Good News about Labor in the Bible

Let me begin by saying Happy Labor Day Weekend to everyone. This is a date when, on Monday, back in the 1880s, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, the average American worked 12 hours a day and seven days a week in order to eke out a basic living. So Saturday and Sundays, if we would have lived a little over a century ago, it would have been tough because you don't get these nice two-day weekends. Despite restrictions in some states, children as young as five or six years old toiled in mills, factories, and mines around the country. So you imagine a five- and six-year-old child. They don't have much strength, and you can imagine trying to do all that hard work, earning a fraction of their adult counterparts' wages. People of all ages, particularly the very poor and recent immigrants, often faced extremely unsafe working conditions with insufficient access to fresh air, sanitary facilities, and breaks. And so Labor Day was instituted in 1882 to respect the workers on the first Monday in September. And, as you know, God is a big advocate for giving labors a break, and He shows that throughout the Bible. We should also follow that biblical example, so respect to workers under us. I supervise ten employees in Latin America. Some are part-time, and I take their situations and conditions very seriously. So what was the first labor law in history? Well, we find it in the Bible, the Sabbath Day. That is a labor law. It regulates work and the absence of work on that day to take a break. Notice in Genesis chapter 2, verses 1-3, it says, Now, He didn't need to bless it for His sake, but He blessed it for the sake of those that would be entering into that rest. And He sanctified it, which means separated it, so those who entered it would sanctify that day. So here is the first labor law in the Bible. You can stay with one finger here in Genesis and go to Exodus 20. Exodus 20, the second book in the Bible, where the fourth commandment is given as a law to regulate labor and also to make it holy before God. Notice what it says here in verse 8, Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. This is the only commandment that God says we need to be reminded of it because it's something that would be easily forgotten by people, societies, civilization. In fact, today, 98% of all in the U.S., they don't keep the Sabbath day. They keep the first day. He didn't say to remember the first day of the week. Notice what it says here. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. God established the seven-day week. Six days we're supposed to work, which actually begins the first day of the week on a Sunday, and it goes all the way to a Friday. Those are the first six days. The seventh day is the Sabbath day, and that has not changed. The cycle of that weekly cycle through time has not been altered. The Jews still keep it. They were keeping it back in Moses' day, 1400 years before the coming of Christ. Now it's actually over 3400 years. That's just about the time of Moses, but even before that, as we can see, Adam and Eve kept the Sabbath day, and all of mankind has had the opportunity to do so, but very few. Remember the Sabbath day every week. How many go out and do anything they want? Why? Because they have forgotten the sanctity of the Sabbath day. May we never forget, just as it was mentioned in the sermonette, about holding on, holding fast, those wonderful truths, because it is the sign between God and His people.

It goes on to say, the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, as it has been brought out. It's not the Sabbath of man or the Sabbath of the Jews. It is of the Lord. That's the term for Yahweh, and it has to do with the covenant God. In it you shall do no work. By the way, Lord your God uses the two terms, whatever the pronunciation Yahweh or Yahweh, whatever it is, that's the name of the covenant. And then it says, your Elohim. So it uses the two terms in Genesis for God. It goes on to say, in it you shall do no work, you nor your son nor your daughter. Now here it says, nor your male servant. So he gets to rest on that day. No paid labor. There are servants on that day that can help out, but it is a day of rest. They are not working out in the fields. They are not out there working away on that day. So God is not a respecter of persons, and so your servant gets to rest. It goes on to say, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. So on that day, God wanted to see his country, his nation, and it was a day of rest. You didn't want to see people out in the fields. You didn't send your servants out to do work on that day. And even the animals were not to toil. You weren't supposed to plow the fields on the Sabbath day. Animals need rest, too. They have hearts. They have lungs. They consume calories, and they need rest, just like human beings do. So I'll leave it there for purposes of the message. I have to go quickly because I have a lot of material to cover.

And then we have not only the first separation of a rest day, but we also have the first job given to mankind right there in the same Genesis chapter 2. This is what you'd call the first labor contract. It's not found in any other history book, but it's found in the Bible.

Notice what it says in Genesis chapter 2, verse 4. This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. Before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground. So nobody was working yet. But a mist went up from the earth. There was an irrigation system that God, at that time, in that type of atmosphere, you would wake up in the morning and everything had been irrigated.

