The Eighth Day

But let us see whether this people is the heir, or the earlier one is, and whether the covenant belongs to us or to them. So listen to what the scripture says about the people. Isaac prayed about his wife Rebecca, because she was barren, and she conceived. Then Rebecca went out to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her: “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples in your belly; and one people will rise above the other, and the greater will serve the lesser.” You ought to see who Isaac was and who Rebecca was, and about which people he showed that this people is greater than that one. [a]

And in another prophecy Jacob speaks more plainly to his son Joseph. He says: “Look, the Lord has not kept me from seeing your face. Bring me your sons, so that I may bless them.” And Joseph brought Ephraim and Manasseh, meaning Manasseh to be blessed, because he was the older; that is why Joseph led him up to his father Jacob’s right hand. But Jacob saw in the Spirit a figure of the people who would come later. And what does it say? “And Jacob crossed his hands and laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, the second and younger one, and blessed him.” And Joseph said to Jacob: “Move your right hand onto Manasseh’s head, because he is my firstborn son.” And Jacob said to Joseph: “I know, child, I know; but the greater will serve the lesser — and this one too will be blessed.”

You see whom he laid his hands on, so that this people should be first and heir of the covenant. And if the same thing was brought to mind through Abraham as well, then we have the full measure of our knowledge. What, then, does he say to Abraham, when he alone believed and was counted righteous? “Look, Abraham, I have made you the father of nations who believe in God while they are uncircumcised.”

Yes. But let us see whether the covenant he swore to the fathers he would give to the people has in fact been given. He did give it — but they were not worthy to receive it, because of their sins. For the prophet says: “And Moses was fasting on Mount Sinai forty days and forty nights, to receive the Lord’s covenant for the people. And Moses received from the Lord the two tablets, written in spirit by the finger of the Lord’s hand.” And when Moses had received them, he carried them down to give to the people. And the Lord said to Moses: “Moses, Moses, go down quickly, because your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have acted lawlessly.” And Moses understood that they had made themselves cast images again, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, and the tablets of the Lord’s covenant were smashed. [d]

Moses received it, but they proved unworthy. Now learn how we received it. Moses received it as a servant; but the Lord himself gave it to us, to be a people of inheritance, having endured for our sake. He was made known so that they too might be brought to the full measure of their sins, and so that we might receive it through the one who inherits the covenant, the Lord Jesus. He was prepared for this: that by appearing in person he might ransom our hearts out of the darkness — hearts already spent by death and handed over to the lawlessness of error — and by his word make a covenant with us. For it is written how the Father gives him his charge: to ransom us out of the darkness and prepare a holy people for himself.

So the prophet says: “I, the Lord your God, called you in righteousness, and I will take hold of your hand and make you strong. I have given you as a covenant for a people, as a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to lead out of their chains those who are bound and out of the prison house those who sit in darkness.” So we know what we have been ransomed from. Again the prophet says: “Look, I have set you as a light for the nations, to be salvation to the end of the earth. So says the Lord, the God who ransomed you.” And again the prophet says: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to bring good news of grace to the lowly. He has sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim release to captives and sight to the blind, to announce the Lord’s acceptable year and a day of recompense, to comfort all who mourn.”

Furthermore, it is also written about the sabbath in the Ten Words, in which he spoke to Moses face to face on Mount Sinai: “And keep the sabbath of the Lord holy, with clean hands and a clean heart.” And in another place he says: “If my sons keep the sabbath, then I will lay my mercy on them.” He speaks of the sabbath at the beginning of creation: “And God made the works of his hands in six days, and finished on the seventh day, and rested on it, and made it holy.” [j]

Pay attention, children, to what “he finished in six days” means. It means this: that the Lord will finish all things in six thousand years, for a day with him means a thousand years. And he himself testifies to it, saying: “Look, a day of the Lord will be like a thousand years.” So then, children, in six days — that is, in six thousand years — all things will be finished.

