The Shabbath
Whosoever therefore shall
break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be
called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them,
the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
(Mathew 5:19)
It pleases our Teacher YESHUA for us to keep and teach the
commandments of the Torah, this is a truth that cannot be denied.
Let’s remember that the commandments of Elohim (God) are in what
is called “The Books of Moses” these normally are the first five books of what
is called the Bible, these five books are called by Elohim “The Torah” (The
Instructions, not the Law).
The commandments of Elohim are easy to keep; we need to believe
what the following verse says.
For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not too
hard for thee, neither is it far off.
(Deuteronomy 30:11 ASV)
The example for our lives and our hero is our wonderful savior
YESHUA, we follow him wherever he goes, and we imitate what He does. YESHUA was
born keeping the Torah and He not only kept perfectly the commandments of the
Torah, He came to teach us how to keep them because the Torah is YESHUA
himself, the Word of Elohim.
This is the way we approach to learn the keeping of the Shabbath
day. The writer of this document confesse’s to you that I don’t have all the
revelation regarding the Shabbath, but what YESHUA has been teaching me I will
share with you to bring you to a place that you will be able to start to drink
from the living waters that this revelation is supplying to us and in this way
learn directly from YESHUA.
Thus the heavens and the
earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day Elohim
ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his
work which he had made. And Elohim blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it:
because that in it he had rested from all his work which Elohim created and
made.
(Genesis 2:1-3)
The Shabbath is a sign between Elohim and Israel.
It is a sign
between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD
made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
(Exodus 31:17)
How can we keep
Shabbath? We need to be free from traditions of man, and from the rejection to
His commandments and follow the Ruach/Spirit, this is the way we will approach
to this subject.
Religion or tradition
are not a pattern to us about how we keep any of the commandments, they are an
obstacle, if we learn religion and tradition before knowing the commandment we
need to be set free from that spirit, the spirit that a commandment of man
brings to our life.
It will be necessary to
open our hearts to receive the Ruach HaKodesh/Holy Spirit that comes with the
true Word of Elohim, which comes with the commandment that is in the Word
because the Word is Ruach/Spirit (John 6:63), the Word is the “Ruach HaKodesh/Holy
Spirit” and YESHUA is the Word.
There is cleansing
power in His Word, His Commandments are His word, therefore His commandments
cleanse us. By keeping the Shabbath we became clean!
The Shabbath is the only day of the week that
Elohim put a name on it, He called it Shabbath.
Remember the sabbath day,
to keep it holy; six days you shall labor and do all your work; and the seventh
day is a sabbath to Yhuh your Elohim; you shall not do any work, you, and
your son, and your daughter, your male slave and your slave-girl, and your
livestock, and your stranger who is in your gates. For in six
days Yhuh made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all which is in them,
and He rested on the seventh day; on account of this Yhuh blessed the sabbath
day and sanctified it.
(Exodus 20:8-11 LITV)
This blessing and
sanctification for the Shabbath comes from the Creation, away before Israel
existed.
So we approach to the commandment
free from any pre-judgment, and focused in our Lord YESHUA as our teacher and
example. We know YESHUA was keeping the Torah, and the Religious people of that
time were not keeping the Torah (John 7:19 … none of you
keepeth the Torah).
In the book of Isaiah
He explains more about how to keep the commandment of the Shabbath.
If you turn your foot
away because of the sabbath, from doing what you please on My holy days,
and call the sabbath a delight, to the holiness of Yhuh, glorified; and shall
glorify Him, to the holiness of not doing your own ways, from finding
your own pleasure or speaking your word; then you shall delight yourself
in Yhuh. And I will cause you to ride on the heights of the earth, and make you
eat with the inheritance of your father Jacob. For the mouth of Yhuh has
spoken.
(Isaiah 58:13-14 LITV)
We are commanded by Him
to stop labor, delight, rest and be in our places, to come to the holiness of
not doing our own ways, so Shabbath is a day dedicated to YESHUA resting at
home.
