Nature of the Shabbat
In understanding the nature of the Sabbath, there are five essential truths we need to understand:
- The Sabbath is a day sanctified by God.
- It is a gift given to man.
- The Sabbath was instituted before the law was given to Israel.
- It is a covenant sign between God and Israel.
- It is considered a weekly Feast of the Lord, leading into the annual feasts:
The Sabbath is also the first example of the Biblical pattern of seven, God’s sacred number. We need to understand, in a practical way, how we are to observe the Sabbath, both physically and spiritually. In doing so, we can begin to understand the deeper meaning of the Sabbath, as God’s promised rest. If you wish to study more about the Sabbath, a list for further reading is given at the end of this article.
A Day Sanctified by God
The Shabbat is first mentioned in Gen. 2:2,3 in the context of creation. There are three acts of God that denoted this day. God Rested, He Blessed and Sanctified the Sabbath. God rested from His work as we are to rest from ours. God blessed this day and promised a blessing for those who honor this day.
"If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the Holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor him not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words. Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord..."
Isaiah 58:13,14
Thirdly, God sanctified this seventh day. The word "sanctify" means to set apart as holy. As New Covenant believers we are called to be a sanctified and holy people.
"Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters says the Lord Almighty."
2 Corinthians 6; 16,17
We are called to separate ourselves from the things of the world. As we observe the Shabbat each week we are choosing not to work and participate in the things of this world’s system. We are expressing a holy and sanctified life before
God and man. In the Jewish mind, the Sabbath has often been called an island, a sanctuary in time. One day a week, we isolate ourselves from our labor and the pressures and busyness of the week and separate ourselves unto God. There is an interesting
Jewish paraphrase regarding the Sabbath taken from
How to Run a Jewish Household by Blu Greenberg. He addresses modern man:
Six days you shall be a workaholic, on the seventh day shall you join the peaceful company of human beings.
Six days shall you take orders from your boss, on the seventh day shall you be master of your own life.
Six days shall you toil in the market place, on the seventh day shall you detach yourself from money matters.
Six days shall you create, drive, create, drive, invent, push, drive; on the seventh day shall you reflect.
Six days shall you be a success, on the seventh day shall you remember that not everything is in your power.
Six days shall you enjoy the blessings of work, on the seventh day shall you understand that being is as important as doing.
There are those in the body of Messiah who say it doesn’t matter what day of the week we worship on. We should esteem every day alike. Sunday is my Sabbath. Someone else says Monday or Tuesday is my Sabbath. Whatever day I choose is my Sabbath day. The issue is not what day we choose. God has already chosen the seventh day as a day sanctified and set apart. A day that He blessed and declared holy. Does man at creation and will continue to be sanctified in the new earth? Peter was told, "What God hath cleansed, you are not to call common" (Acts 10:15). Though this verse is not directly referring to the Sabbath, the truth is the same. Do not call something common if God has pronounced it Holy!
A Gift for Man
Many believers say that the Sabbath was something given only for the Jews. Yet Yeshua himself said in Mark 2:27:
"The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of man is also Lord of the Sabbath."
Yeshua was saying that the Shabbat was not intended to be observed by only Israel, but also for all of mankind to enjoy, both Jew and Gentile. He used the phrase Son of Man, a generic word. In Hebrew, it is called Ben Adom, Son of Adam.
The Sabbath dates back to the time of Adam, which, of course, pre-dated Israel. In the Ten Commandments, God made it very clear that the Sabbath was to be kept by not only the Jews but also to the non-Jews who lived among them. In the Torah, they were called the aliens or strangers among you.
"Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do not work; you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor you manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates."
Ex. 20:1 (See also Deut. 5: 14,15)
Another scripture is found in Isaiah 56: 1, 2, 6-7:
"Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it; who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hands from doing any evil…Also the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants -- everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds fast my covenant -- Even them I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer…For my house shall be called a House of prayer for ALL NATIONS."
