Thursday, 4 March 2021

Shabbat

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Question of the day: At the end of our reading today (Chapter 31), we learn that God finished speaking to Moses and gave him the 2 tablets of the testimony of Moses. What was the last thing that the Lord spoke to Moses before giving him the tablets of the 10 Commandments?

Answer: God spoke the details of the 4th Commandment which concerns our observance of the Sabbath Day (Shabbat). Exodus 31:16-17 "So Bnei-Yisrael is to keep the Shabbat, to observe the Shabbat throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and Bnei-Yisrael forever, for in six days Adonai made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He ceased from work and rested."

I want to comment briefly on the last Hebrew word of verse 17, Va'yi'na'fash. It has 4 syllables. The Shoresh is the same as Nefesh, (Nun-Peh-Shin). It means "soul." In giving us the Shabbat, God was giving the world a soul. A human soul is what makes humans different from all other living things. The "Shabbat soul" is what makes this world different from all other space.

Please follow me here. Why do we have a goal line on a football field? It's the same reason God gave the world the weekly Shabbat. Without a goal line, we're just playing without purpose. The game might end, but we would never know who won. Shabbat gives each week a goal line. The other six days of the week derive their purpose from the "goal line" of Shabbat.

God gave the world a day of rest, a weekly vacation, a break from striving, to stop and give thanks and honor to the creator of all things. We stop working and celebrate His goodness and love for us. Yeshua is the reality of all things. Therefore; Yeshua is also the reality of the Shabbat. When we rest, we rest in Him. We honor Him on His appointed day.

Matthew 12:6,8 "But I tell you that something greater than the Temple is here ... For the Son of Man is Lord of Shabbat."