Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Sabbath: 7th Day, 1st Day, Every Day or a Future Time of Rest?

In the last month and a half I've encountered the discussion about the Sabbath and the laws of the Torah four times. I hadn't really thought about it until this morning and realized that either God was trying to say something to me about it or perhaps he wanted to communicate something through me or both.

February 5th, 2011 I received a text message from an old friend asking,
-"Y don't Christians believe in the law of Moses or the Torah which are the same?"
- My answer was that we do.
- His response was then, "Y do Christians violate the dietary, circumcision and burial laws?"
- Still texting, I said, "1) That's specifically for the Jew under the Old Covenant or Testament. 2) Jesus is the fulfillment of the law or Old Testament. When he shed his blood and became the atonement for our sins."
- He asked, "What does fulfillment mean?"
- My response: "Atonement for our sins, there was no other sacrifices needed. His death n resurrection instituted the New Testament. Everything in the Old Testament was prophesying and leading up to the Messiah and the new covenant."
-His response: "Who said? Did Jesus teach that? Didn't Jesus say the law  shall not pass away or change?" Did Jesus establish the kingdom of god (God) on earth the way he was supposed to?"
- Yes, I replied. "Jesus himself taught this. I recommend you spend some time studying the teachings of Christ more than the OT. You'll get a full understanding faster."

The questioning continued and conversation continued but because it was all by text I recommended either we discuss it by phone or by email where we could address it better in more length. I recommended he start with Matthew chapter 5 and specifically 5:17. He read the scripture text I recommended and persisted via text to question and prod.
-"It doesn't mean stop following the law. That means all 610 laws such as dietary laws and the sabbath starting on Friday. So y don't Christians follow the law?" he said.

Due to time and location, I wasn't able to respond right away. So I emailed him the following day. I realize that it was going to take some time in discussion and study, however he wanted instant responses which I was not prepared to do without proper review of the Scriptures with references for him to look up.

A couple weeks later I entered a comment on some one's blog in reference to the importance of honoring the day Christians do hold as a Sabbath - Sunday. I shared that though we honor Sunday as the day of rest, many of us are failing to do just that, honor it as a day of rest. I fight to refrain from work and doing my own thing on Sunday and make it a day of rest and reflection on the Lord. Such was the tone of the comment.

Again, last week I met with an old acquaintance I hadn't seen in about 20 years. His conversation centered around keeping the 10 commandments with an emphasis on keeping the 7th day, the Sabbath Day Holy instead of the 1st day, being Sunday. I listened and inquired about how that conflicted with Colossians 2:16-17 and Romans 14. I don't really remember his answer except to give me his testimony of what God had said to him about keeping the Sabbath and that as my other friend said, "Jesus didn't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it." That Jesus himself kept the Sabbath and that the law was not abolished and should be followed even as a Christian. He also pointed out that out of the 10 commandments given that the law of the Sabbath was the longest and therefore the most important, or so I gathered by his emphasis. I didn't argue but I wanted to remain open. I was rusty, it had been a long time since I'd done a study on the Sabbath, law versus grace and what Jesus meant in Matt. 5:17. So I made a mental note to pray and study on it so that I would have an answer the next time the subject was broached. I had not gotten back with my friend that I'd had the text conversation with about it yet either.

Then last evening we had a former Jewish Rabbi, who was now a Messianic Christian Rabbi, well versed in both the Torah, Talmud and the New Testament come to our church to teach for the next three Bible studies and guess where he started? He started with the "Shabbat" or the Sabbath. It was fascinating and I look forward to the next few weeks. He prefaced the teaching by saying, before you can fully understand who you are, you need to know your history and where you came from. It is important for you to understand that God is a God of rituals and order and that the rituals prepare us for the reality or the realization of the leading of the rituals. This is the key.

