Sabbath Keeping
Part I - Why It Was Established
1. Deuteronomy 5:13-15 KJV, "13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: 14 But the seventh day is the sabbath of [Yahowah] thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. 15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that [Yahowah] thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore [Yahowah] thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day." Mark 2:27 KJV, "And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." These Scriptures identify why sabbath keeping was established by Yahowah. He gave it so that man, the servants of men, and the beasts of burden would have a period of rest each week. It was given, by a loving God, to increase their quality of life.
2. The sabbath was also given by Yahowah as a precursor, as a type, to His rest that is yet to come for all His children who become born again. This rest, that is to come, is discussed in Hebrews 3:7-19 continuing through 4:1-11 KJV, "7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. 11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)" Here the word rest is first spoken in this group of Scriptures. This is the teaching on which we are focusing. "12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; 15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. 16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. 17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?" Rest is written here again. This is the true sabbath rest that God has been teaching throughout the Bible. Not a weekly rest, but a spiritual rest now in the present, and an eternal rest forever. "19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." and in Hebrews 4:1-5 KJV, "1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." God has prepared a rest for us, but we must have the faith to enter into this rest. Beginning in Exodus 16 the Hebrews were taught to observe this rest by a weekly sabbath. However, they did not exercise and apply their faith. Therefore, God did not allow most of them to enter into His rest. "4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. 5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest." Here God shows the pattern and teaching He prepared for us even from the beginning, even from the seventh day of creation. He did not introduce the sabbath at this time however. But He did introduce the rest that He had prepared for us. It is the rest that God focuses on in Genesis 2:2-3 and here in Hebrews chapters three and four. In fact, the seventh day of creation week is a Friday, not a Saturday or Sabbath: see our treatise on the "Calendar of Scripture" parts I and II. His focus is not on the physical requirements of a sabbath rest day, instead His focus is on the spiritual rest from all our labors. His focus is on the spiritual rest that is ours when we rest in the finished work of Yahoshua on the stake of Calvary. We cannot strive to reach God and strive to maintain our salvation. We can only rest in the power and sovereignty of Yahowah. He did not need our help in creating the heavens and the Earth, He did not need our help in paying for our sins by Yahoshua's death on the stake, and He does not need our help in preparing an eternal rest for us. But He does want our faith and belief that He created the heavens and the Earth. And He wants our faith and belief that He did atone for our sins on the execution stake at Calvary. And He wants our faith and belief that we can enter into His rest. Without this faith we cannot please God, Hebrews 11:6. "Hebrews 4:6-11 KJV, "6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: 7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. 8 For if [Yahoshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." This is what God was teaching in Genesis 2:2-3; this is what God was teaching in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5; and this is what God is teaching here in Hebrews 3 and 4. He is teaching of His rest, prepared for His people. The purpose of the old requirements to keep the weekly sabbath was not the beginning point nor the end point of His teachings and requirements; it was not the culminating point; it was not the ordinance above all ordinances to be observed by all for all time. No, not at all. Weekly sabbath keeping was only another tool along the way, used by God, to teach us the importance of entering into His spiritual and permanent rest.
3. In the Old Testament, in the physical, under the Law of Moses, the sabbath of rest was to be observed under the penalty of death. In the New Testament, in the spiritual, under grace, the rest that God's people would enjoy comes not from a physical observance of the sabbath day; instead, it comes from the faith God places in your heart. You must hear Yahoshua, you must believe in the sacrifice He has made for you, and then you will be born again and you will enter into His rest permanently. Once you have entered into His rest, there is no need for a weekly observance. It has been done, once for all. Not only that, but Yahoshua, at the execution stake, kept the sabbath for all for all time. For those who want to keep the sabbath in the physical forever, what are you going to do with Revelation 10:6 KJV, "And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer." When time is no longer, how does one keep the weekly sabbath? Simple answer, one does not.
4. The concept of a day of rest was introduced by Yahowah in Genesis 2:2-3 KJV, "2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." This moment in history did not establish the ordinance of sabbath keeping. But it did introduce the idea of a day of rest. It also introduces the idea of a time of rest for all of God's people. For those who insist on keeping the Torah, and thereby alienating themselves from the Messiah, they will stop at nothing to convince others and themselves that sabbath keeping was instituted in Genesis chapter two. These same people have failed to comprehend the teachings of the Bible as shown in the first three paragraphs above. They insist that God must come into their box and observe the weekly sabbath too. They preach the gospel of man, not the gospel of God. Be warned. Stay away from them and their gangrene. They have taken the way of Cain, instead of God's way (Jude 11).
5. These teachers want to pull you back into observing the Torah. When the Torah was clearly against you and your salvation. Colossians 2:14 KJV, "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his [stake]." Colossian 2:18 KJV, "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." Strive to enter God's rest. Trust in the Scriptures. Do not listen to the Judaizers who frequently come under the label of Seventh Day Adventists and Hebrew Roots. They have replaced the one true God with a god of their own making. Sabbath keeping is their god. It is easy to test. Denigrate their god, talk and teach against their god, and their hackles and offenses quickly rise. They must defend their god, because this god cannot defend itself.
6. Let me rephrase the bottom line of this theology of sabbath keeping. The act, the performance of weekly sabbath keeping is no more important than the performance of physical circumcision. The important thing to remember is what the no-longer-required ordinance of sabbath keeping points to. It points to the sabbath rest of Almighty Yahowah. The rest He has prepared for His children. If God gives you a gift and chooses to deliver it to you in a UPS delivery truck and that truck arrives at your house on a Saturday, are you going to revere and even worship UPS delivery trucks on Saturday for the rest of your life? Of course not. That is a ridiculous notion and even a sick notion. Instead, you are going to praise, thank, and revere the God of all creation, the Almighty, Yahowah is His name, for the gift He gave you. UPS did not give you the gift, God did. The very same is true of the ritual of sabbath keeping. Keeping a weekly sabbath did not give you the gift of the rest of God. Stop making weekly sabbath keeping your golden calf (Exodus 32:8). Stop making weekly sabbath keeping your Gideon's ephod (Judges 8:27). Stop making weekly sabbath keeping your brazen snake (2 Kings 18:4). God is God and He will not share His glory with another (Isaiah 42:8). The gift is God's rest for man. The weekly sabbath was the UPS delivery truck. Foolish men, stop worshipping brazen serpents and UPS delivery trucks. Worship God!
7. Now that it has been explained and shown in the Scriptures why the sabbath of rest was established, let us move onto "Part II - When It Was Established"
8. We welcome constructive input supported by Scriptures from the Bible. Please contact us by our email address [email protected]. Copyright © 2010 Richard Douglas Mauck and/or Sandra Faye Mauck. All rights reserved.
Sabbath Keeping
Part II - When It Was Established
1. Before proceeding with this treatise, it is very important that one first read "Sabbath Keeping, Part I - Why It Was Established". If you are one who worships the idol of sabbath keeping, or are confused by those who teach the heresy of current day sabbath keeping, then you need to know that sabbath keeping was only a temporary tool God used to bring His children into His rest.
