SHABBAT IS ETERNAL

The Everlasting Sign of Yahuweh’s Covenant with His People

 

Yahuweh, the Father Elohim (God) of Israel, has one eternal people--the Hebrew people through Abraham, through his son Isaac, and through Isaac’s son Jacob, whose name Yahuweh changed to Israel--one eternal Covenant with that one family, one eternal sign of that Covenant, and one eternal set of terms of the marriage contract between Elohim and His Bride, which is within that family.  There is only one Savior and Messiah, and one plan for salvation for the children of that family.  He is King, the Sovereign Ruler over His Kingdom, which He has prepared for His eternal family.  He has given eternal commands and rules for entrance into His Kingdom and the terms for staying in good standing in His Kingdom.  These commandments--His Teachings and Instructions (Torah), His right-rulings, statutes, and directives--govern His true people who are in Covenant-relationship with Him.  There is no other Elohim outside of Yahuweh, and no other Savior (Yahushua) outside of Yahuweh.  (Isaiah 45:20-22)  Malachi 3:6: “I am Yahuweh; I change not”. 

Yahuweh created no religion or cult--man did that.  Yahushua started no religion or cult--man did that.   Yahuweh has one eternal Word and one eternal purpose for His family.  He renewed His Covenant with His wayward and lost people through Yahushua’s sacrifice as the Lamb of Elohim, in order to redeem them--buy them back--from the penalty of the sin that caused their wanderings.  From eternity past to eternity future, Yahuweh, the Elohim of Israel, the only One, True, Eternal Elohim, Creator of heaven and earth, has one family people, one Covenant, one Word, and one eternal goal.  Anyone wanting to join in His Covenant with Israel, through faith in Messiah Yahushua--Messiah of Israel--are graciously accepted by Yahuweh--as long as they adhere to the terms of the Covenant. 

 

The one goal of His enemy, Lucifer/Satan and his demonic hosts, has been to destroy His Word--His Kingdom’s Torah (The first 5 books of the Scriptures--His foundation of all His Instructions and Teachings), since the Garden of Eden, because it is His eternal Word that condemns Lucifer (Satan) and his demons (“fallen angels”) to the lake of fire for eternity.  Therefore anyone guarding and obeying His Word, His eternal Torah, makes himself an enemy of Lucifer.  The elite world government rulers of today worship Lucifer, the “Illumined One”, who illumined Eve in the Garden, giving her the knowledge (Gnosis) of the tree of good and evil.  To these world elite, the modern Gnostics agents of Lucifer, Yahuweh is the evil one, because He denied that knowledge to Eve (the original mother-goddess).  This is the world’s division now--into the two camps of either Lucifer or Yahuweh.  Again, the words of Elijah go forth today:  “How long will you hop between two opinions.  If Yahuweh is Elohim, then follow Him.  If Baal is Elohim, then follow Him”. 

 

The major sign of the eternal Covenant of Yahuweh with His eternal people has always been the Shabbat (Sabbath)--the rest of the “Seventh” day.  It pictures the millennial rest to come of 1,000 years—it testifies of Messiah’s return to rule and reign over the earth. 

This biological People, the “House of Jacob”--all 12 tribes of Jacob--has spread all over the earth because of His punishments for their sins, and so is today, as He promised Abraham, “as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand of the sea” in number.  All other people who want to participate in His Covenant, as always since Exodus 12:49-49, are always invited, under certain conditions, to join His people, if they stay within the guidelines of His eternal Covenant.  For as He says in His Word in several places: “…there is one Torah, both for him who is native among the children of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns in their midst.” (Numbers 15:29) 

If we are part of the people of Elohim by faith in Yahushua’s death and resurrection, then we come under His Covenant, His Kingdom Instructions, Teachings, and Commandments, and are responsible to the King for how we conduct our lives as His people.  His Instructions are for our life and our good.  Deuteronomy 32:46-47: “Set your heart on all the words with which I warn you today, so that you command your children to guard to do all the Words of this Torah.  For it is not a worthless Word for you, because it is your life, and by this Word you prolong your days…”.  His Word is life, Truth, health, peace, joy, contentment, and safety.  Outside of His Covenant is only destruction.

 

Ephesians 2:10-19 tells us that without Yahushua, we are separated from the commonwealth of Israel.  “…Remember that you were once gentiles in the flesh…that at that time you were without Messiah, excluded from the citizenship of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no expectation, without Elohim in the world.  But now in Messiah Yahushua, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah.  So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the set-apart ones, and members of the household of Elohim”. 

 

The first time that the believers in Messiah became organized into a religious system was in 325CE (the 4th century), at the Council of Nicea, when the Roman Emperor Constantine created a religion, which the Greeks had nicknamed “Christian”--merged with a few beliefs of nominal Christian believers, and the pagan beliefs of Greece and Rome.  This new creation was called the Roman Catholic (Universal) Church.  It later fragmented, without much change in its foundation, into thousands of man-made organizations--its Protestant daughter’s.   It had nothing to do with what Yahuweh sent Yahushua to do in the Redemption of the House of Israel (Matthew 15:24).  It had nothing to do with what Yahushua left us at His ascension.  It had nothing to do with the faith and teachings of the Apostles, and early followers of Yahushua.  Constantine created this new religion as a means of uniting his Empire, and at the same time, to kill those whom he knew would oppose his new religion.  The lukewarm, nominal Hellenised Christians joined easily with the pagans, because for about 200 years they had already fused themselves with the pagans—compromised and blended in so much that the difference between pagan and Christian was not easily noticeable.  Constantine’s foundation of his new Church was created on the foundation of hate for the Torah, hate for the Elohim of Israel, and hate for the Jewish people, as well as for the believers in Yahushua who kept the Torah.  The Roman Catholic Church, through its ensuing years up until this time, has used hate for Jews (calling them “Christ-killers), and for those born-again ones who guard the Torah, as their rallying point of unity for power and control. 

 

Only a remnant remains who observes the true faith of the Apostles and early disciples.  This article, study-sheet, is written for those who want to observe the faith of Yahushua and the Apostles.  Those remnant few who want to know what the whole Word has to say about His one major sign of His eternal Covenant with the people who will rule and reign with Messiah in His soon coming Kingdom.  Yahuweh did not start Judaism, with its traditions and bondages—man did that after the Babylonian captivity.  Yahushua did not start Christianity--the Greeks and Romans did.   The Hellenistic Jews and believers had already twisted and changed Yahushua’s pure Word to match with their pagan-based beliefs, worshipping on the day of the sun gods, and observing pagan festivals that honored pagan gods. 

 

The foundational teaching of Constantine was “replacement theology”--that the Church had replaced the Elohim of Israel, His Word, His Commands, and His Covenant, and that if anyone wanted to be “saved”, they had to come into the Church, and denounce anything to do with the “God of the Jews”.   

 

A lot of Christian history, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant, and some secular history makes Constantine to be a good man who united Christianity—the one who stopped the persecution of Christians.  Oh yes, he stopped the persecution of Christians.  He stopped their suffering, and their focus on their reward in the world to come.  Their purity and set-apartness and obedience to Yahuweh turned into a greedy, materialistic idolatry for building “the kingdom of God” on earth.  Thus “Kingdom Now” doctrine still lives on in many church groups.

 

That is why Christianity is a multi-billion dollar a day business today, and the church is part of the world system.  He calls and calls and still calls for His people to get out of the idolatrous system, the Babylonian whore system of the organized “Church”.  It is not of Him.  It has never been of Him, and never will be of Him!     

 

The Roman Catholic Church, through its many murderous purges, the Crusades and 300 years of Inquisition, tried to purge out the believers who kept and obeyed Torah.  But, a remnant remained always, and now, people like myself are returning to their roots, and embracing the Elohim of Israel, His Torah, and His Kingdom.  We cannot touch what is unclean to Him, and be accepted in His Kingdom (II Corinthians 6:11-7:1--or example).

 

To be free of the kingdom of darkness, we have to totally let go of all of the pagan system of the Church--all of its days of worship, its festivals, its honoring of gods, its practices and its Gnostic and philosophical Greek doctrines.  We can’t have the Elohim of Israel, and be in His Kingdom, and remain in the kingdom of this world.   

 

Lucifer is Satan under the guise of “Illumination”--the “enlightened one”, the “angel of light”.  We must throw out anything to do with the worship and honor of Lucifer, in order to embrace the Elohim of Israel.  Yahuweh is light, and a consuming fire.  We cannot come to Him with darkness.  We must lay down sin, rebellion, lawlessness (Torah-lessness), and idolatry.  Only “the pure in heart will see Elohim”, and “without set-apartness, no one will see Elohim”.  Shabbat is the one eternal sign of that set-apartness.  The only way we can be set-apart to Him is by obedience to His Word, His Commands and His Covenant.  “If you love Me”, Yahushua said, “keep My Commandments”. 

 

The Shabbat is eternal.  The Festivals of Yahuweh are eternal, and all of His commandments are eternal.  How eternal is eternal?  Well, for just one example:  Isaiah 66:22-23: “`For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I shall make, shall remain before Me’, says Yahuweh, `so shall your seed and your name remain.  And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Shabbat to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me’, says Yahuweh”.  The New Moon festivals mark the new month on the Hebrew calendar, so that the festivals are kept correctly. From the last few chapters of Ezekiel, and Zechariah 14, we see that into eternity we will celebrate Yahuweh’s seven Festivals.  He does not change!  In Revelation 22, and other chapters in Revelation, we find that only the Torah-observant believers have the right to enter into His presence and live before Him in His City, the New Jerusalem.  He can’t and won’t have darkness in His presence, nor will He have lawless ones ruling and reigning with Him. 

 

To be outside of His Covenant, is to be a “dog”.  The Canaanite woman received healing for her daughter.  Her faith was strong in Rabbi Yahushua’s ability to heal.  But, she never came into the Covenant of Israel.  And it is within this story in Mathew 15 that we read in verse 24:  “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the House of Israel”.

