Teachings

SHABBAT

“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 L-rd your G-d. In it you shall do no work, you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, not your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the L-rd made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the L-rd blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”

   Exodus 20:8-11

This is the middle commandment of the ten commandments and the commandment that the L-rd spends four verses on as He realizes that this would be a commandment that was going to be broken. No where in the scripture does the Sabbath change from Saturday to Sunday. The day of Sabbath was changed at the Council of Nicea as the church was trying to escape persecution and move away from its Jewish roots which the church felt was causing its problems. The L-rd commands us to take the seventh day to rest, relax and worship. We need to worship G-d on the day that He has set aside compared to the day which most of the church has set aside to worship him.

“For this is the love of G-d, that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome.”

I John 5:3

Shabbat, the Sabbath, is considered the queen of the feasts or holidays as it occurs every week. The Sabbath is definitely an important part of Jewish life. The Sabbath is set apart on the seventh day just as the L-rd rested after the creation of the world on the seventh day. Are the Jewish people the only ones to keep Sabbath? The L-rd is to be worshiped every day but He did set aside one specific day that we are to only worship Him and to cease from our labor. There are some Gentiles who do not attend messianic congregations but attend churches Sunday but by their lifestyle, they will spend the day Saturday reading the Word of God and praying, ceasing from their regular activity.

The Sabbath is the wedding ring for the bride of Messiah (the one new man). For hundreds of years, the church has been throwing away the wedding ring. A wedding was held at Mt. Sinai between the L-rd and His people when the ten commandments were given. There was the mountain and the cloud cover of a chuppa (Jewish wedding canopy), a ketuba (ten commandments, a Jewish written marriage contract) and the Sabbath was the wedding ring. The L-rd is calling His people, Jew and Gentile, to come to Him on this day and spend time with Him.

**Other teachings on the Sabbath as well as further teachings on the One New Man, feasts, replacement theology and dietary laws will be handled on the daily blog at www.onenewman1.blogspot.com.