The weekly Sabbath is a representation of entering into the Kingdom of God. Its very interesting that God has made the high point of the week, the focus on His Kingdom. But why does God want us to be reminded of this so often and so strongly?
An interesting experiment called the “invisible gorilla experiment” by Daniel Simmons and Christopher Chabris will help us understand why. It is very important for followers of Christ to capture it’s meaning.
In the experiment there were two teams of basketball players. One team was wearing white jerseys, the other team was wearing black jerseys and they each had a ball. They mixed them altogether. If you had a white jersey on, you were only allowed to pass to other members with white jerseys. They then got participants to watch, and told them, “we want you to focus on how many times the team with white jerseys passes the ball. Only the team with white jerseys”.
Almost all the participants got the correct number of passes but then the researchers asked them, “when you were watching the screen, did you see the man in the gorilla costume come into the middle of the screen, pound on his chest, and walk out the other side of the screen?”. Over half the people who watched this did not see it. They were so focused on watching the ball that they missed something that was really obvious and out of the ordinary.
Daniel Simmons and Christopher Chabris won the Nobel prize because of the importance of their results. One might think like I did, like I think most people do, that we just observe the world, take in the data, and we process it. That is just not true.
The world is too complicated, so we must choose what data we take in. What this proves is that the data that we think is important and the data that we think is not important is directly related to our goal. Based on our goal, we could have ignored the gorilla like happened in this experiment. Sometimes what we see means different things based on our goal.
If someone is a farmer and it rained, he probably thought that was one of the best things that could have happened. But if one is a bride and today is your wedding day, you could think that that is a bad luck sign and the worst thing that could happen. The meaning of events and what we see changes based on what our goal is. Knowing that, what should our goal be as Christians?
In Philippians 3:12 ESV, Paul was very focused: “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”
The prize is entering into God’s family. Our goal of entering into His Kingdom is one reason why God reminds us of it every 7 days. When we have God as our goal, becoming like Him and entering His Kingdom, it changes the way that we view the world.
The Bible informs us of an important approach which enables us to change the way we view the world: “Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding,” (Proverbs 4:7).
On the surface, this seems like a simple verse, but it actually raises a lot of questions. In what sense is wisdom the principal thing? What is meant by principal? The Bible doesn’t talk a lot about getting, but here is says get wisdom so this verse catches my attention. Wisdom is the principal thing in the sense that it’s the first thing. There are a lot of things that are important and vital, but gaining wisdom is the first thing.
Proverbs 9:10 states that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” That “fear” is an old English word which means “the proper respect”. The very first thing is to set God as your goal. That’s the way that the world makes sense. That’s the beginning of the path of wisdom. It’s the principal thing in that sense but that’s not the only way that wisdom is helpful.
The definition of wisdom is the right use or exercise of knowledge. The knowledge and use of what is best, most just, most proper, most conducive to prosperity or happiness. Wisdom begins with setting God as our goal. It continues by instructing us and keeping us on the path and helping us reach our goal. This is one reason why the first command is, “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before Me.” It sets God as the goal. That’s the way the world will make sense. With the correct focus we can catch the gorilla in this experiment.
We are also told in the second command not to set up idols. People can end up in some very strange and weird places when they do. Notice when Ancient Israel took their focus off God and placed it onto false gods:
“And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only” (2 Kings 17:16 ESV).
When Israel took their focus off God, they began to see the world differently. Suddenly, temple prostitution, child sacrifices, divination, and all kinds of other practices that they previously considered bad were the correct thing to do. These false gods of the Old Testament promised to give prosperity, fertility, life, and power. To make a nation and its people strong at war. It is vital that we remove the false god’s and idol from our lives, however, even when we do, we still must use wisdom to stay in the Way. It’s probably easier to forsake God’s way than people realize.
Of course, while we are staying in the way, we’re all going to make mistakes. We’re all going to sin. The important thing is to stay in the way. We could point out an infinite number of ways that we miss the mark every day. Even David committed adultery and David also committed murder, but the Bible still calls him a man after God’s own heart. To be a man after God’s own heart means that we have God as our goal as David did. The important issue is to stay in the Way and keep chasing after God.
The first command, the principal thing. We can’t drift our focus onto false gods. It doesn’t matter if we think of them as deities or not, they’re still ruling people’s lives of the second command. Lastly, we need to stay on the path and remember that we don’t want to take God’s name in vain. If we call ourselves Christian and we take God’s name upon us, we’re responsible for keeping the third command.
When we have God as our goal, becoming like Him, entering His Kingdom, it changes the way we view the world. If we want to catch the gorilla in this experiment, we need to have the right focus.
Justin Plagenza