 

In Revelation 22:15, we read: “outside are dogs”.  II Peter 2:18-22 is a very serious warning to us all.  But, in verse 22 it says: “For them the proverb has proven true `A dog returns to his own vomit…’”.   It is speaking to believers who don’t obey His Word, and so go back to their entanglements in the world, thus losing Yahuweh. 

 

His Commandments are not the “law of the Jews”.  “Jew” refers to one tribe--the tribe of Judah.  There are 12 tribes, or 13 because Joseph is referred to often through his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim.  After King Solomon died, the kingdom of Israel was split into two parts.  There were the southern tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi in Judea (called the House of Judah), and the 10 northern tribes of Reuben, Gad, Simeon, Naphtali, Zebulon, Issachar, Asher, Dan, Ephraim, and Manasseh in Samaria (Shomron), called the House of Israel, or the House of Joseph, or the House of Ephraim.  Judah holds the scepter, the rule of the twelve tribes, and Yahushua came from the tribe of Judah.  Ephraim, son of Joseph, holds the birthright of the 12 tribes. Father Yahuweh is now re-uniting the whole house of Jacob, all the tribes, for His end-time purposes.  All of His tribes will be united in His Kingdom under Yahuweh/Yahushua.  (Ezekiel 37:15-22) The “lost tribes of the House of Israel” are the “dry bones”--those who lost their identity in His Covenant.  He is now restoring them to knowledge of who they are.   And, most of them are now “Christians”.  (Hosea 1:10: “the sons of the living El”, and chapter 3)

 

His covenant precedent of keeping Shabbat began on the seventh day of creation, when He stopped creating.  On the seventh day, we stop creating, stop working, stop buying and selling, and doing our own pleasure that we might rest in Him, hear His voice, yield up all of our plans and agendas, all of our ambitions, control, and plans to the One who rules the universe.  It is the Bride’s Day with her beloved Bridegroom.  It is a day in the Word, and day around Him, a day to bear no burdens of any kind—physical, emotional, or mental.  We leave the world behind, and enter into His realm for 24 hours--from sundown on Friday night to sundown on Saturday night.  For 24 hours we enter into the rest of eternity!!  We get a glimpse of what it will be like to spend eternity with Him in His Kingdom.  It is our set-apart sign, and our great joy!!  We come to know Him through this day.

The Torah is incorrectly referred to as the Law of the Jews or the Law of Moses.  It is, however, the gracious and loving instructions and teachings and guidelines for happy, peaceful and secure living in His Kingdom, as well as creating a peaceful refuge on this earth.  The families, who obey Deuteronomy 6, and teach their children life within His Torah, have a balanced, content, and peaceful family life. 

 

Joshua was instructed in Joshua 1:8: “Do not let this book of the Torah depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you guard to do according to all that is written in it.   For then you shall make your way prosperous, and act wisely”.

His Torah is practical advice.  In the days of the bubonic plague in Europe when millions of Europeans died from this infectious disease, Jews did not die.  So, “logic” led Europe’s rulers to blame the plague on the Jews, because none of them died.  Jews were slaughtered all over Europe, along with Christians who protected the Jews.  Holocausts like this occurred regularly ever since the reigns of the Greeks and Romans--especially from the inception of the Roman Catholic Church.  We know that the Holocaust under Hitler was planned and executed by the Jesuits, the Illuminati (who are also part of the Jesuits) and the Free Masons of Britain.  But, why didn’t the Jews get sick with the plague?  It is because they observed the cleansing instructions of Torah.  He kept them well, because they washed their hands before eating, and kept their bodies bathed.   Father promised in the Torah that if we would keep His commandments, He would keep us healthy.  Father’s kind Instructions for life, health, happiness and peace, are so simple.  Even the keeping of Shabbat, to rest the mind and body for 24 hours, is practical advice. 

 

During the days between Malachi and Matthew, because no one was hearing directly from Yahuweh, the religious leaders broke into many factions.  Leaders wrote the Talmud, and a commentary on the Torah called the Mishnah.  They began collecting the opinions and writings of respected Rabbis whom they almost deified.   So that even from the time of Yahushua they were negating the simplicity of the Torah, by many traditions that they added to the Torah.  The Jews have added so many man-made bondages, rules and regulations to Father’s simple rules, that Judaism as a religion today is fragmented into many sects, all adhering to their Rabbis over the simple teachings of the Torah of Yahuweh.  This sounds familiar.

 

They are still fearful to use His Name because of a Babylonian superstition that if they said His Name, He might strike them dead.  So, today, in Judaism, they use the pagan titles of Baal—“Lord” and “God”, instead of using the name of their Elohim.  The majority of  Messianic Jews” also do the same--they are afraid to use the name of the Father.   They also do not use the name of

the Father in the name of the Son.  They call Him “Yeshua”, which means “salvation”.  But they don’t call Him by His correct Name of Yahushua/Yahoshua (Joshua) because that name means:  Yahuweh Saves!  Judaism is a man-made religion, and unfortunately a lot of Messianic belief and tradition is man made.

 

The Jews have built on His foundation of Torah—but not according to His plumb-line.  Because they have rejected the renewed covenant of Israel in the blood of Yahushua, they have developed many ways to try to please Elohim, ways of their own making.  But, “without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin”.  So, Elohim has either left them with an unsolvable problem, or He has provided them a Lamb, which they are refusing.

 

There has always been a remnant of Torah-observant believers in Yahushua--the Jewish Messiah and Redeemer of Israel.  This Torah-observant remnant knows that the Hebrew view of faith is totally different than the Gnostic, Platonic philosophy of the Greek and Roman Christianity.  Gnostic thought says that if you believe something, then it is true for you, and you can add or subtract from your beliefs to fit your lifestyle and level of devotion to your beliefs.  Thus Christianity is fragmented into over 2,000 denominations, each group having a slightly different view of belief.  As we all know, for example:  If someone disagrees with the Pastor, and can get a following, he can start a new church.   However, Hebrew belief (faith) means a total submission to what is believed and total obedience to the requirements of the belief.  Thus, to the Hebrew mind, believing in Yahushua and receiving His death and resurrection by faith, means that you prove your faith by your corresponding obedience to the Father’s commands in His Torah. 

His fundamental foundation for the practice of faith in regards to Him, and for right ruling in His Kingdom is found in the first five books of the Tenach (Miscalled the Old Testament, again by the Torah-hating Romans).  The Torah is the Word, and “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”.  The Torah also refers to the Prophets and the Writings.  The abbreviation of the three Hebrew words for these three sections make the acronym: “Tenach”.

 

Yahushua came to redeem His people, the whole House of Jacob (all 12 tribes), to renew His marriage Covenant with them, and to write His Covenant terms--Torah--on their heart, so that it would be kept with joy. The foundation of all belief is in the Torah.   Jeremiah 31:31-34:  “`See the days are coming’, declares Yahuweh, `when I shall make a renewed covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah…For this is the Covenant that I shall make with the House of Israel after those days’, declares Yahuewh: `I shall put My Torah in their inward parts, and write it on their hearts.  And I shall be their Elohim, and they shall be My people’”.  Matthew 26:28: “For this is My blood--that of the renewed covenant, which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins”. 

He came to magnify and expand the Torah from the Logos, to the spirit of the Torah.  In Matthew 5:17 and following, He tells us that He did not come to destroy the Torah or the Prophets, but to put them under a magnifying glass--to expand Torah--to bring Torah clearly into real of practice, not just actions, but from the heart.  He then proceeds to expand the Torah into a new dimension.   Therefore, we are not only responsible to watch what we outwardly do, but as Covenant citizens in His Kingdom, we also watch our thoughts and words and motives.  We are to be conscious of His heart, and not just methodically follow a list of do’s and don’ts.

The Bride of Messiah is Torah-observant, and only she will have the right to the “tree of life” in the eternal state.  Only His Bride has a right to be in His presence, for “without set-apartness we cannot see Him”.  The wise virgins know Him (Matthew 25:1-11).  (See Revelation 3:10-12; Revelation 12:17; 14:12; 15:3; and Revelation 22:14)  Revelation 22:14: “Blessed are those doing His commandments so that the authority shall be theirs unto the tree of life, and to enter through the gates into the city”.  This is the wording of this verse from the oldest manuscripts.  But, it also lines up with the Tenach.  Only His set-apart, pure Bride, who has left all to follow the Lamb, has right to spend eternity in His presence. Only a Bride has the right to live in the house with her Bridegroom.  She honors and obeys her Husband!   She keeps the terms of the marriage contract! This also matches up with many, many passages from the Tenach, which say the same things. 

 

Torah means “teaching, a precept, a statute”--James Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, #8451 in the Hebrew dictionary.  It comes from the word “yarah”, #3384, which means to “flow as water—rain water, to shoot out like an arrow, to point out as in aiming the finger, to teach, anchor, instruct”.  The Torah is our anchor and plumb-line against deception in these last days. 

 

We will all be judged by His Word--“and the books were opened”--Revelation 20:11-15. 

 

In the Greek language, Torah is #3551 “nomos”, which means “to parcel out, especially food or to graze animals”.  He told Peter: “Feed My Sheep”.  The Shepherd is to feed the sheep.  What is he to feed them? 

 

In Acts 15:17-2, many of the “lost sheep of the House of Israel”, (the scattered 10 northern tribes of Jacob) who had lost their identity in the nations, and who thought they were “gentiles”--“heathen”--were coming back to their roots through belief in Yahushua.  They had been involved for centuries, since their dispersion in 722BCE into Assyria and then into the extremities of the earth, in idolatry.  So, in returning to their Elohim, they had to immediately stop fornication, eating things strangled and eating blood, which were basic to idol worship.  After that, the Apostle James (Ya’acob) said that they could go to synagogue each Shabbat and learn the Torah.  But, to initially separate them from the pagans, they had to stop all association with idol worship.  Thus these new sheep in Yahushua’s pasture were fed Torah in the synagogues. 

