Sabbath Revisited

Post #1
Ohev Yisrael Yesterday, 08:52 PM Post #64

Hmmm... Don't know exactly where to start on this, so I will just throw some stuff out and see where it lands, LOL

To properly understand the Sabbath, you have to really understand why God sanctified the Seventh Day.

The Torah is really what we call "Tavinot" in Hebrew. Tavinot means "pictures." We as humans think in pictures. If I say "dog." Which dog do you think about? You may think about your dog, or the neighbor's dog. If I say "German Shepherd," we are thinking of the same dog. God utilizes this method in the Torah. The Torah is a set of pictures of our Messiah, Yeshua. They all point to Him. Paul writes the following:

Therefore don't let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a sabbath day. These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is the Messiah.
(Colossians 2:16-17)

Two things here. The church at Colosse was under attack by the Gnostics who believed the material world to be evil. Therefore the Sabbaths, Festivals and other such commandments were unacceptable since the Festivals and the Sabbath sanctify matter, time and space. The Festivals are unique because they take even the most mundane activities like eating and cause them to be act of worship to the Lord (not that such cannot be done all of the time, but the Festivals are uniquely constructed unto this purpose).

So contrary to how many people read these verses, Paul was not warning to the Colossians about Jews who would judge them for not keeping the Festivals, he was warning the Colossians about the Gnostics who judged those who did keep the Festivals. It is historical fact that many Gentile believers kept the Sabbath and the Passover until the 4th century. Much of what we know today in institutional Christianity came about after the 4th century.

My second point is that v. 17 tells us that the Festivals were shadow (sketch in Greek) of what was to come. He is the substance or the "main idea" of the Sabbath. He is Sabbath made flesh.

So, what pictures do we see in the Sabbath?

1. Rest. After God created man, He sanctified the Seventh day and Adam entered into God's rest. Likewise Yeshua says:

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
(Matthew 11:28-30)

He offers us sweet rest.
Rest from guilt
Rest from shame
Rest from condemnation
Rest from fear
Rest from groaning under the weight of our wretchedness
Rest from vile affections
Rest from trying to work ourselves into God's favor
God worked for six days before man could enter His rest. Jesus was on the cross for six hours before we could enter into the rest of salvation. This is no coincidence. Jesus said that His life was His to give, and no man could take it from Him. Even on the cross, Jesus was in complete control of everything. He died when He wanted to die, and not a second too soon, and not a second too late. He died in exactly six hours between the evenings when the Passover lamb was slain in Jerusalem.

2. There is only one Savior.

You see, there is only one Sabbath. It is not arbitrarily up to us to decide when "our Sabbath" is. The Sabbath is on the Seventh day, NOT "one day in seven." The world wants a Messiah that fits their schedule, their personality, their whims. They want a Messiah of their own choosing. They believe that truth can be arbitrarily and subjectively chosen.

Truth is not a smorgasbord from which we can pick and choose according to our tastes. Yeshua does not offer Himself as a Messiah among many other equally qualified candidates. To say that all days are the same, and that the Sabbath is a day like any other day, is like saying Jesus is a religious leader like all other religious leaders and is no better or different than Buddha, Krishna, Moon, or Mohammed.

The Sabbath glorifies the Lord because it teaches that there is one Savior, and thus only one way to salvation.

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
(Acts 4:12)

3. The Kingdom of God.

The Sabbath is a picture of coming manifestation of the Kingdom of God on Earth.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
(Revelation 21:1-4)

Clearly, this does not describe our current situation. This is something still in the future for which we are waiting. It is the final eternal era.

The Sabbath is a prophecy of this. No work is to be done on the Sabbath. The kind of work forbidden by God is "melakhah" it is industrious or creative labor. It includes any kind of craft with stone, cloth, metal, etc. The idea was that just as God ceased creative labor, likewise He was to be imitated by ceasing all creative labor.

The Sabbath is a day where we live as if the world is perfect and no work can be done to improve it. It is a microcosm of the New Heavens and the New Earth. The Sabbath is like an entire age within a day.

When the Sabbath is observed it is a living representation of the Gospel from the creation of the world to the New Heavens and the New Earth. The Sabbath teaches us about the rest of the Gospel, the exaltation of the Messiah as the ONLY way of salvation, and the eternal, blessed Mamlakah Elohim (Kingdom of God)!!

B'rukh Shem K'vod Malkhuto L'olam v'ed!!!


