Are you getting enough rest?
I see it all the time, people walking in a haze and downing some energy drink or 42 oz coffee and still fighting back the yawn. The “man am I tired” crowd only grows larger with each passing day. Every gas station used to ask “leaded or unleaded” now with stocks endless supplies of over caffeinated beverages in your choice of “carbonated or non-carbonated.”
From the very beginning YHVH knew our need for rest. Genesis 2:2-3 examples this in YHVH’s own actions. “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”
God announces emphasizing the importance of the seventh day a full three times. The Hebrew word used is “Sabbath” means to cease, to stop, to desist (to quit working). “Rest” is the result, or evidence of stopping ones work, but it’s not really the meaning of the word. The conclusion the Hebrew sages say it points to is quitting your normal activities; it doesn’t mean that you necessarily stop doing everything.
Jubilees 2:17-19, 21 “And He gave us a great sign, the Shabbat day, that we should work six days, but keep Shabbat on the seventh day from all work. And all the malakim (heavenly beings or angels) of the presence, and all the malakim of sanctification, these two great classes -He has bidden us to keep the Shabbat with Him in heaven and on earth.
And He said to us: ‘Behold, I will separate unto Myself a people from among all the peoples, and these shall keep the Shabbat day, and I will sanctify them unto Myself as My people, and will bless them; as I have sanctified the Shabbat day and do sanctify it unto Myself, even so will I bless them, and they shall be My people and I will be their Sovereign Ruler.
And thus He created therein a sign in accordance with which they should keep Shabbat with us on the seventh day, to eat and to drink, and to bless Him who has created all things as He has blessed and sanctified unto Himself a peculiar people above all peoples, and that they should keep Shabbat together with us.”
The Hebrew word nachan is usually translated “rest” however it more likely means to comfort or console; nachan is the root word for the name “noach” or Noah is another word for rest. Also, “sha’an” means to lean, and “shamat”, which means to throw down or lay down; here God said that He “qadash” the 7th day, He consecrated it and set it completely apart from any other day.
There is only one with the authority who can consecrate or declare anything holy and that being is God Almighty. For mankind to believe that we can declare by means of any church government, creed or statute that something is holy should be considered an absurdity.
The Sabbath, as many contemporary Christians have been taught, was given only to Israel through Moses at Mt. Sinai. Actually, Shabbat is a specific day of the week that God set apart as Holy for all believers. It is taught that Shabbat was simply part of the Laws of Moses; that is, Sabbath observance is commanded in those rules and ordinances God set down at Mt. Sinai shortly after Israel departed Egypt.
Around the late 2nd century AD it became a goal of the now Roman dominated church to abandon anything that seemed to apply to the Hebrew people, eventually in the 4th century the church officially abolished the Shabbat.
Some of you may be questioning that last statement (that the church abolished the Sabbath) but all you need to do to know the truth is read the actual church documents from the several meetings of the ecumenical councils convened by Emperor Constantine; specifically read the Council of Laodicea document, Canon #29, as established in the middle part of the 4th century AD, and you will find that the Church explicitly declared the Sabbath to be a Jewish holy day and therefore the church should have no part it.
Thus the Council of Laodicea declared that Sabbath observance (as well as meeting together for worship on the 7thday, Saturday, the Shabbat) was to end. Instead communal worship should occur on a NEW day…the 1st day of the week…..which was already the standard day of meeting together to worship the most widely accepted and politically correct god of the Roman Empire, the sun god Mithra.
This is why that the 1st day of the week’s name is Sun-day because it was the Roman Empire’s set apart day of worship of the sun-god. And since this newly minted celebration needed a name to replace “Sabbath” and that the new name given was to be The Lord’s Day.
So what the majority of the institutional church has been practicing for 1700 years is NOT a Sabbath that has been moved by one day from the 7th to the 1st day; rather it is an entirely different celebration, established by the Roman Church at the Council of Laodicea in 364 AD, at the direction of the then current emperor of Rome, Constantine.
This fact is not disputed by the Roman Church or Christian scholars. “Not the Creator of Universe, in Genesis 2:1-3,-but the Catholic Church can claim the honor of having granted man a pause to his work every seven days.” (S. C. Mosna, Storia della Domenica, 1969, pp. 366-367)
“The authority of the church could therefore not be bound to the authority of the Scriptures, because the Church had changed…the Sabbath into Sunday, not by command of Christ, but by its own authority.” (Canon and Tradition, p. 263)
The heads of religious governments of all the great Christian denominations such as Catholics, Protestants, Greek Orthodox, Anglican, and others agree; although a few hang on to the loose notion that the Sabbath can be any day we choose.
In reality God established the Shabbat immediately upon finishing His Creation, as we have just read long before there was such a thing as a Hebrew. The Sabbath was not something given to, and reserved for, the Law of Moses and the people of the Exodus. The Sabbath was given to ALL humanity that choose to follow the God of the universe YHVH.
Isaiah 56:6-7 “Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.”
Isaiah 66:22-23 “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.
While the masses drink in their caffeine they may well consider the commands of God, who set the world in its order, that order included His rest. If we were to stop observing another part of creation, say gravity, would that work out well for us? Just imagine walking off the top of a 10 story building and claiming authority over gravity. You wouldn’t be happy with the outcome.
Berean Breadcrumbs 
Leave a Reply