An Extended Sabboth Rest

So....better late than never...or is it really?  I've felt the importance of Daily Bible Study, I've personally grown through daily Bible Study, and I know the importance of spending time with my Savior.  Yet, I allow things to get in the way.

After experiencing the mountain top or the lonely valley, the lesson should be deeply embedded.  Yet, it's easy to venture off the path, if even just a little...staying only feet or inches away...the path is still in sight but I'm just to busy to get there today.  Today turns into tomorrow, then a week, and before you know it a month, or even a year!

That's where I found myself today.  I have been excited about this new study.  I really want to do this on-line and on my own.  If I could have found someone else doing this on-line...I would have jumped at the chance.  Yet, here I am.  It's two weeks behind schedule and I still haven't got the book even ordered.  I keep thinking I will make it into Springfield and buy the book. It also sits in my checkout on Amazon.com.  Yet, neither have moved into action. 

It dawned on me this morning that maybe a portion of the study could be downloaded.  Alas, I can start!  What a start it is, too.  While studying the background for Nehemiah we look into the past of Jerusalem to find out why they are in need of rebuilding the Wall of Jerusalem.  In 587 b.c., Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple.  He had it plundered and burned, sending the Jewish people to Babylon and living in exile. 

What a blow that must have been to God's people.  2 Chron 36:21 This is exactly the message of God that Jeremiah had preached: the desolate land put to an extended sabbath rest, a seventy-year Sabbath rest making up for all the unkept Sabbaths.   
The first thing that comes to my mind,...having been in a yucky place where you feel there is no way out but up...I guess that gives you time to put your relationship back into place with God.  Yet, isn't that what the Sabbath is all about?  Isn't that what daily Bible Study is all about?  It's one of those things we know; staying on the path is important.  Yet we ignore the message of God and venture off, even feeling safe when the path is still in sight, and we keep on walking. 

Well, that's my big "ahhh" of the day.  Now what to do with it!