Keep the Sabbath Holy

There is a new blog carnival in town! Call Her Blessed is hosting it. It is called “Seek the Lord Sunday.” This week’s topic is the title of this post.

First we need some background about the Sabbath, or Shabbat as it is called in Hebrew. God has a different timetable than the one we’re used to. According to him, the new day starts in the evening-in other words at sundown is the beginning of the next day. Genesis 1:5:

“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”

All throughout the creation account, God starts the next day in the evening.

In Genesis 2:3 it says:

“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.”

We now see that Shabbat was instituted at the beginning of creation-before the ten commandments. We also need to keep in mind that in Yeshua’s (Yeshua literally means salvation in Hebrew, and that’s who Jesus is-The Salvation) time and after His death and resurrection, there was no such thing as the New Testament. The earliest believers had only the Old Testament to guide them and help them be holy. Acts 17:10-12:

“And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming [thither] went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.”

Since there was no New Testament, what scriptures were searched? The Old Testament. And where did they hear Paul and Silas preach? In the synagogue.

The earliest believers followed the OT-so they honored Shabbat on the seventh day, and they celebrated all of the Lord’s Feasts. If you read historical accounts of what the believers did such as Josepheus, you will find that they followed the Lord’s appointed times.

In Hebrew, the days of the week do not have names, just numbers, except for Shabbat-the only day of the week that is named. That is because all the days of the week are leading to the most important day-Shabbat.

I will prepare for Shabbat by thinking of what kind of dessert I want, since I will change it around according to what’s in season, etc.. Meals are set-we either have roasted chicken or lasagna, since that is what my blessing likes most. I make things she likes since Shabbat is also supposed to be a delight for us- Isaiah 58-3-14:

“If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, [from] doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking [thine own] words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken [it].”

I won’t intentionally make something she doesn’t like on Shabbat, so she learns it is to be a joy for her. I also try not to blog on Shabbat. Thursday night I will make the lasagna or get the chicken ready, try to clean the bath rooms. Then on Friday I vacuum, try to dust, clean out cat boxes, sometimes I will use place mats to set the table with. If I had nice china I would also use it for the meal. In warmer weather I will make smoothies and put those in pretty glasses on the table. I then light the candles and say the Shabbat blessing before my husband says the blessing for the meal. Lighting the candles helps separate Shabbat from the other days of the week.

After we eat, I clean up while little one has her bath. By the time I have cleaned up, she is out of the bath and then I can shower and get ready to go to our weekly service which is on Friday nights.

I try hard not to do any type of housework on Shabbat. We have a small house so we do run the dishwasher and I do put the dishes away-otherwise we have no place to put the cleaned dishes nor the dirty ones. I do know other people who get a big bucket of sopay water, fill it up and put all their dishes from Shabbat in that and then finish cleaning them when Shabbat is over.

Then on Shabbat we wake up late since Friday nights are late nights, my husband makes a nice big late breakfast and then I will spend some time doing a study or praying. I will also take my blessing outside to play and soak up God’s creation.

I know that in the NT it says that believers started gathering together every day to break bread-but I do not think they were having communion. I think they were doing the Ha-Motzi. Scroll down this site to see the blessing. Ha-Motzi is the blessing recited over bread.

Knowing that the earliest believers had only the OT to follow, knowing that they did believe in Yeshua, this was the breaking of bread they were doing. Eventually they were kicked out of the synagogues because they believed in Yeshua, but they still kept the Lord’s Appointed Times and some of the traditions they had grown up with.

Those are my thoughts on kepping the Sabbath holy. I hope you enjoyed them.

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