2. End of the week sabbath keeping was first brought to the attention of man, and only the Hebrews, circa two and one-half thousand years after the creation of man in the Garden of Eden. This brings us to circa 1,500 BC, and Exodus 16:22-23 KJV, "22 And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23 And he said unto them, This is that which [Yahowah] hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto [Yahowah]: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning." Prior to this, the sabbath was unknown to man and not in the Scriptures of the Holy Bible. How do we know that the sabbath was unknown to man prior to Exodus 16:23? Look at Deuteronomy 5:15 KJV, "And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that [Yahowah] thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore [Yahowah] thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day." As you can read in verse fifteen, God gave the command to the Hebrews to keep the sabbath day of rest after He brought them out of the land of Egypt 430 years after He brought them into Egypt. This was circa 1,500 BC. If anyone can find an earlier date that God told anyone to keep the sabbath, or even told anyone that there was such a thing as the sabbath then please share this Scripture with us. We need to know.
3.a. There are some who mistakenly believe that the sabbath was instituted by God in Genesis 2:2-3 KJV, "2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." You will notice that the word sabbath is not in these two verses, nor in the book of Genesis at all. God did not call the seventh day of creation, the day on which He ceased from His creation activities, a sabbath day. Nor can it be shown in Scripture that the seventh day of creation falls into the Saturday slot. When God introduced the seventh day of creation as a day of rest, He was introducing His rest which He had prepared and desired for man to enter into, He was not introducing weekly sabbath keeping. In fact, the seventh day of creation week is a Friday, not a Saturday or Sabbath: see our treatise on the "Calendar of Scripture" parts I and II.
3.b. Furthermore, if God was introducing weekly sabbath keeping in Genesis 2, then why did He not do it on a sabbath day? There is no Biblical evidence to confirm that the seventh day of creation was a sabbath day. In fact, since Genesis 2 does not call the seventh day a sabbath, that would strongly suggest that it was not. If the doctrine of sabbath keeping was being introduced in Genesis 2, it would have benefited our tiny minds if our Creator had told us so, by at least telling us that He was talking about the sabbath. But He did not. He did not, because He was not introducing the doctrine of weekly sabbath keeping, instead He was introducing the doctrine of spiritual rest from our labors. See "Sabbath Keeping, Part I - Why It Was Established". There is more Biblical evidence to show that the seventh day of creation was not a sabbath. However, to explain this, one must have knowledge of the Calendar of Scripture and one must assume that God began creation on the first day of the first month of the first year of creation. Why would He not?
3.c. God further supports the doctrine of entering into His rest with sabbath days that are not the seventh day of a perfect week. Days such as the feast days of Scripture and those days that specify that no work is to be done. The weekly sabbath was only one of several tools God used to teach us the doctrine of entering into His rest.
3.d. But for those that mistakenly believe that sabbath keeping is a doctrine in and of itself, for those who preach and teach the gospel of man, it is very important to them to establish its beginning in Genesis 2, a place where it simply is not found no matter how much bantering they do about it. Because sabbath keeping is not an end to itself, sabbath keeping is merely a temporary tool used by our Creator to teach us about His sabbath rest. Sabbath keeping was given only to the Hebrews and only after they departed Egypt. Ezekiel 20:12 KJV, "Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am [Yahowah] that sanctify them." See also Nehemiah 9:13-14 (Part III).
4.a. Subsequently, God furthered the doctrine of entering into His rest by introducing the weekly sabbath rest in Exodus 16:23, and three weeks later making it part of the Torah and the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:8-11 KJV, "8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of [Yahowah] thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days [Yahowah] made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore [Yahowah] blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."
4.b. Once again, for those who erroneously teach that these verses confirm that weekly sabbath keeping was taught in Genesis 2, we will take a closer look at these verses. First, I will point out the obvious. It is highly doubtful that God would start a teaching in Genesis 2:2-3 (wherein the sabbath was never mentioned) and then totally drop the subject for two and one-half thousand years; then continue with the teaching in Exodus 20:10-11. In Exodus 20:10a the word sabbath is written again, but it is not referring back to Genesis 2 and calling the seventh day of creation the sabbath. Instead, it is referring to the seventh day of a complete week and drawing a comparison, a type, with the six days of work performed in Genesis chapter one followed by a day of rest. Why is there a difference between the seventh day of creation and an end of the week sabbath? As discussion in paragraph 3a above, there is no Biblical proof that the seventh day of creation was the end of a complete week; in other words, there is no proof that it was in the Saturday slot. It should be no surprise that the Scriptural Calendar does not look like Gregory's calendar. After all, Pope Gregory was part of the antichrist system and it was prophesied that this antichrist would think to change the times. Daniel 7:25 KJV, "And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time." The changing of times has occurred from the Scriptural Calendar, with its Lunar and Sun times pieces, to a Sun only based calendar.
4.c. In Exodus 20:11 the sabbath is written again. It says that "Yahowah blessed the sabbath day". The sabbath day which Yahowah blessed is the sabbath day mentioned in verse 8; and the seventh day and the sabbath day written in verse 10a; but it is not calling the seventh day of creation in verse 11 a sabbath day. Instead, it is merely using, once again, the pattern of the seventh day of creation as a type. It is saying that the pattern is that the seventh day following six days of work, is a sabbath. God even blessed and sanctified the seventh day of creation week, but He never called it a sabbath. Why is this distinction so important? It is important because those who want weekly sabbath observing to be a physical requirement for resting will never understand and strive for the spiritual rest - that God is teaching - that God has prepared for us and desires for us to enter. The Law is contrary to us and prevents us from entering into His rest. We will never obtain His rest, our salvation, by our own physical exertion and mental resolve to do so. It can only be obtained by trusting, believing, and having faith in the Almighty God, Yahowah is His name.
4.d. Besides, the sabbath rest was only given to the Hebrews in the Desert of Sin. Does that mean the rest of mankind is left out in the cold? Not at all. We all can enter into His rest, not by observing the Law or a weekly Sabbath, but by placing our faith and hope in the finished work of Yahoshua the Messiah upon the execution stake of Calvary.
5. Do not let this next point escape your notice, you may miss your salvation and end up on the road to hell. Even though the Hebrews fleeing Egypt to the Promise Land observed the weekly sabbath as required by the Torah, they did not enter into His rest. But those who believed the gospel enter into His rest. Hebrews 4:2-3,6 KJV, "2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief."
6. We welcome constructive input supported by Scriptures from the Bible. Please contact us by our email address [email protected]. Copyright © 2010 Richard Douglas Mauck and/or Sandra Faye Mauck. All rights reserved.
Sabbath Keeping
Part III - Who It Was Given To
1. The sons of Jacob became a nation when they were taken out of Egypt. Deuteronomy 4:34 KJV, "Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that [Yahowah] your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?" After God had led the nation of Israel out of Egypt and into the Desert of Sin, the sabbath - for the first time - made its splash on the pages of Scripture. Exodus 16:22-23 KJV 22, "22 And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23 And he said unto them, This is that which [Yahowah] hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto [Yahowah]: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning." It is important to know that no one, including the Hebrews, had been given the sabbath prior to this time. This is shown in Nehemiah 9:14 KJV, "And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant." See also Ezekiel 20:12 (Part II). God is being praised here for making known His holy sabbath to the Hebrews. In other words, His holy sabbath was not known prior to this time, the time of Moses. If you read Parts I and II of this Sabbath Keeping treatise you will find more Scriptures that verify this teaching.
