In step 27, I wrote about my concerns about what we are to do with the festivals along the way. I discussed Halloween and Sukkot.
There is one festival that I cannot shake the requirement to celebrate, and I confess that I have not always been diligent to honor it.

Exodus 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD thy God: [in it]

• thou shalt not do any work, thou,
• nor thy son,
• nor thy daughter,
• thy manservant,
• nor thy maidservant,
• nor thy cattle,
• nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates:

11 For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

The 10 commandments. Exodus 20 – And God said these words:

1. 2 verses – no other gods
2. 3 verses – no graven images
3. 1 verse – no disrespecting His name
4. 4 verses – HONOR THE SABBATH
5. 1 verse – honor thy mother and father
6. 1 verse -no killing
7. 1 verse – no adultery
8. 1 verse-no stealing
9. 1 verse- no lying
10. 1 verse -no coveting

Of all the 10 commandments – God spent more time, more words, explaining why the Sabbath should be holy. As Christians, we have a negative approach to the 10 commandments as rules, the “do nots”.  Jews have a different view of the Sabbath.

From Judaism 101

“The Sabbath (or Shabbat, as it is called in Hebrew) is one of the best known and least understood of all Jewish observances. People who do not observe Shabbat think of it as a day filled with stifling restrictions, or as a day of prayer like the Christian Sabbath. But to those who observe Shabbat, it is a precious gift from G-d, a day of great joy eagerly awaited throughout the week, a time when we can set aside all of our weekday concerns and devote ourselves to higher pursuits. In Jewish literature, poetry and music, Shabbat is described as a bride or queen, as in the popular Shabbat hymn Lecha Dodi Likrat Kallah (come, my beloved, to meet the [Sabbath] bride). It is said “more than Israel has kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept Israel.” “

Why did God set apart one day for rest?

Mark 2:27 And he(Jesus) said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

Sabbath isn’t supposed to be this strict, solemn, boring thing.  God created it FOR MAN!

 Gen 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Deuteronomy 5.15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and [that] the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.

There is something special that God intended for the Sabbath, but in the attempt to break free from the law, in the teaching of liberty, peace, and love, we may have lost the very blessing that God created for us!

how did the Israelites learn about the Sabbath? in the Exodus!  Manna!

Exodus 16.4 Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. 5 And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare [that] which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.

Exodus 16.23 And he said unto them, This [is that] which the LORD hath said, To morrow [is] the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake [that] which ye will bake [to day], and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

Exodus 16.26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, [which is] the sabbath, in it there shall be none.

God provided food for the Israelites miraculously. God had two rules about the food,

1. gather only what you can eat, not too much or too little
2. don’t gather on the Sabbath

Oddly enough, the people tested God to see if the food would keep, and it got wormy.  And they tested God to see if there would be any manna on the Sabbath, and there was none. this was God’s response:

Exodus 16.28 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?

God set up a plan for these people who had been in slavery for hundreds of years.  They didn’t have days off.  And he is trying to bring them into his rest.  But their flesh is getting them in trouble.  And it’s the same today.

1Peter 2.11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

Why don’t we celebrate the Sabbath?  And I’m not talking about whether it’s Friday to Saturday, Saturday to Sunday, or only Sunday. I’m talking about one day a week given to rest as the Lord commanded. Commanded

Command:

• to order, require, compel
• to direct with specific authority or prerogative; order:
• to require authoritatively; demand:

Commandment:

• a command or mandate.

Hebrew: Mitzvah

• precept
• commandment
• law
• ordinance

Commandments.  We talk about being freed from the law, I were talking about being freed from the curse of the law, or from the law in general?  Why is it so important to “not be bound by the law”?  Why was the law given?  And right now talking about the 10 Commandments.  Are we guilty of picking and choosing which ones we should obey?

Do we honor our mother and father because it will go well with us and we will live long in the land?

Ephesians 6.2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) 3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

Do we not steal, because of the Golden rule?

