evening. YHVH reckons days as beginning and ending in the evening, or at sundown. The entire 24-hour period, or cycle, is a complete day.

Transcription

1 The Shabbat From the very beginning of creation, YHVH appointed the Sabbath day. He established it, He sanctified it and He set it apart for a special use and purpose. It is Kadosh (Set-Apart, Holy) time to YHVH and a commemoration, or remembrance that is to be kept forever. It is much more than just a day, it is a picture and it is symbolic of something much greater! YHVH rested on the Sabbath day, from all of His work that He had completed and He set it apart from all the other days. Genesis 2:1-3 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their array. 2 And on the seventh day Elohim completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. 3 And Elohim blessed the seventh day and set it apart, because on it He rested from all His work which Elohim in creating had made. The annual Appointed Times (Moedim) of YHVH are also Sabbaths; they are annual Sabbaths, or high Sabbaths. Each of those days is also special time and Holy time. What YHVH ordains, sanctifies and sets apart, is in place forever. No one has the authority to change, or alter what YHVH has put into place. YHVH created the appointed times and seasons and put them into place for a very specific reason and purpose. When the appointed time and day of those observances are changed, the true meaning and intent is lost and the things that YHVH truly wants us to learn by their observance goes unrealized. The Sabbath Day is the great test commandment of YHVH. The Sabbath Day has been in place since the beginning of creation and is still in place today. The Patriarchs and those who followed the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, kept YHVH s Holy Sabbath. When YHVH gave the law to Israel in the wilderness, He made it clear that this day was to be observed and that it had been observed, when He told them to Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. For something to be remembered, it already had to be in place, it was already in practice. Exodus 20: Remember the Sabbath day, to set it apart. 9 Six days you labor, יהוה and shall do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath of your Elohim. You do not do any work you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days

2 them, made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in יהוה and rested the seventh day. Therefore יהוה blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart. YHVH gave man six days out of seven for all of his labor, but he was to rest on the seventh day, the Sabbath. The very same Sabbath Day that YHVH rested on after all of His labor of creation! The Sabbath is a 24-hour cycle. It is an entire 24-hour period, or cycle, that makes up the Sabbath. It is NOT just the daylight portion of the 24-hour period. Following is a description of how the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur is to be observed. Leviticus 23:32 32 It is a Sabbath of rest to you, and you shall afflict your beings. On the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you observe your Sabbath. The observance was to be from evening to evening. This establishes the way that YHVH reckons a day. Evening to evening, an entire 24-hour cycle, is a complete day. Notice that this day was to be observed on the tenth day of the month. Leviticus 23:27 27 On the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be a set-apart gathering for you. And you shall afflict your beings,.יהוה and shall bring an offering made by fire to This also establishes that the day begins at sundown. In verse 32 of Leviticus 23, it says that the observance is to begin at evening on the ninth. In verse 27 of Leviticus 23, which we just read, the observance is to be on the tenth day of the month. When the sun set on the ninth, it was the beginning of the new day, the tenth, and the observance began. Let us look at another example. Exodus 12: In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening. 19 For seven days no leaven is to be found in your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, that same being shall be cut off from the congregation of Yisra ĕl, whether sojourner or native of the land. Here again, we are shown the example of an observance beginning at sundown, in the evening. In this instance it is the Days of Unleavened Bread (Chag HaMatzoh). Notice the observance begins on an evening and ends on an

3 evening. YHVH reckons days as beginning and ending in the evening, or at sundown. The entire 24-hour period, or cycle, is a complete day. When YHVH brought Israel out of Egypt, He had to teach them and educate them about the Shabbat. They had been in Egypt so long, that they had completely lost their identity and the sign which marked them as belonging to YHVH. YHVH used the manna He supplied, to help Israel to understand the importance of the Sabbath and also to test them to see whether they would obey His instruction. YHVH provided bread for them on every day of the week, except for the Sabbath. He instructed them to gather twice as much on the sixth day as they did on the other days and to prepare it ahead of time. Exodus 16:4-5 4 And יהוה said to Mosheh, See, I am raining bread from the heavens for you. And the people shall go out and gather a day s portion every day, in order to try them, whether they walk in My Torah or not. 5 And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. The sixth day was to be used as a preparation day, to provide ahead of time for the things that they would need on the Sabbath. YHVH wanted there to be no misunderstanding and He was teaching them that the Sabbath was not to be used as a normal day. They were not to perform their normal labor on the Sabbath, or use it in a wrong way. The Sabbath is Holy time, because YHVH established it that way. Only YHVH can bless and sanctify a day as being Holy. YHVH intended the Sabbath to be a blessing to man, not an oppressive burden full of rules and regulations as some make it out to be! In the book of Leviticus, in chapter 23, YHVH gave to Moses a list of the feasts that are YHVH s and that all of Israel was to observe. Notice the very first observance that YHVH lists and calls a feast, is the Sabbath! Leviticus 23:1-3 1 And יהוה spoke to Mosheh, saying, 2 Speak to the children of Yisra ĕl, and say to them, The appointed times of,יהוה which you are to proclaim as set-apart gatherings, My appointed times, are these: 3 Six days work is done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a setapart gathering. You do no work, it is a Sabbath to יהוה in all your dwellings. The weekly Sabbath is an Appointed Time! Why would YHVH list the Sabbath as the first commanded observance? By including the Sabbath, listing it first and specifically naming it as an Appointed Time, YHVH shows us that it is just as important for us to keep all of the Appointed Times listed after the Sabbath, as the Sabbath day itself! If you observe the Sabbath, then you should