 

The Apostle Paul (Rav Sha’ul) found these lost sheep of Israel in the synagogues, and ministered to them each Shabbat (example: Acts 13:42-44).   Matthew 15:24: speaking of Yahushua: “And he answering, said, `I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the House of Israel’”.  Matthew 10:5-6:  Yahushua sent these twelve out having commanded them saying `do not go into the way of the gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the House of Israel”.  The House of Judah (the southern Kingdom) was never lost.  Today the Jews have documents that tell who they are.  But, the 10 tribes of the House of Israel (the northern kingdom of Samaria) lost their identity by being scattered into all nations.  The Great Shepherd of the sheep, Yahushua, said, “I came to seek and save that which was lost”.   His parable of the “prodigal” son’s return to the Father, and the anger of the “elder brother”, is about Israel, the prodigal, and Judah, the elder brother.  The two Houses will be united by the Father around Yahushua as “the one new man”.

 

John 7:34-35:  Even the Pharisees were scratching their heads, wondering if Yahushua was going to the lost Israelites scattered into Greece.

 

James 1:1 is written to the twelve tribes scattered abroad.  The book of I Peter is addressed to those in the Diaspora.  Paul talks about the 12 tribes in Acts 26:6-7.  In John 11:51-52, the High Priest, Caiaphas, prophecies without realizing it, that Messiah would be sacrificed for the whole family of Jacob, scattered abroad.  Yahushua is gathering one family together – Ezekiel 37.

He has already, since the late 1800’s, been returning the House of Judah to His Land.  But, now is returning the House of Israel also to His Land, and to their inheritance.  He will bring these two scattered houses together, so that there will be one fold again, under the one Shepherd of the sheep.  He speaks a lot about the one fold.  And He is talking about the two houses of Israel.  (John 10:16; Ephesians 3:6; Isaiah 56:8; and many more)

 

Yahushua let us know in John 14:15, and 21, and 23-24, and 15:10 and I John 5:2-3, and in many other passages that loving Him meant to keep His Commandments. 

 

Deuteronomy 4:13, Moses speaking to the people: “And He made known to you His Covenant which He commanded you to do, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone”.  Backing up to verses 6-9: “And you shall guard to do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding before the eyes of the peoples, who hear all these laws and they shall say `only a wise and understanding people is this great nation!’  For what nation is there that has Elohim so near to it, as Yahuweh our Elohim is to us, whenever we call on Him?  And what great nation has such laws and righteous right-rulings like all this Torah, which I set before you this day?  Only guard yourselves and guard your life diligently, lest you forget the Words that your eyes have seen, and lest they turn aside from your heart all the days of your life. And you shall make them known to your children and your grandchildren”. 

 

Exodus 24:27-28: “And Yahuweh said to Moses, `Write these Words, for according to the mouth of these Words, I have made a Covenant with you and with Israel….And He wrote on the tablets the Words of the Covenant--the Ten Words”.  There are Ten Commandments, not nine.  These Ten are the outline of the whole Torah.  Five relate to Elohim and our relationship to Him, and

five relate to our relationship with others.

 

The Great Sha’ma of Deuteronomy 6:4-7: “Hear O Israel, Yahuweh our Elohim, Yahuweh is one!  And you shall love Yahuweh your Elohim with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.  And these Words which I am commanding you today shall be in your heart, and you shall impress them upon your children, and speak them when you sit in your home, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up….”  

 

His most set-apart sign of this eternal, everlasting Covenant is the guarding and observance of Shabbat—not by man’s tradition, but by His Torah.  It is the 4th commandment, and is described in more detail than any other commandment in the Word.  It is spoken about more than any other commandment in the Word.   So, is it something to do away with? 

 

Psalm 19 and 119 are both detailed Psalms about the goodness, the purity, the sweetness, and joy and the peace of keeping Torah.  Psalm 119:165: “Great peace have those loving Your Torah, and for them there is no stumbling-block”.  It keeps us from sin, to guard the Torah, and it gives us light to our path, and it brings us security and comfort, and protects us from deception. 

 

Psalm 19:7-11: “The Torah of Yahuweh is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of Yahuweh is sure, making wise the simple.  The statues of Yahuweh are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandments of Yahuweh are pure, enlightening the eyes.  The fear of Yahuweh is clean, enduring forever, the judgment of Yahuweh are true and righteous altogether.  More to be desired are they than gold, yes, than much fine gold--sweeter also than the honey and the honeycomb.  Also your servant is warned by them, and in guarding them there is great reward”. 

 

The replacement theology of the Greeks and Romans who hated the Torah, and replaced it with a counterfeit religion, says that this good Word of Yahuweh has been done away with, and the Gnostic gospel of easy belief, in which one can create his own god in his own image, causes millions to think that the Elohim of Israel, Yahuweh, is not the same as the Greek Iesous (Jesus).  The wedge between the “Old and New Testaments” and the wedge put between Yahuweh and the Savior, was an invention of Rome. Yahushua said, “I and My Father are One”.  And, their Word is also One--certainly not divided into two “testaments”.   

 

Torah is given to us as our life, our wisdom, and for our righteousness to be worked out in everyday life. It is for our “sanctification”—our set-apartness to Him.  

 

All judgment from Yahuweh comes from three main reasons:  1) the breaking of the Torah, which is called “sin”, 2) the rejection of the Torah by an individual or a nation, thus the rejection of the Elohim who gave the Torah, and 3) the harming of His people and/or their Land.  When a nation rejects the Torah and the Elohim who backs the Torah, the nation comes under the wrath of Yahuweh.   America, as a nation, has committed all three reasons for judgment.  

 

The Torah is the terms of His marriage Covenant with His Bride.   If we throw away these terms, we commit spiritual adultery, and therefore disqualify ourselves to be His Bride.  He calls those who reject His Torah “adulterers and adulteresses” because they have left their Husband, the Elohim of Israel, and played the harlot with other gods.

 

Rebellious, lawless and disobedient Christianity looks for excuses and loopholes so that they can get out of obeying His good Torah.  Many are so lawless, or so deceived by their religious teachers, that they violently oppose the keeping of Torah.  Yahushua’s 1,000-year Kingdom on earth, and Yahuweh’s eternal Kingdom on earth, will be ruled by Torah.  Yet, these same people think they will rule and reign with Him.  By whose Law will they rule?   How can they be entrusted to rule under Yahuweh, ruling by the very Law that they rejected all of their lives?  There will be some rude awakenings when He comes.

 

Matthew 7:21-23 Yahushua speaking: “Not everyone who says to Me, `Master, Master’ shall enter into the reign of the heavens, but he who is doing the desire of My Father in the heavens.  Many shall say to Me in that day, `Master, Master, have we not prophesied in Your Name, and cast out demons in Your Name and done many mighty works in Your Name?’  And then I shall declare to them `I never knew you, depart from Me, you who work lawlessness”.  Why were they cast from Yahushua’s sight? -- Because they practiced “lawlessness”, which is “Torah-less-ness”. 

 

In Luke 24:26-27; 44-45, Yahushua said that the Torah, the Prophets and the Psalms, all spoke of Him.  The name Yahushua (Yahuweh Saves) and/or Yeshua (salvation) is encoded throughout the Tenach.  

 

II Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is inspired by Elohim, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”.  II Peter 1:20-21: “..no prophecy of Scripture can be of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the desire of man, but men of Elohim spoke, being moved by the Set-Apart Spirit”. 

 

When the Word talks about the Word, it is talking about the Tenach.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Elohim, and the Word was Elohim.  And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:1, 14)  The Messianic Scriptures/Brit Chadasha or “New Testament” was not even compiled until the 5th century, and then the books was selected and organized by the Roman Catholic Church leaders.  By then, they had already undergone translations by Gnostics who cared little for accuracy.  

 

Yahushua is the living Torah/Tenach.  He said that “not one yod or tittle will pass from the Torah until all be fulfilled”. (The yod is the tiniest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and the “tittle” is the tiny marking on the letter tav.)   The Tenach talks about the 1,000-year reign of Messiah, and eternity. The Torah talks about the return of Yahushua.  For centuries, each copy of the Torah was hand copied so that not one yod or tittle was wrong.  If a mistake was made, the whole scroll was thrown out, and the scribe would have to start over.  They made no mistakes.  Today we have 350 English translations of the Bible, and each is different. We are indebted to these Jewish people who carefully preserved for us His pure Word.  Romans 3:1: “What advantage then has the Jew?  Or, what profit is there in circumcision?  Much in every way: chiefly because to them was committed the oracles of Elohim”.   

 

It was our debts of lawlessness (sin) and the judgments against us that were nailed to the stake…not the Torah!!  Read Colossians 2:13-17 carefully, word for word.  The Torah of Yahuweh was not nailed to a stake, so that lawlessness could engulf the heavenly Kingdom.  The Shabbat, festivals and new moon ceremonies (as we saw in Isaiah 66) are witness of “things to come”--of eternal things.  They are still witnesses (shadows) of things to come in the future eternal state.  The pagans were judging the Torah-observant believers in Colosse, and Rav Sha’ul (the Apostle Paul) admonished them to continue their observance of Torah and not accept the judgment of pagans.  The Hellenistic Jews and Hellenistic Greeks, who were becoming believers in Yahushua’s death and resurrection, hated the Torah.  They wanted their free ticket to heaven through Messiah’s sacrifice, but they didn’t want to obey Yahuweh.  They wanted free salvation, but did not want the responsibility of living in the Kingdom of Yahuweh.  That is exactly what has become the mindset of the Christian church, to this day.   

 

Yahuweh’s Torah is often ridiculed as being “legalistic” or “bondage”.  Yet it is man’s rules and regulations that are bondage.  To be “legalistic” according to the Webster’s Dictionary means to be astute in being legal.  I would rather be legal in Father’s Kingdom than an illegal law-breaker.  Either you are law-abiding in His Kingdom or you are lawless. 