The Sabbath was given to man as a gift from God as a day of physical and spiritual renewal. A day to remind us that we are a holy people set apart by God.
The Sabbath was Instituted before the Law
Most believers choose to ignore the Sabbath because it is part of the law. Since we are "no longer under the law", many assume we are free from the law and are not bound to it anymore.
To many believers, the Sabbath is considered the least important of the Ten Commandments, and yet God listed it fourth in the top ten of His commandments.
It is the only commandment that begins with the word Remember. "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy." God knew that this is the one commandment that is most likely to be ignored and forgotten.
Yeshua said that the two most important commandments in the Torah are "to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself, upon these two commandments hang all the Torah and the Prophets."
The first three commandments deal with the greatest commandment -- to love the Lord your God. The last six commandments deal with the second greatest commandment, to love your neighbor as yourself. The fourth commandment, which is the Sabbath, serves as the hinge, which binds our love for God and man together. As we obey the Sabbath, it expresses our love for both God and man. We are to keep it holy because it is the Sabbath of the Lord. This expresses our love and obedience to God. This commandment requires that we rest from all our labor, together with our sons, daughters, families, employees, and even our livestock. This expresses our love for our fellow man, because we respect his or her right to have one day of rest with his family and loved ones, a time to be physically and spiritually refreshed.
A Covenant Sign between God and Israel
An important truth to recognize is that even though the Sabbath was included in the Ten Commandments, it did exist before the law was given to Israel. Yet it was the first commandment given to Israel after their exodus from Egypt. God chose to institute this day at the beginning of their wilderness journey.
In Exodus 16:1:
"And they journeyed from Elim and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin ... on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from Egypt.... Then the Lord said to Moses behold I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily....
Verse 23:
"Then he said to them, This is what the Lord has said. Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord, ...for the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day."
What was interesting about this is that God gave them the Sabbath law before the Ten Commandments were given. Later, when God brought them to Mt. Sinai and entered into the Covenant of the Law with them, He made the Law of the Sabbath an official and binding Commandment together with the other nine on tablets of stone.
Then, in Exodus 31, God chose to establish this Sabbath Law as a Covenant between Israel and Himself. Read Exodus 31:12-18. In vs. 13, God said that it would be
"a sign between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you."
Just as the covenant of circumcision was to be a sign between God and Israel, so also the Sabbath was to be a Covenant sign between God and Israel.
What was the reason why God commanded Israel to keep the Sabbath? Exodus 31:13 says:
"So that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you."
The Sabbath would become a sign of their holiness and their sanctification. From generation to generation, as they would be faithful and obedient in setting apart this day as a holy day to God, it would become a witness to the nations of God’s holiness. Even though the Sabbath pre-dated Israel, God chose to include it as a covenant sign between God and His people. Israel and the Sabbath have a special relationship. It has been said that it is not Israel that has kept the Sabbath as much as it has been the Sabbath that has kept Israel.
According to historical records, several ancient nations that pre-dated Israel observed the Sabbath day. There was what was called the Babylonian Sabbath. It was a day they that they ceased from their labor. However this Sabbath day they practiced was considered a day of evil. They did what was right in their own eyes. Many of these ancient nations polluted and defiled this holy day that God had set apart at creation. As a means of restoring the holiness and sanctity of this day, God chose Israel and entered into a Sabbath Covenant with them. Israel’s purpose was to demonstrate to the nations how this day was to be observed.
What did God say in Ex. 19:5,6?
"If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant then you shall be a special treasure to me above alt the people; for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation".
Many ancient nations mocked the Jews and called them lazy and shiftless for not working one day a week. It took the civilized world all of these centuries even to begin to realize the value of a day of rest, and make the six-day workweek the basis of its social order. Contemporary man has come to see the value of a day of rest. It is what is needed in a competitive, tension filled and hurried life. The Jewish people were far ahead of their times when they adopted this day God established for physical and spiritual renewal.
