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“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work; you nor, your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it.” Thus says the Lord our God in Exodus 20:8-11. There is something very unquice about the seventh day that does not apply to any other days of creation. When we look at the creation process we see that; “God said”, and whatever He spoke came into existence. The creation of man is a bit different. In Genesis 1:26-27 God said; “Let us make man in Our image, according to our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created Him; male and female He created them.” When we look at Genesis 2:7 we see that it is not God who formed man. It is the Lord God who formed man out of the dust of the earth, and breathed the breath of life into him. It is the addition of the word “Lord” that makes all the difference. In Genesis 1:27 were it says; “so God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him.” This Him is the Lord. The Lord then created male, and female. Genesis 2:7 says it is the Lord God who formed man, and in Genesis 2:22 it is the Lord God who forms woman from Adams rib. John 14:6 says; “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through Me.” When He says, “no one” He even meant Adam and Eve. Hebrews 13:8 says; “He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” In Ephesians 4:5 the word says; “there is one Lord.” That means that the Lord who formed us is the same Lord who died on the cross; rose from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of God. How can the man that the Lord formed get to the Father of the Lord if not through the Lord? He formed on the seventh day, and is still forming us on the seventh day. Mark 2:27 says; “And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” Exodus 31:3 says; “Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.” Isaiah 64:8 says; “But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand.” It is His molding and forming us that brings about our deliverance, healing, and restoration. That is why He says in Matthew 12:11; “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.
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Sabbath/Shabbat = “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath/Shabbat.” Matthew 11:8 |
. In Hebrew *the word Shabbat asks שַׁבָּת , (Shavta) - did you return? The joy of Sabbath is our returning to the Lord. Isaiah 30:15 says; “For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” Only in our returning to Him can we be in the world, but not of it. After six days of journeying in the world we return to our maker on the seventh. Psalms 95:67 says; “Oh come let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice.” Isaiah 17:7 says; “In that day a man will look to his maker, and his eyes will have respect for the Holy One of Israel” Revelations 21 is a picture of our final return and rest. The blessing of returning to the Lord is as Deuteronomy 30:1-10 says; “Now it shall come to pass; when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and all your soul, that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers, and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. Also the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecute you. And you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments which I command you today. The Lord your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, if you obey the voice of the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul.” It is as we return to Him that we get to Revelations 21 where all things are made brand new. Revelations 21:3 says; “Behold tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.” This is the intimacy Adam and Eve had with Him in the very beginning, and just as Adam spoke of Eve saying; “This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”; so we shall be in the Lord. John 14:20 says; “At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” It all starts with the question שַׁבָּת Shavta – did you return? Matthew 11:28-29 says; “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” “For the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath.” Matthew 11:8.