2. The sabbath was not given to mankind, but to Israel only. And in Exodus 16, the sabbath was not given to Israel as part of their Law (the Torah), i.e., the Jewish legal system. The Law was yet to come at Mount Sinai. The sabbath was given to them as a rest and as a holy day unto Yahowah. No penalty was assessed to those who broke this sabbath, penalties were to come later, with the Law. No time limit was imposed in the Desert of Sin regarding the sabbath. God said He was testing their obedience. Exodus 16:4-5,27 KJV, "4 Then said [Yahowah] unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. 5 And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. 27 And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none." When God said, "that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no," this does not mean that the Law had now come. To properly understand this phrase, it needs to be understood as "I will test them now to see, when my law comes, whether they will obey it or not." God was preparing His people for the introduction of the Torah. From Adam until Moses, God had introduced various laws that He expected men to obey. But it was not until Mount Sinai in Exodus 20 that God gave the Torah, and He gave it to His chosen people, the Hebrews, the descendants of Jacob and Jacob's twelve sons.
3. With the introduction of the Torah came the requirement to keep the sabbath as part of a closed legal system. Exodus 20:8-11 KJV, "8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of [Yahowah] thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days [Yahowah] made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore [Yahowah] blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." Just because God has used the seven days of creation as a pattern for giving the sabbath day of rest to the Hebrews does not make creation week a perfect week (a week that begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday) and it does not make the seventh day of creation a sabbath. When verse eleven says that Yahowah blessed the sabbath day, this Scripture is referring only to the seventh day of a perfect week that He has just given to the Hebrews. And He is using the seven days of creation only as a pattern of six days of work followed by one day of rest. He is not establishing, after the fact (three millennium later), that creation week had a sabbath at the end of it. There are some who are desperate to place God in a box. Their imaginations never rest inventing interpretations to Scriptures to ensure that at the end of the discussion that a sabbath has been established during creation week, even though the Scriptures do not teach it. In fact, the seventh day of creation week is a Friday, not a Saturday or Sabbath: see our treatise on the "Calendar of Scripture" parts I and II.
4. What is the Torah, or the Law (meaning the Law of Moses)? Deuteronomy 31:24-26 KJV, "24 And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, 25 That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of [Yahowah] saying 26 Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of [Yahowah] your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee." The Law (the Ten Commandments plus more) which was given at Mount Sinai, was first written in Scripture in Exodus 20:1 and continued to be written well into Exodus 23 and beyond. The Law is confirmed in Exodus 24:3 with oaths from the Hebrews; with the preparation of altars in Exodus 24:4; with offerings by the people in Exodus 24:5; with the sanctification of the people in Exodus 24:8; and God giving a written copy in stone of those laws (the Torah) in Exodus 24:12. Exodus 20:1 KJV, "And God spoke all these words." Exodus 24:3 KJV, "And Moses came and told the people all the words of [Yahowah], and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which [Yahowah] hath said will we do." Exodus 24:4 KJV, "And Moses wrote all the words of [Yahowah], and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel." Exodus 24:5 KJV, "And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto [Yahowah]." Exodus 24:8 KJV, "And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which [Yahowah] hath made with you concerning all these words." Exodus 24:12 KJV, "And [Yahowah] said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them."
5. We can now see that Yahowah's seventh day of a perfect week sabbath had a place in history (for only three weeks) with only the Israelites before the Torah (or Law) and it has had a separate history within the Torah and the Israelite nation that the Torah was given to. So, when the Torah is taken away, we can more clearly see how this affects the keeping of the sabbath. Since the Torah was given to the Israelites, when the Torah is taken away, it can only be taken from the Israelites, because no one else had it. Since the Torah was the only legal system that required the keeping of the sabbath, then sabbath keeping outside of the Torah is not required by God. But one might say, wait a minute, the keeping of the sabbath was required before the Torah in the Desert of Sin as spoken of in Exodus 16:23. That is true. But it seems clear to me that Yahowah, in His graciousness and wisdom gave the sabbath to the Israelites just prior to the Torah, because He was breaking them in slowly and methodically to their new requirements that were yet to come. Many times when driving on the road, prior to a stop sign or a change in speed limit, a warning sign appears: "Stop Ahead" or "Reduce Speed Ahead". The Desert of Sin story in Exodus 16 is a warning sign from our God: "Change In Rules Ahead" or "Heads Up, Something New Is Happening". After all, He did not establish penalties for sabbath breaking in the Desert of Sin. Those penalties came with the Torah.
6. We welcome constructive input supported by Scriptures from the Bible. Please contact us by our email address [email protected]. Copyright © 2010 Richard Douglas Mauck and/or Sandra Faye Mauck. All rights reserved.
Sabbath Keeping
Part IV - Is It For Today?
1. A valid question about the longevity of sabbath keeping should be asked. If, as I have written in "Sabbath Keeping, Part III - Who It Was Given To", that sabbath keeping can be taken away, then how does that reconcile with the following statements: in Exodus 31:13 it says, the sabbath should be kept "throughout your generations"; in Exodus 31:16 it says the sabbath should be kept "throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant"; in Leviticus 16:31 it says, the sabbath would be "a statute for ever"; and in Leviticus 24:8 it says, the sabbath would be an "an everlasting covenant"? Exodus 31:13 KJV, "Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am [Yahowah] that doth sanctify you." Exodus 31:16 KJV, "Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant." Leviticus 16:31 KJV, "It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever." Leviticus 24:8 KJV, "Every sabbath he shall set it in order before [Yahowah] continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant." What does it mean to say throughout your/their generations, and perpetual, and forever, and an everlasting covenant? It means exactly what it says - forever, or continuously, or everlasting, in other words, for eternity. So, why do I contend with those who insist that sabbath keeping is a perpetual requirement?
2. As mentioned in Part III, sabbath keeping was given to the Israelites and not to men everywhere. The sabbath was never given to Christians in the New Testament. I can find a lot of Scriptures in the New Testament that give commands to Christians regarding their behavior and requirements expected of them, and many of these commands are identical to those given in the Torah, or before the Torah was ever given. But, if you can find a single New Testament Scripture that requires Christians to keep the sabbath, please share it with us. We need to know!
3. Some Messianic Jewish organizations contend that New Testament Christians have now become Jews by conversion. Look at Deuteronomy 4:34 KJV, "Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that [Yahowah] your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?" Israelites come from Jacob and his twelve sons, therefore a Christian is not an Israelite, or Jewish. Romans 9:6-8 KJV, "6 For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8 That is They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Galatians 4:28 KJV, "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise." In other words, Christians are reckoned through Isaac, not his son Israel. Once again, if you can find a Scripture(s) that states that Christians have become Jewish, please share it with us. We need to know!
