More Info on How to Observe the Shabbat

It’s time to shake some people out of their spiritual complacency and to wake up the spiritually lukewarm!

WARNING!

This passage of Scripture gives us more information on how to observe the seventh day Sabbath or Shabbat. In this regard I have a serious question for some of you. How long will you hard-hearted, stiff-necked and rebellious people refuse to keep the seventh day Sabbath as the Creator of the universe himself gave us an example to do in Genesis chapter two, as he commanded all humans (not just the Jews) to do when he gave the ten commandments in Exodus chapter 20, which he commanded his people to do down through ages via his prophets, which Yeshua the Messiah and the apostles and early New Testament believers kept, and which the Bible prophesies will be kept during the millennial reign of King Yeshua the Messiah on this earth after his second coming? How long will you believe the lies that most of the Old Testament law and Jew-hating early Catholic church fathers pawned off on generations of Christians to this day that the Sabbath no longer matters, was done away with and nailed to the cross and that now Sunday has replaced the Sabbath? Almost all of Christendom believes this unbiblical lie. At one time they mainstream church believed that the earth was flat and persecuted and killed those who taught otherwise. Maybe the church is wrong about their view of a the seventh day Sabbath as well!

The Bible instructs us NOT to follow the masses to do evil, that is, to sin against Elohim by going against his Word or commands (Exod 23:2).

Finally, one last question: how long will you continue to follow the dictates of your carnal hearts as Paul so clearly states in Romans 8:6–8 and go against the clear commands of YHVH Elohim and not observe the seventh day Sabbath?

For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against Elohim; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Furthermore:

“But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word.” says YHVH Elohim (Isa 66:2)

[F]or not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of Elohim, but the doers of the law will be justified… (Rom 2:13, according to Paul)

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness/Torahlessness!'” (Matt 7:21–23, Yeshua speaking)

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.  For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:17–20, Yeshua speaking)

(Note: At this point, I’m not feeling inclined to take any comments countering my position on the validity of the seventh day Sabbath. I know what the Bible says, and I don’t care what men have to say to the contrary, and, frankly, I’m not interested in arguing over this point. This is time-consuming old business for me and it’s time to move on. For those who are honest truth seekers and want to learn more about what Scripture has to say about the Sabbath as opposed to those people who merely care to uphold traditions of men by which the word of Elohim has been made of none effect (Mark 7:13), I have this to say: On this blog, I have posted numerous articles on the Sabbath. You can find them by typing in “Sabbath” or “Shabbat” on this blog’s search engine on the front page. Love and blessings to everyone — Natan)


Exodus 35:2, The seventh day … shall be … a set-apart day. In our journey through the Torah, the subject of the seventh day Sabbath keeps popping up. Why is this? This is because it’s obviously an important subject to YHVH. 

When YHVH said in Exodus 20:8 to “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it set-apart (Heb. kadosh),” he is reminding the Israelites of it so that they won’t forget it! He reminds us again in the verse above to keep the Sabbath set-apart. 

But there’s more. 

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What’s so special about the Shabbat and how to keep it so

Exodus 31:13–17, My Sabbaths you shall keep. Note that Sabbaths is plural. This is a reference not only to the weekly Sabbath, but to the feast day Sabbaths as well. However, the seventh day Sabbath remains central to YHVH’s spiritual economy for his people. In fact, it was so central to the spiritual life and YHVH’s people that he designated it to be a visible and outward sign of the special relationship between him and his people. Let’s explore this idea.

Why did YHVH designate it as a sign (“signal, distinguishing mark, banner,” Exod 31:12) between him and Israel? As YHVH’s set-apart people, Israel was distinguishing itself from the surrounding nations who did not keep the Sabbath. What distinguishes the saints today as YHVH’s set-apart people from the non-believing heathen around them? Certainly our love for one another is a distinguishing mark, according to Yeshua (John 13:35). Yeshua also said that if we love him we will keep his Torah commandments (of which the Sabbath is the fourth of the ten commandments, John 14:15; Exod 20:8). John was inspired to write that those who say they know Elohim and don’t keep his Torah-commandments (of which the Sabbath is a foundation stone) are liars and the truth is not in them (1 John 2:3–6). And finally, Yeshua told those who were Torahless (i.e. workers of iniquity or lawlessness) to depart from him, that he didn’t know them even though they claimed to be his followers and had done many religious works in his name (Matt 7:21–23). Although the Sabbath and the biblical feasts may not be the exact sign of the Renewed Covenant, Elohim’s Sabbaths are foundation stones of the Torah, and the keeping of them remains to this day for the saints of Elohim (Heb 4:9).