In Exodus 31, God took this day so seriously that He declared that if anyone broke this Sabbath Covenant they would be put to death (verses 14,15)
In the New Covenant, the punishment of death has been removed in the Messiah, and observance of this day becomes an issue of our heart.
The Sabbath has always had a special relationship to Israel. The word "sanctification" in Hebrew actually means "marriage". According to Jewish understanding, this Sabbath Covenant is actually likened to a marriage as a bride between God and Israel.
"The Sabbath is a bride and its celebration like a wedding. We learn in the Midrash. that the Sabbath is like unto a bride. Just as a bride when she comes to her groom is lovely, bedecked and perfumed, so the Sabbath comes to Israel lovely and perfumed. As it is written. And on the Seventh day, He ceased from work and He rested. And immediately we read: An He gave unto Moses kekalloto (the word kekalloto means when he finished), but may also mean as his bride, so is the Sabbath lovely and bedecked; Just as a groom is dressed in his finest garments, so is a man on the Sabbath day dressed in his finest garments; just as a man rejoices all the days of the wedding feast, so does man rejoice on the Sabbath, just as the groom does no work on his wedding day, so does a man abstain from work on the Sabbath day, and therefore the Sages and ancient Saints called the Sabbath a bride... "
(Abraham Heschel,The Sabbath, its meaning for Modern Man)
The Sabbath is Considered a Weekly Feast
Leviticus 23 outlines all the Feasts of the Lord. The Seven Feasts of Israel begins with the weekly Sabbath.
"Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it. It is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings."
The Sabbath is actually the foundation feast upon which all the other seven are based. As you read through each of the Levitical Feasts you will see that a Sabbath element connects each one together.
The Seven Feasts of the Lord begin with Pesach, or Passover, a seven-day feast.
"These are the feasts of the lord, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is the Lord’s Passover. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.... The seventh day shall be a holy convocation, you shall do no customary work on it."(Lev. 23:4-8)
Shavuot or Pentecost is called the Feast of Weeks.
"And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord." (Vs. 15,16)
Rosh Hashanah (the Feast of Trumpets) is observed in the seventh month.
"On the first day of the seventh month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation".(Vs. 24)
Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) is a solemn day of fasting:
"On the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement.... It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest. And you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening from evening to evening, you shall observe
your Sabbath."
(Vs. 27, 32)
Succoth (the Feast of Tabernacles) is a seven-day feast.
"Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep the feast of the Lord for seven days; on the first day there shall be a Sabbath rest, and on the eighth day a Sabbath-rest..." (Vs. 39)
Seven, God’s Sacred Number
The Sabbath day and the significance of the number seven symbolizes a mysterious union between God and His creation. It is recognized as the sacred number of the Covenant between God and Israel. Number seven speaks of completion, of fullness. From the beginning, a sevenfold division of time was recognized among the nations. It is commonly recognized that the seven days of creation correspond to seven dispensations of time. God ordained human history to extend over a period of 7000 years.
The 7000th year corresponds to what is called the Sabbath Millennium, one thousand years of Sabbath rest. As we read the scriptures, we realize how God has imprinted this sacred number on all of His creation. When God established His covenant with Abraham, He commanded that seven days must pass after the birth of a son to receive the covenant of circumcision on the eighth day. God commanded that every seventh year shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, known as the Sabbatical year.
"Also you shall count seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years and the time of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be to you forty nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month."(Lev. 25:8)
There were seven articles of furniture in the temple that included a seven-branched candelabrum. The Book of Revelation opens with the seven spirits, the seven stars, and the seven golden lampstands. There are seven years of tribulation, corresponding to the 70th week of Daniel. Seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls of God’s wrath characterize these seven years of tribulation. So, we see how the Sabbath element is woven throughout the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.
Practical and Spiritual Observance of the Sabbath
If we believe the Sabbath is a holy day set apart by God, the obvious question is how do we observe it as New Covenant believers? There are two elements of Sabbath observance we need to understand, practical and spiritual observance:
- What did Yeshua teach about the Sabbath?
