Sabbath
Yahweh was resting on the seventh day after He created the world. He made that day holy and He want us to rest also on this seventh day. He wants to enjoy His creation with us. That’s why He wants us to stop working, so that we can put our attention on Him and His creation. If we do this, we will be refreshed and renewed.
Exodus 20:8-11
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
How difficult it is for us, not to work. As restless as we are, always looking for more. A lot of us not even know anymore how to enjoy in life. The Sabbath is a gift from Yahweh. A blessing. We suppose to be thankful for the time we get to be with Him. The blessing that we got became a commandment because of our bad respectless behavior. We were not willing to enjoy our blessing with Yahweh.
This time with us is so precious for Yahweh that He made a commandment for it. The first commandments are about our behavior towards Him and His name. But the fourth commandment is going about the Sabbath. It is as well for Jewish people as for strangers. It’s even for animals. After the Sabbath commandment comes the behavior commandments towards other people. You can see how important the Sabbath is for Yahweh, our God. He made the Sabbath as a sign between Himself and His people. A sign that never goes away. A sign that you may know that Yahweh is your Lord who sanctifies you. He made it as a never-ending covenant. Yahweh loves us so much, He needs us to be with Him on the seventh holy day.
How unfortunate that so little people want to make time for Him on this for His special day. That so many people say I have no time for you, come back on another day. I am too busy. Or we say I choose myself which day is holy. So respectless and without love for our God. That’s why Yahweh told us that we will die if we work on the seventh day. We didn’t respond out of love and respect, so now we have to respond in obedience. Why because to keep the Sabbath will refresh us. Like Yahweh was refreshed after that day rest.
Exodus 31:13-17
“But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My Sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Therefore you are to observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death. So the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’ It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.”
Let me remind you that whoever sins will certainly die. This sounds familiar. Not respecting the Sabbath became a sin and still is nowadays.
A lot of people say that the ten commandments and the rest of the Law is not for the believers in Yeshua, the Messiah. But this isn’t true.
Matthew 5:17
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
This is how Yeshua fulfilled the Law:
Yeshua makes known the Will of Yahweh. He comes to speak about the purpose of the Law and that makes the Law shine again. Yeshua brings out (the Sermon on the Mount) the actual intention again, so that the law can actually be done. The actual intention re-emerges from under the dust of discussions. In what Yeshua does, the law is fulfilled. Yeshua does not just give a new teaching; He not only makes known the Will of Yahweh. He does the Will of Yahweh.
Luke 16:17
But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.
The Law will be there forever. Earth and heaven will be changed, but not the Law.
John 15:8-10
My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
Big question is: Are the commandments from Yahweh different then from Yeshua? No! Yeshua tells in Mark 12 and Matthew 22 which commandments are the most important from Moses' Law.
Mark 12:28–31,
“‘Which commandment is the most important of all?’ Jesus answered, ‘The most important is, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The second is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’”
Matthew 22:36-40
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
In John 15 Yeshua tells His commandments: We have to glorify Yahweh as Yeshua did with bearing fruits. Yeshua loved His Father. And we have to do the same if we want to be His disciples.
John 15:8-10
My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
And we have to love eachother. Yeshua’s commandments are the same as the two important commandments on which the whole Law was depending on. So doing Yeshua’s commandments is doing Yahweh’s commandments.
John 15:12-14
“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you.
John 15:17
This I command you, that you love one another.
Paul is warning that the good news that we got is the same as Yahweh’s people in the dessert. They lacked faith and disobeyed. And that’s why they would never enter Yahweh’s rest. The same counts for us.
Hebrews 4:1-11
Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; and again in this passage, “They shall not enter My rest.” Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.
Some people say that we already entered Yahweh’s rest and that’s why we don’t need to keep the Sabbath anymore. But for that one we have to be obedient, else we will not enter in this rest. We saw that Yahweh’s Law is not changing even a bit. So leaving a commandment out doesn’t sound like obeying.
The focus for Sabbath is stop working, enjoy with Him and eachother the creation and all the other things He gave. And being thankful. Be creative in filling in this beautiful day. With your family or with a congregation. Both is possible. Enjoy this day in freedom. Be relaxed and peaceful. Celebrate… being created.