 

There are rewards for obedience.  One night I was supposed to go out for Shabbat dinner with some friends.  The Word says that we are not to buy or sell from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.  I told them that I would go, as long as we paid for our dinner before sunset.  They came at sunset to get me, and even though I was hungry, I obeyed Father and said “no”.  I was also lonely, and wanted fellowship.  So, I sat with a very meager dinner and started studying the Torah-portion for the Shabbat.  Within a few minutes, to my stunned mind, my Bridegroom Yahushua came to my apartment, sat on my couch across from me, and proceeded to fellow with me for about 2 hours.  He answered many questions that I had.  So, who received the blessing?  When we are in the Word and willing to obey it instantly, He is with us! 

 

Many Christians read Deuteronomy 28:1-14 and quote it as a “faith confession”.  His Word is not for any private interpretation, nor is it to be used to get what we want!  Yet most believers do not keep Deuteronomy 28:1, and so the blessings do not come and remain on their lives.  Deuteronomy 28:1-2 and 13-15: “And it shall be that IF you diligently obey the voice of Yahuweh you Elohim, to guard to do all His commands which I command you today, that Yahuweh your Elohim shall set you on high above all nations of the earth.  And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, IF you obey the voice of Yahuweh your Elohim.  And Yahuweh shall make you the head and not the tail.  And you shall be only on top, and not be beneath, IF you obey the commands of Yahuweh your Elohim which I command you today, to guard and do.  And do not turn aside from any of the Words, which I am commanding you today, right or left, to go after other mighty ones (gods) to serve them.  And it shall that IF you do not obey the voice of Yahuweh your Elohim, to guard to do all His commands and His laws, which I command you today that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you”.   “I am Yahuweh; I change not”.

 

He says over and over that He is the only Elohim.  He is the only Savior. (See Isaiah 45:20-22)

 

There is no salvation (“yeshua”) outside of Yahuweh.  There is no eternal life outside of Yahuweh.  It is Yahuweh’s Spirit that draws souls to Himself, through Yahushua’s death and resurrection.  “No one can come to the Father, unless the Spirit (Ruach) draws him”.

No other nation except Israel has a Savior-Messiah.  No other nation has an Elohim that calls Himself the “Father” of “My people”.   Yahuweh made no covenant with any gentiles—only with the whole House of Israel.   Salvation is through the tribe of Judah—through the Jew, Yahushua -- “The Lion of the tribe of Judah”.  It says in John 4:22: “Salvation is of the Jews”.  Ephesians 2:11-19 tells us that if we want to come to salvation, we come to the Elohim of Israel and to His Covenant and His Household (Israel).  There is no salvation outside of Israel’s salvation.

 

Most of the earth’s peoples have some Israelite blood, because of the three scatterings of His people all over the earth in ancient times (722BCE; 586BCE; 70CE).  But, those who have no Israelite blood still have to come to the Elohim of Israel for salvation, like Ruth the Moabite did, and declare that Yahuweh is their Elohim, and Yahushua is their Savior. 

 

Yet the imposter church said from the beginning that to come to salvation, one must come to the church, and discard anything Hebrew under penalty of death.  Today, Evangelical and Charismatic groups do not put it quite that way, but, they say that if a Jew wants to become a Christian, he must give up all of his Jewish practices and come into the church.  Thus the Jew becomes Hellenised like the early lukewarm believers who received deception and lies, meshing with the pagans from Greece and Rome. The Jew, who receives salvation through the Church’s gospel, has to leave the “Elohim of his fathers”, and receive a Christianized rendition of God--a counterfeit god created in the image of the sun god, by Constantine the Great. 

 

In 1995, the top elite ministers of American popularity, and of major groups like the Missionary Society of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Campus Crusade of Christ, signed a covenant with the Pope, denying the Protestant reformation, and returning into the arms of the Vatican.  Dave Hunt’s The Woman Rides the Beast, and my mini-book The Foundation of Deception give more details of this apostasy.  Protestantism basically is the fragmented daughter of Catholicism.  The apostasy of the Protestant Evangelical/Charismatic leaders in 1995 simply took a giant step backwards into the arms of the “Mother Church”. 

 

I am amazed that the secular Jews and many Orthodox Jews in Israel are taking an objective look at Yahushua (whom they call by His Hebrew name Yahushua/Yahoshua—Joshua), saying that the Jewish Rabbi Yahoshua is not the same person that the religion of Christianity made Him out to be in the ensuing centuries.

 

Shabbat is Eternal--and so are the Seven Festivals, the New Moon celebrations, the dietary requirements, and all the eternal commands of Yahuweh that are for the purpose of setting apart a people unto Himself.  The purpose of the Torah is 1) to separate the clean from the unclean--to set apart a people who will be clean in His eyes, and 2) to provide the terms of the marriage Covenant which He has made with His Bride.  Inside of His eternal sign of the Covenant--Shabbat--is His presence, His blessing, His security and protection.

 

John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist congregations and famous hymn writer came to this conclusion by the Ruach ha Kodesh:  “When I look into the Torah, I realized that I was a sinner, and that I needed salvation.  The Torah pointed me back to Messiah and I found salvation in Him.  Messiah then pointed me back to the Torah, for He commanded me to keep the Torah.  But, I found that I could not keep the Torah by myself.  Again, the Torah referred me back to the Messiah, through whom I am enabled to keep the Torah”. 

 

All who come out of Satan’s kingdom of darkness and “are translated into the Kingdom of His dear Son”, the Kingdom of Light, must cut all ties with Satan’s kingdom.  Yet, today, the world can tell little difference between the Christian and themselves.  In the days before and after Constantine, the pagans were delighted that the Hellenised ones, called by their Hellenised name “Christian”, were just like them.  They delighted that the Christians were worshipping their god, Iesous, on the day of the sun god, Sunday, and were keeping the pagan festivals of the winter solstice (Christmas--birth of the sun god), and of the goddess Ishtar (Easter).  They were also celebrating the day of the god Pan (Satan), under the name of “Valentine”.  The pagans delighted that the Christians also had other beliefs just like them, yet only met in different buildings.  Later on, the church began worshipping the Greek “Jesus” in the same style as the pagans, in their style of building with their style of service.  (Remember that the “J” is only about 480 years old in the English alphabet, so the original Greek letter is “I”.)

 

The worship of the Elohim of Israel, and the teaching of Torah, was stopped by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as early as 132CE under penalty of death.   He also stopped circumcision and the practicing of Torah.  Torah observant ones were torn apart in the arenas as the crowds cheered.  He named Judea/Samaria “Palestine” in honor of the enemies of Israel, the Philistines.  Many Jews died defending their right to obey Torah.

 

In 325CE under Constantine, the practice of Torah was outlawed, and all of his Empire was united around the new symbol “the crux” or cross—an ancient fertility symbol, which he fashioned his sword after, to slaughter Jews, whom He called “Christ killers”.  Getting to the roots of what Messiah Yahushua left us at His ascension, and the true faith of the Apostles and early disciples of Yahushua, is a really intense journey.  You must be willing to discard the “Santa Claus” illusions, and embrace the truth quickly and easily without looking back at the deceptions and lies with regret!  If people hold on to lies and deceptions, they cannot embrace His Truth, and they will perish because of those lies and deceptions. 

 

One Shabbat morning at 9:00AM, I started to study all the Scriptures on the subject of Shabbat.   I took about two short 15-minute breaks.  I finished the study at midnight—about 15 hours. 

 

If you are a law-abiding citizen in the Kingdom of Yahuweh, and you want to find out about your privileges in your Covenant, then study all of these Scriptures for yourself, under the tutelage of the Ruach ha Kodesh.  Shabbat is the Bride’s Day.  Yahushua talks more to His Bride on this day than on any other day of the week.  He gets His Bride up early on Shabbat, because He can’t wait to talk to her.  He is a jealous lover, as Torah tells us—His name is “Jealous”.  He wants no other gods in His face.  Each Shabbat is a rare privilege to be with Him!

 

The true Bridal remnant gets rid of all other idols and gods, so that her Bridegroom can feel at home in their presence.  He won’t compete with other loves.  If we love our gods, and put them before Him on Shabbat in particular, we lose Him.  If we put entertainment, sports, TV, movies, visiting with people in trite, shallow conversation, telephone calls with shallow talk, useless busyness with our families, doing business, work, worry or anxiety, going shopping, mowing the lawn, doing laundry, buying groceries, or anything else that is distracting, in the place of Him on the Shabbat day, we are putting our gods before Him—in His face.   He’s a sensitive Lover.  No, He does not understand why we don’t use “Preparation Day” (Friday, day 6) to do all we need to do to get ready for time together with Him on His day!  A Bride prepares, and makes her time with her beloved very special.  No, He does not understand why we put things before Him, if we love Him!! 

 

His first commandment is: “You shall have no other gods in My face”.  The worst day to flaunt gods in His face is on His set-apart day.  Father, nor Yahushua, nor the Apostles ever changed His day to the day of the sun god.  History tells us that Sunday was enforced as the Church’s official day of worship by the Emperor Constantine in 336CE.

 

Constantine was a sun god worshipper.  He worshipped Mithras, the Persian sun god, under the name Sol Invictus (the unconquerable sun).  Therefore he enforced the worship to be on the day of the “lord”, or “Baal”. (“Baal” means “Lord or Master”)  He called it the “lord’s day” after Baal (a sun god), and enforced that all business be closed, and the banks, and other events, so that Sol Invictus could be honored.  He built elaborate church buildings, and enforced the order of service to be like the pagan’s order of service in the worship of their gods.  Thus, today, in the average church of any type, the pagan order of service is the norm.   

