More facts about Shabbat

From June 8th...

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A few more Facts about Shabbat, or Sabbath:

1. Shabbat is Sanctified by God.

2. Shabbat is a sign of the Covenant between God and His people

3. It is the Fourth Commandment

4. Violating Shabbat caused Israel to go into exile.

5. Jesus kept and taught Shabbat

6. God didn't "un-bless" Shabbat

1. Shabbat is Sanctified by God

The Sanctification of the seventh day of the week comes from Genesis 2:1-3:

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. (2) And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. (3) And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made."

The Hebrew word for sanctified is "Kodesh" "Kodosh" or "Kadash" which means "set apart" or "Holy." God blessed the seventh day, He set it apart so it wouldn't be common. He made it special.

Exodus 16:23-36 is the first time Shabbat, or "Sabbath" is named in scripture. Here God, through Moses, was re-teaching His people about His special day that they were forced to forget and take up the pagen practices of the Egyptians. (By the way, only 210 years passed from the time Jacob took his family into Egypt until the Exodus, not the 400 years we were always taught. Clint can show this right there in scripture. After the death of Joseph, a new Pharoah came into power that didn't know Joseph and brought the Hebrews into slavery. It is possible that the Hebrews were slaves for only about 100 years. How quickly a culture can decline. We need to take heed!)

2. Shabbat is a sign of the Covenant between God and His people.

The LORD tells Moses that Shabbat is a sign between the LORD and His people. It is a never-ending covenant: Exodus 31:13-18

(13) Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you. (14) Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. (15) Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. (16) Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. (17) It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

(18) And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.

Who are God's people? Israel, of course and when we accepted Jesus as our Saviour, we became "adopted" into Israel.

3. It is the Fourth Commandment.

To Remember(Zachor) Shabbat is found in Exodus 20:8-11. Incidently, this command has more verses about it than any other commandment. It is very important to the LORD.

"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. (9) 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."

The Fourth Commandment is restated over and over in various forms throughout the Bible but is emphatically commanded again, with a slight change~"Remember" is changed to "Keep" (Shamor), when Moses re-tells the commandments to the Children of Israel who were about to cross over the Jordan River into the Promised Land.

Deuteronomy 5:12-15 "Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee. (13) Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: (14) 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, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. (15) And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day. "

Soooooo, Remember the candles I wrote about in an earlier email? The ones in our Shabbat meal called Zachor(Remember) and Shamor (Keep)? Those candles are a Jewish tradition to signify the commands of "Remember the Sabbath" and "Keep the Sabbath." I always wondered why they only used two candles... Pretty cool, huh?!

4. Breaking Shabbat sent Israel into exile

The Bible teaches that Shabbat was insitituted by God at Creation and was kept by Adam and Seth, through Noah, Abraham, and all the way through Joseph. It is not clear if Israel kept Shabbat while in Egypt but they probably couldn't during their time of slavery.

Remember that Israel was broken into two kingdoms after Solomon's death? The Southern Kingdom was known as Judah and consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with the Levites joining later. The Northern Kingdom was known as Israel and headed by Ephraim (but called Joseph) consisted of the remaining tribes, with Dan (the Judge) not listed.

The reason the Bible gives for Judah's captivity in Babylon is because they (Judah - aka the Jews) profaned the Shmita Year (Sabbath year) and didn't allow the land to rest in order to produce a more abundant, healthier yield.

2 Chronicles 36:20-21 "And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: (21) To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years."

Nehemiah 13:17-18 "Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the sabbath day? (18) Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath."

The Northern Kingdom (Ephraim) was carried into captivity due to disobedience and idolitary.

Ephraim is still lost today. These are the "lost tribes" of Israel which are prophesied to be found and restored in the last days.

5. Jesus kept and taught the Shabbat

Jesus kept the Sabbath; He never broke God's special day!

Luke 4:16, Luke 4:31, Mark 6:1-2, Mark 1:21

What He "violated" were the laws and customs added by the Pharisees and Saducees that had little, if anything to do with God's commandments.

Matthew 12:1-13, Luke 13:10-17, Luke 14:1-6, John 5:8-18, John 7:19-24, John 9:6-16

Even after the Resurrection of Jesus, the Disciples and followers of Jesus continued to keep the Shabbat ON the seventh day. They did NOT change to Sunday. Paul did not preach against Shabbat!

Acts 13:14-44, 1 Corinthians 11:1, Acts 16:13, Acts 17:1-2, Acts 18:1-4

There are too many scriptures in the NT to give in this email. It is recorded at least 84 times where Paul preached and taught on Shabbat, that's not counting the other Apostles.

God set Shabbat apart and made it Holy back in Genesis. He never made it un-holy... Constantine did that. Aaaaarrrrgh!

6. God has not "un-blessed" Shabbat

the Children of Israel's disobedience doesn't change the fact that the Shabbat is still the set-apart day to rest, remember, and keep. What about the New Testament verses of Jesus' resurrectionand the meeting in the Upper Room? A deeper study on the phrase "first day of the week" shows a poor translation into English. A better translation would read "one of the Sabbaths" or "first of the Sabbaths," which is a very specific time of the year; the first Shabbat after Passover and the counting of the seven Shabbats between Passover and Shavuot!

And the famous Revelation phrase of "in the spirit on the Lord's Day..." Where did anyone get the idea this meant Sunday? Jesus said he was Lord of the Sabbath so the Lord's day would still have to be habbath. The "Day of the Lord" is a phrase used several times in the Old Testament that refers to the second coming of the Messiah. John was "In spirit" seeing the events of the end times.

Many people say that the fourth commandment is not in the New Testament but it is definately stated in Hebrews 4:9. Again, a poor translation clouds the reading.

(8) "For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken later about another day. (9) A Sabbath rest remains, therefore, for God's people."

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The Greek word, Sabbitisimos literally means "a keeping of the Sabbath." So perhaps a better wording would be:

(9) So then, it is firmly sure that the people of God are to keep a Sabbath-rest. (Norton NT Peshitta)

Shabbat remains to this very day, God's set-apart time.

Blessings!

~WOW