You didn't need to, you didn't have any areas of desert. You didn't need to change the course of rivers. No, everything had its demist coming up. As it says, verse 6, a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

Boy, wouldn't people love to have that now? As we're crossing the United States on a plane, you'll see some areas are just so dry. There's no water and nobody can live around that area. But here, at that time, the whole earth was being watered by God. That's going to happen in the future, too. And the Lord formed, God formed, man the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. God personally created human beings in this way.

He doesn't say he did that with other animals or plants, but he did it with human beings because he has a personal relationship here. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It talks about the river there, and then it goes on to say, verse 15, and then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.

So that was the first job program. He wasn't going to have a bohemian son who was just going to lay out there and just not do anything. No, he put him to work. He could have made the garden of Eden take care of itself, have automatic maintenance, but that wasn't his purpose. He wanted man to be able to do something productive with his time, with his mind. Notice another job he gave Adam.

It says, verse 19, Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. Wouldn't have been something to watch God just out of the soil and dirt, and all of a sudden all of these animals appearing, fully formed. And God could have told Adam, well, you're not ready yet. I'm going to tell you the names of all of them. No, he endowed Adam already with creative language skills. Adam was able to look at each animal, and he already had a working vocabulary. And so it says here, and whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.

So again, God is challenging the man to use creativity, imagination, use his mind, which is the greatest gift. Humanly speaking, God has ever given us to create. By the way, you know what that job is based on? It's based on a term called philology, which is the science of language, of using languages. And so here Adam became a philologist. Continuing on, at this time, the job to tend the garden was very pleasant.

He didn't have to toil with sweat and tears. But this was the first job that Adam had serving God. Because jobs should first glorify God. It's a way of serving others. Work should ultimately be done as a service of love toward others and toward oneself. But what happened in Genesis chapter 3 verse 17?

Then to Adam, after they sinned, after they rebelled against God's instructions, he said, Because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it. And you can see here, Satan being astute, an intelligent being, he went after the weakest link. He knew that Adam had been personally taught by God. Adam had taught Eve. And somehow there it wasn't just entirely. Everything is clear and set. And Satan said, Well, if I go headfirst with Adam, I might not deceive him.

But with Eve, she's going to be easier to deceive. So he went immediately after her. Now, men and women both can be deceived. But here, Satan is a very clever and astute deceiver, always is looking for the weakest link. And so it says that Adam heeded what his wife had done.

Maybe he could have resisted without it. We'll never know. But then it says here, And have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil, and the term here means hard labor, you shall eat of it all the days of your life. And even the soil and the plants are going to change. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return. Very terrible decree, because here Adam could have had a chance to eat of the tree of life, of submitting to God, of obeying God, resisting Satan. But instead, for this, for the time being, man lost access to that tree of life. Now through Christ, we all have access to that tree of life, and especially in the future.

So labor, which should have been a work of love, creativity, of using all your talents, became a work of toil and hard labor.

Plants were not going to yield their full abundance and potential.

And so we read, so many nations, they barely are surviving day to day, because it's so hard to produce fruit. Of course, the animals changed as well, so the whole world changed completely.

It became a dangerous world. This is where the mosquitoes appeared, and we've been bothered by them. We kid around that the first time when Christ comes, and we celebrate and settle down, and first request, get rid of the mosquitoes, right? First thing that's going to be gotten rid of in the world tomorrow. Still, God was a loving God, and He promised Adam and Eve that He would resolve the problem through that seed that would come one day and undo all the damage. And so God gave laws. You can see them throughout the Bible to respect laborers, pay workers on time. There are laws about that. There are laws about leaving their coats on. Even if they're impoverished, it was prohibited to remove their overcoats, because they needed that to be able to keep warm. So even if they were poor, you could not take their clothing and heavy clothing so they could survive. That's manifesting mercy. And also provide due compensation for accidents, where it talks about that if a worker lost a tooth, he was supposed to be recompensed as the price of a tooth. And you know what? Today, that's what insurance does. And so you total your car. Well, though, having a praise or looks at it says, well, this is how much the car is worth, depending on how good it has been, and they will pay you the equivalent. They're not going to pay you for a luxury car when you have an old clunker, or they're not going to give you the price of a clunker if you have a luxury car. So they estimate, and that's exactly what it tells us there in Exodus 22, that everything will be according to the damage that is assessed to do. And of course, it even talks about capital punishment, and especially murder and something like that. You took away a life. Well, you're going to forfeit your life.