 

Yahushua arose “early on the first day of the week”, and that means, in Hebrew calculations, about 8:00PM on Saturday night.  The worship of Jesus at sunrise on Easter Sunday is so horribly pagan that I won’t even get into that here. (For more information read my article “Easter or Passover—Which One Honors the Savior?”)  Anyway, NO, the Torah observant Apostles and early believers did not worship in churches on Sunday.  They went to synagogue. 

 

Following is a list of Scriptures on Shabbat.  We will go over individual ones in the ensuing pages, also going over the simple instructions of Yahuweh for observing His day.

 

Warning:  Many who are getting to know their “Hebrew roots” are so enthralled with the Jewish celebrations of things, that they are throwing away the simple instructions of Torah.  Guard and observe to obey only the requirements of His Torah, and do not think that Jewish tradition satisfies the requirements of Yahuweh!   You are not bound to obey the laws of men, but only the requirements of Yahuweh.

 

THE WORD “SHABBAT/SABBATH”: Read each set of verses in context…

Instruction from the Torah:

Exodus 20:8, 10-11; ***31:13-17; 35:2-3

Leviticus 16:31; 23:3, 11,15-16, 24, 32, 39; 25:2,4,6  (Shabbat is an eternal Covenant command.)

Numbers 15:32; 28:9-10

Deuteronomy 5:12, 14-15

 

Instructions from the Prophets:

Isaiah ***56:2-6; ***58:13; ***66:22-23

Jeremiah 17:21-27

Ezekiel 46:1,4,12

Amos 8:5

 

Instructions from the Writings:

II Kings 4:23; 11:5,7,9; 16:18

I Chronicles 9:32

II Chronicles 23:4,8; 36:21 (Strong’s #7673 Hebrew)

Nehemiah 9:14; 10:31; ***13:15-22

 

Psalm 92 title (“A Psalm for the Sabbath day”)

 

Instructions from the Messianic Scriptures:

Matthew 12:1-2,5,8,10-12; 24:20; 28:1

Mark 1:21; 2:23-24, 27-28; 3:2,4; 6:2; 15:42 (Strong’s #4315 Greek); 16:1

Luke 4:16; 31; 6:1-2, 5-7,9; 13:10, 14:1,3,5; 23:54-56

John 5:9-10, 16,18; 7:22-23; 9:14, 16; 19:31

Acts 1:12; 13:14, 27,42,44; 15:21; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4

Colossians 2:16

 

Instructions on:  “Sabbaths”, or Shabbats, plural, which include the 7 Festivals of Leviticus 23, and New Moon celebrations (Strong’s #7676 Hebrew):

   

From the Torah:

Exodus 31:13

Leviticus 19:3, 30; 23:15, 38; 25:8; 26:2, 34-35, 43

 

From the Prophets:

Isaiah 1:13; 56:4

***Ezekiel 20:12-13,16, 20-21, 24; 22:8, 26; 23:38; 44:24; 45:17; 46:3

Hosea 2:11

 

From the Writings:

Lamentations 1:7; 2:6

Nehemiah 10:33

I Chronicles 23:31

II Chronicles 2:4; 8:13; 31:3; 36:21

 

Note:  ***Strategic Instruction

 

This Torah is for all mankind to obey as the Scriptures tell us.  In His Kingdom this Torah will be enforced.  There will be no lawlessness allowed under Yahushua and under Yahuweh’s eternal Kingdom.  He is setting apart His people now, and marking them for protection.  Only the ones safety inside His Covenant by obedience will remain “secret place of the Most High”.  That secret place is only for the contrite of heart--the humble, the yielded and obedient, those ‘who tremble at His Word”.

 

Father tests us to see if we will obey His Shabbat Instruction or not.  Exodus 16:  This chapter tells us about the giving of manna in the wilderness. This happened before the specific Torah or Instructions were given about Shabbat.  On the 6th day, the Preparation Day, they were to gather enough manna (bread which came from heaven) for 2 days, because on the seventh day, they were to learn to not go out foraging for food, but to rest from all labor.  The precedent of rest was set by Father in Genesis 2:2-3.

 

He rained enough manna on the 6th day to satisfy each family for 2 days.  But, they were stubborn, and failed the first test, and went out on the 7th day (in modern language) to buy “donuts” for breakfast. 

 

Later on, after Torah was given, a man went out picking up sticks on Shabbat, so that they could have a fire to cook breakfast.  What was Yahuweh’s response? -- Numbers 15:29-36.

 

“For him who does whatever by mistake there is one Torah both for him who is native among the children of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns in their midst.  But, the soul that does whatever defiantly, whether he is native or a stranger, he reviles Yahuweh, and that soul shall be cut off from among His people--because he has despised the Word of Yahuweh, and has broken His command, that soul shall be cut off, his crookedness is upon him.  And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day”.  Moses consulted with Yahuweh as to what this man’s punishment should be.  Yahuweh said, “The man shall certainly be put to death, all the congregation stoning him with stones outside the camp”.  Why?  Ezekiel 33:4: “The soul that sins, shall die”. 

 

Under Torah there was swift and absolute justice.  Now, Father holds back the execution of the Torah for this time-period.

But, no one gets away with defying the Torah—not now, not ever!!   The Word says that He is storing up wrath--accumulating anger, and that when Yahushua comes, the anger of Yahuweh comes with Him.  All the passages about the second coming of Yahuweh/Yahushua are about the releasing of His wrath that He has stored up against the lawless, disobedient ones.  Torah will be fulfilled, and justice and judgment will sit.  There is no such thing as cheap “grace” for the willfully defiant against His Covenant, except in the minds of those who have embraced “grace” through the Gnostic, mystic, Greek philosophy of the Christian church.  Yahushua will rule “with a rod of iron”, and those who are Torah-observant now will also rule with Him with a rod of iron.

(Revelation 2:26-27)  No defiant, rebellious, lawless person will rule with King Yahushua.

 

The good news is that under Torah before Yahushua, murder, adultery, idolatry, and blasphemy were not forgivable.  The person was stoned to death with no mercy, and no change of repentance or reconciliation with the Father.  Yahushua has made a way for those things to not only be forgiven, but to be removed from our record.  So, it is called a “better covenant” based on “better promises”.   The offenses of the broken Torah were nailed to the stake, so that we could emerge free of punishment by faith in Yahushua’s salvation. 

 

HOWEVER:  Romans 6 and I John 3 and other passage tell us that once we have been redeemed by repentance, and faith, then we must be obedient to our new life, our new Master, and our new Covenant, or we can have our name erased from the Book of Life.   “The soul that sins will die”, and “the wages of sin is death”.  Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap”.  We cannot create our own laws to live by, because He has already “laid down the Law”. 

 

What is Shabbat a sign of?  Shabbat is an acknowledgement that He is the Creator of all things, and that He alone runs this universe.  In Shabbat, we identify with His rest following creation.  It is a sign of the forgiveness of Yahuweh, and of the lifting of the curse on mankind from the Garden of Eden, and a restoration to the rest of eternity:  Genesis 3:17-19: “And to the man He said, `Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, saying do not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you, in toil you and to eat of it all he days of your life, and the ground shall bring forth thorns and thistles for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.  By the sweat of your face you are to eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken…’”

 

At the Festival of Unleavened Bread, following Passover, when Yahushua, the “second Adam”, was placed into the ground at death, He redeemed man from this curse of death and hell. 

 

In guarding the Shabbat, we honor His victory for us, and we enter into millennial rest in the Spirit.  We look forward to the rest of His Kingdom on earth.  We stop playing god, and stop creating our own world on Shabbat.  We let Him be our Elohim.  We yield ourselves to Him.

 

We stop being anxious, worrying, fretting, trying to figure things out, and just let Him take over and bare our burdens.  We are to “bare no burden on Shabbat”.  That means no burden of any kind—physical, mental, emotional or spiritual.  (Jeremiah 17:21-22, and Nehemiah 13:19)

 

Hebrews 4:9: “So there remains a Sabbath-keeping for the people of Elohim”.  This was written long after the return of Yahushua to heaven.   

 

Shabbat is a day to get to know the Father.  It is a day to get to know Him, and to bond with Him as “Abba”--Daddy.  It is a day to enter into eternity.

1)     There is to be no “servile” work of any kind--“bondage work”--(Strong’s #5656 Hebrew) to be done on Shabbat.  And we are not to make anyone else work.  It is a day of rest for everyone in our family, and for our work associates. We release all others from obligations to work for us.  In an agricultural society, that even means that we let the land rest and our animals rest. 

2)     There is to be no buying or selling that causes others to work.  See Nehemiah 13:15-22

3)     We are not to do our own pleasure to entertain ourselves in the world, for it is a set-apart day unto our Bridegroom (Isaiah 58:13-14: the benefits of obedience are eternal)

 

Regarding “Servile” work:  Leviticus 23:7-8, 21, 15, 35; Numbers 28:18, 25-26; 29:1, 12, 35

 

They were told not to “kindle a flame” on Shabbat.  This refers to work that they had to do to build a fire from wood.  To us, that would mean working to cook a big meal.  On Shabbat, have sandwiches, or heat up something that you prepared on Friday (Preparation Day).   

 

I John 3:24: “He that keeps His commandments dwells in Him, and He in Him”.  He gives us basically two simple rules, yet the rebellion of mankind is so intense, that to keep these rules are called “bondage”.  Is it bondage to rest your body? 

 

Every seven years is a Shabbat of rest of the land.  Yahuweh promises to cause the produce of the land to be especially abundant in the sixth year, so that in the seventh year, the land can rest a whole year.  But, because rebellious mankind rejects the Torah of Yahuweh, and won’t let the land rest, man has to use chemical fertilizers and all sorts of pesticides, because the ground is not replenished, and the insect population has increased.  If man would simply obey Yahuweh, he would not need chemical fertilizers or these dangerous pesticides.  But, because of greed, man rejects Yahuweh’s Torah, and so spends more money on fertilizers and pesticides than he would spend if he let the land rest. 

