What Shabbat is, for whom it was established, and how Scripture explains the rest of the seventh day.
English translation of the Russian source document, 2020
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Introduction
The Special Day of Shabbat
What is Shabbat, and for whom was it given? This question is disputed among different religious teachings.
To answer it without a theology of replacement or division, you need to understand who you are before YHWH and with whom you have a covenant. Then the following words answer the question:
Deut.4:6 Therefore keep and do them, for this is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’
Isa.56:2 Blessed is the one who honours the laws of YHWH, keeps Shabbat from being profaned, and guards his hand from doing evil. For YHWH says: ‘To the eunuchs who keep My Shabbats, choose what pleases Me, and hold firmly to My covenant, I will give a memorial and a name within My house and My walls, better than sons and daughters. I will give each of them an everlasting name that will not be cut off. The foreigners who honour YHWH, serve Him, love His Name, become His servants, keep Shabbat without profaning it, and hold firmly to My covenant—I will bring them to My holy mountain and give them joy in My house of prayer.’
Shabbat is a day of rest, a blessing, and a sign of the covenant for the people of YHWH. It is neither a religious burden for some nor an ordinary day for others.
Shabbat was given to humanity on the seventh day of creation. It has a Master who knows those who are present and take part in it. Every day belongs to the presence and praise of the Creator, but Shabbat is a special day, distinct from the others. This was His purpose from the beginning of the world, and it remains an unchanging part of life for everyone who trusts the Creator and His Word.
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01KEEPING SHABBAT—AN EVERLASTING COVENANT
Gen.2:2 On the seventh day Elohim completed the work He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work. Elohim blessed the seventh day and set it apart, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had done.
Ex.31:16 The people of Israel—the people of YHWH—are to remember the seventh day, make it a special day, and keep it throughout their generations. This covenant between them and Me will remain forever.
Lev.19:30 Keep My Shabbats.
Isa.56:2 Blessed is the one who does what is right—who honours the laws of YHWH—and keeps the day of Shabbat.
Heb.4:9 Therefore, the keeping of Shabbat remains for the people of YHWH.
Mark 2:27 Then he said to them, ‘Shabbat was made for people, not people for Shabbat. Therefore the Son of Man is the Master of Shabbat’—the Master of the living observance of Shabbat.
Lev.23:3 Work may be done for six days, but the seventh day is a Shabbat of complete rest, a sacred gathering. Do no work. It is the Shabbat of YHWH in all your dwelling places.*
Acts 15:21 From ancient generations, in every city there have been people who proclaim Moshe, and his words are read in the synagogues every Shabbat.
Acts 13:42 As they left the Judean synagogue, the people asked them to speak about the same things on the next Shabbat.
Acts 13:44 On the next Shabbat, almost the whole city gathered to hear the Word of YHWH.
Acts 16:13 On the day of Shabbat, we went outside the city to the river, where a place of prayer was customarily found. We sat down and spoke with the women who had gathered there.
Acts 18:4 Every Shabbat he reasoned in the synagogue and persuaded Judeans and Greeks.
Ex.20:8 Remember the day of Shabbat and make it special—set it apart.
Ex.31:14 Make the seventh day—Shabbat—your special day. Anyone who treats the seventh day as no different from the other days will be cut off** from among the people.
Lev.19:3 Keep My Shabbats. I am YHWH your Elohim.
Deut.5:15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Mitsrayim, and YHWH your Elohim brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore YHWH your Elohim commanded you to observe the day of Shabbat—to establish it and keep it holy.
Neh.13:17 You know that your ancestors did the same thing. That is why our YHWH brought trouble upon us and upon this city. Now you are bringing even more trouble upon Israel by profaning the day of Shabbat and making it like an ordinary day.
Isa.58:13 If you turn your foot away from Shabbat—from pursuing your own affairs on My holy day—and call Shabbat a delight, the holy day of YHWH honourable; if you honour it by not going your own way, seeking your own business, or speaking about it, then you will find your joy in YHWH. I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father. The mouth of YHWH has spoken.
Isa.66:22 As the new heavens and the new earth that I will make will remain before Me, says YHWH, so your offspring and your name will remain.
Then, from month to month and from Shabbat to Shabbat, all flesh will come before Me to worship, says YHWH. They will go out and see the bodies of those who rebelled against Me; their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched, and they will be abhorrent to all flesh.
Ex.20:9 Work for six days and do all your labour, but the seventh day is Shabbat to YHWH your Elohim. Do no work on it—you, your son or daughter, your male or female servant, your livestock, or the foreigner within your gates. For in six days YHWH made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore YHWH blessed the seventh day—Shabbat—and set it apart.
Ex.34:21 Work for six days, but rest on the seventh day. Rest even during ploughing and harvest.
Lev.25:2 Tell the children of Israel: when you enter the land that I am giving you, the land must rest in a Shabbat to YHWH.
Ex.31:15 Anyone who works*** on Shabbat must be removed from among the people. The other six days are for work, but the seventh day is a special day of rest, holy to YHWH. Anyone who works on Shabbat must be put to death.
Jer.17:21 YHWH says: guard your lives and do not carry a burden through the gates of Jerusalem on Shabbat. Do not carry a burden out of your houses or do any work on that day. Set the day apart, as I commanded your ancestors.
