‘Observe the day of Shabbat, to set it apart as holy, as Adonai your God ordered you to do. You have six days to labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Shabbat for Adonai your God. On it you are not to do any kind of work — not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave, not your ox, your donkey or any of your other livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates to your property — so that your male and female servants can rest just as you do. You are to remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and Adonai your God brought you out from there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore Adonai your God has ordered you to keep the day of Shabbat.“-Deuteronomy 5:12-15
I’ve already written a ton of articles (37 posts to be exact) on the Sabbath, so I’m only going to touch on a few points here.
The first thing I want to point out is that although most English Bible translations say “observe the Sabbath day“, that’s not the best rendering from the original Hebrew.
Why?
Because the original Hebrew literally reads “Observe the Shabbat“.
What I’m getting at is that out of the seven days of the week, it is only the 7th day that has been set apart and given a unique name.
The other days of the week are simply called “the 1st Day“, “the 2nd Day“…and so on.
However, it is only the 7th day of the week that has been given a specific name and that name is SHABBAT.
Do you understand the significance of this?
It means the 7th day of the week (meaning Friday sundown to Saturday sundown) is not just any other day of the week.
It is a specific day of the week the Lord has declared as HOLY.
To this point, it’s really important to understand that only the Lord has the authority to declare something HOLY.
Your pastor doesn’t have that authority.
And the Catholic Church sure as hell doesn’t have that authority.
The declaration of anything HOLY is only a prerogative of God.
No man or organization has the authority to declare another day (like Sunday) as a separate holy day.
Another point you should understand is that the Shabbat is far more than merely a day of physical rest from one’s daily labors.
Have you ever heard this argument from the Christians?
“We can make any day of the week we choose a Sabbath day as long as we at least choose one day out of the week to rest and honor the Lord”.
Ummm…no.
In fact, hell no.
Just taking a day off doesn’t in and of itself make any day a Sabbath day.
Heck, the pagans even have days off.
In ancient times, there were days off to celebrate the winter and summer solstices.
There were days off to celebrate the inauguration of kings, the celebration and worship of numerous gods, and days off to celebrate the end of a harvest season.
While these may be days of rest, they are NOT the Sabbath…because the Biblical Sabbath is all about observing the miracle of Creation on a weekly basis.
Another often misunderstood point is when Yeshua said “The Shabbat was made for man, not man for the Shabbat“.
The Christians completely misconstrue these words and interpret them to mean that what Yeshua was really saying is since the Shabbat was made for man, we have the freedom to choose any day of the week we want to be our Shabbat or whether we even want to observe Shabbat at all.
However, that’s not what Yeshua was saying.
Yeshua was saying that the purpose of the Shabbat was to have one day of rest set apart so that man could have a block of holy time set aside to enjoy and refresh his relationship with the Lord.
The Shabbat is to be a time of reflection and gratitude for everything the Lord has done for you.
It is also a time to meditate on the fact that God as the sustaining force in the universe is ultimately in control of everything in our lives.
This is a time of deep contemplation and honoring our Creator and our Savior.
Because that is indeed what life is all about.
It is in this sense that the Sabbath was indeed made for man.
We need the Sabbath to rejuvenate our souls and restore our relationship with the Lord.
The observance of the Sabbath will surely keep us sane in this insane world we’re living in.
Shalom Rich,
The Shabbat is like a day of fresh air, set aside to breathe in God’s word and let His word fill your temple. Purging the ugliness of the world from your temple and breathing in His word, His light, His love.
Thank you for your teachings, they are a blessing to me.
Remain blessed,
Colette
Hi Colette, I’m glad you found this post edifying. Hope you’re making plans to take to Israel! Be blessed and shalom!