 

We push our bodies 6 days a week in work, for a lot of unneeded busyness.  On Shabbat, we let our body rest.  If we keep pushing our bodies 7 days a week, we will get sick, infirmed, end up in the hospital, and pay our much money to doctors because of our disobedience. 

 

Father created our body and He created the land.  We did come from dust.  So, wouldn’t the Creator know what is best for our body, mind, emotions and spiritual condition?  Yet, we assume the position of gods, and rule our own lives to our destruction.  On Shabbat we acknowledge that we are not Elohim.

 

It is a day to relax, spend time in the Word (primarily the Torah), to pray and to seek His guidance for the week.  It is a time to turn off the world.  So, such things as TV, movies, videos, video games, and sports, and other such entertainments is throwing away the precious time that we have to get to know the King, our Bridegroom. Shabbat is a day to let our mind rest.  Most Americans do not know what it is like to turn off entertainment, business, or busyness--but to do so, causes us to enter eternity, and feel His realm.   

On Shabbat we do not worry about bills, or conduct business—even by phone.  It is not a day to be shallow, and trite.  If we fellowship with someone, let it be around Him and His Word.  It is not a day to go visiting for general chitchat.

 

Even attending “Saturday church” (A Church or Messianic congregations) during the Shabbat daytime is a distraction from the purpose of fellowshipping with Him.  He doesn’t like competition on His day.  Meetings held in homes after sundown, at the close of Shabbat, are best.  The early believers met in the synagogues on Shabbat evening, and then to extend Shabbat into the first day of the week, after service, they would go to homes and continue the fellowship around the Word.  So, many today are finding that the best time to meet for fellowship and the Word is on Saturday night after sunset.  Father’s days go from sunset to sunset (Genesis 1), so Shabbat begins on Friday evening and ends at sunset on Saturday night.

 

Many Jewish people have a festive meal with their family and friends on that evening.  However, the tragedy is that Christians, wanting to play being Jewish, often have a fancy dinner on Friday night, but then break the three basic rules of Yahuweh after dinner, and the next day.  

 

Excerpts from Mark 7:1-13:  “In vain do they worship Me--teaching as teachings the commands of men.” To the religious leaders He said: “Forsaking the command of Elohim, you hold fast the traditions of men.  Well do you set aside the command of Elohim, in order to guard your tradition…nullifying the Word of Elohim through your traditions, which you have handed down”.

 

It is OK to have a nice dinner, as long as you rinse the dishes quickly, but don’t go into a clean up mode after sunset.  Shabbat is the time to be like Mary, not like Martha. (Refer to Luke 10:38-42)

 

Often, I’ve seen women just wear themselves out to prepare Shabbat dinner for Friday night, and not be ready by sunset, so they just keep cooking and cleaning after sunset.  

 

Please listen: SHABBAT IS NOT ABOUT FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER!  Neither is Shabbat about a little ceremony that the Jews and/or Messianic believers have formulated around the bread and wine.  It is very nice to observe this dinner and little ceremony—BUT SHABBAT IS NOT ABOUT A CEREMONY.  SHABBAT IS NOT ABOUT CHALLAH BREAD.  However, I love to make the Challah Bread.

Traditions are fine, as long as they don’t take the place of obedience to His Word!  If we get all caught up in Jewish traditions, we can lose the truth of what Shabbat is all about—time to rest, and time to relax in His love, His peace and joy, His Word, His provision, His promises, His goodness, and His gentleness, and His kindness, and His preciousness.  Shabbat is the time to let go of all that is burdening us—so why should be burden ourselves with externals during these precious 24 hours?  Shabbat is to be “guarded”.  If need be, take the phone off the hook!  Don’t let the world steal the day from you!!

 

I John 5:2-3: “For this is the love of Elohim, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous”.  Shabbat is to relieve you of burden, not to put burdens on you.

 

Shabbat is the only commandment that carries a death penalty for breaking it.  Excerpts from Exodus 31:12-17: “Six days work is to be done, and on the seventh is a Sabbath of rest, set-apart to Yahuweh.  Everyone doing work on the Sabbath day shall certainly be put to death.  And the children of Israel shall guard the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as an everlasting covenant.  Between Me and the children of Israel it is a sign forever….”

 

We insult Father by working on His day of rest.  We are saying to Him, that He does not provide for us well enough, so we have to disobey Him to make up for what He does not provide.  We turn our backs on Him if we rationalize and compromise in order to do what we want on His day!!

 

Yahushua healed on Shabbat.  He picked grain and ate it on Shabbat.  The traditions of the elders of Judah said that He violated Shabbat.  But did He? 

 

The priests replaced the showbread on Shabbat in the Set-apart place.  I Chronicles 9:32: “And some of their brothers of the sons of the Kohathites were over the showbread, to prepare every Sabbath.”  The whole tabernacle pictures Yahushua.  This picture shows us that the priests changed the showbread on the table of showbread, providing fresh bread each Shabbat.  And, so   every Shabbat, we should get fresh bread from Him, who is the “Bread of life, which came down from heaven” (John 6).  He is the High Priest, and every Shabbat, He provides for His Bride, fresh bread—“revelation knowledge” of Himself!  King David, after battle, was so hungry that he came into the Set-apart place, reserved for the priests only, and ate of the showbread on Shabbat.  Father did not reprimand him, because his action pictured the rest of Shabbat, and how Yahushua satisfies the hungry spirit with Himself on that day. 

 

Yahushua speaks after His resurrection to two disciples:  Luke 24:27, 44-45: “And beginning at Moshe and all the Prophets, He was explaining to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself…And He said to them: `These are the words that I spoke to you while I was still with you that all had to be fulfilled that was written in the Torah of Moshe and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me”. 

 

Messiah did not violate Shabbat by picking grain and eating it, as the religious leaders accused Him of doing.  That was not work--that was eating.  Yahushua said, “The Sabbath is made for man; man was not made for the Sabbath”.  (Mark 2:27)

 

Matthew 12:8: “For the son of man is Master even of the Sabbath day.  And when He had departed, He went into the synagogue”.  Evidently being Master of the Sabbath didn’t mean that He stopped going to the synagogue and hearing the Word.  He was a Rabbi, most likely of the sect of the Pharisees.  Going to synagogue on Shabbat was normal.

 

But, synagogue was not the Sunday service event that the Romans cooked up for the church, to merge with the pagan’s day of worship.  For most Christians, Sunday is the busiest day of the week, and is so tiring that a Sunday afternoon nap is in order, unless of course you have a Deacon’s meeting at 4:00PM, before evening service.  (I was been in the traditional ministry for many years, most of my life, so I know about Sunday)  The demands of the Church for most Evangelical and Charismatic groups leave many wishing they could stay home on Sunday night, watch TV and relax.  On Sunday, Christians go out to eat after church, shop and do business.  So, Sunday is definitely not a replacement for Yahuweh’s Shabbat!  Besides, when Father says 7th day, He means 7th day.  He deals in absolutes—look at the order of the universe. 

 

Matthew 12:10-12:  Yahushua found a man in the synagogue who had a withered arm.  The Jews who were trying to trap Him, asked “Is it right to heal on the Sabbath?  And He said to them, `What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, shall not take hold of it and lift it out?  How much more worth is a man than a sheep!  So it is right to do good on the Sabbath?’”  Matthew 12:13:  “And he said to the man, `Stretch out your hand, and he stretched it out, and it was restored, as healthy as the other”.  The Kingdom of Elohim on this earth will be a Kingdom of healing--of natural things and spiritual things.

 

In Luke 14:1ff, Yahushua was invited, on Shabbat, into the house of the chief Pharisee to eat bread.  In the house was a sick man.  Yahushua asked the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?  And they held their peace”.  There was NO Talmudic law that says that a person cannot receive healing on the Sabbath.  But, to trap Yahushua, they acted in indignation, as if there were such a law.  But, Yahushua was a Rabbi.  So, He was trapping them.   

 

The Sabbath day is a day to impart life.  Healing was not work for Yahushua.  All He did was speak the Word, and people received their healing.  Speaking on Shabbat is not work. Yahushua exerted no energy to heal the man:  It was the Father who healed by His Ruach (Spirit).  Yahuweh works on Shabbat, to keep the universe running in good order, for one thing.  It’s OK for Him to keep the universe running on Shabbat—He is Elohim.  We rest on Shabbat, because we are NOT Elohim.  We don’t have to keep any universe going—or our own little world either.   

 

Luke 13:15: the famous “ox in the ditch” story.  In Luke 13:10-17, Yahushua has healed a woman who had been infirmed for 18 years, and the Jewish leaders were angry because He healed her on Shabbat.  Many use this “ox in the ditch” expression to find loopholes for breaking Shabbat.  For example, a woman told me she had been painting her bedroom, and by Friday at sundown, she had painted only 2 of the walls, so she had to paint the other 2 walls on Shabbat, because it was an “ox in the ditch”.  This kind of foolishness brings nothing but trouble. 

 

Mark 1:21 “And they entered Capernaum and straightway on the Sabbath day, He entered into the synagogue and taught.  And they were astonished at His doctrine, because He taught as one having authority and not like their scribes”.   Yahushua taught the Torah.  He taught it with authority because He was the living Torah.  He did not tell them to stop guarding the Torah.  He never taught against the Torah.   There is no prophecy in the Tenach that said Torah was temporary and would be done away with.  It continues on into eternity!

 

Paul was Torah-observant.  Many were accusing him of teaching against the Torah, but the Apostles in Jerusalem told him to show his Torah observance before the Jews in Jerusalem, and complete his vow to Yahuweh, (Numbers 6:1ff): “And all shall know that what they have been informed about you is not so, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Torah”.  (Acts 21:24)  Acts 24:14--Paul’s confession before Felix: “And this I confess to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect, so I worship the Elohim of my fathers, believing all that has been written in the Torah and in the Prophets, ….” 

