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The theme
of this section is the Sabbath. The word “Sabbath”
means rest. The Lord instructed His Chosen Nation
that one day out of seven is set apart to cease
from normal activity, to desist from work, and
to rest.
The Sabbath
is a very important part of Jewish life. The Sabbath,
like circumcision, is a special sign of the covenant
between God and Israel. Holidays like Passover
and Yom Kippur take place once a year. The Sabbath
takes place once a week, which makes it very important!
The Sabbath
is not meant to be difficult, or a burden, but
a day filled with happiness and good things to
enjoy -- a break from work; a time of rest and
refreshment for body and soul; a time to learn
about God and His Word. It is a time for family,
and friends in our religious community.
According
to the Torah, there are only a few laws about
the Sabbath, and keeping it is a relatively simple
affair. We are told to not to work; we are to
rest; we are to assemble for public worship; we
are not to carry heavy loads; we are not to light
fires -- which I think primarily means not going
about the hard work of finding wood, carrying
the wood back home, and building a fire.
By the
First Century, these simple rules had been overwhelmed
by a multitude of restrictive rules, which took
much of the joy out of the Sabbath. In the Talmud
the rabbis enumerated 39 categories of activities
performed in or about the Tabernacle, which they
taught violate the Sabbath. Let’s see, starting
with Mark 2:23, how Yeshua dealt with the religious
people of His day who brought legalism into the
Sabbath.
The
First Sabbath Controversy: Reaping on the Sabbath
And
it happened that He was passing through the grain
fields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began
to make their way along while picking the heads
of grain. The Pharisees were saying to Him, "Look,
why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
One of the 39 categories included reaping.
Keep in mind that the Torah itself never said
that an individual could not pick grain on the
Sabbath and eat it to satisfy his hunger; but
according to this group of Pharisees, Yeshua’s
disciples were doing something illegal on the
Sabbath, and so they called this to the attention
of Rabbi Yeshua, so that He, no doubt, would make
them stop.
Yeshua’s
response is very instructive, and not what the
Pharisees expected. And He said to them, "Have
you never read what David did when he was in need
and he and his companions became hungry; how he
entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar
the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread,
which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the
priests, and he also gave it to those who were
with him?”
I might
have put forth the argument that the whole Earth
is like the Lord’s Table, and picking some grain
is no different than peeling the skin off an orange
or banana and eating it. But Yeshua, Israel’s
Supreme Rabbi, put forth a different argument.
He reasons like a rabbi. He uses two Scriptures
that apparently contradict themselves, which are
placed together and then a conclusion is drawn
from them. On the one hand the Scriptures teach
in 1 Samuel 21:1-6 that David was fleeing from
King Saul, who wanted to kill him. David came
to the Tabernacle and ate the Bread of the Presence.
On the other hand the Scriptures are clear that
it was illegal for him to eat that special bread.
The Bread of the Presence was reserved exclusively
for the priests -- and King David was not a priest.
David,
the man after God's own heart, violated part of
the Torah when he and his companions were in need,
and ate the holy bread, but they were not condemned,
punished or even rebuked. Why? Because human beings
are made in the image of God. They are of great
importance to God, and are very precious to Him.
Therefore meeting the need of a human being takes
precedence over observing ceremonial commands
-- even a command as important as someone other
than a priest not eating the Bread of the Presence.
This example of David shows us the principle that
human need outweighs religious ceremonies.
The Greatest
Rabbi Of All drives home this point even further
when “Yeshua said to them, “The Sabbath
was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”
The Sabbath
is very important, but we must keep in mind, Yeshua
tells us, that it was made to benefit man -- particularly
Israel. Man was not created to serve the Sabbath.
Here are some ways the Sabbath is a blessing to
man -- particularly Israel (some of the following
information about the benefits that come with
the Sabbath is taken from a book on the Sabbath
by Clifford Goldstein, a Seventh-Day Adventist.
Because I am using some of Goldstein’s ideas does
not mean that I endorse all of his writings, or
the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. In fact, I believe
the Seventh-Day Adventist Church to be a cult).
The Sabbath
helps us remember that in six days God made the
Heavens and the Earth and everything in the universe.
