The seventh-day Sabbath was instituted by God at creation. This is a day sanctified by the Lord for rest. The Sabbath has been seen as legalistic, but this day of rest given to us is not legalism. This is a day of freedom from the worries and work of the week and a day to focus on the Lord and resting our minds and our bodies from the week.
All throughout the Bible, the Sabbath is spoken of. From its institution at Creation all the way to the millennium.
We see in the Torah how we are supposed to celebrate the Sabbath and the blessings that are connected to it. We see Jesus and Paul in the new testament going to the Synagogue and teaching and hearing the Word every Shabbat. And we see in the book of John, how by doing the commandments of God we are consistently showing Elohim that we love him and that we value his words.
Here are some scriptures regarding the Sabbath day throughout Scripture.
Genesis 1: 5 – Why the Sabbath starts at night.
Genesis 2: 1 – 3 – God rested on the sixth day after creating the world.
Exodus 20: 11 – Keeping the Sabbath is the fourth commandment.
Exodus 31 – Sabbath a sign throughout our generations.
Leviticus 23: 3 – Sabbath is the first appointed time of the Lord.
Leviticus 26: 2 – 13 – Blessings that we receive by guarding the commandments of Elohim.
Deuteronomy 5: 12 – 16 – Command to keep the sabbath.
Ezekiel 20 – Sabbath is a sign between the Lord and us.
Isaiah 66 – From Sabbath to Sabbath.
Matthew 15: 3 – 9 – Don’t transgress the Commandments of Elohim because of our traditions.
Jesus and Paul teaches on the Sabbath Day
Mark 1: 21; 6:2;– Jesus taught on in the Synagogue on the Sabbath.
Luke 4: 16, 31 – It was Jesus’ practice to go to the Synagogue every Sabbath day.
Luke 13: 10 – Jesus taught on in the Synagogue on the Sabbath.
Acts 13:13 – 16 – Paul taught on in the Synagogue on the Sabbath.
Acts 17: 2 – 3 – Paul reasoning with the Hebrews using the Scriptures.
Acts 18: 4 – Paul taught in the Synagogue every Sabbath day.
1 Corinthians 16: 1 – 3 – Giving on Sunday but not a changed of worship or rest.
2 Timothy 3: 16 – 17 – All scripture is from Elohim and is inspired and important.
The Law is not done away
Matthew 5: 17 – 19 – Jesus didn’t come to nullify the Torah, and who every teaches the Torah to others will be called great in the kingdom.
Mark 2: 27 – Sabbath was made for man.
Romans 3: 20 – Not declared righteous through the Law.
Romans 3: 31 – The Torah is not nullified because of grace.
Romans 6: 12 – 16 – Don’t sin because of grace.
Romans 7: 7, 12-13 – The Torah is not sin, for by it we have the knowledge of sin.
James 2 – Our works with our faith is what makes the difference in our lives.
2 Peter 3: 15 – The words of Paul can be twisted to our own destruction.
We show our love for Elohim and others by keeping the Commands of God
John 14: 15, 21 – You show your love for the Lord by doing His commands.
1 John 3:4 – Sin is lawlessness.
1 John 5: 2 -3 – A way to show our love for others is by keeping the commands of Elohim.
Shalom how are you sister? I would like to know more about yourself and what inspired you to get into creating a blog for Hebrews like myself to have a source of information
Shalom Carvell! When my family and I first started keeping the High Holidays we were really lost at what to celebrate – the meaning of the holidays, how to celebrate, etc. So I started doing a lot of research so that we could better understand the High Holidays. Later, I figured it would be a good resource for other Hebrews who were in similar situations.
Hi, I am a Christian trying to understand whether it is a sin for me to honor the Sabbath on the last day of the week according to the Gregorian calendar which I and most of the world now live under. There is much anguish between various Christian denominations as to whether its Saturday or Sunday. As I understand, the Hebrew calendar day starts immediately after sunset and the Gregorian calendar day starts immediately after midnight, and the Hebrew calendar last day of the week ends on the Gregorian calendar Saturday ~dusk. Thus the Hebrew calendar end of the week ends very approximately 18 hours earlier than the Gregorian calendar end of the week (I assume sunset 6pm and sunrise 6am). The start of the Gregorian calendar week is Monday 00:00 hours at the close of midnight Sunday (International standard ISO 8601). This is so, for the vast majority of the world, in order to trade and align coordination. God will be well aware that societal calendars come and go and as I read the commandment, it’s a simple stand-alone requirement (seemingly calendar agnostic), which simply says “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 ….”, i.e. the last day out of every seven. As I am not a Jew, I have not found any instruction to me that Gods word say’s I still need to observe the Hebrew calendar of observances, holidays etc. Maybe your view would be helpful please.
Hi Jason! You don’t have to be a Jew to observe the Sabbath or the commandments of Elohim. God said that these commandments and holidays were His and that everyone should do them. God said that the holidays and commandments were to be kept forever and He never said to stop observing them for any reason.
Regarding keeping the sabbath on Sunday or Saturday, God always said to keep Saturday as the Sabbath, it starts Friday night and ends Saturday night. Sunday observance is a Christian tradition but God never told us that we should observe it instead of Saturday. I hope this helps! If you have any more questions- feel free to email me at [email protected]! Shalom!