 

Paul taught the Word on Shabbat faithfully, in the synagogues: Acts 13:42-44, for example.  He went to find the “lost sheep of the House of Israel” among the nations (gentiles, goyim), to restore them to the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through the sacrifice and resurrection of Yahushua.  He found many of them, like the Roman Cornelius, who came to salvation because of Peter’s ministry, and who attended synagogue and adhered to the Torah. 

 

Now let us look at one of those passages that Torah mockers use to justify disobedience to Yahuweh.  Romans 14:4-6: “Who are you to judge another’s servant?  To his own Master he stands or falls…One indeed judges one day above another, another judges every day alike.  Let each one be particularly persuaded in his own mind.  He who minds the day, minds it to Yahuweh.  And he who does not mind the day, to Yahuweh he does not mind it”.  This passage has been used, like beating a dead horse, to “prove” that Shabbat has been done away with, along with the Festivals, the New Moon celebrations, and the Torah in general.  Man is going to use anything he can to get around obedience to Yahuweh.  Now where in this entire passage, in which Paul is correcting a local problem in Rome, does it say anything about Yahuweh’s calendar, requirements, or Torah?  It says nothing about Shabbat, the Festivals or anything to do with Yahuweh’s calendar.  Paul, like passages in many of his epistles, addresses problems within the early assemblies, many of which we don’t know about now, since they were not clearly defined.  But, if a person wants to throw off the Kingdom requirements of Yahuweh, they can make the Bible say anything they want it to say. He was most likely talking about days on the Roman calendar, that were not against the Torah--like political holidays.   

 

Psalm 2:2-3 talks about all the meetings that the world government leaders are having now.  “The sovereigns of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take council together, against Yahuweh and against His Messiah and say, `Let us tear apart Their bands and throw away Their ropes from us’”.  Sinful man is lawless.  He does not want to fit into the absolutes of Yahuweh.  Thus, man tries to find all sorts of loopholes to get out of obedience.  What man does not realize in this foolish pursuit, is that they are trying to get out of the supreme blessings of Yahuweh.  The “anti-Messiah” is called “the Lawless One” because He has thrown off the bands of Torah, and makes his own laws to suit himself.

 

In Amos 8:5 and in Nehemiah 13, the people didn’t want to keep Shabbat.  They wanted to buy and sell.  Shabbat got in their way of making money.  Nehemiah closed the city gates, so no one could come in to sell on Shabbat.  But, compromise finds a way.  If we have trust only in our own ability to survive, then we do what is needed to survive.  But, if we have a relationship with Yahuweh, then we trust Him for His provision, and we remain obedient. 

 

John 7:19-23:  “Did not Moshe give you the Torah?  Yet not one of you does the Torah!  Why do you seek to kill me?  … Moshe has given you circumcision—though it is not from Moshe, but from the fathers—and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath.  If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, so that the Torah of Moshe should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man entirely well on the Sabbath?”  Circumcision is a covenant sign, given to Abraham, and so it predates Moshe’s time, though Moshe recorded the event in Genesis 17:10-14.  It was a sign of biological inheritance in the His family through the “fathers”—Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Man twists what he wants to twist, in order to believe what he wants to believe!!!

 

John 9:14-16:  Yahushua is accused of not keeping Sabbath because He made clay to put on a blind man’s eyes.   It is not work to mix a little clay from the ground in front of you, with a little of your own spit.

 

Torah says “no servile work”--or work as usual to make money, or work that serves your purposes, or work that serves anyone else’s purposes.  It is a day to rest like a child of the King.  Yahushua in eating grain, and healing and teaching was acting like the Son of Elohim on Shabbat—using His authority to bring life.

 

Leviticus 26:2-13 lets us know that if we violate the covenant with Him by not guarding Shabbat, we will receive no blessings from His hand; He will remove His peace, and protection.

 

In Isaiah 1:13-15:  “Stop bringing futile offerings, incense, it is an abomination to Me. New Moons, Sabbaths, the calling of meetings—I am unable to bear unrighteousness and assembly.  My being hates your New Moons and your appointed times, they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.  And even when you spread out your hands, I hide My eyes from you; though you make many prayers, I do not hear….Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes.  Stop doing evil!  Learn to do good!  Seek right-ruling, reprove the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for he widow”.  Father cannot be approached with darkness, for He is light.  No matter if we keep Shabbat and the Festivals and do all the externals right, if there is no purity of heart, then all of our doing is worthless.  Many passages of Scripture tell us this: Matthew 23:13-39, I Corinthians 13:1-3, Isaiah 58, etc., etc.   That is why, by faith in Yahushua, He writes the Torah on our heart, so that we keep it with joy—not out of religious duty!  (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

 

Acts 1:12: The phrase “a Sabbath’s day journey” is an expression from added oral and written Jewish tradition.  It is not from the Torah.  It was man’s bondage. 

 

It was more bondage that the religious community added to the Torah, as they “interpreted” of the Torah.  They had rules as to how far a person could walk on Shabbat.  But, no such rule appears in the Torah.  The religious leaders had rules of washings that were not found in the Torah, therefore, they tried to accuse His disciples of eating with “unwashed hands”.  In Matthew 15:2 the Pharisees said: “Why do your disciples transgress the traditions of the elders?  For they wash not their hands when they eat bread”.  “And He answered them, `why do you also transgress the commandment of Elohim by your tradition?’” He goes on to tell them: “For Elohim commanded, saying `Honor you father and mother; and, He that curses father and mother, let him be put to death’.   But you say, `whatever says to his father and mother whatever profit you might have received from me has been dedicated’, is certainly released from respecting his father or mother. So you have nullified the command of Elohim by your tradition.  Hypocrites!  Isaiah rightly prophesied about you saying `this people draws near to Me with their mouth and respects Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me’.  But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as teachings the commands of men”.  His Word is not some legality on paper, but His Word is living.  It is spirit and it is life—John 6:63.  Man makes His Word into bondages of death.   

    

Who is part of the House (family) of Jacob--re-named “Israel” by the Father (Genesis 32:28)?  1) The whole biological family of Jacob--all 12 tribes, including the two tribes from the two sons of Joseph, and 2) the heathen from the nations, who are not biological Israel, but who come into the Covenant of His biological people by faith in Messiah Yahushua (the “grafted in” ones of Romans 11).

 

Because the northern House of Israel was scattered into all the nations around 722BCE, and the House of Judah was scattered into all the nations in 70CE, it is believed by many that most of the earth’s peoples have some Israelite blood in their DNA.  For the promise to Abraham is stated in Genesis 12:3; 13:16; 15:5 and 17:4-6: “And I shall make you a great nation, and bless you and make your name great…And I shall make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that, if a man could count the dust of the earth, then your seed also could be counted…And He brought him outside and said, `Look now toward the heavens, and count the stars if you are able to count them’.  And he said to him `So are your seed’…As for Me, look, My covenant is with you, and you shall become a father of many nations.  And no longer is your name called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, because I shall make you a father of many nations.  And I shall make you bear fruit exceedingly, and make nations of you, and sovereigns shall come from you.”

 

To Isaac the promise was reiterated in Genesis 25:4: “And I shall increase your seed like the stars of the heavens, and I shall give all these lands to your seed.  And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed My voice and guarded My Charge: My commands, My laws and My Torot”.  (“Torot” is plural of Torah--meaning teachings)

 

The promise was reiterated to Jacob in Genesis 35:10-12: “And Elohim said to him, `Your name is Ya’acob, your name is no longer called Ya’acob, but Yisra’el is your name’.  So He called his name Yisra’el (Israel).  And Elohim said to him, `I am El Shaddai.  Bear fruit and increase, a nation and a company of nations shall be from you, and sovereigns come from your body.  And the land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I give to you, and to your seed after you’…”.    

 

Yahuweh only made one Covenant with one people, the family of Eber (Hebrews), through the “fathers”: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Yahuweh, nor Yahushua never made a covenant with gentiles!  Only Israel got a Messiah--a Redeemer and Deliverer.  No other nation except Israel got a Messiah, nor was promised a Messiah.  The Scriptures are the family history and inheritance of only one biological people—the Hebrews from Eber, through Abraham.  Yahuweh/Yahushua is returning for one people group--Israel--to redeem all of the sons of Jacob.   Yahushua said, “I am not sent except to the House of Israel” (Matthew 15:24).   In Jeremiah 31: 31 He says: “`See, the days are coming’, declares Yahuweh, `when I shall make a renewed covenant with the house of Israel and with the House of Judah’…`For this is the covenant I shall make with the House of Israel after those days’, declares Yahuweh:  I will put My Torah in their inward parts, and write it on their hearts.  And I shall be their Elohim, and they shall be My people’”.  Only one biological people received Elohim’s promise of a coming Kingdom.

 

So, how does a totally non-Israelite person come into this Covenant?  I know the church doesn’t teach it, but He has had a way for the non-Hebrew to come into His Covenant since the Torah was given--about 4,000 years ago. 

 

First of all we read in Exodus 12:47-49, that the “stranger, the foreigner, the alien” could come into the fellowship of Israel, “as a native of the land”, by being circumcised and keeping the everlasting Festival of Passover.  Circumcision of the flesh is of the flesh, but Father must have circumcision of the heart, repentance and submission in obedience to Him, or a person could not receive of the Passover.  This is missing from the Gospel. 

 

Without repentance and submission to obedience, there can be no salvation.  Darkness and Satan’s kingdom cannot mix with Light and Yahuweh’s Kingdom!! 

 

 “There is one Torah for the native-born and for the stranger who sojourns among you”. 

 

In Ezekiel 47:22-23, whoever is not of biological Israel but who keeps the Covenant of Yahuweh with Israel, will have inheritance in the tribe that he dwells in.  This is speaking to the “stranger” who sojourns in their midst.