In the next post I hope to explore further how that revelation of the Old Testament or Covenant laws and rituals were a preface or pointed to the Messiah and the New Testament and how it translates to some of our doctrine and rituals today. I welcome your comments and Scripture references supporting your stand even moreso than only your opinion if you don't mind. If you are fairly new to the study of the subject, below are some passages of scripture you can study/review for a good base on the subject:

Old Covenant: Exodus 20;  Exodus 31: 12-13;   Leviticus 23:3
New Covenant: Matt. 5:17-20;   Mark 2:27-28;   Colossians 2:16-17;   Matt. 22:34-40;   Mark 12:28-31,   Romans 2:12-3:31 (Chp. 4 is good to read too);   Romans 5:13-21.

Peace and Blessings.

14 comments:

  1. B...thanks for the visit and most gracious comment you left on my blog. I am going to email you my responce to this deal about the sabbath or Sunday because space is not really available here on the comments section.
    Also be aware that I have RA and type with my two index fingers so everty stroke of the keys is somewhat a labor of love. Meaning that it may take a day or two...but I will respond.

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  2. Shalom Beverly. I've read your post and await your next one along with the wide variety of comments that topics like this usually engender.

    It is good to see that some will listen and make careful and prayerful evaluation of the Scriptural content of this topic with the view of giving glory to Elohim "...for the hour of His judgment is come."

    Shalom In Messiah .

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  3. Hi Stan and Yuri, good to hear from you both and I look forward to your continuing comments. It is certainly a very serious topic, one I believe the Lord - Elohim, is prodding his people to review. I sense, however, that our scriptural and prayerful study is going to reveal surprising results, possibly to us all.

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  4. By the way, please bear with me if it takes me a minute to do the follow up post.

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  5. Shalom all. Beverly, what are some of the underlying thoughts/feels which prompted the comment about 'surprising results'? Are you privy to some information which tends to direct you to think this?

    Stan; would you be able to do several comments to your completed email response?

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  6. Shalom Yuri. Just as the Lord has deliberately put this in my lap at this moment - surprising me really. I wasn't paying close attention to the number of times he's brought it before me lately and the answer I got after I went into prayer about it after the 3rd conversation. I always try to be open to hear the Lord speaking to me through others, but typically he's already spoken to me and confirms his word to me through his Word and often times through the witness of others.

    The subject matter is not a new one for me. I'd studied it over 20 years ago and had gotten resolve in my spirit as to how the Lord expected me to honor him in the Sabbath. So the rise of this conversation again I find intriguing. I have relaxed or fallen short of, sinned, in recent years by failing to keep the Sabbath as holy as I know to do as I believe the majority of the church - the body of Christ is failing to do and primarily the Gentile Believers because of our failure to understand the significance of the rite or ordinance which our Jewish brothers understood better because of centuries of practice.

    However, having said that there is something more and I can't articulate it just yet. It's resonating in my spirit, but is incomplete. It has something to do with the law and ritual; Christ fulfilling the law and the fact that all prophecy has not yet been fulfilled. I think in each camp of belief on this subject, many of the believers tend to be dogmatic and sometimes divisive which is not Christ-like. Which is why I recommended a review of the scriptures in the post (and you can add others in your comments). That's really all I can say for now.

    God Bless.

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  7. BRAVE LADY. IT IS NEAR THE RETURN OF JESUS AND THIS ISSUE WILL BE AT THE FOREFRONT IT HAS CREPT UP OVER AND OVER. IF YOU ARE REALLY STRIVING FOR PERFECTION ( AS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD BE) THEN YOU HAVE TO GO INTO A STUDY OPEN TO THE QUESTION: "WHAT IF ALL THESE YEARS I HAVE BEEN WRONG. WHAT IF GOD WANTS MORE FROM JUST ME LIKE HE DID FROM MOSES JOB, NOAH, JONAH AND JESUS. WILL I OBEY HIM OR GO ALONG WITH MY TRADITIONS OR TURN A BLIND EYE TO WHAT GOD REVEALS BECAUSE IF YOU ARE NOT OPEN TO TURN AWAY THEN YOU WILL FAIL THE ABRAHAM TEST AND NOT EVEN BE WILLING TO GIVE UP ISAAC ...ORIN HUMAN WEAKNESS CHOOSE ISHMAEL DOUBTING ISAAC CAN BE BORN OF TWO OLD PEOPLE.

