Yeshua and the Sabbath

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Exodus 31:13 “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you."

 

 Upon my review of the Sabbath, in the New Testament, concerning how Yeshua lived His life during them, God revealed some amazing insights to me. Since there are several stories contained in the Gospels pertaining to events that took place on Sabbaths, I've chosen to summarize some of these interactions here while focusing in primarily on the details of only a few of those events. In addition, the Gospel of John is a very deeply spiritual book and while each occurrence and interaction recorded on a Sabbath is worthy of much study and investigation, for our purposes here we will not be looking into those events yet.

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All of the events we will be considering here are found throughout either all or maybe even only one of the Gospel accounts by Matthew, Mark or Luke:

 

In all three Gospel accounts we find an event where Yeshua, while walking with His disciples, pass through grain-fields and the disciples, looking for sustenance, began to pick the heads of grain and eat. The Pharisees, indignant at this behavior, chastise Yeshua for allowing this of His disciples. Yeshua diligently teaches the Pharisees that the priest who serves in the temple, even though he might break the Sabbath, is held innocent. Then, on another Sabbath, Yeshua heals the withered hand of a man in the synagogue at the protest of the Pharisees. Yeshua continues to teach them with this question; "Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the Sabbath? To save a life or to destroy it?" The account recorded in Matthew reveals Yeshua teaching something else in addition; "Which one of you who has a sheep that falls into a pit will not deliver it?" The Gospel of Mark opens by showing Yeshua diligently teaching with authority and delivering a man by healing him of an unclean spirit. Later, in Chapter 6 of the Gospel of Mark, we find Yeshua teaching in the synagogue amidst the unbelief of the people while also performing miraculous deliverances and healings. In Chapter 4 of the Gospel of Luke we find Yeshua in Nazareth teaching from the book of Isaiah and when the people attempt to kill him he goes down to Capernaum and there He heals and delivers a man of an unclean spirit! After this, Yeshua leaves and goes to Simon's home to break bread for sustenance, and while there he heals Simon's mother by delivering her from a fever! At which time, the Scripture immediately records, she gets up and begins to wait on, and serve them.

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At this point I'm sure you have begun to notice that there are many similarities going on here. Several of these themes have repeated themselves here, and many of them are even referred to as 'works' that Yeshua performed on the Sabbath.

 

Before I reveal to you why these themes have repeated themselves and what they have in common, let us look at one particular event on a Sabbath found in the Gospel of Luke;

 

Luke 13:10-17 10 "Yeshua was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And there was a woman there (learning) who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed (delivered) from your sickness.” 13 And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying (serving) God. 14 But the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd in response, “There are six days in which work should be done; so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” 15 But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water (sustain) him? 16 And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?” 17 As He said this, all His opponents were being humiliated; and the entire crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by Him."

 

Notice that here in this one event recorded on a Sabbath we find there are embedded references to all of the themes taking place throughout the other recorded Sabbath events!

 

• Teaching

• Learning

• Healing

• Delivering

• Serving

• Sustaining

 

Before we completely define the reason for these themes, let us answer a question that was recently asked of me; "What does Yeshua mean when He says He is the Lord of the Sabbath?"

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Let us remember that man being united in fellowship with God is a central focus of our Father in Heaven and His Son Yeshua. The goal or purpose of Yeshua's sacrifice is to reconcile, in and through Himself, man back to his Heavenly Father. In fact, if we consider Paul's words written to the Colossians (Colossians 1:16) we see that Yeshua is the pattern, so to speak, through which all things are formed. Perhaps this is the insight we need to fully understand what Yeshua meant when He declared in Mark that; "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." If Yeshua is the pattern through which the Sabbath was made and He is the Lord of the Sabbath, then perhaps the Sabbath was made for man as an image of what the new creation in Christ should look like – a creature whose purpose is found in reconciliation and fellowship with our Heavenly Father!

 

Do we not find the same fulfillment and purpose in the Sabbath that we find in Yeshua? A purpose of reconciliation and fulfillment through fellowship with the Father. Fulfillment in peace and rest, and all through love? Let us rejoice in this time of reconciliation and fellowship with our Father in Heaven each week with a remembrance of the 'works' of Yeshua who laid His life down for ours. And what does Yeshua say of His works? John 5:19 "Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner."

 

So I submit to you that it is not only Yeshua who brings definition to man, but it is also the Sabbath, created through Yeshua, and for man, which gives us an opportunity to bring definition to our lives when we walk in the works that Yeshua walked in on the Sabbath.

 

Exodus 31:13 “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My Sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you."

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The Hebrew word translated My sabbaths appears like this; h,,CJ and has a numerical value of 1112. (Every Hebrew letter has a numerical value which defines a number system.)

 

***Yeshua reveals all of the components contained in His father's words 'My Sabbaths'!***

 

•  The Man - In Hebrew it is H'adam - ostv = 50

 (The letter Hei is kept, as per our recent teaching, being that as a prefix this letter translates the word 'the' which appropriately brings definition to the word it is attached to. Earlier we stated that both Yeshua, who is the Lord of the Sabbath, and the Sabbath itself bring definition to man.)

• Teaching - A Hebrew word meaning this is Shanan - ibJ = 400  (Deuteronomy 6:7)

• Learning - A Hebrew word meaning this is Lamed - snk = 74 (Deuteronomy 4:10)

• Healing - A Hebrew word meaning this is  Rapha - tpr = 281 (Exodus 15:26)

• Delivering - A Hebrew word meaning this is  Patzah - vmP = 175 (Psalm 144:10)

• Serving - A Hebrew word meaning this is Ebed - sCg = 76 (Genesis 15:14)

• Sustaining - A Hebrew word meaning this is Chol - kIf = 56 (Genesis 45:11)

 

I say these are the components of what Yeshua and our Heavenly Father teach are ''My Sabbaths' because when you add the numerical values of each of these 7 Hebrew words together you will derive a value of 1112 which is equal to the value of the Hebrew word for My Sabbaths! I also say this because; The Man who spends his time on the Sabbath, teaching, learning, healing, delivering, serving and sustaining others, truly remembers and guards the Sabbath!

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It is our love and obedience to His righteousness which makes us Holy and sets us apart unto Him. Let us honor the Sabbath together by remembering and guarding the time we have for fellowship with our Creator! In fact, I truly believe that when a man does these things on the Sabbath the following Scripture verses truly reveal the way in which God spends His time in fellowship with His children! Each of these entire scripture verses have a numerical value of 1112.

 

תָּמִים תִּהְיֶה  עִם יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ

13 "You shall be perfect before the Lord your God." Deuteronomy 18:13

 

בְּךָ  בָּטְחוּ  אֲבֹתֵינוּ  בָּטְחוּ   וַתְּפַלְּטֵמוֹ

4 In You our fathers trusted; They trusted and You delivered them." Psalm 22:4

 

אֹהֵב  צְדָקָה  וּמִשְׁפָּט  חֶסֶד  יְהוָה  מָלְאָה  הָאָרֶץ

5 He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the loving kindness of the Lord." Psalm 33:5

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