 

Isaiah 56:6:  “And foreigners who bind themselves to Yahuweh and worship Him, all who keep the Shabbat without desecrating it, and who hold fast to My Covenant—those I will bring to My set-apart mountain and give them joy in My house of prayer”.  In verse 8, He says He will bring others into the fold of Israel.  Compare this with John 10:16: “And other sheep have I that are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd”.  In the eternal Kingdom the whole house of Jacob will be brought together, and also the “strangers, the foreigners and the aliens” who received the Savior of Israel as their Savior, and the Elohim of Israel as their Elohim.  Ruth the Moabites received salvation through the Elohim of Israel when she said to her mother-in-law:  “Your people are my people, and your Elohim is my Elohim”.  She was then “grafted in” among His Chosen people. Ruth then, the ex-Moabite, later on became the great-grandmother of King David, and in the linage of Yahushua.

Remember: Ephesians 2:8-19:  Non-Hebrews in Messiah are no longer gentiles, no longer separated from the covenants of Israel, no longer strangers from Elohim, but by faith in Yahushua have come into the “household of Israel”. This passage talks of the gentiles (those of other nations besides Israel--the heathen, pagans and barbarians), as “strangers” and “foreigners”, before they came into the “citizenship of Israel” and the “household of Elohim”.  Shabbat is to be kept by those in His Covenant, as a sign to all that they are solidly in good standing with Elohim--in His Covenant. 

 

Lamentations 1:7: “The adversaries saw her, and mocked at her Sabbaths”.  When the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar came in to destroy the Temple of Yahuweh and carry the people away captive (in the last siege: about 586BCE) they mocked the people of Judah, because their Shabbats and their Festivals were no more. The enemy hates those who keep these things—for His Torah is the Law that has already condemned him to the lake of fire.

 

Ezekiel 20:12-13, 16, 20-21, and 24: “I gave them My Shabbat to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am Yahuweh that sets them apart”.  

 

(“Sign” is #226 in the Strong’s Concordance--and means “an open flag, as a flag or mark or beacon”).  “My Shabbats they greatly polluted”.  “Then I said, `I will pour out My fury upon them’.”  “Their heart was after idols”. 

 

Why do the children of Greece and Rome (Christians), still mock the Shabbats after 2,200 years? 

 

Why do they mockingly call it “legalism”?  Why do they sneer at those who are law-abiding in Yahuweh’s Kingdom? -- Partly because of ignorance, yes, and their teachings from those they trusted in Seminaries and Churches, but also because of their idols that they don’t want to give up.  Judgment comes from defiling and polluting His day.  It means that they want to continue to be gods, and do not want to be dependent on Him, but want to control their own agenda, their own desires, their own plans and goals.  They want to create, to work, to play, to be entertained, and to control what they do and see and say.  They don’t want to take even 24 hours to let Him control them, because they want to be in control of everything 24/7.

 

Ezekiel 22:26: “Her priests have violated My Torah, and have profaned My set-apart things, they have put no difference between the set-apart and the profane”.  (“Profane” is #2455 and means “common”).  “Neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My Shabbats and I am profaned among them”.

 

In other words, His day is not set-apart unto Him by His people, and they have made His day common—like the other 6 days of the week.  When people call His day common, and defy it to do what they want to do, it causes our precious Father, pain, sorrow, grief and anger.  He wants to spend the day with His beloved, but she wants to go to the mall, and shopping, or wants to do laundry or take the kids to a ball game—she has no time for Him.  It brings Him great sorrow.  He so longs to bless us, but He cannot bless us if we are naughty children.

“Torah is our schoolmaster”--our teacher—that brings us to Yahuweh and His salvation (His “yeshua”).  It continues to be our teacher and continues to bring us every day to our Elohim in humility and obedience.  Torah is always our Instructor. 

 

I am quoting here from The Scriptures translation of the Bible, “Explanatory Notes”, page 1211 and 1220-1221: “In the Dictionary of New Testament Theology (Editor: Colon Brown) vol. 3, page 410, after the author had critically examined all the alleged Shabbat breaking texts regarding Yehoshua, he says in conclusion: `We may conclude then, that though Jesus broke through Rabbinic traditions about the Sabbath, there was no annulling of the observance of the day’”.

 

“In the Mishnah, Shabbat 7:2, we find a list of 30 additional laws on Shabbat-keeping, which the Pharisees added, making a burden of the Shabbat.  In fact, the addition of the extra laws is against the Scriptures (Deuteronomy 4:2 etc. etc.).  Indeed Yahushua was opposing the Pharisees who had made the Word of Elohim of no effect with their burdensome oral traditions.  They had sought to make the observance of the Shabbat much more rigorous than Yahuweh had ever commanded.  Speaking of Shabbat: This day was blessed and set apart by Elohim at creation (Genesis 2:2-3).  Later on it was instituted as the sign of the everlasting covenant between Elohim and His people, a sign that He sets them apart, an everlasting sign.  Sabbath-keeping is one of the Ten Words of the Covenant, standing forever, settled forever in heaven and founded forever.

 

We would like to point out the following:

 

1)     Yahushua kept Shabbat, and the women who were taught by Him still kept it at the time of Messiah’s burial and resurrection

2)     Rav Sha’ul (Apostle Paul) kept it.

3)     Lydia and the women kept it (Acts 16:13)

4)     In Hebrews 4:9 we are again reminded of the necessity of keeping Shabbat.

5)     Finally, after the end-time judgment has come upon the earth and a new heavens and a new earth is created, we read in Isaiah 66:23 that the Shabbat is still kept.

6)     Who then changed it to Sunday, in effect nullifying it?  In Daniel 7:25 we read of a sovereign.  The passages goes on to talk about Constantine who did indeed change the times and seasons which Elohim had set up, to match the pagan times and seasons, and enforced all peoples to observe the new days of his calendar.  One of the days he changed was the day of worship.  He was a worshipper of Sol Invictus, the sun god.  The church followed in 336 at the Council of Laodicea, Canon 29, that the Christians were commanded to observe Sunday as the day of worship.  Bishop Eusebius (270-338CE) who worked with Constantine, admits to the church’s decision to change from Shabbat to Sunday.  COME OUT OF HER MY PEOPLE!”

 

Malachi 3:16-4:6 is a favorite passage of many, for it talks about our protection in the days of wrath.  It talks about His Book of Remembrance.  Who does He remember? -- “Those who fear Yahuweh and those who think upon He Name”.   Yet stuck right in the midst of this passage on the second coming of Messiah with the wrath of Elohim, we read this verse, which in all of my 54 years of being born-again, I have never heard a sermon on:  “Remember the Torah of Moshe My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel--laws and right-rulings”.  Everyone loves the victorious promises before this verse, but it stops there with Christians, for verse 4, they say, is “for the Jews”.  How Christianity chops up the Scriptures to slot everything according to their Roman doctrine!  It looks like fearing Him, thinking upon His Name, which is Yahuweh, and remembering the Torah of Moshe, has a lot to do with our protection when the world shall “burn like an oven and all the proud, and every wrongdoer shall be stubble”. 

Let’s look at this passage regarding the “rich, young ruler”:  Matthew 19:16-22.  In Matthew 19:17, speaking to the young man, when he asked about eternal life:  “There is none good but One, that is Elohim: but if you would enter into life, keep the commandments”.  Did His death and resurrection negate the reply to this young man?  Would Yahushua lead him astray? 

What does keeping the commandments of Elohim have to do with eternal life?  The young man kept the laws regarding right-rulings toward man, you notice, the second set of 5 of the Ten Words, however, he failed to obey, from his heart, the first 5 that have to do with loving Yahuweh with all your heart.  He had made his money his god, his idol.  He had another god before Yahuweh—his money and the power it brought him.  He could not give up this god in his life to follow Yahushua.  Yahushua put His finger on the idol, the god in his life, and he walked away “sorrowful”.  Compared to most of the world, the average American is very rich.  It is having possessions and money that keep most Christians from obeying Yahuweh, and from following Yahushua in sacrifice and suffering.  Or it is family, and we can make an idol, a god, out of family, too.  (Matthew 10:32-39)

 

Deuteronomy 4:12-15: “GUARD THE SHABBAT DAY, TO SET IT APART, AS YAHUWEH YOUR ELOHIM HAS COMMANDED YOU”. 

We must guard it with our life, for it is our life, our peace, and our safety.  “Six days you labor, and shall do all your work, and the seventh day is a Sabbath of Yahuweh your Elohim.  You do not do any work—you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant (employee), nor your female servant (employee), nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor the strangers that are within your gates, so that your male and female servants rest as you do. … Therefore, Yahuweh your Elohim has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day”.  Plain, easy to understand, needs no explanation, just obedience required.  We don’t work nor do we make anyone else work—employee, family member, visitor, or the employees at Mc Donald’s, Burger King, or Taco Bell, or Walmart, or the grocery store cashiers, or the auto mechanics, etc.

 

We don’t waste the day in busyness, foolish entertainment, or idle gossip.  We set the day apart unto Him, and bask in His presence.  Enjoy being alone with Him, or enjoy those of like mind, and rest, rest, rest—body, soul and spirit.  Let go of all burdens, business, worry and anxiety, and be restored to Shalom—His complete, eternal, perfect peace.

 

The word “Shabbat” or its translation, “Sabbath”, is #7676 in the Hebrew Dictionary and  #4521 in the Greek Dictionary of Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance.  Shabbat/Sabbath in Hebrew means “intermission”.  From the Greek language it means “a day of repose”.  It is a day of intermission from all the turmoil and trials of Satan’s world system, and an intermission from “life as usual”. 

Finally, I think He says it all here--Isaiah 58:13-14:  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 Yahuweh `esteemed’, and shall esteem it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in Yahuweh, and I shall cause you to ride on the heights of the earth, and feed you with the inheritance of Jacob you father.  For the mouth of Yahuweh has spoken!”

 

Yedidah  (Yeh-deed-ah) -- My Hebrew name!

Revised March 2005