“And he rested on the seventh day.” This means: when his Son comes and puts an end to the time of the lawless one, and judges the ungodly, and changes the sun and the moon and the stars, then he will truly rest on the seventh day.

In the end he says: “You shall keep it holy with clean hands and a clean heart.” So if anyone is able now to keep holy the day God made holy, by being clean of heart, then we have been deceived in everything. See — the truth is that we will keep it holy by resting rightly, when we ourselves are able: counted righteous, having received the promise, when lawlessness is no more and all things have been made new by the Lord. Then we will be able to keep it holy, having first been made holy ourselves.

In the end he says to them: “I cannot bear your new moons and your sabbaths.” Do you see what he means? “The sabbaths you keep now are not acceptable to me. The one I have made is — the one on which, when I have given rest to all things, I will make the beginning of an eighth day, that is, the beginning of another world.” That is also why we spend the eighth day in gladness — the day on which Jesus rose from the dead and, after he had appeared, went up into the heavens.

I will also tell you about the temple — how these miserable people went wrong and set their hope on the building, as though it were God’s house, instead of on their own God, who made them. For they consecrated him in the temple almost the way the nations do. But learn how the Lord speaks when he does away with it: “Who measured out the sky with the span of a hand, or the earth with a cupped palm? Was it not I?” The Lord says: “Heaven is my throne and the earth a footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build me? What place could be my resting place?” You have come to know that their hope is empty. And in the end he says again: “Look — the ones who tore this temple down will build it themselves.” It is happening. Because they went to war, it was torn down by their enemies; and now they themselves, as their enemies’ underlings, will build it back up. [q]

Again, it was made plain that the city and the temple and the people of Israel were going to be handed over. For the scripture says: “And it will be in the last days, and the Lord will hand over the sheep of the pasture, and the fold, and their tower, to ruin.” And it happened just as the Lord said.

But let us ask whether there is a temple of God. There is — where he himself says he is making one and finishing it. For it is written: “And it will be, when the week is completed, that a temple of God will be built in glory in the name of the Lord.” So I find that there is a temple. Now learn how it will be built in the name of the Lord.

Before we believed God, the dwelling place of our heart was rotten and weak — really a temple built by hand, since it was full of idolatry and was a house of demons, because we did whatever was against God. But it will be built in the name of the Lord. Watch, then, so that the temple of the Lord may be built in glory. Learn how. When we received forgiveness of sins and set our hope on the Name, we became new, created again from the beginning. So God truly lives in us, in our dwelling place.

How? His word of faith; his call of promise; the wisdom of his requirements; the commands of his teaching; he himself prophesying in us; he himself living in us; opening for us — for us who had been enslaved to death — the door of the temple, which is the mouth; and giving us repentance, bringing us into the imperishable temple. For the one who longs to be saved does not look at the man, but at the one who lives in him and speaks in him. He is amazed at him, because he has never heard the speaker say such words from his mouth, and never wanted to hear them himself. This is a spiritual temple, being built for the Lord.

As far as it was possible, and could be said plainly, my soul hopes that, as I wanted, I have left out nothing that belongs to your salvation. For if I write to you about things present or things to come, you will not understand them, because they lie in parables. So much, then, for that. [v]

But let us move on to another kind of knowledge and teaching. There are two ways of teaching and of authority: the way of light and the way of darkness. And the difference between the two ways is great. Over the one, light-bringing angels of God are stationed; over the other, angels of Satan. And the one is Lord from ages past and to all the ages; the other is the ruler of the present time of lawlessness. [w]

This, then, is the way of light. If someone wants to travel the road to the appointed place, let him press on with his works. So the knowledge given to us for walking in it is this. [x]

Love the one who made you. Fear the one who formed you. Glorify the one who ransomed you from death. Be single-hearted and rich in spirit. Do not attach yourself to those who walk in the way of death. Hate everything that is not pleasing to God; hate every kind of hypocrisy. Do not abandon the commands of the Lord. Do not exalt yourself, but be humble-minded in everything. Do not take glory for yourself. Do not make an evil plan against your neighbor. Do not let your soul become presumptuous.