4. So what has become of sabbath keeping? In paragraph one above it is pointed out that the Scriptures teach that the sabbath is to be kept by the Israelites, Jews, forever. Yahoshua has done just that, He has kept not only the sabbath, but the whole Torah, forever; so that the Jews, nor anyone else, ever has to keep it again. Matthew 5:17 KJV, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." And fulfill He did. Christ Yahoshua kept the requirements, not only of the Torah, not only of the prophets, but also all of God's laws for men. If you think not, then what about Christ's sacrifice upon the Roman execution stake at Calvary at the hands of the Jewish leaders of that day and at the hands of Pontius Pilate? Christ provided for the payment of our sins once for all for all time. Christians have no problem in believing this, so why is it so difficult to believe that He has kept the whole law for all time? Romans 6:23 KJV, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through [Yahoshua the] Christ our Lord." Do Christians have to die for their sins, or did Christ pay for those sins in our stead? John 3:16 KJV, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Understand this, we no longer need to sacrifice lambs, or bulls, or red heifers, Christ was our sacrificial lamb, once for all for all time. And He could do this because He was God and because He was the only one who could keep the Torah for all time. It is done, it is finished, the veil has been rent from top to bottom and Christians have access to the holy of holies. Matthew 27:51 KJV, "And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent." Christ said it on the stake just before He expired - "it is finished." John 19:30 KJV, "When [Yahoshua] therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost."
5. If you are keeping the sabbath because you are Jewish, then stop. Believe on the Lord Yahoshua the Messiah and be set free from the requirements of the law and be free from the penalty of your sins. If you are keeping the sabbath because it is part of the Mosiac Law or the Ten Commandments, then stop. If you are not a Christian, then keeping the law will not save you from your sins to the attainment of eternal life. If you are a Christian, then keeping the law will not save you from your sins to the attainment of eternal life. Romans 3:20 KJV, "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Galatians 5:4 KJV, "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace."
6. Even the Holy Spirit and the apostles teach against any requirement for men to be keeping the sabbath. During a council or meeting in Jerusalem, in the first century, only limited requirements were put upon Christians as they came to the faith. Acts 15:10-11 KJV, "10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord [Yahoshua the] Christ we shall be saved, even as they." Acts 15:28-29 KJV, "28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; 29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well." There are no sabbath keeping requirements here.
7. While doing this study, I became thoroughly convinced that sabbath keeping was not a requirement of the law anymore, nor a requirement for any man to keep ever again. I have been saved by the shed Blood of Christ Yahoshua. Believing this is an act of faith. Faith that has been imparted to me from God the Father by His grace. Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV, "8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast." Colossians 2:16-17 KJV, "16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."
Galatians 4:9-10 KJV, "9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? 10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years." I would pray that those Christians who have stuck with me this far, would now open the Scriptures to Colossians, chapter two. Please read this chapter keeping in mind the whole time that it is describing your freedom from being taken captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy and freedom from sabbath keeping. May Yahowah richly bless you in your love of our Lord Yahoshua the Christ.
8. Now that it has been shown in paragraph four above that Yahoshua has met the requirements of the Torah for all time and in paragraph six above that the Holy Ghost does not require believers to keep the weekly sabbath any more, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that weekly sabbath keeping is not required. God does not require anyone to keep the sabbath any longer. You need to understand that not only are you not saved by the Torah, no one ever was and no one ever could be; but you need to further understand that weekly sabbath keeping is putting oneself under the Torah and therefore becomes a dividing wall between you and the Messiah. It is a sin that leads to the broad path of destruction if you persist and do not repent. If a Christian brother observes a special day because it is part of the Torah or any legal system and thereby hopes to save his soul; or teaches others to observe a weekly sabbath because of the Torah; then rebuke him. Galatians 5:4 KJV, "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." 2 Peter 1:9 KJV, "But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." And Galatians 3:10-14 KJV, "10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. 12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. 13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the [nations] through [Yahoshua the] Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." For the man who claims that he is already saved by grace and not the Torah, but then goes back to observing the Torah anyway, please reread Galatians 3:12 in this paragraph. It states very plainly that you have gone back under the Law. And reread Galatians 5:4 in this paragraph, it cannot be made more clear - YOU HAVE FALLEN FROM GRACE!
9. Once again, Yahoshua said, John 14:15,21 KJV, "15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. 21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." Yahoshua the Messiah is not saying for us to obey the Torah - that has already been covered in this treatise - He is saying that you are to obey Him out of love, not out of legal obligation; you are to obey Him because you believe in Him and trust that what He says is best for your life now and for all eternity. John 10:10b KJV, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
10. While doing this study, I have become convinced that my Father still wants us to take a sabbath day of rest for our own health and spiritual well-being. We are not legalistic about it. We look forward to doing what our Lord did and enjoy the beautiful things He created on the day we keep. We can do those things necessary to live life, including ministering to and healing the sick, Luke 13:14; preparing and consuming food, Matthew 12:1-2,8; and pulling my sheep out of a ditch, Matthew 12:11; and it does not have to be, nor is it, on Saturday. Luke 13:14 KJV, "And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that [Yahoshua] had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day." Matthew 12:1-2,8,11 KJV, "1 At that time [Yahoshua] went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. 8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day. 11 And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?"
11. We welcome constructive input supported by Scriptures from the Bible. Please contact us by our email address [email protected]. Copyright © 2010 Richard Douglas Mauck and/or Sandra Faye Mauck. All rights reserved.
Sabbath Keeping
Part V - Fleshly Legalism Brings Death, The Spirit Brings Life
by Sandy Mauck
Everything that Yahoshua would try to teach, the Pharisees wanted to take into the realm of the flesh. They were supposed to be spiritual but they were really flesh.
Our precious Lord taught us over and over to stop looking at the fleshly aspects of things; instead, look at the spiritual. The spiritual man is that which is important. He called them on it concerning everything they said to him. Over and over He purposely healed on the sabbath so they could see that their hearts were flesh and not spirit.
When the man at the pool of Bethesda was healed, He told him to pick up his bed. This of course freaked the Pharisees out as they were making their sabbath keeping rounds. When they got after the guy, he told it like it was. (In my words) The guy that healed me told me to do it- why should I NOT do what He says!
That is the message. We can tithe and do all the stuff according to the law but God is a heart changer. When people want to bring you under legalism, one legalistic thing becomes another, and so on. Why? Because it is a trap. Religion is a trap. Many of us grew up in very religious churches and they had all their traditions that they did. Did it bring forth life? No, of course not, it brought death.
It was in the heart of our God to send His Son to show the world the heart of the matter. If you look back to the reasoning of the beginning of the sabbath, it wasn't so much for the rest of the Hebrews but that those people would NOT put others under slavery as they had been. He knew them. He knew they were hard hearted even before they manifested it in the wilderness.
And we are all the same. Not one of us is pure in ourselves. We are all flesh. Our only righteousness is in our Savior who paid the price for our sins. Don't tempt God with legalism - HE HATES IT!
Does He want us to rest physically? Of course, but He wants us to be led by His Holy Spirit in all things. The Holy Spirit might tell you to rest for a week or a month or a year! But the bottom line is that HE IS OUR REST. An all encompassing precious concept of the Spirit of the Living God! He paid for it. We can now rest in that!
