Page 14 - SABBATH

Sabbath

he word Sabbath in both its Hebrew and Greek forms means to repose, to rest, to cease
Tfrom exertion. It speaks of coming into a state of restfulness where Yahweh’s creation
is not striving in any manner, but all is in complete harmony with the Creator.
Today mankind frequently associates the term Sabbath with a day that occurs once
a week in which physical work is not performed. This is viewing Sabbath on a purely
physical plane, and it leads to many false understandings. When one understands Sabbath
aright they will understand that a person can be in a state of complete rest before God while
physically they appear to be laboring. The Jews did not understand this so they condemned
Yahshua and His disciples as Sabbath breakers. The Jews saw Yahshua’s disciples threshing
grain in their hands on the Sabbath day and they condemned them for it (Matthew 12:1-8).
Similarly they condemned Yahshua for healing on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:10-14).
The problem for the Jews then is the same problem many have in Christianity today.
Men look at things outwardly, on the surface, without discerning what it is that God is
intending. Yahweh desires that all men come to a state of rest before Him. He desires that
men should cease from their own labors and that they only do the things He leads them to
do. Yahweh desires for man to come to an end of personal initiative; for man to set himself
to do nothing that arises from his own soul. This is the Sabbath that He desires.
Yahshua proclaimed that He was Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8). His whole life
was an example of true rest before the Father. The essence of this rest is found in His
following words.

John 5:30
"I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just,
because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”

John 8:28
Yahshua therefore said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that
I am He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the
Father taught Me.”

John 8:42
Yahshua said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me; for I proceeded
forth and have come from God, for I have not even come on My own initiative, but
He sent Me.”

John 12:49
"For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has
given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak.”

John 14:10
"Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that
I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does
His works.”