4 be careful to observe all of the days listed after the Sabbath as well. YHVH took Sabbath breaking very seriously and it was a very serious offense with very serious consequences. Exodus 31: And you shall guard the Sabbath, for it is set-apart to you. Everyone who profanes it shall certainly be put to death, for anyone who does work on it, that being shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days work is done, and on the seventh is a Sabbath of rest, setapart to.יהוה Everyone doing work on the Sabbath day shall certainly be put to death. The punishment for Sabbath breaking was death. When YHVH told Israel to observe the Sabbath, He meant it! Why was YHVH so intent on them not performing any work on the Shabbat? Our works alone cannot EVER earn us anything! We cannot enter the Kingdom of Elohim on our own! It was very important that Israel observe the Sabbath day, because it was also a sign that they belonged to YHVH. He had chosen them. He had blessed them. He had set them apart and sanctified them as His people and a chosen nation to serve Him it is a covenant. Exodus 31: And the children of Yisra ĕl shall guard the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as an everlasting covenant. 17 Between Me and the children of Yisra ĕl it is a sign forever. For in six days יהוה made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. YHVH told the children of Israel to observe the Sabbath, throughout their generations, as a perpetual, or eternal and ongoing covenant. The Sabbath is a sign and a mark of YHVH s people, they belong to Him. What YHVH tells us to observe, we are bound to observe. There is not one instance in scripture that replaces the seventh day Sabbath with another day of observance. The Sabbath day was established forever and is unchanging. No other day is acceptable to YHVH, other than that day that He blessed, He sanctified, and He set in place perpetually. Isaiah 58: If you do turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My set-apart day, and shall call the Sabbath a delight, the set-apart day of יהוה esteemed, and shall esteem it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, 14 then you shall delight yourself in.יהוה And I shall cause you

5 to ride on the heights of the earth, and feed you with the inheritance of Ya a o your father. For the mouth of הוהי has spoken! It is extremely important that we observe the weekly Holy Day of YHVH, the Sabbath, along with the rest of the annual Holy Days, or Appointed Times. They are a sign, or identifying mark, between YHVH and His people. Hebrews 4: So there remains a Sabbath-keeping for the people of Elohim. 10 For the one, having entered into His rest, has himself also rested from his works, as Elohim rested from His own. 11 Let us therefore do our utmost to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience. Many people want a list of things that they can and cannot do on Shabbat, but there is no list. That is trying to follow the letter of the law is it not? Why do we need a list? That does not sound like a bad thing does it? If you have a detailed list then you know exactly what you can and cannot do, but do you see how that takes away from what YHVH wants us to learn? We have to be responsible and He is leaving it to us to determine if what we are doing falls within the guidelines that He gives to us. It is a heart issue and what we do should be born out of a desire to please Him in everything that we do. We set a pattern with Shabbat. It is a pattern that bleeds over into other areas of our lives as well. The way we observe and honor Shabbat, is a very good indicator of our spiritual health and how we approach being obedient to His Word if we are sloppy and do not take Shabbat seriously, that will show up in other areas of our spiritual lives too. Isaiah 66: For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make stand before Me, declares,יהוה so your seed and your name shall stand. 23 And it shall be that from New Moon to New Moon, and from Sabbath.יהוה to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, declares It is the same place that all of mankind will start in the future. It is where we learn to meet with Him and bring ourselves into obedience to His Word. It is the starting point of something much bigger and greater Copyright 2015 Jeff L Mills