You’ll get a “charge” out of this one. Today is National Battery Day. Yes, someone has granted AA, AAA, Cs, Ds, 6-volts, 9-volts, 12-volts, lithium-ion, cadmium, and every other kind of battery their own special day of recognition and celebration. Try not to get too “juiced” by this news! It’s shocking, I know. I’ll stop with the puns now.
The battery that powers many of our devices is assumed to be a relatively modern invention. While the disposable version of the battery is probably a relatively new thing, the concept of the battery could be centuries old.
First, a simple definition of a battery is a device that changes chemical energy into electrical energy. As chemicals combine in a certain order, electrons start moving, creating current.
“In 1936, during the construction of a new railway near Baghdad, a Parthian tomb was found. Archaeologist Wilhelm Konig found a copper cylinder encasing an iron rod in a clay jar. Konig suggested the find was approximately 2,000 years old.”1 Other contraptions have been found that were used for electroplating gold on to silver.
Benjamin Franklin, Alessandro Volta, English chemist William Cruickshank, and chemist John Daniel are just some of the names that have paved the way in research to give us the batteries we use and depend upon each day. Now, with the influx of electric vehicles that use many batteries, our dependence on portable electricity is growing.
Just as an aside, we might be tempted to think that electric cars are a novelty. However, it’s an idea that’s been toyed with, introduced, and ebbed and flowed like the tide since the early 1800s. By the start of the 1900s, car manufacturers were trying to get in on the EV (electric vehicle) revolution. In 1901, Pres. McKinley was shot and rushed to a hospital in an e-ambulance. World Wars I and II introduced other EV technology. Each decade saw another manufacturer trying to push for an EV. The same detriments in the past are the same today.
1. Price. 2. Duration of the batteries.
Do you feel like you need your batteries charged today? Let’s talk about that.
Today, Sunday, is NOT the sabbath. This is the first day of the week. Yesterday would have been the sabbath. Now, stick with me on this.
Jesus instituted the sabbath by example at creation. He created the earth in six days and on the seventh, He rested. The first use of the word is found in Exodus 16:23. In Exodus 20, we have the institution of the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20:9-11 says, “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: (10) But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: (11) For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
Of this sabbath, Jesus says in Mark 2:27 “And he said unto them, The sabbath was
made for man, and not man for the sabbath.” Man was never intended to be a slave to the sabbath. Rather, the sabbath served man by giving him the rest from his work and time to focus on the Lord. The Pharisees flipped this around and made the sabbath a burdensome day with all the extra rules they added.
Are you still with me? It’s about to get really good here. Mark 2:28 says, “Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.” Jesus said in Matthew 5:17, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”
If you were an Old Testament saint, you would have observed the sabbath one day out of seven. If you are a New Testament saint who has accepted Jesus as Savior, you have accepted the One who identifies Himself as the fulfillment of the Law. Therefore, when you enter God’s rest at salvation, you have entered the sabbath 24/7/365. We are at rest with Jesus all the time.
The 1885 hymn still rings true today:
My soul in sad exile was out on life’s sea,
So burdened with sin and distressed,
Till I heard a sweet voice, saying, “Make Me your choice”;
And I entered the “Haven of Rest”!
Refrain:
I’ve anchored my soul in the “Haven of Rest,”
I’ll sail the wide seas no more;
The tempest may sweep over wild, stormy, deep,
In Jesus I’m safe evermore.
Rest charges our batteries and this ought to give us a really good charge today!
1https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-battery-day-february-18
