Importance of the Sabbaths and the Kingdom of God

“Remember the day of the Sabbath, to consecrate it. Six days you will work, and you will do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath for Yahweh your God; you will not do any work—you or your son or your daughter, your male slave or your female slave, or your animal, or your alien who is in your gates— because in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and on the seventh day he rested. Therefore Yahweh blessed the seventh day and consecrated it.

W. Hall Harris III et al., eds., The Lexham English Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012), Ex 20:8–11.

I am amazed how Christendom has fulfilled prophecy by forgetting the Sabbath. When the Creator said, “Remember the day of the Sabbath”, by default He was telling us we would forget. The church has not only forgotten the Sabbath, but they abhor it! Listen to mega-pastor, John MacArthur misrepresent the ten commandments by saying there really are only nine. He is telling us God did not mean what He said when he spoke to the church at Mount Horeb in an audible voice. This is apostasy at the highest level.

I do not mean to single out John MacArthur for any other reason than he provided us with a perfect sound bite for the purposes of this blog post. It is representative of the belief systems in much of Christianity. We know this belief is completely wrong, even though it is very popular, because Yahweh told us how to recognize a false prophet. Also: Matthew 7:14 (LEB), “Because narrow is the gate and constricted is the road that leads to life, and there are few who find it!”. Telling us there are only nine commandments and the day sanctified by Yahuah is no longer holy, is the definition of a false prophet.

Deuteronomy 13:1-5 (LEB)

13 “If a prophet stands up in your midst or a dreamer of dreams and he gives to you a sign or wonder, ² and the sign or the wonder comes about that he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (those whom you have not known), and let us serve them,’ ³ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or to that dreamer, for Yahweh your God is testing you to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all of your heart and with all of your inner self. ⁴ You shall go after Yahweh your God, and him you shall revere, and his commandment you shall keep, and to his voice you shall listen, and him you shall serve, and to him you shall hold fast. ⁵ But that prophet or the dreamer of that dream shall be executed, for he spoke falsely about Yahweh your God, the one bringing you out from the land of Egypt and the one redeeming you from the house of slavery, in order to seduce you from the way that Yahweh your God commanded you to go in it; so in this way you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Under the Levitical priestly system of government and sacrificial law, people convicted of telling us to do something other than the commands of Yahweh, would be executed. Yahusha brought attention to the commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” and rebuke the person not to incur sin. This is the way we must handle these false prophets now, by rebuking them. The system of government that uses the Torah for a constitution simply does not exist, and we are thankful that we do not get executed now for breaking these commands and have a way to repent through the Messiah.

Leviticus 19:17–18 (LEB)

¹⁷ “ ‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you shall surely rebuke your fellow citizen, so that you do not incur sin along with him. ¹⁸ You shall not seek vengeance, and you shall not harbor a grudge against your fellow citizens; and you shall love your neighbor like yourself; I am Yahweh.

The ark of the covenant holds the tablets on which the Creator wrote the ten commandments with His own finger. The ark Moses made was a copy of what he saw in the heavenly temple, or the pattern he was shown on the mountain, as everything else Moses constructed for the tabernacle.

Deuteronomy 10:1–5 (LEB)

“At that time Yahweh said to me, ‘Carve for yourself two tablets of stone just as the former ones, and come up the mountain to me, and you shall make for yourself an ark of wood. ² And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you smashed, and you must put them in the ark.’ ³ And so I made an ark of acacia wood, and I carved two tablets of stone like the former ones, and I went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. ⁴ And he wrote upon the tablets according to the first writing, the ten words that Yahweh spoke to you on the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly, and Yahweh gave them to me. ⁵ And I turned, and I came down from the mountain, and I put the tablets in the ark that I had made, and they are there, just as Yahweh commanded me.

Exodus 25:40 (LEB)

⁴⁰ And see and make all according to their pattern, which you were shown in the mountain.

In the Revelation of John, we are shown that the curtain is pulled back and the ark of the covenant is revealed in the heavenly tabernacle. According to John MacArthur and most of Christianity today, if we could look in the heavenly ark of the covenant, it will either be empty, or it will have the fourth commandment crossed out on the tablets inside. Does this not sound ridiculous considering the sovereignty of God? This takes place at the time the kingdom of God physically merges with the world. The ark of His covenant did not go anywhere. This is the covenant Yahusha reinstated and refreshed with the bread and the wine, his body and blood. It did not go away and everyone will see this on the day of the seventh trumpet.

