Sunday, September 16, 2007

How should we keep Shabbat?

Those who think that since we are in Yahshua, everyday is the Sabbath would think twice if they knew that if this were the case, then they would never be permitted to work or do anything having to do with our own pleasures on the Sabbath. There are many blessings attached to keeping the Sabbath day kadosh. So lets find out what it means to keep this day kadosh:
Dev 5:12 ‘Guard the Shabbat, to set it apart, as יהוה your Elohim commanded you.
Dev 5:13 ‘Six days you labour, and shall do all your work,
Dev 5:14 but the seventh day is a Shabbat of יהוה your Elohim. You do not do any work – you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male slave, nor your female slave, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates, so that your male slave and your female slave rest as you do.
Dev 5:15 ‘And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Mitsrayim, and that יהוה your Elohim brought you out from there by a strong hand and by an outstretched arm. Therefore יהוה your Elohim commanded you to observe the Shabbat day.

So not only are we to rest, but those who work for us are to rest also. If we own a business, it is not acceptable to have all the employees working while we enjoy a restful Sabbath day. This commandment also includes anyone who we temporarily hire to work for us. For instance, when we go to restaurants we are hiring the cook and the waiter and the person who rings up the bill as a servant to work for us. Also anytime we purchase anything on the Sabbath such as groceries and other merchandise we are hiring others to stock the shelves, clean up and ring up the bill for us because we are paying for their service when we purchase the items. Nehemiah rebukes buying and selling quite sharply in this scripture:
Neh 13:15 In those days I saw in Yehuḏah those treading wine presses on the Shabbat, and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys with wine, grapes, and figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Yerushalayim on the Shabbat. So I warned them on the day they sold food.
Neh 13:16 And men of Tsor dwelt there, bringing in fish and all kinds of goods, and sold them on Shabbat to the children of Yehuḏah, and in Yerushalayim.
Neh 13:17 Then I contended with the nobles of Yehuḏah, and said to them, "What evil matter is this that you are doing, profaning the Shabbat?
Neh 13:18 "Did not your fathers do the same so that our Elohim brought all this evil on us and on this city? Yet you bring added wrath on Yisra’ĕl by profaning the Shabbat."

So buying and selling is clearly forbidden on the Sabbath. Going to restaurants and shopping malls and grocery stores is no way to keep the Sabbath kadosh. The Sabbath is a day of rest and prayer and worship. Not a day for doing our own pleasures:
Yes 58:13 "If you do turn back your foot from the Shabbat, from doing your pleasure on My set-apart day, and shall call the Shabbat ‘a delight,’ the set-apart day of יהוה ‘esteemed,’ and shall esteem it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words,
Yes 58:14 then you shall delight yourself in יהוה. And I shall cause you to ride on the heights of the earth, and feed you with the inheritance of Yaʽaqoḇ your father. For the mouth of יהוה has spoken!"

So keeping the Sabbath day kadosh not only means that we aren't to buy or sell, but also means that we are to refrain from our own pleasures such as sporting events, television, movies, etc. Also we are not even to speak our own words! Even our speech should be about YHVH and His word. I assure you, if we keep the Sabbath day in this manner it will be much easier keeping YHVH's mitzvot because we have one day each week to refresh ourselves spiritually. It is a day that we can look forward to during the week that we can fully refresh ourselves both physically and spiritually. YHVH never made our bodies to withstand constant labor day after day. It is no wonder that so many people we meet are so tired all of the time. And it is no wonder that people often fall away
Cooking and Preparation day.
When YHVH brought the children of Yisra'el out of Mitsrayim, he re-instituted the Sabbath day. No doubt that the Mitsrites expected them to work seven days a week. Here is Moshe telling the children of Yisra'el what they should do in preparation for the Shabbat:
She 16:23 And he said to them, "This is what יהוה has said, ‘Tomorrow is a rest, a Shabbat set-apart to יהוה. That which you bake, bake; and that which you cook, cook. And lay up for yourselves all that is left over, to keep it until morning.’ "

