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POSTED 16 SEPTEMBER, 2007

Days of Awe: Day Four

by Mark Huey
mhuey@outreachisrael.net

Psalm 145; Job 22-31; Exodus 20:8-11

The Fourth Commandment has probably become one of the most controversial and misunderstood injunctions of the Holy Scriptures. No matter how it might be communicated throughout the ages, it still is something that separates Israel from the rest of the world. It is clear that God’s people should remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy for communion with Him. No other conclusions can be drawn from a simple reading of the text, and yet for centuries this very command has created untold arguments about what is being said, and how and when to observe the seventh day.

But before elaborating on this holy command, let us take the time to read the psalm of David that so eloquently touches the heart and draws one closer to God. Then, you can read more about the life of Job from the suggested passages. I have a feeling that both of these men understood the blessings attached with taking a weekly Shabbat. Perhaps if we listen to their words and understand their relationship with the Almighty, then as we each mature in our personal walks with the Messiah, we will be inspired to make the seventh day of the week holy unto Him, who is life eternal:

“A Psalm of Praise, of David. I will extol You, my God, O King, And I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and highly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of Your majesty and on Your wonderful works, I will meditate. Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts, and I will tell of Your greatness. They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness and will shout joyfully of Your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works. All Your works shall give thanks to You, O Lord, and Your godly ones shall bless You. They shall speak of the glory of Your kingdom and talk of Your power; to make known to the sons of men Your mighty acts and the glory of the majesty of Your kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord sustains all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways and kind in all His deeds. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them. The Lord keeps all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy. My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever” (Psalm 145:1-21).

The Fourth Commandment

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:8-11).

When you read the Fourth Commandment, you immediately note that it is a reflection of the created order that was established when God finished His work. The Holy One, after completing the six days of work, took the seventh day, blessed it, and then rested. By simple logic, it is easy to deduce that man was endowed with the innate knowledge that after a period of six days of work, the need for a day of rest is beneficial for physical health. When the Holy One issued the Ten Commandments to Moses in the Decalogue, the knowledge that He blessed the seventh day and made it holy, added a spiritual dimension to the importance of observing this day.

During the wilderness journey, the Almighty established the pattern for remembrance in a unique way. As you will recall, the provision that came in the form of manna from Heaven was used as a vehicle to require the people of Israel to take the seventh day and remember the prohibition against working, or requiring one’s children, servants, sojourners, or livestock to participate in work:

“Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, then he said to them, ‘This is what the Lord meant: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.’ So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it. Moses said, ‘Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.’ It came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions? See, the Lord has given you the sabbath; therefore He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.’ So the people rested on the seventh day” (Exodus 16:22-30).

We know from further misadventures in the forty-year sojourn from Egypt to Canaan that the Holy One was very serious about the prohibition against working on the Sabbath. The memorable incident of the stoning of the person who gathered sticks on Shabbat is a vivid illustration that Israel needed to fully understand:

“Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation; and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done to him. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.’ So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as the Lord had commanded Moses” (Numbers 15:32-36).

When you consider this passage, you realize that working on the Sabbath was considered an offense worthy of capital punishment. The Lord was very serious about the Sabbath rest when He made it a part of the Ten Commandments.

Of course, this blatant violation of the Fourth Commandment made a strong impression on the people of Israel, but we do not have any other Scriptural references that record any additional stonings for Sabbath violations. But it is obvious to me that the Almighty was seeking to make a point to Moses and the Exodus generation.

We know in the Apostolic Scriptures that Yeshua the Messiah was able to communicate a very solemn and deeper understanding about the essence of Shabbat, when He showed that for certain things that showed mercy, the ability to do what might be considered “work” was allowed:

“One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?’ And he said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.’ Then he said to them, ‘The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath’” (Mark 2:23-28, NRSV).

“They were watching Him to see if He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. 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?’ But they kept silent. After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him, as to how they might destroy Him” (Mark 3:2-6).

“Yeshua answered them, ‘I did one deed, and you all marvel. For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath?’” (John 7:21-23).

Yeshua made it perfectly clear that Shabbat was “made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath.” In other words, man came before the rest. The Holy One instituted a day of rest, and by blessing it and proclaiming it holy, people would know what day to devote to resting in His loving arms. If, however, things arose that required people to extend mercy or take care of their sustenance, then one is permitted, according to Yeshua’s example, to do things that might be considered “work.” On the other hand, this does not give one license to simply do whatever he or she pleases in order to satisfy the desires of the flesh. Remember the words from the Prophet Isaiah that amplify the benefits of taking the day of rest with our Creator:

“If because of the Sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Isaiah 58:13-14).

When you read these words you will soon discover that the blessings which come from making the Sabbath a priority in your life will be great, and that your spiritual growth will soar—just as Isaiah declares. Of course, what one needs to learn is that some preparation is required. The Jewish traditions concerning Shabbat observance offer some practical ways to set aside this twenty-four hour period of time, from sundown on Friday evening to sundown on Saturday evening, apart from the rest of the week. Lighting candles and completing Shabbat with a Havdalah service make the time very special and sanctified. If you are doing this as a family, or as a group of Messianics who can encourage one another to keep Shabbat holy, the benefits in your spiritual growth will be noticeable.

If nothing else, if you take the day to spend with your Heavenly Father through prayer, meditation, Scripture reading, and fellowship with family, friends, and perhaps fellowship or congregational members—you will be amazed with how your spiritual growth increases. If you think about it, your Heavenly Father will be so pleased that you are putting Him and His requests ahead of your own desires, that He will freely bestow upon you ever increasing blessings from above.

At this hour, more and more of those who are entering the Messianic movement are deriving the benefits of remembering Shabbat. Our Father is definitely taking His people back to the ancient paths that are bordered with not only His Ten Commandments, but also the balance of the entire Torah that is the foundation for our faith. But remember this one thing: Yeshua is the Word made flesh. Since we are being conformed to His image, perhaps by spending more time with Him on Shabbat—learning about who He is in the Torah—the conformation process will be accelerated.

We have certainly seen many blessings in our own lives, and in those of many of the Messianics we have been privileged to get to know since 1995. Perhaps in His time, many more of our family and friends will understand why we are doing the things we are doing on Shabbat. It is my belief that when they see Yeshua in us and the blessings of following His ways, while we are being conformed to His image, He will provoke them to consider what we have had to consider. By keeping Shabbat, He is preparing a vanguard of teachers and leaders to handle the coming masses. So hang in there, and be thankful for the early training and the blessings of resting in and with Him who is life eternal.[1]

Mark Huey (B.A., Vanderbilt University in History and Graduate Studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University) is the Director of Outreach Israel Ministries (www.outreachisrael.net). He is the author of several books, including: TorahScope, Volumes I & II, and Counting the Omer: A Daily Devotional Toward Shavuot. He is also co-author of Hebraic Roots: An Introductory Study.

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