Part I - Why It Was Established
1. Deuteronomy 5:13-15 KJV, "13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: 14 But the seventh day is the sabbath of [Yahowah] thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. 15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that [Yahowah] thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore [Yahowah] thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day." Mark 2:27 KJV, "And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." These Scriptures identify why sabbath keeping was established by Yahowah. He gave it so that man, the servants of men, and the beasts of burden would have a period of rest each week. It was given, by a loving God, to increase their quality of life.
2. The sabbath was also given by Yahowah as a precursor, as a type, to His rest that is yet to come for all His children who become born again. This rest, that is to come, is discussed in Hebrews 3:7-19 continuing through 4:1-11 KJV, "7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, 8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: 9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. 10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. 11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)" Here the word rest is first spoken in this group of Scriptures. This is the teaching on which we are focusing. "12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; 15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. 16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. 17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?" Rest is written here again. This is the true sabbath rest that God has been teaching throughout the Bible. Not a weekly rest, but a spiritual rest now in the present, and an eternal rest forever. "19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." and in Hebrews 4:1-5 KJV, "1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." God has prepared a rest for us, but we must have the faith to enter into this rest. Beginning in Exodus 16 the Hebrews were taught to observe this rest by a weekly sabbath. However, they did not exercise and apply their faith. Therefore, God did not allow most of them to enter into His rest. "4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. 5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest." Here God shows the pattern and teaching He prepared for us even from the beginning, even from the seventh day of creation. He did not introduce the sabbath at this time however. But He did introduce the rest that He had prepared for us. It is the rest that God focuses on in Genesis 2:2-3 and here in Hebrews chapters three and four. In fact, the seventh day of creation week is a Friday, not a Saturday or Sabbath: see our treatise on the "Calendar of Scripture" parts I and II. His focus is not on the physical requirements of a sabbath rest day, instead His focus is on the spiritual rest from all our labors. His focus is on the spiritual rest that is ours when we rest in the finished work of Yahoshua on the stake of Calvary. We cannot strive to reach God and strive to maintain our salvation. We can only rest in the power and sovereignty of Yahowah. He did not need our help in creating the heavens and the Earth, He did not need our help in paying for our sins by Yahoshua's death on the stake, and He does not need our help in preparing an eternal rest for us. But He does want our faith and belief that He created the heavens and the Earth. And He wants our faith and belief that He did atone for our sins on the execution stake at Calvary. And He wants our faith and belief that we can enter into His rest. Without this faith we cannot please God, Hebrews 11:6. "Hebrews 4:6-11 KJV, "6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: 7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. 8 For if [Yahoshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." This is what God was teaching in Genesis 2:2-3; this is what God was teaching in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5; and this is what God is teaching here in Hebrews 3 and 4. He is teaching of His rest, prepared for His people. The purpose of the old requirements to keep the weekly sabbath was not the beginning point nor the end point of His teachings and requirements; it was not the culminating point; it was not the ordinance above all ordinances to be observed by all for all time. No, not at all. Weekly sabbath keeping was only another tool along the way, used by God, to teach us the importance of entering into His spiritual and permanent rest.
3. In the Old Testament, in the physical, under the Law of Moses, the sabbath of rest was to be observed under the penalty of death. In the New Testament, in the spiritual, under grace, the rest that God's people would enjoy comes not from a physical observance of the sabbath day; instead, it comes from the faith God places in your heart. You must hear Yahoshua, you must believe in the sacrifice He has made for you, and then you will be born again and you will enter into His rest permanently. Once you have entered into His rest, there is no need for a weekly observance. It has been done, once for all. Not only that, but Yahoshua, at the execution stake, kept the sabbath for all for all time. For those who want to keep the sabbath in the physical forever, what are you going to do with Revelation 10:6 KJV, "And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer." When time is no longer, how does one keep the weekly sabbath? Simple answer, one does not.
4. The concept of a day of rest was introduced by Yahowah in Genesis 2:2-3 KJV, "2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." This moment in history did not establish the ordinance of sabbath keeping. But it did introduce the idea of a day of rest. It also introduces the idea of a time of rest for all of God's people. For those who insist on keeping the Torah, and thereby alienating themselves from the Messiah, they will stop at nothing to convince others and themselves that sabbath keeping was instituted in Genesis chapter two. These same people have failed to comprehend the teachings of the Bible as shown in the first three paragraphs above. They insist that God must come into their box and observe the weekly sabbath too. They preach the gospel of man, not the gospel of God. Be warned. Stay away from them and their gangrene. They have taken the way of Cain, instead of God's way (Jude 11).
5. These teachers want to pull you back into observing the Torah. When the Torah was clearly against you and your salvation. Colossians 2:14 KJV, "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his [stake]." Colossian 2:18 KJV, "Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind." Strive to enter God's rest. Trust in the Scriptures. Do not listen to the Judaizers who frequently come under the label of Seventh Day Adventists and Hebrew Roots. They have replaced the one true God with a god of their own making. Sabbath keeping is their god. It is easy to test. Denigrate their god, talk and teach against their god, and their hackles and offenses quickly rise. They must defend their god, because this god cannot defend itself.
6. Let me rephrase the bottom line of this theology of sabbath keeping. The act, the performance of weekly sabbath keeping is no more important than the performance of physical circumcision. The important thing to remember is what the no-longer-required ordinance of sabbath keeping points to. It points to the sabbath rest of Almighty Yahowah. The rest He has prepared for His children. If God gives you a gift and chooses to deliver it to you in a UPS delivery truck and that truck arrives at your house on a Saturday, are you going to revere and even worship UPS delivery trucks on Saturday for the rest of your life? Of course not. That is a ridiculous notion and even a sick notion. Instead, you are going to praise, thank, and revere the God of all creation, the Almighty, Yahowah is His name, for the gift He gave you. UPS did not give you the gift, God did. The very same is true of the ritual of sabbath keeping. Keeping a weekly sabbath did not give you the gift of the rest of God. Stop making weekly sabbath keeping your golden calf (Exodus 32:8). Stop making weekly sabbath keeping your Gideon's ephod (Judges 8:27). Stop making weekly sabbath keeping your brazen snake (2 Kings 18:4). God is God and He will not share His glory with another (Isaiah 42:8). The gift is God's rest for man. The weekly sabbath was the UPS delivery truck. Foolish men, stop worshipping brazen serpents and UPS delivery trucks. Worship God!
7. Now that it has been explained and shown in the Scriptures why the sabbath of rest was established, let us move onto "Part II - When It Was Established"
8. We welcome constructive input supported by Scriptures from the Bible. Please contact us by our email address [email protected]. Copyright © 2010 Richard Douglas Mauck and/or Sandra Faye Mauck. All rights reserved.
Sabbath Keeping
Part II - When It Was Established
1. Before proceeding with this treatise, it is very important that one first read "Sabbath Keeping, Part I - Why It Was Established". If you are one who worships the idol of sabbath keeping, or are confused by those who teach the heresy of current day sabbath keeping, then you need to know that sabbath keeping was only a temporary tool God used to bring His children into His rest.