The Creator is independent of His creation. The
Creator existed before His creation. The Creator
of this amazing creation must be almighty, and
infinite in knowledge and wisdom. By observing
the Sabbath, Israel remembers the Creator, and
testifies that the God of Israel is real, and
He is the true God and the Lord of Creation. This
is more important than ever as our society drifts
away from a Biblical worldview, and embraces secularism,
humanism, and naturalism.
The Sabbath
helps us remember that the God of Israel is a
God of salvation. The Creator didn’t make the
universe, make Earth, make human beings, and then
abandon us to ourselves. The Sabbath reminds us
that God the kind of God who is able to reach
down and affect human affairs. He can overrule
the laws of man and nature for the good of His
people. He can and does intervene to help, deliver,
rescue and save us. He can save nations and individuals.
The Sabbath
reminds us of salvation. It wasn’t until God saved
us out of Egypt that we began observing the Sabbath.
The Sabbath also reminds us of the salvation made
possible by Messiah Yeshua, the Lord of the Sabbath,
who gives rest to the souls of all who believe
in Him. We can enter into the rest that Messiah
provide now -- on a daily basis. That spiritual
rest is acquired by faith, not by our work or
self-effort. As we grow in our faith in God and
Messiah, God and Messiah work in us, and we are
able to find rest for our souls.
The Sabbath
reminds us of the salvation that Messiah will
bring to Israel and the nations when He returns,
and brings rest to a weary world. For 6,000 years
humanity has worked hard, but another day is coming
-- a day of 1,000 years, when Messiah will be
ruling from Jerusalem, bringing peace and rest
to this world. During that thousand years, it
shall be from new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath
to Sabbath, that all mankind will come to bow
down the Lord (Isaiah 66:23).
The Sabbath
looks back to Creation, and to God saving us out
of Egypt. In the present, the Sabbath points us
to salvation and rest provided by the Messiah;
and it looks forward to the great Sabbath that
awaits us. It tells us who we are, where we came
from, why we are here, and where we are going.
The Sabbath
is a special sign between Israel and God. We were
to be distinguished as Sabbath keeping people
among all the nations on Earth (Exodus 31:13-17,
Ezekiel 20:12). When the Chosen People keep the
Sabbath, we declare that we have a special covenant
relationship with Him.
The Sabbath
helps provides the physical and mental rest we
need living in a world that has been cursed. Part
of the curse is having to work hard -- by the
sweat of your brow you shall eat bread. The
Sabbath helps soften this part of the curse. It
helps our bodies rest and be refreshed; and not
only our bodies, but our minds as well; we need
time when the cares of this world are put aside
-- time to avoid thinking about the boss, the
bills, the broken faucet, the room that needs
to be painted. The Sabbath is like an oasis of
peace in the middle of a hectic life. In the midst
of a cursed world, it like a little bit of the
Garden of Eden. The lost peace of Eden is with
us for 24 hours.
The Sabbath
helps direct our thoughts to the unseen and the
spiritual. Human beings are prone to get so engrossed
by the things of this world that they forget the
spiritual, the invisible, the unseen -- those
things which are real and which will last. One
day in seven we should not think about the things
of the world and instead think of things unseen
and eternal.
The Sabbath
helps free us from materialism. Human beings face
the danger of working ceaselessly for material
things until they become workaholics and burn
themselves out and can't enjoy the things they
worked so hard for! We have one special day every
week to be grateful, not greedy -- to stop reaching
for more and more material things and instead,
reach for the things of God.
The Sabbath
reminds us that God is the One who will provide
for our needs -- both physically and spiritually.
Our faith is in Him, not in our own ability to
provide for ourselves. We don’t need to constantly
work to have our needs met. We can trust Him to
provide, even when we take every seventh day off.
