13 - The Sabbath
Covenant
Yeshua and The
Sabbath
He [Yeshua] went to Nazareth, where he had
been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as
was his custom. (Luke 4:16)
We discussed the desecration of all that God has
made holy. The New Testament Gospels record the confrontation between
Yeshua and the teachers of the Torah regarding the keeping of the
Sabbath. It is from these passages that many today have been given the
impression that Yeshua was teaching that the Sabbath did not need to be
observed as stated in the fourth commandment. In reality, Yeshua was
teaching the people that the observance of the Sabbath in his day had
become a legalistic day of rest.
Going on from that place, he went into their
synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a
reason to accuse Yeshua, they asked him. "Is it lawful to heal on the
Sabbath? He said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into
a pit on the Sabbath will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How
much more valuable is a man that a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do
good on the Sabbath." Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand."
So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as
the other. (Matthew 12:10-13)
The question we need to ask here is, "Did Yeshua
break the Sabbath command by healing?" We know that the definition of
sin is breaking the Torah. If Yeshua had broken the Torah by violating
the command of the Sabbath, then he would have sinned and would then be
a blemished sacrifice. But we know that Yeshua was sinless, therefore
he could not have violated the Sabbath command. Yeshua' accuser then
must have had a false concept of the Sabbath.
Many years before the birth of Yeshua, the Jews
began to define the word "work" when applied to the Sabbath. They came
up with a set of "oral laws" stating what specifically could and could
not be done on the Sabbath. In doing this, they made the observance of
the Sabbath a legalistic observance. There are certain activities that
could be called "work" which must be done on the Sabbath. The feeding
and watering of animals must be done; some chores in the household must
be done. The best way to determine if the "work" can be done on a
Sabbath is to ask two questions; "Can this work be done on another day
or do I need to do it today?" The second is "Will this work bring glory
to God or to myself?" As we will see, Yeshua observed the Sabbath but
not in the way that the Pharisees expected it to be observed.
The
Sabbath Rest Continues
For somewhere he has spoken of the seventh
day in these words: 'And on the seventh day God rested from all his
work.' And again in the passage above he says, 'They shall never enter
my rest.' It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those
who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of
their disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it
Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said
before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." For
if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about
another day. There remains, then a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;
for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as
God did from his. Let us. Therefore, make every effort to enter that
rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of
disobedience. (Heb 4:4-11)
The above passage is speaking of two different
types of rest. They are the Sabbath-rest and the Promised land-rest.
God promised Israel rest when they would enter into the Promised
Land.
"Since you have not yet reached the resting place
and the inheritance the LORD your God is giving you. But you will cross
the Jordan and settle in the land the LORD your God is giving you as an
inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you
so that you will live in safety." (Deuteronomy 12:9,10)
But because of Israel's disobedience they never
received that rest in the Promised Land.
Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,
as you did that day at Massah in the desert, where your fathers tested
and tried me, though they had seen what I did. For forty years I was
angry with that generation, I said, "They are a people whose hearts go
astray, and they have not known my ways." So I declared on oath in my
anger, "They shall never enter my rest." (Psalms 95:8-11)
It appears that the writer of Hebrews was trying
to get the point across to his readers that just because we have a rest
in God, does not mean that the Sabbath-rest is done away with. "There
remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people" (Hebrews 4:9). Hebrews
4:10 said, "anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work,
just as God did from his". The writer is pointing out that rest in God
also means a rest from labor for one day just as he did on the seventh
day of creation.
It is interesting that two arguments for the
change in the Sabbath today in the churches are; "the rest is not a
rest from one day but a rest in God" and second; "It does not matter
which day you rest as long as you take one day and rest". Hebrew 4
clearly shows that both of these statements are false. This will be
discussed in greater detail in chapter 16.
The
Sabbath Covenant Is Everlasting
Let us not forget that the Sabbath
Covenant given in Exodus 31:16 is an everlasting covenant for the
Children of Israel. Some will argue that this Sabbath covenant is for
the Jews only, but let us also not forget the command found in the
Torah.
"The community is to have the same rules for you
and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the
generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the
LORD: The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the
alien living among you." (Numbers 15:15,16)
The word alien above is used for those not born
in the line of Jacob but choose to join in the assembly with Israel and
the covenant with God. Chapter 15 will also look at this in more
depth.
Since the Sabbath command is part of God's
Torah, we must remember that the Torah is eternal; Psalms 116:160 "All
your words are true; all your righteous laws are eternal."
Was the
Sabbath Changed To Sunday?
We have already discussed two reasons why
many believers believe that we do not need to keep the Seventh Day
Sabbath, which were; It doesn't matter which day is set aside as the
Sabbath, and our rest is in God not a Sabbath day. There is another
popular view that is that when Yeshua rose from the dead on Sunday (the
first day of the week); he changed the Sabbath from the Seventh Day
(Saturday) to the First Day (Sunday). There are three scriptures used
to support the view that the Sabbath had been changed to Sunday, they
are; Acts 20:7, 1 Cor 16:2, and Rev 1:10. Lets take a look at each of
these to see what they are saying.
