I don't know why, but this was all I could think of while I read the story of the rediscovery of The Law. To the right, you have the rough estimate of the speed of light. That still stands as a barrier to travel of all kinds, and will probably stand that way for along time, even as people try to push how we think about travel.Typically we see signs with 65, 55, etc. directing our cars to ease off their propulsion and settle into a nice cruise around that level; all the while ignoring the fact that the posted speed limit is the maximum allowed for travel in ideal conditions. Which means if you are traveling faster than that, you are breaking the law (and actually if you are travelling exactly that fast and it is unsafe to do so, like in a snowstorm, you are breaking the law as well). Many know this too well by a hefty fine after being lectured by a police officer.
I read a little bit about speed limits and their history, being that I was not around for the great protest to change the national highway limit from 55, only to find that most people are upset by them (big surprise). They are entirely too inconvenient for travclling from A to B quickly, and are thus ignored. But what are they really there for? The wellness of the general public.
What we see as restrictive, the people who crafted them see as life-giving. This is the connection to the Law that was rediscovered. While we're not in the business of slicing open thousands of goats any longer, we are in the practice of hearing what the Law of God has to say about what is good for the people. Sabbath is a big piece of that which comes in at the end of the reading. It's inconvenient, but life giving. In a world that affirms that the faster you go the more you get done, the Law of God commands that it would be wise for you to stand against the world.