Revelation 11:15–19 (LEB)

The Blowing of the Seventh Trumpet

¹⁵ And the seventh angel blew the trumpet, and there was a loud voice in heaven saying,“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.” ¹⁶ And the twenty-four elders who are seated on their thrones before God fell down on their faces and worshiped God, ¹⁷ saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God All-Powerful, the one who is and the one who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. ¹⁸ And the nations were angry, and your wrath has come, and the time for the dead to be judged, and to give their* reward to your slaves the prophets and to the saints and to the ones who fear your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”¹⁹ And the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple, and there were lightnings and sounds and thunders and an earthquake and large hail.

This shows that the ark of the covenant is going to be present at the judgement. It is the theme of the whole Bible. Mark 1:15, “and saying, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the gospel!”. The gospel, or good news, is that we can repent and be forgiven. We have to repent for breaking the covenant, then stop breaking the words of the covenant. In other words, stop sinning.

Who has the authority to erase a commandment and change the mode of worship to a different day? Man does not and it is replacing the commandment of God with the tradition of men. The idea of tradition being equal to scripture is a tenant of the Catholic church and obviously Protestant churches as well. The following excerpt is proof from The Catechism of the Catholic Church. This book was written to explain the doctrine of the Catholic church by Pope John Paul II.

81 “Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit.” (113)

“And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound, and spread it abroad by their preaching.”

82 As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, “does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.”

Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 26.

Did everyone know this about the church? I realize this is the Catholic statement of doctrine, but John MacArthur essentially said the same thing in the audio clip I played. Yahusha addressed the problem of replacing the commandments of God with the traditions of men. He upbraided the Pharisees for the same error the church has committed by doing this.

Mark 7:1–8 (LEB)

7 And the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered to him. ² And they saw that some of his disciples were eating their bread with unclean—that is, unwashed—hands. ³ (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands _⌊ritually_⌋, thus* holding fast to the traditions of the elders. ⁴ And when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions* which they have received and* hold fast to—for example, the washing of cups and pitchers and bronze kettles and dining couches.) ⁵ And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unclean hands?” ⁶ So he said to them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far, far away from me. ⁷ And they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ⁸ Abandoning the commandment of God, you hold fast to the tradition of men.”

The explanation about how there are really only nine commandments is common in Christianity today. Celebrating the “Lord’s Day” on Sunday and ignoring the Sabbath commandment is exactly the same as the Pharisees upholding their traditions over the commandments of God. James tells us if we break one commandment, we are guilty of breaking them all. There is absolutely no scripture telling us that we can ignore one of the commandments of the covenant and replace it with something different.

James 2:10–12 (LEB)

¹⁰ For whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles in one point only has become guilty of all of it. ¹¹ For the one who said “Do not commit adultery” also said “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. ¹² Thus speak and thus act as those who are going to be judged by the law of liberty.

The Lexham Bible dictionary has the following to say about the Sabbath day:

In Mark 2:27, Jesus utters the phrase “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.” The phrase brings two primary points into focus:

1. The Sabbath regulations, as interpreted by the Pharisees, had lost the intent of the Sabbath prescribed in the Old Testament. Therefore, the rules they observed were human made, not God made, and able to be broken.
2. The Sabbath proclaimed at creation was intended to serve mankind as a holy day, giving blessing, and observing God’s rest/restoration.
   Nothing of Jesus’ or His disciples’ actions were contrary to the purpose and intent of the Sabbath observance. As such, Jesus was not rewriting the law, but fulfilling and clarifying the original law as described in the Pentateuch, Historical Books, and the Prophets.

What if the tradition of the “Lord’s Day”, not spoken about in scripture, and the forgetting of the Sabbath is completely wrong, as I maintain that it is? “Did God indeed say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” This is the same type of deception that the serpent was able to turn the cosmos back to chaos.

Not only is the Sabbath one of the ten most important instructions given to us by the Creator, Yahuah; it is also a sign between Him and His people. Do you consider yourself one of God’s people?