2. End of the week sabbath keeping was first brought to the attention of man, and only the Hebrews, circa two and one-half thousand years after the creation of man in the Garden of Eden. This brings us to circa 1,500 BC, and Exodus 16:22-23 KJV, "22 And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23 And he said unto them, This is that which [Yahowah] hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto [Yahowah]: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning." Prior to this, the sabbath was unknown to man and not in the Scriptures of the Holy Bible. How do we know that the sabbath was unknown to man prior to Exodus 16:23? Look at Deuteronomy 5:15 KJV, "And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that [Yahowah] thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore [Yahowah] thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day." As you can read in verse fifteen, God gave the command to the Hebrews to keep the sabbath day of rest after He brought them out of the land of Egypt 430 years after He brought them into Egypt. This was circa 1,500 BC. If anyone can find an earlier date that God told anyone to keep the sabbath, or even told anyone that there was such a thing as the sabbath then please share this Scripture with us. We need to know.
3.a. There are some who mistakenly believe that the sabbath was instituted by God in Genesis 2:2-3 KJV, "2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." You will notice that the word sabbath is not in these two verses, nor in the book of Genesis at all. God did not call the seventh day of creation, the day on which He ceased from His creation activities, a sabbath day. Nor can it be shown in Scripture that the seventh day of creation falls into the Saturday slot. When God introduced the seventh day of creation as a day of rest, He was introducing His rest which He had prepared and desired for man to enter into, He was not introducing weekly sabbath keeping. In fact, the seventh day of creation week is a Friday, not a Saturday or Sabbath: see our treatise on the "Calendar of Scripture" parts I and II.
3.b. Furthermore, if God was introducing weekly sabbath keeping in Genesis 2, then why did He not do it on a sabbath day? There is no Biblical evidence to confirm that the seventh day of creation was a sabbath day. In fact, since Genesis 2 does not call the seventh day a sabbath, that would strongly suggest that it was not. If the doctrine of sabbath keeping was being introduced in Genesis 2, it would have benefited our tiny minds if our Creator had told us so, by at least telling us that He was talking about the sabbath. But He did not. He did not, because He was not introducing the doctrine of weekly sabbath keeping, instead He was introducing the doctrine of spiritual rest from our labors. See "Sabbath Keeping, Part I - Why It Was Established". There is more Biblical evidence to show that the seventh day of creation was not a sabbath. However, to explain this, one must have knowledge of the Calendar of Scripture and one must assume that God began creation on the first day of the first month of the first year of creation. Why would He not?
3.c. God further supports the doctrine of entering into His rest with sabbath days that are not the seventh day of a perfect week. Days such as the feast days of Scripture and those days that specify that no work is to be done. The weekly sabbath was only one of several tools God used to teach us the doctrine of entering into His rest.
3.d. But for those that mistakenly believe that sabbath keeping is a doctrine in and of itself, for those who preach and teach the gospel of man, it is very important to them to establish its beginning in Genesis 2, a place where it simply is not found no matter how much bantering they do about it. Because sabbath keeping is not an end to itself, sabbath keeping is merely a temporary tool used by our Creator to teach us about His sabbath rest. Sabbath keeping was given only to the Hebrews and only after they departed Egypt. Ezekiel 20:12 KJV, "Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am [Yahowah] that sanctify them." See also Nehemiah 9:13-14 (Part III).
4.a. Subsequently, God furthered the doctrine of entering into His rest by introducing the weekly sabbath rest in Exodus 16:23, and three weeks later making it part of the Torah and the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:8-11 KJV, "8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of [Yahowah] thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days [Yahowah] made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore [Yahowah] blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."
4.b. Once again, for those who erroneously teach that these verses confirm that weekly sabbath keeping was taught in Genesis 2, we will take a closer look at these verses. First, I will point out the obvious. It is highly doubtful that God would start a teaching in Genesis 2:2-3 (wherein the sabbath was never mentioned) and then totally drop the subject for two and one-half thousand years; then continue with the teaching in Exodus 20:10-11. In Exodus 20:10a the word sabbath is written again, but it is not referring back to Genesis 2 and calling the seventh day of creation the sabbath. Instead, it is referring to the seventh day of a complete week and drawing a comparison, a type, with the six days of work performed in Genesis chapter one followed by a day of rest. Why is there a difference between the seventh day of creation and an end of the week sabbath? As discussion in paragraph 3a above, there is no Biblical proof that the seventh day of creation was the end of a complete week; in other words, there is no proof that it was in the Saturday slot. It should be no surprise that the Scriptural Calendar does not look like Gregory's calendar. After all, Pope Gregory was part of the antichrist system and it was prophesied that this antichrist would think to change the times. Daniel 7:25 KJV, "And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time." The changing of times has occurred from the Scriptural Calendar, with its Lunar and Sun times pieces, to a Sun only based calendar.
4.c. In Exodus 20:11 the sabbath is written again. It says that "Yahowah blessed the sabbath day". The sabbath day which Yahowah blessed is the sabbath day mentioned in verse 8; and the seventh day and the sabbath day written in verse 10a; but it is not calling the seventh day of creation in verse 11 a sabbath day. Instead, it is merely using, once again, the pattern of the seventh day of creation as a type. It is saying that the pattern is that the seventh day following six days of work, is a sabbath. God even blessed and sanctified the seventh day of creation week, but He never called it a sabbath. Why is this distinction so important? It is important because those who want weekly sabbath observing to be a physical requirement for resting will never understand and strive for the spiritual rest - that God is teaching - that God has prepared for us and desires for us to enter. The Law is contrary to us and prevents us from entering into His rest. We will never obtain His rest, our salvation, by our own physical exertion and mental resolve to do so. It can only be obtained by trusting, believing, and having faith in the Almighty God, Yahowah is His name.
4.d. Besides, the sabbath rest was only given to the Hebrews in the Desert of Sin. Does that mean the rest of mankind is left out in the cold? Not at all. We all can enter into His rest, not by observing the Law or a weekly Sabbath, but by placing our faith and hope in the finished work of Yahoshua the Messiah upon the execution stake of Calvary.
5. Do not let this next point escape your notice, you may miss your salvation and end up on the road to hell. Even though the Hebrews fleeing Egypt to the Promise Land observed the weekly sabbath as required by the Torah, they did not enter into His rest. But those who believed the gospel enter into His rest. Hebrews 4:2-3,6 KJV, "2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief."
6. We welcome constructive input supported by Scriptures from the Bible. Please contact us by our email address [email protected]. Copyright © 2010 Richard Douglas Mauck and/or Sandra Faye Mauck. All rights reserved.
Sabbath Keeping
Part III - Who It Was Given To
1. The sons of Jacob became a nation when they were taken out of Egypt. Deuteronomy 4:34 KJV, "Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that [Yahowah] your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?" After God had led the nation of Israel out of Egypt and into the Desert of Sin, the sabbath - for the first time - made its splash on the pages of Scripture. Exodus 16:22-23 KJV 22, "22 And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23 And he said unto them, This is that which [Yahowah] hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto [Yahowah]: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning." It is important to know that no one, including the Hebrews, had been given the sabbath prior to this time. This is shown in Nehemiah 9:14 KJV, "And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant." See also Ezekiel 20:12 (Part II). God is being praised here for making known His holy sabbath to the Hebrews. In other words, His holy sabbath was not known prior to this time, the time of Moses. If you read Parts I and II of this Sabbath Keeping treatise you will find more Scriptures that verify this teaching.