As long as it's not manslaughter or accidental, God put cities of refuge, where a person who accidentally killed another worker or someone else, they could flee and live there. As long as they were not removed from that area, they could not be avenged and killed. So we see God caring for his people. The wonderful laws. Notice what it says in Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 6. Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 6. Again, one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible, because some of the people think about and talk about the law of the Old Testament and it being bad and so forth. That's not the way God describes it. He knows better. Verse 6 of Deuteronomy 6, he tells Israel, therefore be careful to observe them, talking about his commandments. For this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. It says it is your wisdom. Remember the term there, hakma, is the one that's generally used. It's talking about practical wisdom. Wisdom on how to apply these godly principles to produce successful outcomes. So he's saying this is your wisdom. This is how you can produce successful outcomes in your life. He goes on to say, verse 7, for what great nation is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon him. And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? So these laws took care of the workers, gave them a rest day. All the rest of the law codes that we have in Egypt, in Babylon, the Hammurabi code, and others, no, none of them are as good and just and caring for workers as what we have in the Bible. They pale into insignificance when you compare them with the Bible. Psalms 119 verse 18 tells us how we should look at God's laws. Psalms 119 verse 18, another beautiful verse here that David penned. It says, Open my eyes that I may see your wondrous things from your law. Doesn't say it's a bad law. No, it's a wonderful law. The problem is we have human nature. Doesn't want to submit to God's laws. Open my eyes. Let me appreciate every part of it. One of God's laws that are one of my favorites about labor is in Deuteronomy chapter 24 verse 5.

Deuteronomy chapter 24 verse 5. It says, When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war or be charged with any business. He shall be free at home one year and bring happiness to his wife whom he has taken. So God is even concerned that those newlyweds have one year to enjoy themselves without burdens, without going to war, without extra responsibilities.

Those in the village would help them, supply their needs, be able for them to enjoy themselves, to bond and become one in spirit and mind. This is what Gil's commentary says about this verse. He is to rejoice with his wife, which he has taken, and solace themselves with love. Solace is comfort, and thereby not only endear himself, but settle his affections on her, and be so confirmed in conjugal love that hereafter no jealousies may arise, or any cause of divorce which this law seems to be made to guard against. This is an important job for every husband, even as before the Lord we find our lives by losing them.

So a husband will find the most happiness if he will bring happiness to his wife. 1. As the role of the husband in Ephesians 5, 1-33, is described, we see that God emphasizes the essential oneness between husband and wife. The husband cannot make his wife happy without also bringing happiness into his own life. 2. Conversely, he cannot bring misery into the life of his spouse without also bringing misery into his own life. That's why in Ephesians 5 it says, he who loves his wife loves his own body loves himself. 3. The wife who loves her husband and takes care of him is also loving herself. It's reciprocal.

Then he goes on to say in this commentary, 2. A happy wife is the foundation for a happy home. A bitter or contentious wife makes for a miserable home. A continual dripping on a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike. Proverbs 27, 15. 16. Better to dwell in a corner of a housetop than in a house shared with a contentious woman. Proverbs 21, 9. Better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and angry woman. Proverbs 21, 19.

So we see again why God says, I want this couple to have time, to be able to bond, to enjoy that romantic love, not be burdened down with too much else to do, so they really love each other. I remember in our case, we didn't want children for the first three years. We wanted to be together and enjoy ourselves and form a strong bond only after three years. Then we are ready for children, and God blessed us with children. We know that is a blessing that is unmerited but very gratefully received.

Another labor law of love that God put in his Bible is found in Leviticus 25. Leviticus 25. This is called the land Sabbath and also the Jubilee year. Leviticus 25.

Verse 1. So God says, you're supposed to rest on the Sabbath day, you're supposed to rest on the feast days during the year, but also every seventh year. It says, and the Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit. But in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land. A Sabbath to the Lord you shall neither sow your field nor prune your vineyard. What grows on its own accord of your harvest you shall not reap, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine, for it is a year of rest for the land. And the Sabbath produce of the land shall be food for you, for you your male and female servants, your hired men, and the stranger who dwells with you. For your livestock and the beasts that are in your land, all its produce shall be for food. Here's what the Bible knowledge commentary mentions. Much as people were to work six days and then rest on the Sabbath, so the land on which they lived was to be worked for six years, and then allowed to rest on the seventh or sabbatical year. No sowing, pruning, reaping, or harvesting was to be done during the seventh year. Any spontaneous yield of the land could be consumed for food by anyone, not just the owner. So here on that seventh year, everybody was the same. And whatever had, you know, people that had abundance or people that had scarcity, on that seventh year, everybody shared what was there. But there was to be no organized harvest and no selling of the produce to others. So for one seventh of the time, landowners and the landless were on an equal footing in living off the land. So you see the fellowship that would be involved?