Do not be sexually immoral; do not commit adultery; do not molest children. Do not let the word of God go out from you in the middle of any uncleanness. Show no favoritism when you correct someone for a wrong. Be gentle; be quiet; tremble at the words you have heard. Do not hold a grudge against your brother. Do not be double-minded, wondering whether a thing will happen or not. Do not take the name of the Lord in vain. Love your neighbor more than your own soul. Do not murder a child by abortion, and do not kill one already born. Do not withhold your hand from your son or your daughter, but teach them the fear of God from their earliest years.

Do not crave what belongs to your neighbor; do not be greedy. Your soul is not to be joined to the proud; live among the humble and the righteous instead. Take whatever happens to you as good, knowing that nothing happens apart from God. Do not be of two minds, or a chatterer. Submit to masters as to a figure of God, with modesty and fear. Do not give orders in bitterness to your male slave or your slave girl, who hope in the same God, or they may stop fearing the God who is over you both; for he did not come to call people by their rank, but those whom the Spirit had prepared.

Share everything with your neighbor, and do not say that anything is your own; for if you are partners in what is imperishable, how much more in what perishes. Do not be quick with your tongue, for the mouth is a snare of death. As far as you can, keep yourself pure for your soul’s sake. Do not be a man who stretches out his hands to receive and pulls them back when it is time to give. Love everyone who speaks the word of the Lord to you as the pupil of your own eye.

Remember the day of judgment night and day, and seek out the faces of the holy ones every day — either working hard by word, going out to encourage them and taking pains to save a soul by the word, or working with your hands for the ransom of your sins. Do not hesitate to give, and do not grumble while you give; you will find out who the good paymaster of the reward is. Guard what you were given, adding nothing and taking nothing away. Hate what is evil to the very end. Judge fairly. Do not cause a division, but bring those who are fighting together and make peace. Confess your sins. Do not come to prayer with a bad conscience. This is the way of light.

But the way of the Black One is crooked and full of cursing. For it is a way of eternal death with punishment, and on it are the things that destroy the soul: idolatry, presumption, arrogance of power, hypocrisy, a divided heart, adultery, murder, robbery, pride, transgression, deceit, malice, self-will, potions and spells, magic, greed, no fear of God. [ad]

On it are persecutors of good people, haters of truth, lovers of a lie — people who do not know the reward for righteousness, who do not hold to what is good or to fair judgment, who pay no attention to a widow or an orphan; who lie awake not for the fear of God but for what is evil; from whom gentleness and endurance are far, far off; who love worthless things and chase after a reward, who have no pity for a poor man and do not trouble themselves over the oppressed; who are quick to speak against others, who do not know the one who made them, murderers of children, destroyers of what God has formed; who turn away the one in need and grind down the afflicted, advocates for the rich and lawless judges of the poor — sinners through and through.

So it is good to learn the Lord’s requirements, all that has been written, and to walk in them. For the one who does these things will be glorified in the kingdom of God; the one who chooses those other things will be destroyed along with his works. That is why there is a resurrection. That is why there is recompense. [af]

I ask those of you who are in higher positions — if you will take any advice from my good intent: keep among you people you can do good to, and do not fail them. The day is near when everything will perish together with the evil one. The Lord is near, and his reward. Again and again I ask you: be good lawgivers to one another; stay faithful advisers to one another; take every kind of hypocrisy away from among you.

And may God, who rules the whole world, give you wisdom, understanding, insight, knowledge of his requirements, and endurance. Be taught by God, searching out what the Lord asks of you, and do it, so that you may be found on the day of judgment.

And if there is any remembering of good, remember me as you think these things over, so that both my longing and my sleeplessness may come to some good. I ask you, begging it as a favor. While the good vessel is still with you, let none of you fall short, but keep searching these things out and fill up every command; they are worth it. That is why I have been all the more eager to write to you out of what I could manage, to gladden you. Farewell, children of love and peace. May the Lord of glory and of all grace be with your spirit.