- How are we to observe it today?
- How are we to communicate this truth to others?
According to an ancient Jewish tradition, God spoke to
the children of Israel saying:
"My children, if you are willing to accept the Torah and observe its precepts, I will grant you a most precious gift. "And what is this precious gift to be"? asks the children of Israel. "The world to come," is the reply. "Tell us what the world to come is like", retorts the children of Israel. And God responds," I have already given you the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a taste of the world to come."
Throughout history the Shabbat has been central to Jewish life. The essence of the Sabbath is expressed in Exodus 20:8-10:
"Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work, you your son, your daughter, your manservant nor your maidservant nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates."
The obvious question that is asked from this commandment is what is work and what is rest? What is work and what is pleasure? Is rest only to cease from physical activity? Is it also spiritual rest? To one man, work may be to another
pleasure? Keeping the Sabbath day holy naturally raises questions about what type of activities should and should not be done on the Sabbath. The scriptures do not provide a long list of what and what
not to do.
Ancient Rabbis interpreted this fourth commandment to determine the type of activities that constitutes work. If the commandment says we are to remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, how do we do this? This was the purpose of the oral writings to interpret the commandments. The early Jewish sages came to the conclusion that any kind of work related to the construction and functioning of the Tabernacle or the temple was considered work.
Rabbis over the centuries compiled a precise list of Sabbath regulations that dealt with every situation imaginable. They established 39 categories of forbidden acts, all of which are types of work that was needed to build and maintain the sanctuary. For example:
- sowing
- tying
- plowing
- untying
- reaping
- sewing two stitches
- binding sheaves
- tearing
- threshing
- trapping
- winnowing
- slaughtering
- selecting
- flaying
- grinding
- salting meat
- sifting
- curing hide
- kneading
- scraping hide
- baking
- cutting hide up
- shearing wool
- writing two letters
- washing wool
- erasing two letters
- beating wool
- building
- dyeing wool
- tearing a building down
- spinning
- extinguishing a fire
- weaving
- kindling a fire
- making two loops
- hitting with a hammer
- weaving two threads
- separating two threads
- taking an object from the private domain to the public domain (or transporting an object in the public domain)
All of these tasks, plus many others that modern Rabbinical Judaism has enforced, I believe, goes far beyond the spirit of the Sabbath as it was intended.
Defiling the Sabbath was one of the major sins that resulted in the destruction of the first temple and Israel being dispersed into Babylon for 70 years. God viewed the transgression of the Sabbath as a serious sin that resulted in death according to the Torah. It was Israel’s persistence in defiling the Sabbath and breaking the Torah commandments that resulted in them being scattered among the nations. (Deuteronomy 28)
As a result, many of the early Jewish leaders sought to protect the sanctity of the Sabbath and make it difficult to defile, by establishing an endless list of man-made rules to ensure the observance of this day. This resulted in the Sabbath becoming a day of legalistic observance that placed guilt and condemnation upon the people. It became a day of bondage rather than a day of delight. This is one reason why many believers today have a distaste for, and negative attitude towards, meeting on the Sabbath. They have the mistaken notion that anyone who meets on the Shabbat must be into legalism and under the law.
On the other hand, we don’t want to go to the other extreme and strip the Sabbath of all restrictions in the name of liberty. There are those who may think, "I am under grace and no longer ‘under the law,’ so I can observe this day anyway I want." If we view the Sabbath as no more than a day off and do not see it as a holy day set apart by God, we are failing to honor it in the way God intended.
Isaiah 58:13,14 is an excellent scripture that we would do well to meditate on. This scripture describes the right heart attitude we should have regarding the Shabbat. There are actually seven attitudes mentioned here, one attitude for every day of the week.
"If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your own pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father."