The ArtScroll Stone Edition Tanach translates verse 15 as follows:

For six days work may be done and the seventh day is a day of complete rest, it is sacred to [YHVH] … (emphasis added)

What is complete rest? What is the connection between “complete rest” and the idea of sacredness or being set-apartness or kadosh? The people of YHVH are called to separate the kodesh from the common or profane:

Her priests have violated my Torah, and have profaned my set-apart/kodesh things: they have put no difference between the kodesh and profane [common, polluted] neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. (Ezek 22:26)

And [the priests] shall teach my people the difference between the kodesh and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. (Ezek 44:23)

What is common or profane is that which is commonly done on the other six days of the week.

Exodus 31:14, Sabbath…profanes it.Profaning or polluting the Sabbath with secular activities is a sin. Sabbath desecration is as much a capital offence in YHVH’s eyes now as it was then. The wages of sin is still death (Ezek 18:4; Rom 6:23). 

Exodus 31:18, Written with the finger.The Sabbath was ordained by Elohim and written by his finger. How dare men subsequently declare that the Sabbath was changed and that what YHVH wrote with his finger in tablets of stone is now irrelevant or passé! What hubris and arrogance on men’s part to counter the will and laws of Elohim with silly, specious and vacuous justifications for man-made and unbiblical teachings. Such edicts of men will not stand, but will blow away like dust in the wind, will be burned to ashes in the fiery judgment of Elohim, and will fall by the wayside like all the other traditions of men, which have dared to make the word of Elohim of no effect!

 

NathanTalks: There is no shalom like shabbat shalom!

Years ago there was a soft drink that had the catch phrase, “Try it, you’ll like it.” The Bible says something like this: “Taste and see that YHVH/the LORD is good.” The same is true of the seventh day Sabbath (or Shabbat in Hebrew). This is the only day of the week that YHVH blessed and sanctified (set it aside for a special purpose) and made into a divine appointment where he promised to meet with his people. He never did this with Sunday or any other day of the week. That’s why there’s a special blessing on the Sabbath—and with it comes a joy and peace unlike any other day. Until you start honoring or “tasting” the seventh day Sabbath, you’ll never understand or experience this special blessing. This video explains this and encourages you to try it, you’ll like it!

 

The Importance of the Seventh Day Sabbath

Exodus 16:4–30,The importance of the Sabbath.This chapter chronicles YHVH’s efforts to literally force an irreverent, unruly and disobedient nation to keep the seventh day Sabbath.

Observance of the seventh day Sabbath was one of the first things YHVH taught his people after coming out of Egypt. This shows the importance of this commandment in the eyes of the Creator. Egypt is a biblical metaphor for this world, Passover is a picture of salvation and coming through the Red Sea is a picture of baptism for the remission of sins. This teaches us that Sabbath observance is one of the first acts of obedience that a new believer will do after “being saved.” All arguments to the contrary—about how the Sabbath was done away with or exchanged for Sunday—are meaningless, irrelevant and antibfiblical lies having been propagated by liars, deceivers and the biblically ignorant. Period.

In this chapter, YHVH endeavored to teach the Israelites the importance of the Sabbath in a most  poignant way and pragmatic way—through food and hunger.

It’s as if YHVH were instructing the stiff-necked and rebellious Israelites that if they refused to follow his Sabbath instructions, they would literally go hungry: “If you don’t obey me, you don’t eat.”

This shows the gravity the Creator places on the Sabbath command. Yet despite these clear instructions, most in the Babylonian (Rev 18:4) mainstream church today, like the rebellious children of Israel of old, refuse to obey YHVH’s clear instructions regarding the Sabbath. Instead, they prefer to believe the doctrines of men proffered to them by their spiritual leaders that purport to invalidate the Sabbath command. Paul’s sage observation in Romans 8:7 describes the situation perfectly: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against Elohim: for it is not subject to the [Torah] law of Elohim, neither indeed can be.” In our day, the same question can still be asked of followers of Yeshua that YHVH asked of the Israelites at that time, “How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?” (Exod 16:28).

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