Exodus 31:12–18 (LEB)

¹² And Yahweh spoke to Moses and said, ¹³ “And you, speak to the Israelites, saying, ‘Surely you must keep my Sabbaths, because it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, in order to know that I am Yahweh, who consecrates you. ¹⁴ And you must keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you; defilers of it will surely be put to death, because anyone who does work on it—that person will be cut off from among his people. ¹⁵ On six days work can be done, and on the seventh is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy day for Yahweh; anyone doing work on the Sabbath day will surely be put to death. ¹⁶ The Israelites will pay attention to the Sabbath in order to fulfill the Sabbath throughout their generations as a lasting covenant. ¹⁷ It is a sign between me and the Israelites forever, because in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh he ceased and recovered.” ¹⁸ And when he finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, he gave to Moses the two tablets of the testimony, stone tablets, written with the finger of God.

When you come into covenant with the Creator through the blood of Messiah Yahusha, you are grafted in to the commonwealth of Israel. The only way this is possible is by Yahusha having taken away the enmity between us and the Father. The law was written against us and we had no hope of reconciliation with the Father.

Ephesians 2:11–22 (LEB)

¹¹ Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, the so-called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision in the flesh, made by hands, ¹² that you were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, not having hope, and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you, the ones who once were far away, have become near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition, the enmity, in his flesh, ¹⁵ invalidating the law of commandments in ordinances, in order that he might create the two in himself into one new man, thus* making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, killing the enmity in himself. ¹⁷ And coming, he proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to the ones who were near, ¹⁸ because through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹ Consequently, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole building, joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, ²² in whom you also are built up together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Yahusha, commonly referred to as Jesus, gave us instructions about the Sabbath. The religion of Judaism, practiced by the Pharisees, had heaped many burdens on people concerning keeping the Sabbath. It was no longer a day of spiritual and physical rest, but it became a checklist that had to be strictly adhered to by the people. Why would Messiah clarify the proper way to keep the Sabbath if it was no longer something to be concerned with? Why does John MacArthur falsely say that the Sabbath commandment was not restated in the New Testament? Does Messiah instructing us on what is permitted on the Sabbath not contradict this statement? Why do people not read about it themselves and let false teachers lead them astray?

Matthew 12:9–13 (LEB)

⁹ And going on from there he came into their synagogue. ¹⁰ And behold, there was a man who had a withered hand, and they asked him, saying, “Is it permitted to heal on the Sabbath?” in order that they could accuse him. ¹¹ But he said to them, “What man will there be among you who will have one sheep and if this one fell into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it* out? ¹² Then to what degree is a man worth more than a sheep? So then, it is permitted to do good on the Sabbath.” ¹³ Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand,” and he stretched it* out, and it was restored as healthy as the other one.

The writer of Hebrews tells us there is still a Sabbath rest for us. The word which means “Sabbath rest” is almost always translated as simply “rest”, but we have the tools available to us now to look at the original languages to see what is really being said.

Hebrews 4:8–13 (LEB)

⁸ For if Joshua had caused them to rest, he would not have spoken about another day after these things. ⁹ Consequently a sabbath rest remains for the people of God. ¹⁰ For the one who has entered into his rest has also himself rested from his works, just as God did from his own works. ¹¹ Therefore, let us make every effort to enter into that rest, in order that no one may fall in the same pattern of disobedience. ¹² For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, both joints and marrow, and able to judge the reflections and thoughts of the heart. ¹³ And no creature is hidden in the sight of him, but all things are naked and laid bare to the eyes of him to whom we must give our account.

The word used for “Sabbath rest” is a Greek word that means “Sabbath rest”. It is clear that we are to be obedient, not as the ones who were disobedient, gathering sticks on the Sabbath. Usually a Greek word has several translations and can mean the same as a few related words. This word for “sabbath rest” has no alternative meaning and to translate it simply as “rest” is misleading.

Who could be the one behind the trickery of making God’s people think that the Sabbath is no longer valid? It must be someone who does not want Christians to reap the benefits of a day of rest. Someone who wants to drive a wedge between Yahuah and His people. Unfortunately, there are many willing accomplices with the adversary called satan in the Hebrew language.