The Sabbath
gives us time each week to reflect on what we
have done during the week. Just as the Lord looked
back over His first week of work, and reflected
upon what He had accomplished, and declared what
He had done was “very good,” so we are to take
time and thank God for the good that He has enabled
us to accomplish or enjoy, and confess our sins
where we have failed. One unknown ancient Greek
author put it this way: “Every week has seven
days. Six of these God has given to us for work,
and one for prayer, rest, and making reparations
for our sins, so that on the Lord’s Day we may
atone to God for any sins we have committed on
the other six days. Therefore arrive early at
the church of God; draw near to the Lord and confess
your sins to Him, repenting in prayer and with
a contrite heart ... contemplate your Master as
He is broken and distributed, yet not consumed.
If you have a clear conscience, go forward and
partake of the body and blood of the Lord” (Ancient
Christian Commentary on Mark, page 36).
The Sabbath
gives time to God's people for public worship,
praise, instruction, thanksgiving, repentance,
witness, proclamation and fellowship, which gives
glory and honor to God, and which renews and refreshes
us and blesses us.
The Sabbath
helps the family. The average American father
spends too little time each day with his children.
A family that spends the Sabbath together will
generally be a happier, more blessed family.
Yeshua
knew that God had not made human beings to slavishly
serve the Sabbath. The Sabbath was specifically
made by a loving God as a wonderful gift that
would benefit man.
But, these
Pharisees had lost that perspective. Their understanding
of the Sabbath, and other parts of the Torah,
had become rigid and legalistic, and couldn't
explain this incident with David.
Yeshua
concludes this first Sabbath controversy by making
the powerful declaration, “So the Son of Man
is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Not only was
the position of these Pharisees not in accord
with the Holy Scriptures or with the will of God,
but even worse, they didn't perceive who Yeshua
was and is -- the Son of Man -- fully human, and
the perfect and ideal man, and the head of the
human race, but also the Lord of the Sabbath.
No mere man is the Lord of the Sabbath. Only the
One who was there before the First Sabbath, and
made the Sabbath, is the Lord of the Sabbath!
So, Yeshua is fully man and fully God. I like
the way Novatian, an ancient Christian, put it:
“In the same manner that He, according to His
humanity, is like Abraham even so according to
His divinity, He is before Abraham. As He is,
according to His humanity, the Son of David, so
He is also as God, the Lord of David. As He is,
according to His humanity, born under the Law,
so He is as God the Lord of the Sabbath” (Ancient
Christian Commentary on Mark, page 36). The Son
of God created the Sabbath, and is the Lord of
the Sabbath, and knows how it should be observed.
He is the final judge of all questions about the
Sabbath. His rulings are authoritative and final.
And so
the Lord of the Sabbath, and the Author of the
Scriptures and their Supreme Interpreter, declares
the disciples innocent. It is the Pharisees, who
are guilty of perverting Sabbath observance, and
twisting the Scriptures, falsely accusing the
disciples, and not knowing the Lord of the Sabbath.
That brings us to the beginning of chapter 3 and
The
Second Sabbath Controversy: Healing a Man at the
Synagogue
Again
it is the Sabbath, and of course we find Yeshua,
the Lord of the Sabbath, and the King of Israel,
at a synagogue, participating in the study and
worship there. He entered again into a synagogue;
and a man was there whose hand was withered. They
were watching Him to see if He would heal him
on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.
Those
religious leaders who were opposing Yeshua more
and more, knew that miracles of healing were happening
through Yeshua. But, they also believed that healing
was a kind of work, and work is forbidden on the
Sabbath. They reasoned that if a man’s life was
not in danger, the man who wanted to be healed,
and the healer, should wait until the Sabbath
was over to attempt any healing. According to
their understanding, it was wrong to heal on the
Sabbath unless there was a life-threatening situation.
But Yeshua, who created the Sabbath, and the One
who established the laws concerning the Sabbath,
and what was intended by those laws, had a different,
more compassionate view of what was permissible
on the Sabbath, and He had no intention of backing
down under pressure to those who were wrong.
Therefore,
He said to the man with the withered hand,
"Get up and come forward!" And He said to them,"Is
it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath,
to save a life or to kill?" The Messiah, who
is wiser than the wise, cleverer than the most
clever, asks them a question that forces those
who are in the wrong to come to the right conclusion:
"Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the
Sabbath, to save a life or to kill?" People
have to do something on the Sabbath, right? Therefore
they have to do good or do harm, don’t they? They
have to do one or the other. But the Pharisees
can’t answer, “to do harm,” because that is obviously
wrong.
