Isaiah 58:13 "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, [From] doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy [day] of the LORD honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking [your own] words,"
A few scriptures that are highlighted regarding the Law and specifically Shabbat.
These are the very words of Jesus.
Matthew 5:20 "For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds [the righteousness] of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."
Hebrews 3:15-19 "while it is said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, [was it] not all who came out of Egypt, [led] by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? [Was it] not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief."
Romans 7:23-25 "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin."
Today, while having a conversation with Kent, He asked me a question "So do you want me to help you move the mattress?" To understand this question I have to rewind a little. During the time that Jesus walked on earth, The Pharisees and Chief Priests were in eldership of Israel. One of the things that they say in the law is this:
Deuteronomy 17:8,9 "If a matter arises which is too hard for you to judge, between degrees of guilt for bloodshed, between one judgment or another, or between one punishment or another, matters of controversy within your gates, then you shall arise and go up to the place which the LORD your God chooses. And you shall come to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge [there] in those days, and inquire [of them]; they shall pronounce upon you the sentence of judgment."
Chief priests and lawyers were in a position of authority over the nation as to the way certain cases regarding the law were to be handled.
As we are aware, one of the biggest parts of the law is Shabbat. I will say in essence, Shabbat is a day of no work. Not just saying "I will rest" but "I will refrain from doing this, and that, and this and that on Shabbat - so that I will rest. Because the Shabbat day was given by God, and consecrated Holy, and a delight - to rest" a day where traditionally the time is spent thinking of God and the word of God.
I want to say, that the teachers (Rabbis) are right in their estimation of Shabbat, saying it is a day where work must not be done. They correctly divided this law. For all the 4000 and more regulations on Shabbat have been given as a delight, and the essence is to make this day a delight. O, that righteousness like this is seen on the earth!
Jesus, reveal to us the importance and joy of Shabbat!
In fact, Jesus also had alot to say about Shabbat. In John 5 he states:
19,20: "Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel."
a definition of miracles is mentioned here, "What he sees the Father do" Saying that all the works he does are miracles. By saying this, Jesus is saying "I cannot work, it's only the Father who works" - He fulfills the law of Shabbat, because if we are attaining to a righteousness, we need an example to go from. Jesus perfectly fulfills Shabbat law, because He perfectly obeys the Father. In fact,the Father is still longing for the same kind of fellowship as He originally created - where we walk with Him in the garden.
People think that part of becoming a Christian is getting rid of the law. But without the law I can never be conscious of my sin. It's only in knowing the law that my sinfulness if revealed. The law is good to us because it kills our flesh. Make no doubt about it, our flesh deceives us, and kills us, it says "these things are good for you" when they are not - and being ignorant we die. We are to hold the two in balance - in tension. The law of sin in our mind, and the law of the spirit of life in our hearts. Without the law we will never be keen to the motions of the Holy Spirit.
In finishing, I have to say something else. If the Shabbat has been given to us as a delight, showing us that we can't do anything, surely it should not just be for a single day? Yes, that's right! God has given Shabbat to us, as a kind of way to live out the rest of our week, when we get it right on Shabbat, we will get it right for the whole week, God does not want us just not working on Shabbat, but also for the rest of our lives, enjoying rest.
I want to stress this, the essence of Shabbat is to do no work. So we cannot condemn Jews who have accurately divided this word rightly. But without the Spirit we cannot expect to fulfill the righteousness that God is asking of us. As a follower of Jesus, His delight is my delight, and Jesus is excited about seeing His Father heal a paralytic, on Shabbat. How much then do I want to obey the words of Jesus in attaining righteousness greater than the Pharisees?
In finishing then, I want to tell the story. Kent asked me "do you want me to help you move the mattress" immediately in my mind I thought "I cannot lift a single finger on Shabbat - to move a mattress" then I listened to Him speak and said "Yes! of course! that's the whole point!" Thank you Spirit revelation. It's good to do no work on Shabbat, it is better to obey. And I will forever obey. I am compelled to obey.
(The reason that we do not enter into rest, is because of disobedience, in multiplying laws, we know that it makes it harder to obey, in the end, only the faithful will attain to righteousness)
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