Ezekiel 20:10–14 (LEB)

¹⁰ And I brought them out from the land of Egypt, and I brought them to the desert, ¹¹ and I gave my statutes to them, and my regulations I made known to them, which, if a person does them, then he will live by them. ¹² And also my Sabbaths I gave to them to be a sign between me and between them _⌊so they would know_⌋ that I, Yahweh, am the one sanctifying them.¹³ “But in the desert the house of Israel rebelled against me; they did not walk in my statutes, and they rejected my regulations, which, if a person does them, he will live by them, and they greatly profaned my Sabbaths, and I decided to pour out my rage on them in the desert to destroy them, ¹⁴ and I acted for the sake of my name, that it not be profaned before the eyes of the nations before whom I brought them out.

Yahusha gave us more teaching about the Sabbath. Again, why would the Messiah clarify the proper actions on the Sabbath if there are only nine commandments? How does this not count as the Messiah upholding the Sabbath commandment?

Luke 13:10–17 (LEB)

¹⁰ Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. ¹¹ And behold, a woman was there* who had a spirit that had disabled her for eighteen years, and she was bent over and not able to straighten herself up completely. ¹² And when he* saw her, Jesus summoned her* and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability!” ¹³ And he placed his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and glorified God. ¹⁴ But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, answered and* said to the crowd, “There are six days on which it is necessary to work. Therefore come and* be healed on them, and not on the day of the Sabbath!” ¹⁵ But the Lord answered and said to him, “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you untie his ox or his* donkey from the feeding trough on the Sabbath and lead it* away to water it?* ¹⁶ And this woman, who is a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan bound eighteen long years—is it not necessary that she be released from this bond on the day of the Sabbath?” ¹⁷ And when he said these things, all those who opposed him were humiliated, and the whole crowd was rejoicing at all the splendid things that were being done by him.

There is so much we could say about the importance of the Sabbath and the time the Messiah took to restore the day as it is intended. The ones who think a day of rest is a burden of outdated “Jewish” law are being deceived and robbed of a blessing. I am afraid for people who speak against the Sabbath and try to replace it with something the Creator did not sanction. Will their ignorance be overlooked? Messiah Yahusha told us that anyone teaching against the commandments would be considered least in the kingdom.

Matthew 5:17–19 (LEB)

¹⁷ “Do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I have not come to destroy them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸ For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one tiny letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all takes place. ¹⁹ Therefore whoever abolishes one of the least of these commandments and teaches people to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever keeps them and teaches them, this person will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

One must ask what it means to be least in the kingdom of God. It is not something I would strive for, and Yahusha tells us exactly how to get there. It is by abolishing and teaching people to abolish even the least of the commandments. Is this not what the church is doing by abolishing the Sabbath and teaching others it is abolished?

Mark 9:42–48 (LEB):

42 “And whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it is better for him if instead a large millstone⌋is placed around his neck and he is thrown into the sea. 43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter into life crippled than, having two hands, to go into hell—into the unquenchable fire! 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter into life lame than, having two feet, to be thrown into hell! 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out! It is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than, having two eyes, to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not extinguished.’

Is causing someone who believes in Yahusha to sin the same as teaching them to break the commandments? If I were teaching those who believe in Messiah to abolish the commandments of God, I would seriously consider these verses. It makes me wonder why anyone would consider teaching people to break the commandments, even if they thought they were right. No one is required to teach against the commandments, so why do it and risk being the “least in the kingdom”? Yahusha is quoting the verses in Isaiah speaking about the coming kingdom. Is it possible the least in the kingdom are described in the following verses? I would take this very seriously!

Isaiah 66:22–24 (LEB):

22 “For just as the new heavens and earth that I am about to make shall stand before me,” declares Yahweh, “so shall your descendants and your name stand.
23 And this shall happen: From new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath all flesh shall come to bow in worship before me,” says Yahweh. 24 “And they shall go out and look at the corpses of the people who have rebelled against me,
for their worm shall not die,
and their fire shall not be quenched,
and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

The Sabbath is hardly the least of the commandments! It is in the top ten! Why do Christians hate the Sabbath? It is a day of rest! What is there to hate? I suggest people who are concerned about what Yahusha said should study these things for themselves and not let false teachers teach them that commandments are abolished.

Featured photo by Tarang Dave on Unsplash.