They can’t
take a middle position either -- “to do some good
and some harm” because that’s not right either.
But if they answer the obvious and right answer
-- that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath
-- that would allow the healing of the man with
the withered hand, then they would have to go
against their religious authorities, and agree
with Yeshua -- something they didn’t want to do.
They were entangled in a wrong understanding of
the Sabbath, and unwilling to admit their error,
and reject wrong religious authority, and as a
result they found themselves unwilling or unable
to respond.
But
they kept silent. After looking around at them
with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart
-- which tells us that not all anger is wrong.
His was a righteous anger aroused by hard-hearted
religious leaders putting a rigid interpretation
about the Sabbath above meeting a genuine human
need (wouldn’t restoring the use of this man’s
hand, so that he could be more productive, and
perhaps be happier as well, be wonderful, and
honoring to God, and in keeping with the healing
and refreshing and rest of the Sabbath?) -- He
said to the man,"Stretch out your hand." And he
stretched it out, and his hand was restored!
Why did
Yeshua tell the man with the withered hand to
stretch it out? Why didn’t Yeshua simply heal
it by with a word, without the man having to do
anything? Chrysostom suggest that a lesson is
that God does His part, but we also must work
our part. “Don’t be lazy and leave everything
to God. And, if you are diligent in your efforts,
don’t think that by your own exertions the whole
work is achieved. God does not want us to be lazy.
He expects us to work -- and work hard. God does
not do the whole work by Himself, simply by issuing
powerful, miraculous commands. Nor is it His will
that we should be entirely self-sufficient. For
God does not commit the whole work to us alone”
(Ancient Christian Commentary on Mark, page 38.
This is a paraphrase of the original quote). God
and man are to work together in this world.
This miraculous
healing confirms the position of the Lord of the
Sabbath. It shows that God is with Yeshua, and
backing up Yeshua’s position. These Pharisees
were not close enough to God, or truly understanding
of His Word, to realize that.
While
the man with the withered hand was restored, the
withered minds of His opponents were not (Athanasius).
In fact, they were so far from God and the Lord
of the Sabbath that the Pharisees went out
and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians
-- that group of individuals, a political
party, who were loyal to King Herod -- against
Him, as to how they might destroy Him. Neither
a majority of the political or religious establishments
of His day liked Yeshua. In fact, the young Rabbi
from Nazareth had made serious political and religious
enemies, who were uniting in order to kill Him.
And, don’t be surprised if His followers are treated
much the same way.
We might
not expect much spiritual insight from the Herodians.
We would expect insight from Israel’s religious
leaders. But their wisdom was diminished by a
legalistic, man-made approach to the Scriptures,
and an embracing of harmful traditions, and the
establishment of a false religious authority --
so that their religion became a Judaism that really
didn’t know God or His Word. We pity the man who
had a withered hand; we should pity even more
those with a withered understanding! And that
is still true of those involved with non-Messianic
Judaism today.
Shabbat
has tremendous value for those of us who are part
of Messianic Judaism, and I urge Messianic Jews
to honor the Sabbath. It’s not essential for salvation,
but it is an important part of a strong Jewish
identity. The Sabbath is a sign of a covenant
relationship between God and Israel. Keeping it
is part of a good witness to the rest of Israel.
By observing Shabbat we proclaim that there is
still a special covenant relationship between
God and Israel, and that we are part of Israel,
in fact that we are the true Israel. If we don’t
observe the Sabbath, it makes it easier for the
more religious non-messianic members of our people
to question whether we uphold God's covenant with
Israel and have an identity as Jews. Besides,
why wouldn’t we want to keep it? The Sabbath is
full of blessing. Our life should include it,
and our week should revolve around it.
As to
the Messianic Gentiles and their relationship
to the Sabbath, they too don’t need to observe
the Sabbath in order to be saved, but they would
be wise to set one day apart out of seven, for
public worship, praise, instruction, thanksgiving,
repentance, witness, proclamation and fellowship,
which gives glory and honor to God, and which
renews and refreshes and blesses them. Gentile
Christians are free, and very much welcome, to
keep the Sabbath from Friday evening at sunset
until Saturday evening at sunset. But, they are
also free to observe the first day of the week
-- or any other day.
