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The Weekly Sabbath ~ the 7th Day

~ scriptures are from the Hebraic Roots Bible, and HBR Bible Notes in italics.
Bible Commentries and Notes.

section from - The Holy Assembly and the Everlasting Covenant.
~ Jeff A. Benner.
Ancient Hebrew Research Center.

Leviticus chapter 23 begins with the following statement;
Lev 23:1 And YAHWEH spoke to Moses, saying,
Lev 23:2 Speak to the sons of Israel, and you shall say to them,
The set feasts of YAHWEH which you shall proclaim as holy gatherings, shall be these: These are My appointed feasts: (times).

The Sabbath ~ the 7th Day
Lev 23:3 Work is to be done six days, and on the seventh day shall be a Sabbath of rest, a holy gathering; you shall do no work; it is a Sabbath to YAHWEH in all your dwellings.

What Is the Sabbath?
The first recorded command to observe the Sabbath is the fourth commandment given by God to Israel while at Mount Sinai.

Exo 20:8-11 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy†;
six days you shall labor and do all your work; and the seventh day is a Sabbath to YAHWEH your Elohim; you shall not do any work, you, and your son, and your daughter, your male slave and your slave-girl, and your livestock, and your stranger who is in your gates.
For in six days YAHWEH made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all which is in them, and He rested on the seventh day; on account of this YAHWEHblessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.†

~ Exodus 20:8 The Hebrew word “kadosh' literally means “set apart”, meaning to keep the Sabbath set apart from the work of the other 6 days. Also, the fact that they are told to “remember” or bring back into memory this day clearly shows that the Sabbath day goes back to creation (Gen 2:1-3) and was not just implemented on Mount Sinai.

~ Exodus 20:11 YHWH here reverts the creation of the Sabbath day to Genesis, and shows that the Sabbath is part of creation and therefore cannot change anymore than the moon can become the sun, Heb 4:4-9.

The commandment above gives five characteristics of the Sabbath.

• It is a day of rest from work for people and animals.
• It will be on the 7th day of the week.
• The day is to be kept holy.
• The day is blessed by God.
• It is a commemoration of creation.

The word "Sabbath", "shabbat" in Hebrew, comes from the root verb "shabat" which means "to cease from work or activity".
The Sabbath is a 24 hour day(sunset Friday - sunset Saturday) of ceasing from work, a day of rest. Special honor was given to the Sabbath day as it is the only day which was given a name, all other days of the week were called by its place in the week, such as; the first day, the second day, etc.

The Sabbath day is to be kept holy. As we have seen previously, the word holy means "to be set apart". The Sabbath is set apart from all the other days of the week. Not only does God set this day apart from all the others, but also man is also to set it apart as a holy day.

God blesses the Sabbath day. As we will see later in this chapter, God also blesses those who keep the Sabbath day. The fourth command states that the Sabbath day is both blessed and made holy by God. When did God first bless and make holy the Sabbath day? This brings us to the last attribute of the Sabbath.

The fourth commandment connects the seventh day Sabbath with the seventh day of creation, making the Sabbath a commemoration of creation.
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. (Genesis 2:2-3)

The word "rested" above, is the Hebrew word "Shabat" the root of "Shabbat/Sabbath"

The Sabbath day was first blessed and made holy by God on the day that he himself rested from his labors of creation. The fourth commandment is a commemoration of this day of rest.

The Origin of the Sabbath Command.
Did the command to observe and remember the Sabbath begin with Israel at Mount Sinai or was it given at the very beginning with Adam?
The scriptures do not say, but we know that the original command to observe the Sabbath was given at some point prior to Israel's arrival at Mount Sinai and after they crossed the Red Sea as we see in Exodus 16.23.

[Moses] said to them, "This is what the LORD commanded: 'Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD.

When God gave Israel the Sabbath command within the 10 commandments, he said "Remember the Sabbath day" (Ex 20:8). It is possible that after 400 years of bondage, Israel had "forgotten" to keep the Sabbath day and God is reminding Israel of it.