2. The sabbath was not given to mankind, but to Israel only. And in Exodus 16, the sabbath was not given to Israel as part of their Law (the Torah), i.e., the Jewish legal system. The Law was yet to come at Mount Sinai. The sabbath was given to them as a rest and as a holy day unto Yahowah. No penalty was assessed to those who broke this sabbath, penalties were to come later, with the Law. No time limit was imposed in the Desert of Sin regarding the sabbath. God said He was testing their obedience. Exodus 16:4-5,27 KJV, "4 Then said [Yahowah] unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. 5 And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. 27 And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none." When God said, "that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no," this does not mean that the Law had now come. To properly understand this phrase, it needs to be understood as "I will test them now to see, when my law comes, whether they will obey it or not." God was preparing His people for the introduction of the Torah. From Adam until Moses, God had introduced various laws that He expected men to obey. But it was not until Mount Sinai in Exodus 20 that God gave the Torah, and He gave it to His chosen people, the Hebrews, the descendants of Jacob and Jacob's twelve sons.
3. With the introduction of the Torah came the requirement to keep the sabbath as part of a closed legal system. Exodus 20:8-11 KJV, "8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of [Yahowah] thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days [Yahowah] made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore [Yahowah] blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it." Just because God has used the seven days of creation as a pattern for giving the sabbath day of rest to the Hebrews does not make creation week a perfect week (a week that begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday) and it does not make the seventh day of creation a sabbath. When verse eleven says that Yahowah blessed the sabbath day, this Scripture is referring only to the seventh day of a perfect week that He has just given to the Hebrews. And He is using the seven days of creation only as a pattern of six days of work followed by one day of rest. He is not establishing, after the fact (three millennium later), that creation week had a sabbath at the end of it. There are some who are desperate to place God in a box. Their imaginations never rest inventing interpretations to Scriptures to ensure that at the end of the discussion that a sabbath has been established during creation week, even though the Scriptures do not teach it. In fact, the seventh day of creation week is a Friday, not a Saturday or Sabbath: see our treatise on the "Calendar of Scripture" parts I and II.
4. What is the Torah, or the Law (meaning the Law of Moses)? Deuteronomy 31:24-26 KJV, "24 And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, 25 That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of [Yahowah] saying 26 Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of [Yahowah] your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee." The Law (the Ten Commandments plus more) which was given at Mount Sinai, was first written in Scripture in Exodus 20:1 and continued to be written well into Exodus 23 and beyond. The Law is confirmed in Exodus 24:3 with oaths from the Hebrews; with the preparation of altars in Exodus 24:4; with offerings by the people in Exodus 24:5; with the sanctification of the people in Exodus 24:8; and God giving a written copy in stone of those laws (the Torah) in Exodus 24:12. Exodus 20:1 KJV, "And God spoke all these words." Exodus 24:3 KJV, "And Moses came and told the people all the words of [Yahowah], and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which [Yahowah] hath said will we do." Exodus 24:4 KJV, "And Moses wrote all the words of [Yahowah], and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel." Exodus 24:5 KJV, "And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto [Yahowah]." Exodus 24:8 KJV, "And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which [Yahowah] hath made with you concerning all these words." Exodus 24:12 KJV, "And [Yahowah] said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee tables of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them."
5. We can now see that Yahowah's seventh day of a perfect week sabbath had a place in history (for only three weeks) with only the Israelites before the Torah (or Law) and it has had a separate history within the Torah and the Israelite nation that the Torah was given to. So, when the Torah is taken away, we can more clearly see how this affects the keeping of the sabbath. Since the Torah was given to the Israelites, when the Torah is taken away, it can only be taken from the Israelites, because no one else had it. Since the Torah was the only legal system that required the keeping of the sabbath, then sabbath keeping outside of the Torah is not required by God. But one might say, wait a minute, the keeping of the sabbath was required before the Torah in the Desert of Sin as spoken of in Exodus 16:23. That is true. But it seems clear to me that Yahowah, in His graciousness and wisdom gave the sabbath to the Israelites just prior to the Torah, because He was breaking them in slowly and methodically to their new requirements that were yet to come. Many times when driving on the road, prior to a stop sign or a change in speed limit, a warning sign appears: "Stop Ahead" or "Reduce Speed Ahead". The Desert of Sin story in Exodus 16 is a warning sign from our God: "Change In Rules Ahead" or "Heads Up, Something New Is Happening". After all, He did not establish penalties for sabbath breaking in the Desert of Sin. Those penalties came with the Torah.
6. We welcome constructive input supported by Scriptures from the Bible. Please contact us by our email address [email protected]. Copyright © 2010 Richard Douglas Mauck and/or Sandra Faye Mauck. All rights reserved.
Sabbath Keeping
Part IV - Is It For Today?
1. A valid question about the longevity of sabbath keeping should be asked. If, as I have written in "Sabbath Keeping, Part III - Who It Was Given To", that sabbath keeping can be taken away, then how does that reconcile with the following statements: in Exodus 31:13 it says, the sabbath should be kept "throughout your generations"; in Exodus 31:16 it says the sabbath should be kept "throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant"; in Leviticus 16:31 it says, the sabbath would be "a statute for ever"; and in Leviticus 24:8 it says, the sabbath would be an "an everlasting covenant"? Exodus 31:13 KJV, "Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am [Yahowah] that doth sanctify you." Exodus 31:16 KJV, "Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant." Leviticus 16:31 KJV, "It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever." Leviticus 24:8 KJV, "Every sabbath he shall set it in order before [Yahowah] continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant." What does it mean to say throughout your/their generations, and perpetual, and forever, and an everlasting covenant? It means exactly what it says - forever, or continuously, or everlasting, in other words, for eternity. So, why do I contend with those who insist that sabbath keeping is a perpetual requirement?
2. As mentioned in Part III, sabbath keeping was given to the Israelites and not to men everywhere. The sabbath was never given to Christians in the New Testament. I can find a lot of Scriptures in the New Testament that give commands to Christians regarding their behavior and requirements expected of them, and many of these commands are identical to those given in the Torah, or before the Torah was ever given. But, if you can find a single New Testament Scripture that requires Christians to keep the sabbath, please share it with us. We need to know!
3. Some Messianic Jewish organizations contend that New Testament Christians have now become Jews by conversion. Look at Deuteronomy 4:34 KJV, "Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that [Yahowah] your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?" Israelites come from Jacob and his twelve sons, therefore a Christian is not an Israelite, or Jewish. Romans 9:6-8 KJV, "6 For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8 That is They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Galatians 4:28 KJV, "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise." In other words, Christians are reckoned through Isaac, not his son Israel. Once again, if you can find a Scripture(s) that states that Christians have become Jewish, please share it with us. We need to know!