The following are the seven attitudes we should seek to have in order to
honor the Sabbath:
- Turn away from doing your own pleasures on God's Holy Day;
- Call the Sabbath a delight;
- Call this holy day Honorable;
- Honor God;
- Not doing your own ways;
- Nor finding your own pleasure;
- Nor speaking your own words.
The result of honoring this day in the way God intended is to delight in the Lord and to experience the blessing of partaking in the richness of our heritage. To delight yourself in the Lord is at the heart of observing the Sabbath. No matter how much a person may abstain from work on this day and even regard it is a day of worship, unless you delight yourself in the Lord you are not truly observing the Sabbath.
As New Covenant believers, how then are we to observe this day and keep it holy? The scriptures do not clearly outline a list of do's and don'ts. I believe God did this for a purpose. To observe this day becomes an issue of the heart. God wants us to observe it because we choose to remember this day and keep it holy.
Our obedience to the Sabbath should be motivated by a desire to please and obey the Father in all things.
Yeshua is ultimately our model. We are to follow His example. In His three years of ministry He taught as no man taught. He came at a time in Jewish history when the leadership of Israel had perverted the spirit of the law and made it into a legalistic observance that put people into bondage. Yeshua said, God created the Sabbath for man, not man for the Sabbath.
This means that God's rules are intended to serve man and enable him better to glorify God, not to enslave man and require him to glorify the rules. One of Yeshua's purposes in coming was to restore the true spirit of the law including the Shabbat, and to show how this day is to be Biblically observed.
Matthew 12:1-14: Yeshua outlines four truths of how the Sabbath is to be observed and what is permissible.
Meeting genuine needs for health and well being is permissible
on the Sabbath.
"Yeshua went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And his disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat but when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath." Matt. 12:1-4.
The Pharisees accused Yeshua of doing what was not lawful on the Sabbath. On the surface, it would seem they were being very picky (no pun intended) about something so insignificant as plucking grain and eating the kernels. They were actually basing their accusation on what the Oral Torah taught under the 39 categories. You are not allowed to reap or thresh grain on the Sabbath.
They accused the disciples of reaping the grain by rubbing their hands together and threshing the grain by removing the kernels. Yeshua quoted an example from the scriptures of what King David did when he was hungry. "He entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests. The point that Yeshua was making is that meeting the genuine need for food, health, and the welfare of others is permissible on the Sabbath. This includes hospitals, emergencies, and other essential services that are necessary for preserving life.
The work of ministry is to continue on the Sabbath. "Have you not read in the Torah that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless." vs. 5
Priests were required by the law to work on the Sabbath when they performed their priestly duties. This means that it does not constitute work for Rabbis, Pastors, Elders, Shammashim, teachers, and children’s workers to do their work of ministry on the Sabbath. We are supposed to delight in our ministry. Yeshua’s argument was that if the priests could be innocent of working on the Sabbath to further temple worship, then how much more are the disciples innocent in using the Shabbat to work the works of God in the Messiah.
Acts of mercy, such as healing, are permissible and
encouraged on the Sabbath.
Yeshua restored the true spirit of the Sabbath by saying that it is good to do good on the Sabbath. God desires mercy more than sacrifice. He is far more concerned about a right heart attitude than in external formalities.
As you read through the gospels, you will find that Yeshua would often make a point of healing on the Sabbath to demonstrate God’s love and mercy. There are five examples in the gospels Sabbath of Yeshua choosing to heal on the Sabbath:
- The man with the withered hand - Matthew 12:7-14
- The woman who had an infirmity for 18 years--Luke 13
- The man with dropsy --Luke 14
- A man with 38 year infirmity was healed by Yeshua at the Pool of Bethsaida John 5
- Yeshua healed a man who was born blind -- John 14
In each case, the religious leaders accused Yeshua of doing what was not lawful on the Sabbath. By their very actions, you can see how far they had drifted away from the spirit of the Sabbath, to show mercy and compassion.
They were more concerned about keeping the rules of the Sabbath then the health and welfare of the very people they were to shepherd. If there was a day for a person to be healed, I could not think of a better day than the Sabbath.