The Sabbath
was not meant to be a burden, but a delight. Treat
it as a delight, and honor it, and God will bless
you. Don't let Shabbat get crowded out by the
cares of this life. If you observe it with the
right attitude, as the Lord of the Sabbath intended
it, and with a good understanding, you will find
it to be a special gift from God that will refresh
you physically and spiritually, strengthen your
faith, and bless your family life.
Answering
Objections
Gentile
Christians in particular need not observe the
Sabbath because the Sabbath was not part of the
Four Essentials given by the Apostles with the
guidance of the Holy Spirit recorded at the First
Jerusalem Council, that Gentiles Christians are
required to observe. The earliest Church didn't
require the Gentiles to keep the entire Law, which
includes the Sabbath.
However,
the Sabbath principle is so full of blessing,
that after the First Century, other generations
of Gentile Christian leaders encouraged Christians
to observe the Sabbath principle, but they chose
to set apart the first day of the week. They recognized
that there is so much good about keeping the Sabbath,
that all of us should observe one day out of seven.
Now, most
Christians theologians may have told their people
that they needed to keep the Fourth Commandment,
and that it was now, with the blessing of God,
and the authority of the Church, switched to Sunday.
I would not have handled the situation that way.
I would have told them that Gentiles are not obligated
to keep the Sabbath like the Jewish people do
-- that the Sabbath is a sign between God and
Israel. But, I would have instructed them that
the principle of setting aside one day a week
is good, and I would have encouraged them to do
that -- with Sunday being OK.
All
of us must keep the Sabbath because it is part
of the Ten Commandments: Arnold Fruchtenbaum
responds: “There is no scriptural basis for separating
the Ten Commandments (which includes the Sabbath)
from the whole 613 and making only the Ten perpetual.
All 613 commandments are a single unit comprising
the Law of Moses. We need to understand that the
Law, which includes the Sabbath, is a unit. Arnold
tells us “it is this principle of the unity of
the Law of Moses that lies behind the idea of
keeping the whole law in James 2:10 (for whoever
keeps the whole Law and yet stumbles in one point,
he has become guilty of all). The Apostle’s
point here is clearly that a person needs only
to break one of the 613 commandments to be guilty
of breaking all of the Law of Moses. And this
can only be true if the Mosaic Law is a unit.”
To insist on the Sabbath is to insist on the whole
Law, including circumcision, and keeping kosher,
and not wearing clothes that have a combination
of mixed materials, and wearing garments with
fringes on it, going up to Jerusalem three times
a year, etc (Galatians 5:3).
The
Sabbath was made for man -- not just Israel:
But those words were spoken by Rabbi Yeshua to
other Jews, and should be understand in that context
-- as an argument among Jews. The focus of the
argument is not if Gentiles should observe the
Sabbath, but if Jews were observing it in the
wrong way. If you want to know if Gentiles need
to keep the Sabbath, look to the First Jerusalem
Council and to the Apostles to the Gentiles --
Paul -- who both agree that the Sabbath is not
an essential part of the duty of Gentiles Christians.
Coercing Gentiles to observe days (Sabbath), months
(Rosh Chodesh), seasons (the three Pilgrim Holidays
of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot, along with other
holidays at other times of the year) and years
(Sabbatical and Jubilee years) is a form of legalism
and enslavement (Galatians 4:9-11). No one is
to act as your judge in regard to food or drink
or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a
Sabbath day -- things which are a mere shadow
of what is to come; but the substance belongs
to Messiah (Colossians 2:16-17). One person regards
one day above another, another regards every day
alike. Each person must be fully convinced in
his own mind (Romans 14:5-6).
The
Sabbath goes all the way back to creation, therefore
all should observe it: While God rested on
the seventh day, and set it apart, and blessed
it (maybe with Israel in mind in the future?),
there is no clear command for anyone else to observe
it until Israel began observing it at the time
of the Exodus.
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