SHABBAT PART 2

SHABBAT RULES
Returning from the seventh year to the seventh day, the Old Testament Law goes into considerable detail about the types of work that may and may not be done by YHVH’s people on the Shabbat day. The rules about the Shabbat were not meant to rule out activity of any kind. Instead, the Laws were meant to stop regular, everyday work, because if YHVH had set aside the Shabbat (Exodus 20:11), the most obvious way of being disrespectful was to treat it just like any other day. Rules were spelled out in specific terms that the farmer (34:21), the salesman (Jeremiah 17:27), and even the housewife (Exodus 35:2-3) would understand. The details may seem trivial to people today, but obedience to the Shabbat Law was seen as the main test of the people’s loyalty to YHVH. It was made quite clear that wilful disobedience of the Shabbat Law required the harsh punishment of death (Exodus 35:2) and the fate of the person who was caught gathering wood in defiance of Shabbat regulations showed that this was not an idle threat (Numbers 15:32-36). Because it involved so many rules and regulations (and with the death penalty overhanging all), the Shabbat Day easily could have become a day when the Israelites were more afraid of committing an offense than worshiping our Adonai and enjoying a weekly rest. However, YHVH intended the Shabbat to be a blessing, not a burden. Above everything else, it was a weekly sign that our Adonai loved His people and wanted to draw them into a closer relationship with Him. People who valued that relationship with YHVH enjoyed the Shabbat and they called it a delight (Isaiah 58:13-14). In Psalm 92, which is titled, “A Song for the Shabbat,” a person’s joy about the Shabbat Day is very clear. Later on in the Old Testament, the later prophets saw that a great deal of Shabbat observance was a sham. In that time and even in today's time many people treated the Shabbat day more as holiday than holy day and they used it as an opportunity for self-indulgence rather than a day for worshipping YHVH (Isaiah 58:13). Some greedy tradesmen found the restrictions an annoyance to their business (Amos 8:5). As YHVH’s spokespeople, the prophets did not shrink from exposing this disobedience and abuse of the Shabbat Laws (Ezekiel 22:26). Isaiah said that those who go through the motions of Shabbat worship with hearts that were not truly repentant nauseated our Adonai (Isaiah 1:10-15). Jeremiah told the people that their breaking of the Shabbat Laws would eventually bring destruction to the city of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 17:27). And Ezekiel warned the people that YHVH had been very patient with His people, but if they continued to disobey His rules about the Shabbat, He would severely judge them (Ezekiel 20:12-24). When the axe of judgment fell and the Israelites were exiled to Babylon in 586 BC, the people who remained in Israel took the prophets’ words to heart. Shabbat keeping was one of the few distinctive practices faithful Jews could continue to follow in a foreign land. Because of this, it became especially significant. At the prompting of prophets like Ezekiel, who set out rules for Shabbat worship in the rebuilt temple at Jerusalem (Ezekiel 44:24, 45:17 and 46:3), and under the leadership of men like Nehemiah, the Israelites were more careful than the people before them in observing the Shabbat day (Nehemiah 10:31 and 13:15-22).

THE SHABBAT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Before the first century, some Jews 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 YHVH’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, the man from heaven, claimed that He was the 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 Mashiach 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 Mashiach 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 Israel to “rest” in the promised land of Canaan. He then describes how both of these events relate to the present and future rest that believers 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 Israel to the Promised Land, but that did not mark the complete fulfillment of His promise. The full and complete rest that is still waiting for the people of YHVH is in heaven. Mashiach 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.