SHABBAT Part 2

THE SHABBAT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Before the first century, some Hebrews in Palestine developed several more rules for promoting the observance of the Shabbat. Two small passages in the Mishnah are devoted exclusively to these Shabbat rules and regulations. Their main purpose is to define work by telling the Israelites what is and is not permitted on the Shabbat. Unfortunately, this led to such hair splitting complexities and detailed Laws that Jewish lawyers often could not agree on the interpretation of certain parts of the Law. Because of this, the main purpose of the Shabbat became lost beneath a mass of legalistic detail. The rabbis themselves were aware of how much they were adding to the straightforward teaching about the Shabbat in the Old Testament. As one of them put it, -- The rules about the Shabbat... are as mountains hanging by a hair, for Scripture is scanty and the rules many.

YESHUA AND THE SHABBAT
Yeshua had many confrontations with the Jewish religious leaders over Shabbat observances. From their perspective, Yeshua was a Shabbat breaker and was guilty of breaking the Law. Yeshua however, never saw Himself as a Shabbat breaker. He went to the synagogue regularly on the Shabbat day -- Luke 4:16. He read the lessons from Scripture, preached and taught -- Mark 1:21 and Luke 13:10. He clearly accepted the principle that the Shabbat was an appropriate day for worshipping YHVH. However, Yeshua did not agree with all of the Laws the Pharisees had created for the Shabbat that were not based on the Old Testament. He made this clear when He defended His disciples by appealing to Scripture, after they had been accused of breaking Shabbat tradition by walking through grain fields and breaking off heads of wheat. For the Pharisees, this was against the Law because it was classified as harvesting -- Mark 2:23-26. He followed this up with a remark that took His listeners straight back to Elohim’s Creation purpose for the Shabbat: -- The Shabbat was made to benefit people and not people to benefit the Shabbat -- 2:27. The Pharisees had exalted the tradition of the Shabbat above the people it was meant to serve and they had robbed the Shabbat of one of its main purposes. Yeshua's Words must have sounded uncomfortably familiar in His opponents’ ears. A famous rabbi had once said, -- The Shabbat is given over to you, but you are not given over to the Shabbat. More than anything else, the miraculous healings Yeshua performed on the Shabbat contradicted the Laws of the Pharisees. The Old Testament does not forbid cures on the Shabbat day, but the Pharisees thought all healing was work, which must always be avoided on the Shabbat unless someone’s life was at risk. Yeshua fearlessly exposed the absurd results of this Law. He asked, how could it be right to circumcise a baby or lead an animal to water on the Shabbat day, which was allowed by tradition, but wrong to heal a chronically handicapped woman and a crippled man, even if their lives were not in immediate danger -- Luke 13:10-17 -- and -- John 7:21-24? Yeshua taught that the Shabbat Day was a particularly appropriate day for acts of mercy and healing -- Mark 3:4-5. Yeshua, claimed that He was Adonai of the Shabbat -- Mark 2:28 and Matthew 12:5-8. Just as YHVH kept working, despite His Creation rest, to sustain the world in His mercy, so Yeshua would continue to teach and to heal on the Shabbat day -- John 5:2-17. However, Yeshua also said that one day His redemptive work would be complete and then the Shabbat’s purpose as a sign of redemption would be accomplished.

PAUL AND THE SHABBAT
Because he was alive after Yeshua’s death and resurrection, the apostle Paul was quick to understand the significance of the Shabbat. He did not go so far as to ban all observance of the Jewish Shabbat. Indeed, he attended many Shabbat synagogue services himself while he was travelling -- Acts 13:14-16. Jewish believers who insisted on keeping up their Shabbat practices were free to do so, provided they respected the opinions of those who differed -- Romans 14:5-6, 13. However, Paul emphasized that any suggestion that observing the Jewish Shabbat rules was necessary for salvation must be resisted -- Galatians 4:8-11. Paul considered the Shabbat to be a shadow, while Moshiach Himself is the reality of that shadow -- Colossians 2:17. Finally, it is the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews who explains how Yeshua Moshiach fulfils the twin biblical Shabbat themes of creation and redemption. He did so by linking together the ideas of YHVH’s rest after Creation and His redeeming work in bringing Yisrael to rest in the promised land of Canaan. He then describes how both of these events relate to the present and future rest that Christians can enjoy with a relationship with Yeshua -- Hebrews 4:1-11.

THE FINAL SHABBAT
YHVH intends all His people to share His rest and His promises -- Hebrews 4:1. He showed this intention clearly when He brought Yisrael to the Promised Land, but that did not mark the complete fulfilment of His Promise. The full and complete rest that is still waiting for the people of YHVH is in heaven. Moshiach has already entered there. He is resting from His Work, just as YHVH did after the Creation. And because of Yeshua’s redeeming work, He invites all people who believe in Him to share that same Shabbat's rest now -- 4:9.