If from the beginning God made the Sabbath day holy, would he not have commanded his children (Adam and Eve) to keep this day holy?

The Sabbath day was observed before Mount Sinai and even possibly in the Garden of Eden before sin entered the world. On the seventh day of creation, God rested. Of course God does not need rest; he was setting a pattern for the benefit of his creation. Six days are for working but the seventh day is a day of rest, a Sabbath. God recognized that all creation needs a rest. Not only do our bodies need to rest one day out of each week, but also so do the animals. God also commanded to give the land a rest every seven years (Leviticus 25:4). God, who created man, knew that a man's body required one day in seven to rest. If this rest is so necessary, would God not have given that command in the beginning when Adam served in the Garden (Genesis 2:15) or at least after the fall? Also, Since the seventh day was set apart as holy from the beginning, would he not have required Adam to observe that holy day also?

If we combine all the facts identified above; the need for a day of rest and the blessing of the Sabbath in the beginning and the observance of the Sabbath before the commandment was recorded, we could make a strong case that the Sabbath day has always been a very special day to God and man.

The Sabbath Covenant.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.

Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people. For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested.'" (Exodus 31:12-17)
Not only is the Sabbath day one of the 10 Commandments, but it is also a covenant between God and his people. Just as we did with the other covenants, let us break this covenant down into its six parts.

• The Parties.
  This covenant is between God, the creator, and Israel, the created.
• The Promise.
  As mentioned earlier, God blessed this day and those who kept this day holy as God commanded were in turn blessed by God.
  Isa 58:13 If you turn your foot away because of the Sabbath, from doing what you please on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, to the holiness of YAHWEH, glorified; and shall glorify Him, to the holiness of not doing your own ways, from finding your own pleasure or speaking your own words†;
  Isa 58:14 then you shall delight yourself in YAHWEH. And I will cause you to ride on the heights of the earth, and make you eat with the inheritance of your father Jacob. For the mouth of YAHWEH has spoken†.
  Isa 56:2 Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold on it; keeping the Sabbath, from defiling it; and keeping his hand from doing every evil.
  Just as the Sabbath day is blessed and made holy, those who keep the Sabbath day are blessed and made holy as well. God also promises joy to those who will keep his Sabbath day for without God there is no true joy in life.
  God is asking that on this one day, His people put aside their own desires and give honor to him. In this way they are made holy by God as it says in Exo 31:13 And you speak to the sons of Israel, charging them, only My Sabbaths you shall keep; for it is a sign between Me and you for your generation; to know that I am YAHWEH your sanctifier.
• The Conditions.
  The one condition that God puts on Israel in this covenant is that they keep His Sabbath day holy.
• The Duration.
  Exodus 31 tells us that Israel is to celebrate it "for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever". Three key words in this passage tell us the duration of this covenant.
• For the generations to come.
  It is a "lasting covenant". (The Hebrew word translated as lasting is again "olam" meaning everlasting or eternal).
  It is a sign "forever". (Again the Hebrew word "olam")
  This covenant is eternal. Just as the Covenant God made with Noah is an everlasting covenant, the Sabbath covenant is also an everlasting covenant.
• The Sign.
  The Exodus 31 passage tells us that the Sabbath day is the sign of this covenant. This is confirmed again in the book of Ezekiel.
  Eze 20:12 And I also gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am YAHWEH who sets them apart.
  Eze 20:20 And guard My Sabbaths to keep them holy, and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am YAHWEH your Elohim.
  
  ~ Ezekiel 20:20 Israel was commanded to guard Yahweh's Sabbath day to keep it set apart, instead they greatly defiled it. The Sabbath is the very sign between Yahweh and His children that He is their Creator and sustainer (Exo 31:12-18)
  John Wesley Notes
  Ezekiel 20:12 A sign - Of their being peculiarly my people.

Those who keep the Sabbath acknowledge that God is the creator of the universe.

