Saturday, February 28, 2015

Setting straight a "Sabbath" myth....

Social media teems with posters/memes suggesting that the Seventh Day Sabbath is the day “we are supposed to WORSHIP God.”  But this is not exactly true.  The Seventh Day Sabbath is the day we are supposed to REST from our weekly work.  We can and are supposed to “worship” Him ALL the time, not just on the Sabbath.  YHWH instituted the Seventh Day as a day to REST.  Take a look at these two scriptures:

Exodus 20:8 "Remember the day, Shabbat, to set it apart for God. 9 You have six days to labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Shabbat for ADONAI your God. On it, you are not to do any kind of work -not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave, not your livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates to your property. 11 For in six days, ADONAI made heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. This is why ADONAI blessed the day, Shabbat, and separated it for himself.

Jeremiah 17: 21 Here is what ADONAI says: "If you value your lives, don't carry anything on Shabbat or bring it in through the gates of Yerushalayim; 22 don't carry anything out of your houses on Shabbat; and don't do any work. Instead, make Shabbat a holy day. I ordered your ancestors to do this, 23 but they neither listened nor paid attention; rather, they stiffened their necks, so that they wouldn't have to hear or receive instruction. 24 However, if you will pay careful heed to me," says ADONAI "and carry nothing through the gates of this city on Shabbat, but instead make Shabbat a day which is holy and not for doing work;


So, if you are a housewife, stop cleaning the house and spending hours cooking and cleaning. Take care of your children and tend to their needs, but do all the hard labor BEFORE Shabbat.  Do all you can to make Shabbat "different" from any other day.

If you are doctor, lawyer, construction worker, garbage truck driver, or whatever work you do to support yourself and your family, do NOT do this work on Shabbat.  Yes, an emergency may arise, and it's perfectly fine to do whatever needs to be done; but in general, stop working.  Medical personnel - including ambulance drivers, etc. DO often work on Saturday because there is nothing wrong with healing or saving lives or "doing good" on ANY day of the week, as Y'shua plainly demonstrated (see Luke 13:14, Mark 3:1-6 and John 5:1-18). But if you are, for instance, a construction worker, you are to REST from your work days ... unless, of course, some dire emergency arises.  It's all a matter of common sense.

The Shabbat is a day to set aside to just REST and to keep holy for YHWH/Y'shua!  It's a day to "rest in HIM" so that your mind and body can have a chance to be renewed and restored.  Humans weren't made to work themselves to death. We NEED rest! 


Isaiah 58:13 "If you hold back your foot on Shabbat from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call Shabbat a delight, ADONAI's holy day, worth honoring; then honor it by not doing your usual things or pursuing your interests or speaking about them. 14 If you do, you will find delight in ADONAI - I will make you ride on the heights of the land and feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Ya'akov, for the mouth of ADONAI has spoken." For more, please see our article, True Sabbath Day.

2 comments:

  1. This is one of the way how Abba YHWH demonstrated His love to us. He created the Sabbath for man, to rest and to keep it holy for Him. And if we look further, this is for our own advantage because He sanctified it!
    Shalom!

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