3227.—Observers of Times
By Editor
Will you please tell me what you think is the meaning of an "observer of times" found in Deut. 18:10? It is one who followed the heathen times, believing that times devoted to different gods were sacred; times when certain incantations could be practised that would be effectual, which would not be effectual at other times. Light may be thrown upon this question by coupling the passage with Gal. 4:8-10. Paul tells the backsliding Galatians that there was a time when they did not know God and when they did service to them which by nature are no gods; that is, they were heathen. In their backsliding they went back to that heathenism; because he asks them, "After that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?" And then as an evidence that they had turned back to heathenism he declares, "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years." They had gone back to the old practise of heathen times. They had their year marked, devoted to different deities, and so also their months in which they worshiped the moon. Among the ancient times, in fact one which goes away back into the obscurity of history, just as far as it can be traced, is the first day of the week devoted to the sun. One writer calls it "the wild solar holiday of all pagan times." That was one of the idolatries which the children of Israel had to meet in their time.