Luke 6.31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

I say that all Scripture is God breathed,

2 Tim 3:16 All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

I want to be made perfect.

Matthew 5.48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Romans 12.2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

The ways of the world are not going to get me where I want to be in my walk with the Lord Jesus. it is more comfortable for my flesh to rule out honoring the Sabbath under the teaching of liberty. But if I’m going to claim the promises of Ephesians 6.2, or any other promises for obedience, I need to seriously look at keeping the Sabbath.

Exodus 31.14Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it [is] holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth [any] work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh [is] the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth [any] work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. 16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, [for] a perpetual covenant.

Exodus 35.2 Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.

Num 15:32-36 A man gathering wood on the sabbath

that’s pretty serious punishment for not keeping the Sabbath. I don’t think God considers the Sabbath as lightly as we do.

 Isaiah 56.1 Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation [is] near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. 2 Blessed [is] the man [that] doeth this, and the son of man [that] layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.

BLESSED!!!!

Isaiah 58.13

• If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath,
• [from] doing thy pleasure on my holy day;
• and call the sabbath a delight,
• the holy of the LORD,
• honourable;
• and shalt honour him,
• not doing thine own ways,
• nor finding thine own pleasure,
• nor speaking [thine own] words:
• 14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD;
• and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth,
• and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father:
• for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken [it].

Jeremiah had a warning about Sabbath obedience – and they didn’t harken, in Jeremiah 17.

We want the blessings of the Lord, but not the responsibility that goes with it.
We want our cake and eat it too. We want to pick and choose what things, what principles, what part of the Bible are actually for today.  Everyone agrees the 10 Commandments  are a great set of rules, and many of societies have a similar set of laws.  In fact the different societies just change up the first four verses two worshiping their God rather than the God of Moses.  there is a whole chapter in the Bible that both excites me and frightens me.

Deuteronomy 28.1-2 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe [and] to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

Deuteronomy 28.15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:

I leave the details for you to read.

But there are verses in the New Testament that give me just as much pause:

John 14.15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

That verse is a condition for a serious promise that follows it in the next verse. how do we show that we love Jesus?

John 14.21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

John 14.23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

for clarification:

John 14. 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.

what are the commands of Jesus Christ?

Mark 12.29  And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments [is], Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this [is] the first commandment.31 And the second [is] like, [namely] this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

did Jesus abolish the 10 Commandments by stating only two?  His first commandment encompasses all of the first four commandments, and his second Commandment encompasses the other six of the 10 Commandments.  If we look at it closely, just as he did in the Beatitudes and the sermon on the Mount, he has commanded us to a deeper obedience of the Commandments.  He is called for us to love the Lord our God

• with all our heart
• with all our soul
• with all our mind
• with all our strength

what else is left?  And then he raises the bar for the other six by making it about loving others at least as much as we love ourselves.

So what is this have to do with Sabbath?

Jesus was not legalistic about the Sabbath, if you’re hungry, eat; if you’re sick, see a doctor; if something happens to your donkey, help it out.  But He did not say to not celebrate the Sabbath, He said He was Lord of the Sabbath!

God ordained a day for us to separate ourselves from all the worldly cares and burdens and fears and stress, to spend in His presence, by the grace purchased for us through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Speaking of the blood of Jesus, there is another interesting point in the New Testament that I think illustrates the current importance of celebrating Sabbath correctly.

1 Corinthians 11.27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink [this] cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of [that] bread, and drink of [that] cup.29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.30 For this cause many [are] weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

Is this the current manifestation of God’s curse on those that pollute the Sabbath? This is the one commandment that Christ gave us in order to remember him, and with it comes the curse of death if we participate unworthily. it’s our responsibility to make sure that we are ready for the Sabbath.

1 Corinthians 11.31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.

I want to say is for me in my house we will serve the Lord, but has to confess I have not kept the Sabbath holy.  I pray for wisdom, grace, and mercy to glorify the Lord in my life.

 
Thanks for joining me in this journey,
In His hands and under His wings,
~Christi
Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

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