4. So what has become of sabbath keeping? In paragraph one above it is pointed out that the Scriptures teach that the sabbath is to be kept by the Israelites, Jews, forever. Yahoshua has done just that, He has kept not only the sabbath, but the whole Torah, forever; so that the Jews, nor anyone else, ever has to keep it again. Matthew 5:17 KJV, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." And fulfill He did. Christ Yahoshua kept the requirements, not only of the Torah, not only of the prophets, but also all of God's laws for men. If you think not, then what about Christ's sacrifice upon the Roman execution stake at Calvary at the hands of the Jewish leaders of that day and at the hands of Pontius Pilate? Christ provided for the payment of our sins once for all for all time. Christians have no problem in believing this, so why is it so difficult to believe that He has kept the whole law for all time? Romans 6:23 KJV, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through [Yahoshua the] Christ our Lord." Do Christians have to die for their sins, or did Christ pay for those sins in our stead? John 3:16 KJV, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Understand this, we no longer need to sacrifice lambs, or bulls, or red heifers, Christ was our sacrificial lamb, once for all for all time. And He could do this because He was God and because He was the only one who could keep the Torah for all time. It is done, it is finished, the veil has been rent from top to bottom and Christians have access to the holy of holies. Matthew 27:51 KJV, "And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent." Christ said it on the stake just before He expired - "it is finished." John 19:30 KJV, "When [Yahoshua] therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost."
5. If you are keeping the sabbath because you are Jewish, then stop. Believe on the Lord Yahoshua the Messiah and be set free from the requirements of the law and be free from the penalty of your sins. If you are keeping the sabbath because it is part of the Mosiac Law or the Ten Commandments, then stop. If you are not a Christian, then keeping the law will not save you from your sins to the attainment of eternal life. If you are a Christian, then keeping the law will not save you from your sins to the attainment of eternal life. Romans 3:20 KJV, "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Galatians 5:4 KJV, "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace."
6. Even the Holy Spirit and the apostles teach against any requirement for men to be keeping the sabbath. During a council or meeting in Jerusalem, in the first century, only limited requirements were put upon Christians as they came to the faith. Acts 15:10-11 KJV, "10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord [Yahoshua the] Christ we shall be saved, even as they." Acts 15:28-29 KJV, "28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; 29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well." There are no sabbath keeping requirements here.
7. While doing this study, I became thoroughly convinced that sabbath keeping was not a requirement of the law anymore, nor a requirement for any man to keep ever again. I have been saved by the shed Blood of Christ Yahoshua. Believing this is an act of faith. Faith that has been imparted to me from God the Father by His grace. Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV, "8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast." Colossians 2:16-17 KJV, "16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ."
Galatians 4:9-10 KJV, "9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? 10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years." I would pray that those Christians who have stuck with me this far, would now open the Scriptures to Colossians, chapter two. Please read this chapter keeping in mind the whole time that it is describing your freedom from being taken captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy and freedom from sabbath keeping. May Yahowah richly bless you in your love of our Lord Yahoshua the Christ.
8. Now that it has been shown in paragraph four above that Yahoshua has met the requirements of the Torah for all time and in paragraph six above that the Holy Ghost does not require believers to keep the weekly sabbath any more, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that weekly sabbath keeping is not required. God does not require anyone to keep the sabbath any longer. You need to understand that not only are you not saved by the Torah, no one ever was and no one ever could be; but you need to further understand that weekly sabbath keeping is putting oneself under the Torah and therefore becomes a dividing wall between you and the Messiah. It is a sin that leads to the broad path of destruction if you persist and do not repent. If a Christian brother observes a special day because it is part of the Torah or any legal system and thereby hopes to save his soul; or teaches others to observe a weekly sabbath because of the Torah; then rebuke him. Galatians 5:4 KJV, "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." 2 Peter 1:9 KJV, "But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." And Galatians 3:10-14 KJV, "10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. 12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them. 13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: 14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the [nations] through [Yahoshua the] Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." For the man who claims that he is already saved by grace and not the Torah, but then goes back to observing the Torah anyway, please reread Galatians 3:12 in this paragraph. It states very plainly that you have gone back under the Law. And reread Galatians 5:4 in this paragraph, it cannot be made more clear - YOU HAVE FALLEN FROM GRACE!
9. Once again, Yahoshua said, John 14:15,21 KJV, "15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. 21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." Yahoshua the Messiah is not saying for us to obey the Torah - that has already been covered in this treatise - He is saying that you are to obey Him out of love, not out of legal obligation; you are to obey Him because you believe in Him and trust that what He says is best for your life now and for all eternity. John 10:10b KJV, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
10. While doing this study, I have become convinced that my Father still wants us to take a sabbath day of rest for our own health and spiritual well-being. We are not legalistic about it. We look forward to doing what our Lord did and enjoy the beautiful things He created on the day we keep. We can do those things necessary to live life, including ministering to and healing the sick, Luke 13:14; preparing and consuming food, Matthew 12:1-2,8; and pulling my sheep out of a ditch, Matthew 12:11; and it does not have to be, nor is it, on Saturday. Luke 13:14 KJV, "And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that [Yahoshua] had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day." Matthew 12:1-2,8,11 KJV, "1 At that time [Yahoshua] went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. 8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day. 11 And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?"
11. We welcome constructive input supported by Scriptures from the Bible. Please contact us by our email address [email protected]. Copyright © 2010 Richard Douglas Mauck and/or Sandra Faye Mauck. All rights reserved.
Sabbath Keeping
Part V - Fleshly Legalism Brings Death, The Spirit Brings Life
by Sandy Mauck
Everything that Yahoshua would try to teach, the Pharisees wanted to take into the realm of the flesh. They were supposed to be spiritual but they were really flesh.
Our precious Lord taught us over and over to stop looking at the fleshly aspects of things; instead, look at the spiritual. The spiritual man is that which is important. He called them on it concerning everything they said to him. Over and over He purposely healed on the sabbath so they could see that their hearts were flesh and not spirit.
When the man at the pool of Bethesda was healed, He told him to pick up his bed. This of course freaked the Pharisees out as they were making their sabbath keeping rounds. When they got after the guy, he told it like it was. (In my words) The guy that healed me told me to do it- why should I NOT do what He says!
That is the message. We can tithe and do all the stuff according to the law but God is a heart changer. When people want to bring you under legalism, one legalistic thing becomes another, and so on. Why? Because it is a trap. Religion is a trap. Many of us grew up in very religious churches and they had all their traditions that they did. Did it bring forth life? No, of course not, it brought death.
It was in the heart of our God to send His Son to show the world the heart of the matter. If you look back to the reasoning of the beginning of the sabbath, it wasn't so much for the rest of the Hebrews but that those people would NOT put others under slavery as they had been. He knew them. He knew they were hard hearted even before they manifested it in the wilderness.
And we are all the same. Not one of us is pure in ourselves. We are all flesh. Our only righteousness is in our Savior who paid the price for our sins. Don't tempt God with legalism - HE HATES IT!
Does He want us to rest physically? Of course, but He wants us to be led by His Holy Spirit in all things. The Holy Spirit might tell you to rest for a week or a month or a year! But the bottom line is that HE IS OUR REST. An all encompassing precious concept of the Spirit of the Living God! He paid for it. We can now rest in that!