Read the account in Luke 13:10-17 of the woman healed of a crippling infirmity for 18 years. Yeshua responded to His accusers – "Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound--think of it for eighteen years, be loosed from this bondage on the Sabbath?" To be crippled and in sickness, especially on the day that God intended one to enjoy and delight in, is a cruel fate. Ezekiel 34:1-6 describes God’s judgment on the Shepherds of Israel.
It was Yeshua's purpose to be an example and restore the love, compassion and mercy of God that was lacking among the Jewish leaders. There is another example in John 7:20-24, when Yeshua defended His right to heal on the Sabbath. He uses the example of circumcision.
"Moses therefore gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers) and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the Law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely well on the Sabbath?"
There is a quote by an ancient Rabbi who supported Yeshua's claim of the right to heal on the Sabbath.
"If a boy is born on the Shabbat, is circumcision to be put off till the ninth day, or is Shabbat to be broken by doing the work of tool-carrying and performing a medical procedure? Circumcision overrules the Sabbath."
Rabbi Elazar said, "If circumcision, which involves only one of the 248 parts of the human body, suspends Shabbat, how much more must saving the whole body suspend Shabbat." (JNT - David Stern)
Unforeseen problems of an urgent nature overrule Sabbath observance.
Luke Matthew 12: 11-12 -
"What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it, and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man that a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."
In cases of emergency when a life is in danger, whether it be man or beast, it is permissible to preserve life on the Sabbath.
Spiritual Observance: How then do We Personally Observe this Day?
Preparation for the Sabbath
Keeping the Sabbath holy can be a delight instead of an inconvenience if we make the necessary preparations ahead of time. The key to a successful Shabbat is to prepare, prepare, prepare. If we learn to do what is necessary ahead of time, doing our shopping, cooking, housework, yard work, washing clothes, and so forth, ahead of time and not leaving it until late Friday or on the Sabbath day, we are free to enjoy God’s Sabbath rest. Everyone deserves one day a week to rest from his or her labors.
Spiritual Renewal
The Sabbath is intended to be a time for spiritual renewal, a time to rest from our labor, a time to spend with our families and our Mishpochah. The decision to honor the Sabbath day and keep it holy may involve some difficult decisions that will involve sacrifice and readjusting our priorities, but remember, we will never stumble or fail if we honor God by putting Him first. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you... Mt. 6:33
Delighting in the Sabbath
What can we do on the Sabbath? Enjoy the day with your family, friends or Mishpochah. Go for a walk, take a hike in the mountains, read, take a nap, visit a nursing home or visit with family or friends...Have someone over for lunch. The secret to enjoy the Sabbath and delight in the Lord is to have a right heart attitude and not to follow after your own desires.
Remember:
"If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my Holy Day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own words. Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord"... Isaiah 58:13
God's Promise of Rest
One final truth I want to share on the Sabbath is its deeper meaning, as spoken of in Hebrews 3 and 4 --God’s Promise of Rest.
There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For He who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from his... Therefore since a promise remains of entering His rest Let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. " Heb. 4:9,10
The purpose and plan of God was formed in His heart before the foundation of the world. God’s purpose for man begins in the Book of Genesis, The Book of Beginnings. The Book of Genesis describe where we came from, it shows us where we are going and how we must get there. It is God’s blueprint for man. It is the seed book from which all the other books of the Bible come forth. The book of Genesis reveals the purpose of God for our lives, to enter in and possess the inheritance that He offers us. This inheritance is referred to as Canaan in Genesis but later in the scriptures it becomes known as the promise of God’s rest. There are three terms in the scriptures we need to understand: Canaan, Inheritance, and Rest.
This concept of Canaan and rest is linked together in Hebrews 3 and 4. God’s purpose for Israel was to deliver His people from the bondage of Egypt and bring them into this land of promise so that they might possess the inheritance God has promised.