Isa.56:2 Blessed is the one who honours the laws of YHWH, keeps Shabbat from being profaned, and guards his hand from doing evil. For YHWH says: ‘To the eunuchs who keep My Shabbats, choose what pleases Me, and hold firmly to My covenant, I will give a memorial and a name within My house and My walls, better than sons and daughters. I will give each of them an everlasting name that will not be cut off. The foreigners who honour YHWH, serve Him, love His Name, become His servants, keep Shabbat without profaning it, and hold firmly to My covenant—I will bring them to My holy mountain and give them joy in My house of prayer.’
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on My altar, for My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples. The Master YHWH, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says: ‘Besides those already gathered, I will gather still others to them.’
Book of Jubilees, chapter 2: Announce and explain to the children of Israel the law of this day, so that they may keep Shabbat on it and not forget it through the error of their hearts. They must not attend to their own needs, prepare food or drink, draw water, or carry any burden in or out through their gates unless they prepared what they needed during the six days in their homes. They must not carry anything from one house to another on this day, because it is holier and more blessed than every jubilee day of the jubilee year. We kept Shabbat before its observance was made known to any mortal on earth. YHWH, the Elohim of all things, blessed it, but He did not set apart every people and nation to keep Shabbat—only Israel. He appointed Israel alone to eat, drink, and keep Shabbat on the earth. YHWH, the Elohim of all things, created this day for blessing, holiness, and honour above all other days. This law and testimony were given to the children of Israel as an everlasting law throughout their generations.
Book of Jubilees, chapter 50: I have also written for you the command concerning Shabbats and all the statutes that govern them. Work for six days, but the seventh day is Shabbat to YHWH your Elohim. You, your sons, your male and female servants, all your livestock, and the foreigner who is with you must not do any work on it. The person who does any work must die. This includes anyone who profanes the day, lies with his wife, speaks about setting out on a journey, buys or sells, draws water without preparing it on the sixth day, or lifts a burden to carry it from a tent or house. Do no work on Shabbat that was not prepared on the sixth day. Eat, drink, rest from every task, and honour YHWH your Elohim, who gave you this feast and holy day. It is to be a day of a holy kingdom for all Israel continually throughout your lives. YHWH gave Israel the honour of eating, drinking, being satisfied, and resting from ordinary human work on this feast day, apart from incense, gifts, and sacrifices before YHWH on Shabbat. Anyone who works, sets out on a journey, cares for livestock at home or elsewhere, kindles a fire to cook, rides an animal, travels by ship, kills a person, slaughters an animal or bird, hunts an animal, bird, or fish, fasts, or wages war on Shabbat (see Matt.24:20) must die. The children of Israel are to keep Shabbat according to the commandments for the Shabbats of the land, as written on the heavenly tablets given into my hands, so that I might write for you the laws of the appointed times and their division into days.
Ex.35:3 Do not kindle a fire**** in any of your dwellings on Shabbat.
Ex.16:23 Tomorrow—the seventh day—is a rest, a holy Shabbat to YHWH. Bake what you need to bake and boil what you need to boil today—the sixth day. Set aside everything left over and keep it until morning.
The Council of Laodicea declared that the ‘Lord’s Day’ should be observed on Sunday and, under threat of a curse, prohibited the keeping of Shabbat. Canon 29 states that followers of the Anointed One must not ‘Judaize’ and be idle on Saturday, but should work like other people. It says that they should especially honour the ‘Lord’s Day’ and, if possible, refrain from ordinary work on it; anyone found keeping Shabbat was to be separated from the Anointed One—placed under anathema. The Roman Catholic catechism likewise says that the church transferred the observance of the seventh day to the ‘Lord’s Day.’
The same claim is stated directly: ‘The Catholic Church, by its divine authority, transferred the observance of the seventh day to the first day of the week,’ and that long before Protestantism the church changed the day from Saturday to Sunday by its claimed sacred mission.
Through the Babylonian-Roman Catholic system, the commandment concerning Shabbat—the day of YHWH—was set aside and replaced by Sunday, a human ordinance. In this way, a religious system replaced worship of the living YHWH with forms linked to worship of the sun: Horus or Ra in ancient Mitsrayim; Tammuz, the son of Ishtar, in Babylon and Assyria; Koliada, Yarilo, or Yar in Slavic culture; Mithra in India, Persia, and Iran; Helios among the Greeks; Apollo among the Romans; Molech among ancient Carthaginians; Tonatiuh among the Aztecs and Maya; Amaterasu in Japan; and others.
Shabbat is not an object of worship. It is time set apart for simple rest. Col.2:16 Therefore let no one dictate what you may eat or drink, or how you must observe a feast, a new moon, or a day of Shabbat. These are a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to the Anointed One.
The Pharisees interpreted the commandment about Shabbat according to their own tradition. They required people to keep additional and unnecessary rules about what could or could not be done. This created more work: people had to perform those rules and monitor themselves and others so that no one would break them, instead of entering the true rest of YHWH’s Shabbat.
Yeshua did not violate Shabbat in the sight of YHWH. He violated the expectations of the Judean religious system:
Luke 11:46 He said, ‘Woe to you experts in the law as well, because you load people with burdens difficult to carry, while you yourselves do not touch those burdens with one finger.’
Matt.12:12 Therefore, doing good is permitted on Shabbat.
Luke 14:5 Then he said to them, ‘If one of you has a donkey or an ox that falls into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on Shabbat?’
Not working means resting rather than earning money. Do not be anxious about business; set ordinary affairs aside. This is the meaning of true Shabbat.
