SHABBAT
IS ETERNAL
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
The
Apostle Paul (Rav Sha’ul)
found these lost sheep of
John
7:34-35: Even the Pharisees were
scratching their heads, wondering if Yahushua was
going to the lost Israelites scattered into
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
I am amazed that the secular Jews and many Orthodox
Jews in
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
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 “
In
325CE under
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 “
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 (
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
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
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
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
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
Lamentations
1:7: “The adversaries saw her, and mocked at her Sabbaths”. When the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar
came in to destroy the
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
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)
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
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