Read Hebrews 3:7-19. The land of Canaan and the promise of rest actually refers to the inheritance of God that He promises His people.
In Numbers 18:20, the Lord told the Levites, "You shall have no other inheritance in their land, nor shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel."
God said, "I will be your inheritance." Israel's wilderness wanderings and their possession of the land of promise was all to foreshadow God’s ultimate purpose, in the New Covenant, of us entering into the true rest of God and the inheritance that He promises.
Let’s see what the New Covenant says about this inheritance:
In Ephesians 1:1, Shaul said, "In whom we have obtained an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. An inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled and does not fade away reserved in heaven for you. Shaul also said in Romans 8:17 that we are heirs of God and joint heirs with the Messiah."
What these scriptures are saying is that we inherit God himself. The concept of man inheriting God is awesome, but of God inheriting man is profound. God is not only our inheritance, but we are also His. Psalm 33:1,2 says, "Blessed is the nation (the people) whose God is the Lord and the people He has chosen for His own inheritance."
In Psalms 2:7,8, there is a prophecy of the Messiah that reinforces this truth - "You are my Son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your INHERITANCE, and the ends of the earth for your possession."
In the New Covenant Shaul continues to affirm this truth in Ephesians 1:18 when he prays, "that the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened so that we would know the hope of His calling and what are the riches of the glory of His INHERITANCE in the saints."
Later in Chapter 3:3-6, Shaul speaks of this inheritance as a mystery that was hidden in ages past, but now has been revealed to us. This mystery is that the Gentiles, who were without God and outside the commonwealth of Israel, were brought near to become fellow partakers with the Jews and to share in the same promised inheritance. Paul expands on this mystery in Colossians 1:27 when he said, "God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the gentiles, which is Messiah in you the hope of glory."
This inheritance that God promised to Israel and now promises to us is Messiah in us, the hope of glory. If the Messiah is our inheritance and we are His bride, then we will share together with Him in all the riches of His inheritance. Even as a bride and groom becomes one in marriage and everything each one possesses becomes the possession of the other, so also with Messiah. We have nothing to offer Him accept ourselves. Yet He has chosen to share with us all things that He possesses. Think of it. Everything that God possesses he has chosen to share with us."He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?"
Read Ephesians 1 to see the incredible blessings that God has bestowed upon us.
The most incredible revelation in all of this is to realize that the inheritance the scriptures speak of is the Messiah. In Messiah are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If we possess Messiah and He is in us, then we possess all things. For in Him all things hold together. Therefore Canaan, the rest the scriptures speak of, and our inheritance, is nothing less than the Messiah. He is our Canaan, our rest and our inheritance. Praise God!
He is the embodiment of all that is God. When the scriptures speak of entering God’s rest, it is actually describing the fullness of Messiah being formed in us. The whole purpose of God, his goal from Genesis to Revelation, has been that we might grow up into maturity and enter into the fullness of Messiah's character and likeness.
God’s purpose is that we would become like Him. "Beloved now we are children of Godandit has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is."
Paul speaks of the goal of his ministry in Gal. 4:19:
"My Little children for whom I labor in birth again, until Messiah is formed in you"
Paul goes on to say in Colossians,
"To this end I labor and strive according to His working who mightily works in me, that we might present every man complete in Messiah."
The inheritance and the rest that God promises us is the Messiah. Only when we become more like Him can we truly experience the true spiritual rest that God promises us. The Sabbath day is profound because it is a picture of this perfect rest that God has prepared for His people.
Hebrews 4:1-11 speaks of this promise of Messiah’s rest. His rest not ours. Yeshua said, "Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest". I am the rest that you seek.
In Hebrews 4: 4,5, God speaks of His rest on the seventh day:
"For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way, And God rested on th seventh day from all His works, and again in this place They shall not enter my rest..."
God links together His rest of creation on the seventh day with the rest that we experience in Messiah. When God rested from His work of creation, there was nothing more that He could add. It was perfect and complete in every way.
