Daily Devotional For September 4, 2025
. . . worship Him who made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and the fountains of water. Rev 14:7.
The last phrase of Rev 14:7 contains language from the fourth commandment. “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exod 20:11). Careful research indicates an intentional allusion here to the fourth commandment of the Decalogue. In the last days of earth’s history, when everything is on the line, God calls people to give attention to the Sabbath command. Does this make any sense? Isn’t that kind of arbitrary on God’s part? The following is helpful to me in wrestling with this idea:1
Imagine a country (let’s say some warm recess of Antarctica) where the people have a culture different than ours. Let’s suppose that the women in this culture are allowed to have 60 husbands each. They communicate with their 60 husbands by building a statue of a man, and then addressing their comments to the statue. They list all 60 names before this statue, then they build an altar, light candles, and set fruit before the statue. I come along on a vacation tour of Antarctica, where I fall in love with one of these women, and offer to marry her. She says, “Yes,” and then I tell her how things are different in my culture.
I say, first of all, that I will be her one and only husband. Secondly, anytime she wants to talk to me, all she has to do is dial my number on her cell phone. I will be there for her, no matter what I am doing. I am available 24 hours a day. Thirdly, I tell her that where I live I am very famous and powerful. In fact, I am so famous and powerful, that if she goes into any store and simply mentions my name, she will get whatever she wants.
And, finally, I tell her that every week, from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown, we will have our special time together. For that one 24-hour period, I will be with her, and she will be with me and there will be no distractions. It is our special time together.
She says, “No problem, sounds great!” But soon she wants to see a marriage counselor.
“It’s too hard,” she says, “I’m tired of following your rules. I want to go back to my statue, have extra husbands, and change the day of our date. But I’d still like to keep your name, because it comes in handy whenever I need something, or when I get into any trouble.”
What would I say to my new wife then? Would I still give my life for her, even though she has broken my heart by breaking her vows? Would I let her go her own way? Or would I continue to pursue her, even though she is off with other men, never keeping our date, never calling me on our cell phone? Is our weekly date with God really such a difficult rule?
Lord, help me to put You first, even in my daily and weekly schedule.
1 With appreciation to Dan Millen, email, November 9, 2002.