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I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
(Isaiah 62:6-7)

The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.
(Psalms 128:5)

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.
(Psalms 122:6)

 

Post #2
Ohev Yisrael Today, 06:31 AM Post #72

It is interesting how Christians have been conditioned to have this stigma against anything "Jewish." The only Jews most Christians know anything about are the Pharisees, and even then they really don't anything about the Pharisees, who they were, or what was really going on between them and Jesus, and this has led to a lot of misunderstanding. This misunderstanding has led to a lot of false conclusions about what Jesus was condemning when He confronted the Jewish leadership concerning things like the Sabbath, hand washing and a variety of other issues.

First of all, Jesus/Yeshua was a Pharisee. The Pharisees were the Torah teachers, the Rabbis. How do you suppose it was that they called Him "Rabbi?" It was not because he was an able public speaker. "Rabbi" is an earned title, like "professor" or "Dr." In those days, you had to study, under another Rabbi and/or attend one of the academies of the day, to attain this title. Only another Rabbi could confer this upon you.

The Pharisees numbered in the tens of thousands in first century, making them the single largest religious sect in Israel. There 9 different orders of Pharisees, each one thought the other eight were morons. Religious debate was very common among the different schools of Pharisees. Two of the most famous schools were the school of Shammai and the School of Hillel. Hillel would have been an early contemporary of Jesus. It is believed by some that he probably died when Jesus was still a boy.

When we closely examine what Jesus said, we see echos of the Talmud. In fact, when Jesus said, "The Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath," He was actually taking that remark from the Talmud. It says in the Talmud: Rabbi Jonathan ben Joseph said: For it is holy unto you; I.e., it [the Sabbath] is committed to your hands, not you to its hands. - Talmud: Yoma 85b

There are other things that Jesus said which echo Talmudic flavor. As a Jew, Jesus would have been familiar with the Talmud as any Jew would. Study of Talmud has always been the responsibility of every Jew, not just the Rabbis.

When Jesus debated the Pharisees about the Sabbath, one must understand that it was simply a Rabbinic debate that was not at all uncommon. What made Jesus' debates so interesting, the reason people marvelled at Jesus when He confronted the Pharisees, was his Galilean origins. The Rabbis of Galilee were not considered as educated as the Rabbis trained at the more sophisticated academies in Jerusalem. So for Jesus to stump the more "educated" men from Jerusalem was a sight to behold. It just was not every day that a Galilean Rabbi scored as many points as this one did. I am sure these confrontations must have took on some entertainment value for those looking on.

When it comes to the Sabbath, Jesus was confronting NOT the Sabbath itself, but the legalism and hypocrisy that SOME of the Pharisees employed regarding its observance. Jesus was not against the observance of the Sabbath, but the way some of the Pharisees expected the common man to live under their legalistic burdens, while finding loopholes for themselves that would excuse their need to follow the rules they imposed on everyone else, while still maintaining their deceptive, outward piety.

Jesus also confronted the Pharisees when they trumped up charges against Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, when even they knew that healing was not forbidden, and in fact, NO good deed was prohibited on the Sabbath, according to the Talmud. He exposed them for misapplying Sabbath simply as means of smearing Him and His ministry.

Jesus was not a Sabbath breaker, Paul was not a Sabbath, breaker, and neither were any of the disciples. Unfortunately, the modern Church has not made the necessary moral distinctions between condemning the legalistic practices employed by some in their misguided approach to the Sabbath, and the Sabbath itself. Too often in the minds of many, Sabbath = Legalistic. It is almost a knee-jerk reaction. As a result, so many Christians miss the beautiful pictures, and the important lessons it contains.

The Sabbath is important to understand because as a day sanctified by God, it teaches us the importance of the difference between the holy and the secular. It teaches us that there is a distinction, and that which is holy is not to be treated as common. We have not learned that lesson, and even when it is pointed out it is labeled a legalistic. We as Christians should be different, and we should be noticeably different. We should be different in our speech, our attitudes, conduct, our appearance, everything. We are a people set apart, sanctified and too often we prefer to blur lines that separate us from the world. Just as the Sabbath is not just another day like the other six, we are not just another group of people, we do not serve just another religious figure. We are Kings and Priests, servants of the very Creator of universe, and we should conduct ourselves as such. That is a very important lesson of the Sabbath.

If you do not want to observe the Sabbath day, that is your prerogative. Please do not condemn, or attempt to demonize as "legalistic" those who choose to observe the Sabbath. Please do not assign false values to them, and accuse them of trying to earn their salvation, or something. Such charges are plainly false. If you do not want to bother studying about the Sabbath, please do not presume that you have the right to sit in self-righteous judgement over something you do not understand.


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I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
(Isaiah 62:6-7)

The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.
(Psalms 128:5)

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.
(Psalms 122:6)