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  8. There is a difference between the ten commandments and everything in scriptures and the bible. Deu 9:10 And the LORD delivered unto me two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them [was written] according to all the words, which the LORD spake with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly.
    written with the finger of god. not inspired word. flawless. not to be ever compromised or changed.
    it will never be OK to murder, steal, commit adultery,...etc. perfect. the commandments contain the character of God. and Jesus our perfect example was a Jew and kept the seventh day from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Mathew 15:3 if there was a Jew going to the temple on Sunday as a sabbath I don't want to imagine the ridicule he would have faced or if Christ told the Jews Sunday was the new sabbath just use your imagination on how fast he would have been rejected. The catholic church proudly takes credit for this historical change not Jesus or any of his disciples or converts

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  9. the holy days and feasts were also called Sabbaths but they are again different from the weekly sabbath that commemorates creation and is celebrated by our creator.

    keeping the commandments is not about salvation Jesus took care of that. keeping the commandments is about loving god more than self, life, traditions of men, church, religion, friends; it's about pure truth unashamed obedience to the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I submit the whole book of first john. 1john2:3, 4, 5-7; chapter 5: verse 2 and 3; 2john1:9; 2john1:6 ; Mathew 5:17 goes with 2john 1:9. it is not a matter of Law vs grace it is grace creating a love that embraces law and kisses it ;grace loves through failure; past failure; in-spite of failure; grace defeats only one law...the law of sin and death. we no longer have to die when we fail but we fail if we die not loving the creator who is Love.
    keeping the law is about loving God with our obedience which is better than sacrifice

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  10. the fourth commandment commemorates the creation and is celebrated weekly by the creator like my birthday which is tomorrow April 1, 2011 celebrates the creation of me. no one can change my birthday or the day god rested.

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  11. Thank you for your comments, King of Ninevah and happy belated birthday to you.

    For the time being, until I can do justice in another post, I will just share briefly only two points that came to me after praying on this:
    1) Jesus said, when asked about which is the greatest commandment in the Law, Mark 12:29-31, "The most important one...is this, 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these." (See also Matt.22:34-40 which ends with, "All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.")

    2)I find it also noteworthy that in all of his teachings, even though Jesus was accused of breaking the Sabbath, He never debated, never denied but also never elevated the importance of the Sabbath over any of the other commandments.

    We are His disciples if we follow his teachings. He is after all, the Son of God, The Word, Immanuel, the Light of the World, the Bread of Life, The Lion of Judah, The First and the Last - our Savior and Redeemer. He said, "Go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you..." (Matt. 28:18-20)

    There are areas that we will not all agree on and will likely interpret differently or maybe based on where we are in our walk and our understanding and experience, God may speak to us to guide us back on track, dealing with us where we are in our faith. I think it very important to emphasize whatever Jesus emphasized. Before he was crucified he lifted up this prayer in John 17:20-23 that reveals his heart and mandate:

    "...I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."

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  12. Shalom Beverly,

    Yes, "Better [is] the end of a thing than the beginning thereof:...) Eccl.7:8. Therefore "I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see ..." the end of the thing. Hab.2:1

    I'm very hopeful that; despite the hypocrisy, legalism, and reproach that haSatan has heaped upon Truth; Truth will triumph gloriously...and the stones will cry out (Hab.2:11; Lk.19:40 KJV)with the voice of wisdom (Prov.8:1-3)and then we will shine forth; fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners....then shall I be as one that had dreamed. (S.of S.6:10 & Ps.126:1)and then amidst the fiery trials of antiquity Yahshua's prayer of Jn. 17 would be answered.

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  13. Hi Beverly -

    Thank you for this helpful piece. It is well-written and beneficial.

    In particular, I latched onto this, "He prefaced the teaching by saying, before you can fully understand who you are, you need to know your history and where you came from."

    My knowledge about the subject matter is very limited but I have heard some "discussions" about the issue.

    Off I go to read your Part II of this.

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