This seventh day spoken of in Genesis was also intended to point ahead to something even more profound than the work of creation, as incredible as it is. It was intended to point to the work of Messiah and His wondrous work of redemption. In John 5:17, Yeshua said, "My Father has been working until now and have been working. I must work the works of Him who sent me". Throughout Yeshua's earthly ministry, He performed the works of the kingdom of God.
Mt. 4:23-25 Yeshua said in Luke 1:43 "It is for this purpose I have been sent ... to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of be prisons to those who are bound."
It was Satan who defiled God’s perfect work of creation when he tempted Adam and Eve to sin. This one act of disobedience brought a curse upon Adam and Eve and all their descendants and upon God’s work of creation. Yeshua, as the second Adam, came to undo Satan's work and to strip him of his authority and power and redeem man and restore God’s work of creation. 2 Co. 5:17 "If any man is in Messiah he is a new creation".
Just prior to Yeshua’s death, He prayed to the Father in John 17;4- "I have glorified you on the earth. I have finished the work which you have given me to do."
Later, when Yeshua hung upon the cross, and willingly offered Himself as the atonement for man’s sin, before He died, the last recorded words He spoke were, "It is finished," and bowing His head he gave up His Spirit.
Yeshua had completed the work that He came to do. There was nothing more that He could have done to add to His work of redemption. It was perfect and complete in every way. The whole plan of redemption fashioned in the heart of God before the foundation of the world was complete. Even as God looked upon His work of creation and said Tov Meod (very good), He looked upon the Messiah’s work of redemption and said, Tov Meod (it is very good).As God rested from all His work of creation, so also Messiah rested from all His work of redemption. "If any man is in Messiah He is a new creation." 2 Co. 5:17
As we observe the seventh day each week, it is intended to remind us of what Messiah accomplished, of bringing us into the rest of God. The Sabbath is a weekly reminder of our salvation and our deliverance from the bondage of sin and how we can now enter into the true rest of God in the Messiah.
I want to close this study on the Sabbath with a beautiful illustration from Genesis 1. Did you know that Genesis One is more than a revelation of how God created the heavens and the earth? It also speaks of the creative work of God in bringing us into the fullness of the Messiah. Marvin Byers, in his book, Six days and a Day, teaches in length on this. The seven days of creation describe the blueprint for making us like Yeshua. The whole seven days of creation is also likened to the redemptive week. Each day of the week speaks of one creative act of God in this process of bringing us into the fullness of Messiah. Let me briefly share with you from Genesis 1:1-5 as the first act of God in our lives.
Genesis 1:1 says,
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The God said, Let there be light and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness.."
The Spirit of God was hovering over our lives and God spoke His word into our lives and said let there be light in us. God separated the light from the darkness in our lives and we were transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. This first day of creation speaks of our new birth experience of our first step in the spiritual journey with God . He begins to form and shape us as the wise master potter to bring us into the fullness of Messiah. We will be perfect and complete in the Messiah, when we step into the kingdom of God. At that time God will look upon us and say Tov meod. (Very Good). Nothing more will be necessary. Our redemption will be forever complete. We will have reached the place of fullness in the Messiah and will spend eternity learning and exploring the deep mysteries of God and the universe.
Bibliography and Further Reading
- The Sabbath, its meaning for Modern Man; Abraham Joshua Heschel, 1951. Published in Canada by Harper Collins, Canada.
- Six Days and a Day; Marvin Byers, 1995. Treasure House Destiny Image Publishers Inc. PO Box 310 Shippensburg, PA 17257-0310.
- How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household; Blu Greenberg, 1983. Published by Simon and Schuster Inc. New York, N.Y.
- To be a Jew - A guide to Jewish observance in Contemporary Life; Rabbi Haim Donin, 1972. Hebrew Publishing Co. N.Y.
written and / or assembled by Cal Goldberg, Messianic Leader, Beth Shechinah
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