what is the sabbath – Larus Press

“Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.“ (Genesis 2:3)

GOD blessed the 7th day.

What is blessing?

GOD made a covenant with Abraham. A covenant is more than a commitment or promise. It runs so deep — like a marriage GOD makes an everlasting promise to Abraham…

Genesis 17:4-7 reads, “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.” Read further into the chapter to grasp the entire promise GOD made with Abraham.

Everything that Abraham might do would be blessed. His family from generation to generation would be blessed. Those who would bless him and his people the Hebrews would also be blessed.

A blessing is an undeserved favour, a gift, a talent, a free pass to rest and comfort and peace.

GOD blessed the 7th day, making it holy and a blessing to man.

Preparing the Bride for GOD’s Story

How do we prepare as the Bride of Christ? One aspect is to learn GOD’S STORY. He created us in His image…. Piece by piece, and peace by peace, we learn to walk as He has walked. And we learn His perspective.

What is the Lord’s Day

As far as we Gentiles understand, Jesus rose on “Sunday” and so, although Sabbath was declared by the LORD in the Wilderness as the 7th day ie “Saturday” (based on scripture and the Hebrew equivalent), the established Church moved the official Christian day of worship from Saturday to Sunday during the 4th Century.

I can’t help wondering, when we moved the day of worship to the 1st day of the week, what is the blessing of the Sabbath day that we are missing?

From GOD’s perspective, He called one day to be holy, a day of rest, a Sabbath. That was the 7th Day and no one disputes that is what we call “Saturday” The Jews keep their Sabbath as Saturday even to this day. But the established Christian church, by-and-large throughout the world, is not keeping that 7th Day holy.

Are you aware the day of worship was moved from Saturday to Sunday? We can worship seven days a week, and that is grand! But it might be rare amongst Christians to be aware that The Lord’s Day is not the same day as the Sabbath day. When we worship at church on a Sunday that is not GOD’s Sabbath day.

Chosen because it was the day of Jesus’ resurrection, were we called to change our day of worship and rest?

GOD’s Sabbath Day

What does GOD make clear to those who hold onto the Sabbath — His chosen Sabbath — and make it a holy day?

In Deuteronomy 7:12-16 GOD says,

“Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. And the Lord will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you…..”

And Deuteronomy 11:9, 14 reads,

“… and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’” & “… then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.”

Deuteronomy 28:1 is the culmination:

“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.”

GOD offers abundance, prosperity, blessing, victory. peace.

Finally, we know GOD asks for obedience over sacrifice. All the sacrifices in the world are nothing to Him compared to an act of obedience. As it says in 1 Samuel 15:22,

“So Samuel said: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.”

And so the challenge

I challenge us all to make Saturday our personal Sabbath to the LORD.

When we obey we’ll learn His perspective and gain His wisdom. We don’t do it for the blessing but out of obedience. And we allow Him to respond as He will.

Sabbath is Saturday, the day the LORD rested after creating the universe and its living creatures.

For quite some time, the World has been putting Saturday and Sunday at the end of the calendar week, making Saturday appear to be the 6th day. The early Church drifted from its Jewish roots and determined that since 3 days after Jesus’ crucifixion he was raised and that was the first day of the week, Sunday, they would call it the Lord’s Day. Eventually it replaced the Sabbath as the day for congregational worship. Today some earnest Believers think Sunday is the Sabbath.

The fourth Commandment says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:8-11)

One cannot change the day God rested. We can discuss how we are not under law but under grace, and that is true. But do we kill, covet or commit adultery? Of course not. Those are Commandments and as such mark a better way to live.

So, why do so many of us take the Sabbath more lightly than other of God’s guidelines? I confess I’m not always perfectly resting on the Sabbath, doing nothing that would bring in income, directly or indirectly, what one would call “work”. I do rest on Saturdays, but admittedly sometimes it is hard.

How about you, reader? Do you keep the Sabbath – Saturday – Holy and unto Father God?

Apart from it being one of God’s Commandments, why is it of relevance today and are we to keep this commandment? The answer is that, apart from it being God’s Commandment which simply marks the better way to live, it also has to do with Israel and the Jewish people.

I am of the understanding based on scripture that the Jewish people are still God’s Chosen People. Discussion about that let’s save for another time, but we can agree I hope, that Jesus came for all of us, and for every nation, and he will come again when all the nation groups have had the witness of Jesus.

So, like all mankind, the Jewish people are invited to recognise Yeshua – Jesus’ name in Hebrew – as Messiah, the saviour of the World. And how will they be able to recognise Yeshua suddenly, if over 2000 years relatively few have? The answer is because the Jewish traditions – which have been hidden inside the Christian faith – must be released, revealed, exposed, to enable these people to see how the prophecy of their Messiah perfectly lines up with history.

Keeping the Jewish traditions hidden from view, such as using the first day rather than the seventh day as the “Sabbath”, makes it more difficult than it needs to be for the Jew to recognise he is meant to be a part of the Bride, the Church.

In Ephesians 2, Paul refers to the Gentiles as joining with all the Saints (in context: the Jewish Believers) as part of the Church. It is the One New Man, united by the faith in the Messiah, that will pull the Church through the challenges thrust upon it. (Ephesians 2:11-22) As you study and meditate on Ephesians 2 and 3, you will be able to see how God intends for Jew and Gentile to worship together.

Truly, if God is to minister and bring to the Jewish people the knowledge of Yeshua, then we, His Church, must help by allowing the Hebrew Roots of the faith to be exposed. The Sabbath only scratches the surface, but it is a start to revealing the Messiah and the Saviour as one and the same.

We can begin with aligning our day of worship with our Hebrew Roots. God’s choice of the Sabbath is recognisable to the Jewish people and it is Biblical, so I suggest a call to action: Let’s shift and use it.

**Next week I’ll send out an Extra Newsletter, on Thursday 21st, to share about Christmas. It’s a hot topic. It’s roots extend beyond the birth of Jesus, which most likely occurred in late September.**