Thus the sabbatical year brought a cessation of all normal agricultural activity. A second purpose of that year is given in the supplemental passage. The canceling of all debts, also a freeing of slaves, occurred at this time. As it goes on to say about the year of Jubilee, verse 8, And you shall count seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, and the time of the seven Sabbaths of the year shall be to you forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the day of atonement you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land, and you shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants, no exceptions. It shall be a Jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you, which means time of joy. You shall neither sow nor reap what grows on its own accord nor gather the grapes of your intended vine, for it is a Jubilee it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its produce from the field. In this year of Jubilee each of you shall return to his possession, and if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor's hand you shall not oppress one another. According to the number of years after the Jubilee you shall buy from your neighbor, and according to the number of years of crops he shall sell you. According to the multitude of years you shall increase its price, and according to the fewer number of years you shall demand its price, for he sells to you according to the number of the years of the crops. Therefore you shall not oppress one another, but you shall fear your Lord, for I am the Lord your God. So you shall observe my statutes and keep my judgments, and perform, and you will dwell in the land safely. Verse 23, The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is mine, for you are strangers and sojourners with me. See, today what do people say? What do governments say? Well, California, the land is part of the government, and they can give you a certain amount and everything else, but they can charge you accordingly, and it says, no, the land is God's. And also, it talks about forgiving debt. So the whole economic cycle was based on those 50 years, that if somebody squandered their money and had to give up their properties, whatever happened, on the 50th year, people recovered it. And so things were sold according to how close to the jubilee year. But the thing is, everybody would always have possessions. See, the land and properties that our parents and grandparents and who knows how many great areas they had, well, those were lost because they don't have the principle of the jubilee year. But here, no matter how bad the previous generation handled their properties, it always returned and was given to this new generation to use. And by the way, all the debts were forgiven, so you don't have the 21 trillion dollars of debt that one day is going to come back just like hens to roost. It's going to come back because that has to be paid one day. And we've already had 10 years ago a big economic depression or recession, the Great Recession. We don't know when the next one is, but they accumulated. So anyways, these are some of God's laws that he has put in place to protect the worker, to protect the families. So what can we do now?

What we need to do is integrate some of these principles in a practical way. To do something constructive when we can, when we have time available, to use our time profitably, have a hobby, occupy your mind and body. It doesn't matter what age you are, you can still have productive hobbies and all kinds of things. And Ecclesiastes 9-10 is that principle. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. Whatever age, take advantage of the time. Enjoy doing some exercise. It doesn't matter if it's just a walk or on a treadmill. Take care of your body and what you eat. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 19 is this principle. 1 Corinthians 6, 19.

It says, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you are bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. So we are custodians of our body. How are we taking care of it? Is it something that we can give account to God that we're trying to take good care of it? Or are we irresponsible with it?

Enjoy social moments and being hospitable. 1 Peter chapter 4. These are practical ways to use our time when we're not working away. 1 Peter chapter 4, 8 and 9.

It says, And above all these things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins. And you know how he says to show this type of love, being forgiving, and also be hospitable to one another without grumbling. Enjoy serving others. Social moments.

Not doing it out of reticence.

Also, build friendships. Enjoy family relationships. And church fellowship. Notice in Romans chapter 12 verse 9. Romans chapter 12 verse 9.

And remember, we all have different gifts. There are people that have the gift of hospitality, others of being generous, others of teaching, others of helping others out. Verse 9, it says, Let love be without hypocrisy. In other words, that term has to do with being sincere in your love, not something just fake or double-minded. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. In honor, giving preference to one another. Not lagging in diligence. Fervent in spirit. Serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope. Patient in tribulation. Again, the term here means hanging on, suffering what is necessary. Continuing steadfastly in prayer. Distributing to the needs of the saints. Given to hospitality. Again, just being generous with what God has given us.

Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. A very important principle. That's taught in psychology. It's taught in many of the service areas. When somebody is down, that's not the time to come in and just pat them in the back. No, that's a time to empathize with them. Make sure that you understand the person's going through difficult times and to sympathize. As one of the Proverbs says about a fool who in the morning before the person's even awoken, he screams out and just tells them what a wonderful day is screaming out. You're not ready for that. It's not the right time to do it. The person just getting his engine revving up a bit. Wants a little bit of downtime at the beginning. Verse 16, it says, Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Have you noticed that? People that are ambitious, well, they hobnob with the rich and powerful, right? Because they think they can get advantage over that. But it says, don't think that way. Don't be high-minded. Think of those that you're not going to get any benefit from. Associate with those, as it says here, with the humble. People don't have much. Make them feel good. Make them feel respected and that they have dignity. And not just the person that you can somehow hitch on to their coattails to rise up in power or authority. Be not wise in your own opinion, careful about thinking a person is so great, wise, or mighty.

Also, read interesting books. Feed your mind and not only your stomach. And what is the criteria for good books? Philippians 4.8. Philippians 4.8.

It says, finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of a good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. So, yes, we can feed our mind good thoughts, good ideas, good teaching. And we have to avoid wrong types of books, wrong type of stimuli. In Ephesians 5, verse 11, this is the type that we should avoid. Ephesians 5, 11. It says, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. No fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Whatever is from Satan and generated with that type of mentality, reject. Now, talking about good books, just recently I've finished a book called Foresight by Marcus Eberlin, a chemist, and I'd like to share two examples that I learned this week from that book. As children, I don't know if it ever happened to you. Certainly that was something I did when I was a child. We would ask this riddle, which came first, the chicken or the egg? If we said the chicken, then the others would reply, how did it hatch if no egg existed? If we said the egg came first, the answer would be, then who laid it if there is no chicken? The problem seems unsolvable until you realize the Bible has a true answer. God made chickens in the first place with the ability to lay eggs and thus reproduce themselves after their own kind or species. As Genesis 1, 21, 22 states, so God created every winged bird according to its kind, and God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. This, brethren, is a biological statement that is as true today as it was back then. So, speaking of eggs, that was one of the marvels that I enjoyed from this book. I brought a little prop with me. Here we are. They got a little egg shell. Oops! It's okay. It's hard. See, I told her to give me a hard-boiled egg, just in case. Oh, Tom Sanchez is not here. He would have chuckled at that. So, I'll leave it there. You can look at your egg when you come out and make some eggs for breakfast. A great example of foresight is this humble egg shell. There are so many problems to solve in the first place if the chick inside is to survive the 21 days incubated in the egg.

The first problem of the chick is how to breathe within the egg. It has lungs. It needs to breathe. If you enclose a human being in a shell, how long is it going to survive? Not very long.

If the egg was perfectly sealed, the chick would quickly suffocate. Yet, if the egg shell was porous, then its contents would seep out. How to solve this problem? Well, the answer is having a semi-porous egg shell where oxygen can come in without letting the valuable contents of the egg leak out. It does so by having 7,000 pours. See, you never see them, but there are tiny little pores, 7,000 of them, distributed equally and just the right size to do the job. It allows oxygen to enter and carbon dioxide to exit because just like we breathe in oxygen and we breathe out carbon dioxide, so does the little chicken inside the egg. If the pours were larger or smaller or less or more or wrongly placed or the wrong context, the effectiveness of the whole system would deteriorate and the chick would die. So, to solve such a delicate problem of providing oxygen and eliminating carbon dioxide while maintaining the integrity of the egg shell, it took foresight to come up with the 7,000 right-sized pours at the precise time and place to do their job. Here's a second example of foresight. The maligned appendix. Maligned means disparage.

Again, it was Charles Darwin who focused on the appendix in his book The Descent of Man and concluded the appendix is a vestigial organ or something that has lost its functional use.