On the first day of the week we came together to
break bread. (Acts 20:7)
Here it would appear that the Christians met on
Sunday, the first day, for communion, which is part of the worship
service. But if you read the passages following this, you will see that
Paul is leaving for a journey the following day and probably wanted to
meet with everyone before he left. You will also notice that the
breaking of the bread is referring to a meal and not communion because
he says "they broke bread and ate" (vs. 11) which is a common way of
referring to any meal. It would appear that the Christians were having
a special gathering for Paul to say good-bye and hear him before he
left.
There is one other interesting bit of
information that we need to understand in this passage. We read that
Paul spoke on the first day Sunday) until midnight because he was
leaving the next day. We forget that Jewish days are different then our
days. A Jewish day begins at sundown; therefore the first day of the
week (Sunday) began on our Saturday at sundown. If Paul were speaking
until midnight, the gathering would have been on what is our Saturday
night, with Paul leaving the following day, which would be our Sunday
morning not Monday morning. Let us look at this passage again in the
context of the whole story.
On the first day of the week we came together to
break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave
the next day, kept on talking until midnight, There were many lamps in
the upstairs room where we were meeting. Seated in a window was a young
man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on
and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third
story and was picked up dead. Paul went down, threw himself on the
young man and put his arms around him. "Don't be alarmed," he said He's
alive!" Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. (Acts
20:7-11)
Now let us look at the next verse used to
support a Sabbath day change.
On the first day of every week, each one of you
should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it
up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. (1 Cor
16:2)
In 1 Cor 16 there is no mention as to where this
offering was to be set aside, at the worship service or at their homes.
This passage does not give enough evidence to support a change of the
Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.
It was also a custom not to handle money on the
Sabbath; therefore, the handling of this money would have been on a day
other than the Sabbath. If the Sabbath were on the first day (Sunday),
the money would have been collected on another day to prevent violating
this custom. But since the money was collected on Sunday we can assume
that the Sabbath was not on the first day.
The last verse used is,
On the Lord's day I was in the Spirit, and I
heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet. (Rev 1:10)
Sunday has often been called the Lord's day. The
term "Lord's day" is a possessive tense just as if I said, "this is
John's book". English is the only language that uses this structure.
All other language would say "The book of John" or "the day of the
Lord." In fact the original Greek scriptures say, "the day of the Lord"
in Rev 1:10. The book of Revelation is about the coming of the Lord and
John saw many visions of this day. John is saying "I was in the Spirit
on the Day of the Lord".
As we have seen, there is no scripture that
clearly says that the early church ever met on Sunday in place of the
Seventh Day Sabbath, on the contrary, there are many scriptures that
clearly state that they did meet on the Sabbath.
If there were a change in the requirements for
observing the fourth commandment from the First Covenant to the New
Covenant, would not this change have been clearly mentioned in the New
Covenant? I believe that the three scriptures used to support such a
change in the command do not show that this change occurred. On the
other hand, there is much more support in the New Covenant about
continuing the observance of the fourth commandment.
Paul and
The Sabbath
As his custom was, Paul went into the
synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the
Scriptures. (Acts 17:1-3)
Every Sabbath he [Paul] reasoned in the
synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks. (Acts 18:4)
Throughout the book of Acts we see Paul and the
other Apostles entering the Synagogues on the Sabbath day.
As Paul and Barnabas were leaving the synagogue
(in Antioch), the people invited them to speak further about these
things the resurrection of Yeshua Christ] on the next Sabbath. When the
congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to
Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them
to continue in the grace of God. On the next Sabbath almost the whole
city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. (Acts 13:42-44)
It is interesting to note here that Paul never
told those interested in hearing more about the Gospel to come to their
meeting (church service) on the next day (Sunday). The Assembly of
believers (Church) in Antioch had been established long before this
according to Acts 1:26. Evidently the Assembly of believers did not
meet on Sunday because he told those of the synagogue to come back on
the next Sabbath to learn more. I am sure that if the Assembly of
believers were meeting on Sunday, he would have invited them there to
learn more.
Conclusion
When we look at the Sabbath day, we see
that from the very beginning of creation, God set the Sabbath day aside
as a holy day of rest. Both Israel and God recognized it as a very
important day throughout the entire First Covenant. It was placed
within the list of the top 10 commandments of God. Yeshua kept the
Sabbath, as was his custom, Paul also kept the Sabbath, as was his
custom. The book of Hebrew reminds us that the Sabbath rest continues
to this day. And no scripture reference has been written to nullify
this great day.
Chapter
Summary
- Yeshua entered the synagogues on the Sabbath, as
was his custom.
- The Sabbath-rest continues in the New
Covenant.
- The Sabbath covenant is everlasting.
- No scripture supports the removal of the seventh
day Sabbath.
- Paul entered the synagogues on the Sabbath, as
was his custom.
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