We cannot say to the
Lord that this commandment is difficult to keep, I think this is the most easy
fiscally talking. It may be difficult spiritually talking because the enemy
doesn’t want us to rest.
As a spiritual rule
shown in the Torah, “obedience brings blessings” (Deu 28:1-14) and
“disobedience curses” (Deu 28:15-68), and what is written in Isaiah completely
agrees with that regarding the Shabbath.
Blessed is
the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it; keeping sabbath,
from defiling it; and keeping his hand from doing every evil.
(Isaiah 56:2 LITV)
The keeping of the
commandments of Elohim is not to make us righteous, we keep His commandments
because we are obedient and we love Him. Only “faith can make us righteous”,
this is also a spiritual rule shown in the Torah.
And he (Abraham)
believed in Yhuh. And He counted it to him for righteousness.
(Genesis 15:6 LITV)
There is a very
important spiritual rule in the commandments that the Lord gave us, it is
impossible to obey Him without knowing and keeping this rule; “a more important
commandment can overrule other commandments”, that’s why we need to be sensible
to the Ruach/Spirit.
For example
circumcision overrules Shabbath (John 7:21) or the work of the priests in the Temple
overrules Shabbath (Mathew 12:5), if you don’t have food and need to eat and it
is necessary to work in a field to get the food, the commandment of mercy and
love will overrule the commandment of the Shabbath (Mathew 12:1), that’s why
the Torah are the Instructions, not law.
To Love our neighbor as
we love ourselves is one of the most important commandments in the Torah, this
commandment will overrule Shabbath. For example if is necessary to collect wood
and make fire, or go shopping for food to save the life of somebody on the
Shabbath day, we will not be disobeying His commandments we will be keeping
them!
Religion cannot
understand this. To have the right discernment the leading of the Holy Spirit
is essential, we cannot discern right without the Ruach HaKodesh/Holy Spirit.
It is always easier to
set rules than to be sensitive to the Ruach HaKodesh, we are called to follow
the Ruach we must take time to pray and hear from Him, to learn to walk in His
ways. This will be done in humbleness and in the fear of the Lord, to have
wisdom. Then we will keep Shabbath in a way that pleases Him.
YESHUA overrules all
commandments; He is the Lord of the Shabbath. Sometimes we don’t fully
understand the commandments or we don’t know them and the Spirit will tell us
to do something that looks in our minds like it might be against a commandment,
we need to obey Him. Always understanding will come later, YESHUA will show us
that we were really keeping Torah if we submit. Remember we are forever students
because we recognize YESHUA as our Teacher (if you haven’t you can do it now).
YESHUA is the Lord of
the Shabbath, by keeping the Shabbath we are showing He is our Lord, because
the Shabbath is a sign.
You shall not kindle a
fire in all your dwellings on the day of the Sabbath.
(Exodus 35:3 LITV)
Yes, this verse is in
the Scriptures, this is a commandment that tests our hearts, the way we
approach to keep His commandments is without conditions. YESHUA was keeping
this commandment. I don’t have the revelation about why this commandment was
given, but I have this revelation; this is really a commandment of Elohim.
Again we need to believe with our hearts that the most important commandment of
the Torah is that Yhuh is One and we need to love Him and our neighbors as
ourselves, only then we will see the liberty that the Torah gives us when we
keep the commandaments.
Most of the Appointed
days of Elohim, the days of celebration and special days to be observed are
also a Shabbath day of rest, except for Passover. This means that the
instructions for Shabbath are also valid for those days, like the First Day of
Unleavened bread and the last day, Feast of Weeks, Feast of Blowing (Trumpets),
Kippur, First day of Tabernacles and the last day. Some details about how to
keep Shabbath are added where the commandment of keeping a feast is given for
example in the following verse that is for the feast of Weeks.
… You
shall do no work of service. It is a never ending statute in all your
dwellings throughout your generations.
