Delta Dawn When the Light Comes On: Week 35

"Come unto Me, all you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28. Rest is not laziness or quitting. It is doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason with the right people. Jesus is speaking of a sin/inequity burden Adam created by giving his dominion over to Satan, the father of lies, deception, depression, greed and avarice. Evil calling evil good. Isaiah 5:20

Pilgrims and Puritans sought these shores because of severe persecution under British kings. Creating a whole new "Body Politick" took time, money, conviction and revelation from God's Word. 

The Industrial Revolution began when Pilgrims discovered 2 Thessalonians 3:18: "If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat, for we hear some among you are not working at all but are busybodies. We exhort them, by Jesus Christ, to work quietly and eat their own bread." When one's daily ration is 9 kernels of corn, personal industry takes on new luster. Novel ideas showed up, first in the young people, bringing profit to the entire colony.

Westward expansion initiated in 1803 took a quantum leap when gold was discovered in California. Getting from there to there, many stopped off here, in the Heartland. Another kind of wealth developed: elk robes for buggy travelers, bear rugs before the hearth and beaver skins for fancy top hats. Silver, lead, gold, bdellium and other minerals came from the Rockies. Churches cared for the hardworking populace, posting the above verse, noting Jesus, alone, is Savior.

Man's desire to display wealth, influence, status and prestige took a toll on the common people. More labor was demanded. Dignity, safety and sanity were not honored. Riots and strikes took place. Unions fought company policies. God's most precious creation and treasured resource, His people, groaned. 

The first Labor Day was declared in New York City, September 5, 1882. A 5-day, 8-hour-a-day work week came against 12-16 hour days, every day but Sunday. By 1894 the Pullman Palace Car strike in Chicago closed down commerce across the nation. President Grover Cleveland called in federal troops to halt riots spawned by debate between George M. Pullman and the American Railroad Union. Twenty-six lives were lost, prompting Cleveland to declare an official Labor Day: "The first Monday of September." It is Monday, September 4, this year.

In spiritual context 1893-1894 was God's shemitah year Leviticus 23. All debts forgiven, property returned to original owners and slaves freed. Historically, banks fail, businesses fold, governments change. The people spoke. It was time to get back to God. 1894 mid-term elections replaced 110 seats in the Legislature and 5 in the Senate. Only 40 States existed at the time.

Then, God orchestrated an Alaskan Klondike gold rush, returning America to financial soundness. "Let us be diligent, then, (labor) to enter God's rest, lest anyone fall according to an example of disobedience." Hebrews 4:11.

Next Week: My Place.