On preparation day, we should prepare our food that will be eaten on the Sabbath so that we will not have to cook or prepare it on the Sabbath. There are many variations of how to do this which will not be discussed in this study. I encourage all who want to know more to either email me or study it out for themselves.
What is permitted on the Sabbath?
Now there are some things that are always okay to do on the Sabbath that the Scribes and Pharisees in Yahshua's day would think forbidden:
Yoch 5:10 The Yehuḏim therefore said to him who had been healed, "It is the Shabbat, it is not right for you to take up the bed."
Luk 13:14 But the ruler of the congregation, responding, much displeased that יהושע had healed on the Shabbat, said to the crowd, "There are six days on which men should work, so come and be healed on them, and not on the Shabbat."
Luk 6:7 And the scribes and Pharisees were watching Him closely, whether He would heal on the Shabbat, for them to find an accusation against Him.
Luk 6:1 And it came to be on a Shabbat that He went through grainfields, and His talmidim were plucking the heads of grain and were eating, rubbing them in the hands.
Luk 6:2 And some of the Pharisees said to them, "Why are you doing what is not right to do on the Shabbat?"
Note that in the above verses that the issue was not whether or not to keep the Sabbath but rather how the Sabbath should be kept! Let's look at Yahshua's response to these accusations:
Healing on the Sabbath:
Luk 13:15 Then the Master answered him and said, "Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on Shabbat loosen his ox or his donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it?
Luk 13:16 "And this one, being a daughter of Av̱raham, whom HaSatan has bound, look, for eighteen years, should she not be loosened from this bond on the Shabbat?"

Luk 14:5 And to them He said, "Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, shall not immediately pull him out on the Shabbat?"
Luk 14:6 And they were unable to answer Him regarding these matters.

Yoc 5:16 And because of this the Yehuḏim persecuted יהושע, and were seeking to kill Him, because He was doing these healings on the Shabbat.
Yoc 5:17 But יהושע answered them, "My Father works until now, and I work."

Mar 2:27 And He said to them, "The Shabbat was made for man, and not man for the Shabbat.
Mar 2:28 "So the Son of Aḏam is also Master of the Shabbat."

Yoc 7:22 "Because of this Mosheh has given you the circumcision – though it is not from Mosheh, but from the fathers – and you circumcise a man on Shabbat.
Yoc 7:23 "If a man receives circumcision on the Shabbat, so that the Torah of Mosheh should not be broken, are you wroth with Me because I made a man entirely well on the Shabbat?

Also take into consideration that the Levites sacrificed animals on the Sabbath day and therefore had to work. This is Yahshua's answer to them when the disciples began to pluck grain to eat on the Sabbath:
Mat 12:3 But He said to them, "Have you not read what Dawiḏ did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him:
Mat 12:4 how he went into the House of Elohim and ate the showbread which was not right for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the kohanim?
Mat 12:5 "Or did you not read in the Torah that on the Shabbat the kohanim in the Set-apart Place profane the Shabbat, and are blameless?
Mat 12:6 "But I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the Set-apart Place.
Mat 12:7 "And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion and not offering,’ you would not have condemned the blameless.
Mat 12:8 "For the Son of Aḏam is Master of the Shabbat."

YHVH expects us to keep the Sabbath day kadosh. But it is always O.K. to do good on the Sabbath day and clearly Yahshua and the talmidim did not have time to prepare for the Sabbath because they were doing YHVH's work. So if we have to do a little work on the Sabbath or cause another to do a little work on the Sabbath for YHVH's purpose then this is not breaking the Sabbath. Of course one could take this to the extreme as well and say that it is impossible for them to refrain from going to work on the Sabbath or they would be fired and then not have any food. This is ridiculous. YHVH will provide for us. We needn't be concerned about our food if we are obeying His Sabbath.
So, in summary we can see that YHVH wants us to keep His Sabbath kadosh by not working, buying, selling, causing others to work for us, speaking idle or vain words or doing our own pleasures on the Sabbath. There are only exceptions if we are fulfilling YHVH's purpose for something. And this I leave to one's own heart for only YHVH knows our heart. To add a bunch of laws to try and apply to specific situations is legalism. And this is what the scribes and Pharisees were practicing. Yahshua clearly taught against that.

1 comment:

DanPonjican said...

Interesting reading. I am wondering what are the major distinctions between your beliefs and that of conservative Apostolic Christians such as those of the United Pentecostal Church.