Yet, researchers have discovered the appendix that we have is quite useful as an organ that reveals foresight and planning was involved in its design. The appendix has two main functions. First, it is a reservoir of antibodies that strengthens the body's immune system. So, there is a protection. It's kind of like having a little fire station at the end of your intestine and all of a sudden there's a big infection going on and all of a sudden that little fire truck goes and puts out the fire. Number two, it is a haven for good bacteria that repopulates the intestinal tract after a bout of diarrhea cleans the bacteria out. All of us have had some type of food poisoning, some thing in our system, some bad food that spoils, and the body protects itself by creating that process of diarrhea, which is the liquid to flush out the whole digestive system. The problem is that while this watery process removes the toxic elements, it also gets rid of good intestinal bacteria that are essential for proper digestion. As a matter of fact, nowadays, you not only get sick that way, they actually have these pills that have good bacteria, especially in places like Latin America where you can have some type of stomach problems. I never saw that before. It was more of a little envelope and you put it into a glass and it gave you that good bacteria back. I never knew. And when you got sick and the bacteria got flushed, you need those good bacterial enzymes and others to restore your health. So how does a digestive system quickly repopulate the good bacteria? By using the appendix at the end of the large intestine, a virtual dead-end enclosure that doesn't allow its good bacteria from being eliminated, as is the case with the rest of the intestinal tract. As Dr. Eberlin points out in his book about the appendix, its location is perfect from a hydraulic engineering point of view. Placed just below the normal one-way flow of food and germs in the large intestine, it occupies a cul-de-sac and is thus well protected from the disruption due to diarrhea. So the argument that the appendix is a vestigial organ that supports evolutionary theory is itself vestigial. A leftover of 19th-century Darwinian biology, we now know better. So we have many good labor laws in the Bible, but we only have a tiny glimpse of the joy that is coming in the future for everybody. Yes, those people that are out there, the homeless, I just read the statistic that there are 600,000 homeless across the United States.

They basically are not going to have a very good life. And as also in Latin America, India, all of these areas of the world, Africa, many of them are not going to have it. But we know God is coming where these labor laws of love are going to be multiplied and with God's Spirit available. It's going to reflect what we are going to see and have a glimpse of in the coming feast just six weeks from now. In 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9, 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9, it says, I has not seen nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. And then it says, verse 10, but God has revealed them to us through His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things. Yes, the deep things of God. And we don't know all that is involved, but God has given us a glimpse of that coming kingdom, these wonderful laws. People many times have a hard time in life. And yet there's a coming kingdom to enjoy what true labor, as God intended it, will be one day. In Hebrews 11, verse 36, Hebrews 11, verse 36, it says, Still others, talking about those of the faith, had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment, that were stoned, that were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth, and all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, people like Elijah, had to live out there in the wilderness so that John the Baptist, they did not receive the promise. They still are awaiting that resurrection to be able to be part of God's coming kingdom. God, having provided something better for us, those who are now reading this, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. In other words, God's going to wait until Christ's coming before people are resurrected all at one time, the dead first and those who are still alive. So never lose sight of how much better things will be in God's kingdom. No more pain and suffering. No more human nature to pester us. No more violence, war, greed, and corruption. People in the coming kingdom will enjoy their work. There will be no more exploitation. Isaiah 65 verse 21. Isaiah 65.

Verse 21. It says, talking about that coming period of time, millennium, and then even into the white throne judgment period, they shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit, just like today. So many people work in construction and never have their own homes, have to live in little rented places. They shall not plant and another eat, where people are producing and they don't have the wherewithal to eat decently. For as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of my people and my elect, shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain.

They are going to enjoy their creative skills, just like Adam and Eve had the chance in the Garden of Eden to live and to develop all of their creativity, all those maybe 200 different gifts and talents that we have as a potential inside of us. One day that's all going to be developed.

We know eventually the work, the greatest work is ahead. We have a work to do to prepare for this coming of Jesus Christ. That's why we're here, because God has called us to do a work, just like the work of Elijah, prepared at that time in the Old Testament for Israel to be restored and be able to go forth. So did John the Baptist, who was a type of an Elijah, and we have a work of a type of Elijah, preparing the world for that coming of Jesus Christ. God is going to bless everyone of those who remain faithful, who give their time, tides, efforts into preparing the world for that coming kingdom. What did Christ inherit when He rose up to heaven? In Romans 8, 16 through 21, I'll just read it quickly. Romans 8, 16 through 21, as we finish.

It says, the Spirit Himself bears witness. It should say the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory, which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation, that word creation, kitsis means, according to the world study dictionary, word study dictionary, something founded like a city, colonization of a habitable place, creation, what has been created. The sum total of what has been created, have been created. So it says here that the expectation of what has been created, what has been created is the universe eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. And so we're looking forward to doing a lot more work in the future. God has called us to be part of Christ's co-heirs in that future kingdom. And brethren, we just have to continue persevering to the end, being faithful. So we can be co-heirs. We can dream big.

Happy Labor Day weekend to all.