(Leviticus 23:21b LITV)
Holy Occasion.
We are commanded to do
a Holy Occasion on Shabbaths at home, (that is normally translated as
convocation).
Work is to be done six
days, and in the seventh day shall be a sabbath of rest, a holy occasion;
you shall do no work; it is a sabbath to Yhuh in all your dwellings.
(Leviticus 23:3 LITV)
Behold! Because Yhuh has
given the sabbath to you, therefore He is giving to you two days of bread on
the sixth day. Each one of you remain in his place. Do not let anyone go out
from his place on the seventh day.
(Ex 16:29)
There are not in the
Torah any commandment about making a convocation, Elohim is not talking about
religion here, this we need to receive, believe and understand. Elohim didn’t
bring a religion to mankind, He hates religion! The Scriptures are not
revealing to us a religion. Religion is an invention of man.
Therefore these
commandments need to be obeyed outside of religion. We need to obey this in a
house, in a family, or among brethren we join together in holiness (remember
the definition of holiness is in the Torah) during the Shabbath and invite
YESHUA to come in and spend the Shabbath with us, this is the most important
thing in Shabbath, to invite YESHUA. We cannot have rest without the Prince of
Peace (Heb. Sar Shalom).
Remember Shabbath
starts in Jerusalem at the sunset of the day before and ends at sunset. All the
instructions of the Temple Service are for the time in Jerusalem, this is the
real timing for the sacrifice of the evening, for example; if there is a
spiritual importance in being in sync with times for certain spiritual things
the time in Jerusalem will be essential for our intercession, prayer, worship
to be effective. We need to see this without pride, we can rest in Shabbath
under the time zone we are in, but is necessary to know that the true timing
for spiritual things is in Jerusalem, that’s the place where He decided to put
His Name forever.
The Millenium, The
Shabbath.
All the feasts of
Elohim are prophetic, and the Shabbath is not the exception. Each day in the
creation related in the book of Genesis (Heb. Bereshit) points to a thousand
years of History since Adam and Eve. For Him one day is like a thousand years.
There is the promise of
one thousand years with the Messiah reigning; this will correspond
prophetically to the seventh day of rest in creation. The Shabbath.
And I saw an angel coming
down out of Heaven, having the key of the abyss, and a great chain on his hand.
And he laid hold of the dragon, the old serpent who is the Devil, and Satan,
and bound him a thousand years.
(Revelation 20:1-2
LITV)
Shabbath and the Torah.
For many years I have
been reading one portion of the Torah every Shabbath, I asked YESHUA to explain
to me why I felt so much peace and felt so much richness while reading the
portion every weekend. I asked this question because there is no such
commandment to divide the Torah in portions and read it every Shabbath. YESHUA
answered my question (and will answer all of yours), He showed me that the
Torah is connected with Shabbath by one of the commandments.
And Moses commanded them,
saying, At the end of seven years in the appointed time (the
sabbatical year), the year of release, in the Feast of
Tabernacles, when all Israel comes in to see the face of Yhuh in the place
which He chooses, you shall proclaim this Torah before all Israel, in their
ears. (read it)
(Deuteronomy 31:10-11
LITV)
The peace and renewal I
feel every Shabbath when I read the Torah is real and is for all of us.
Thanks Lord for your commandments.
May The Lord bless you according to His Word.
In the Love of YESHUA.
Glory to the King of Glory, YESHUA Hamashiach.
The City of The King.
Note:
Unless otherwise indicated the verses from the Bible are in "light blue" and taken from the translation called "The King
James Version 1769", the literal translations are in "dark blue", the Name YESHUA has been kept in his original Hebrew
form, the Greek word Christos has been kept as Messiah his real meaning.
(*) The expression
"the LORD" has been kept also in his original form of four Hebrew
letters, in English Yhuh where "U" is a "long U", this is
the transliteration of the Hebrew letter "Vav", that YESHUA in His
big mercy has revealed to us was the old way of pronouncing.
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