The Dedication.
God himself dedicated the command when he rested on the seventh day. The dedication of this covenant is to be remembered on each Sabbath forever.

Summary.
The Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, to be kept holy by man and blessed by God. It is a commemoration of creation. The first Sabbath-rest was God's rest on the seventh day of creation. The Sabbath is also an everlasting covenant for his people.

section from - The Holy Assembly and the Everlasting Covenant.
~ Jeff A. Benner.
Ancient Hebrew Research Center.

According to Scripture, the Disciples and Yahshua did not break the Sabbath.
From the earliest Christian centuries, Christian leaders and writers have claimed that the disciples did not break the Sabbath in the episode of the plucking of the heads of grain. Irenaeus and Tertullian acknowledged that there were obvious grounds for controversy in this passage: Irenaeus (d. 130 AD), one of those who knew Polycarp, the disciple of John the Evangelist, wrote that “the law did not forbid those who were hungry on the Sabbath-days to take food lying ready at hand: it did, however, forbid them to reap and to gather into the barn.”[18] Tertullian believed that the “preparation of food”[19] by rubbing the ears of wheat was the reason why the Pharisees, and others after them, believed that this passage recounted a violation of the Sabbath.

Both Irenaeus and Tertullian believe that the passage does not describe a breaking of the Sabbath according to Scripture. Therefore, Jesus does not need to excuse the disciples’ behaviour. On the contrary, writes Irenaeus, Jesus was “justifying His disciples by the words of the Law,”[20] comparing them to priests who only appeared to be breaking the Sabbath, because in reality their Sabbath service in the Temple was fulfilling the Law. Tertullian, on his part, notes that Jesus “maintains the honour”[21] of the Sabbath in the episode of the ears of wheat. The way in which Jesus related to the Sabbath, according to Tertullian, does not contradict the way in which the God of the Old Testament (whom He calls the Creator) related to the Sabbath.

In other words, although from a perspective focused on the rules of Jewish religious law, Jesus could have been accused of defending the violation of Sabbath prohibitions, from the perspective of God’s own view of the Sabbath, Jesus was not guilty of any Sabbath breaking. Christ’s intervention for the good of the people (both in the case of the plucking of the heads of grain and in the case of the Sabbath healings) is not a work against the holiness of the Sabbath. “Thus Christ did not at all rescind the Sabbath: He kept the law thereof, and both in the former case did a work which was beneficial to the life of His disciples (for He indulged them with the relief of food when they were hungry), and in the present instance cured the withered hand.”[22]

• [18]“Irenaeus, ‘Against Heresies’, Book IV, VIII.3.”
• [19]“Tertullian, ‘Adversus Marcionem’, 4.12.”
• [20]“Irenaeus, op. cit., Book IV, VIII.3.”
• [21]“Kenneth Strand interprets Tertullian in the same way. See Kenneth A. Strand, ‘Tertullian and the Sabbath’, in ‘Andrews University Seminary Studies’, vol. 9, no. 2, 1971, pp. 129-146 (especially p. 136). In contrast, Norman Gulley comments that Tertullian originally wrote that Jesus broke the Sabbath, although he later qualified his statement by arguing that Jesus did not abolish the Sabbath; see Norman R. Gulley, ‘The Battle Against the Sabbath and Its Endtime Importance’, in ‘Journal of the Adventist Theological Society’, vol. 5, no. 2, 1994, pp. 79-115 (especially pp. 82-83).”
• [22]“Tertullian, op. cit. 4.12.”

1John 2:6 The one claiming to rest in Him, ought to walk, himself, even as He walked†.

Genesis 2:2-3 And on the seventh day Elohim completed His work which He had made.
And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.
And Elohim blessed the seventh day and sanctified it,
because He rested from all His work on it, which Elohim had created to make.

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Mark 2:27-28 And He said to them,
The Sabbath came into being for man's sake,
not man for the Sabbath’s sake.
So then the Son of Man is Master of the Sabbath also.