotation and position regarding the sun. There will be days with less daylight
than others, but it is not determined by where we set our clocks.
There are only two periods of time created by God: day and night. Seconds, minutes, hours, days,
weeks, months, and years are man-made designations to help organize and manage our days and nights.
That’s why there have been different calendars throughout history…humans are involved. In fact, I’m
tempted to invent and live by a new calendar. I’ll call it the Barberian Calendar and a year will consist of
24 of our present months. By my calendar, I’d only be 36 years old! But regardless of what my calendar
…or any calendar…says, I will live the same amount of nights and days, as established by God.
I say all of that to make my point that the day we set aside as a day of rest and to honor God is not the
most important aspect of a Sabbath (which means rest). In Egypt, as slaves, the Hebrews had no “day
off”. As they started their journey across the wilderness, they traveled every day. God introduced a
time of rest to them and told them to honor Him by doing so. Note that He did not name the days he
was referring to, He just said work six days and rest and honor Him on the seventh day.
In fact, the international standard is to start the week on Monday. However, several countries, including
the US and Canada, count Sunday as the first day of the week. Christians in Germany, for instance,
celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday because Sunday is the seventh day of their week. Do we really think
that God would allow an arbitrary, man-made calendar determine whether or not we are obedient to
God? If I choose to say that Monday is the first day of my “work week” and thus honor God with a time
of rest on Sunday, what is that to anyone? I’m certain that the Lord will not be angry with me.
Say good things about your Savior and about His church on the bluff.