Keeping the Sabbath Part 2
by Rev John Greene
The leap from one Scripture to another happens too hastily many times and the results are faulty understanding and misinterpretations of Scripture and its principles. There leaping process takes place in the sabbath issue. In Ex 20, the 10 Commandments, Moses receives the Law of which those Commandments are a portion, a very small portion as previously revealed.
Leaping from Gen 2:2-3 into Ex 20:8 declaring that 7th day and the sabbath is exactly this, a leap and one that can not be substantiated without Scriptural misinterpretation and manipulation to justify it. When those errors are challenged with other Scripture, the result are mere emotion and mean spirited attacks. Why? The answer becomes clear as those faulty conclusions take away a trusted doctrine and tradition that belongs in the Mosaic Law given to the Jew and not to the church which has New covenant of faith based upon Yashua's blood and resurrection.
Let's place some Scripture in the interpretive light of Scripture and see what we discover. Gen 2:2-3 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
From Easton's Dictionary:
The Jews reckoned the day from sunset to sunset #Le 23:32 It was originally divided into three parts #Ps 55:17 "The heat of the day" #1Sa 11:11 Ne 7:3 was at our nine o'clock, and "the cool of the day" just before sunset #Ge 3:8 Before the Captivity the Jews divided the night into three watches,
1. from sunset to midnight #La 2:19
2. from midnight till the cock-crowing #Jud 7:19 3. from the cock-crowing till sunrise #Ex 14:24 In the New Testament the division of the Greeks and Romans into four watches was adopted #Mr 13:35
See WATCHES 26789
The division of the day by hours is first mentioned in #Da 3:6,15 4:19 #Da 5:5 This mode of reckoning was borrowed from the Chaldeans. The reckoning of twelve hours was from sunrise to sunset, and accordingly the hours were of variable length #Joh 11:9 The word "day" sometimes signifies an indefinite time #Ge 2:4 Isa 22:5 Heb 3:8 etc. In #Job 3:1 it denotes a birthday, and in #Isa 2:12 Ac 17:31 #2Ti 1:18 the great day of final judgment.
From Thayer's:
03117 yowm {yome}
from an unused root meaning to be hot; TWOT - 852; n m
AV - day 2008, time 64, chronicles + 01697 37, daily 44, ever 18, year 14, continually 10, when 10, as 10, while 8, full 8 always 4, whole 4, alway 4, misc 44; 2287
1) day, time, year
1a) day (as opposed to night)
1b) day (24 hour period)
1b1) as defined by evening and morning in Genesis 1
1b2) as a division of time
1b2a) a working day, a day's journey
1c) days, lifetime (pl.)
1d) time, period (general)
1e) year
1f) temporal references
1f1) today
1f2) yesterday
1f3) tomorrow
From Strong's:
transliterated: yowm
Phonetic: yome
from an unused root meaning to be hot; a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), [often used adverb]: -age, + always, + chronicles, continually(-ance), daily, ([birth-], each, to) day, (now a, two) days (agone), + elder, X end, + evening, + (for) ever(-lasting, -more), X full, life, as (so) long as (... live), (even) now, + old, + outlived, + perpetually, presently, + remaineth, X required, season, X since, space, then, (process of) time, + as at other times, + in trouble, weather, (as) when, (a, the, within a) while (that), X whole (+ age), (full) year(-ly), + younger.
What significance does yowm have in relationship to its meaning? Consider Gen 2:4 as a part of the passage and we see that establishing day as a 24 hour period is NOT clear cut. 4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
The importance of history is the meaning being "generations". The context establishes the need to look for yowm to be something other than "24" hours as well as introducing the rest of Gen 2 as a recap of Chapter 1. With this context, it makes the "simple" conclusions that some adhere to not so "simple" after all.
Since there is a distinct possibility that yowm may not be a "24" hour period, we must then ask what is this period of time and how can we understand or prove it to be such. This process is rather simple allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture. However we must be ever so careful to allow the Scripture to be in its own context accurate on its own and supported by OT and NT corroboration, thus substantiating our usage and maintaining the integrity of our exegete.
Moses is given in the Law 10 Commandments. The sabbath is found in there. Ex 20:8 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. The word structure is different from Gen 2:2-3. The Lord calls this the Sabbath day, but not the 7th day. To simply conclude that the Lord is stating the same thing is error, but an understandable error. To make this conclusion quickly goes against all systematic interpretation. No where in the NT does the Scripture support this leap, just as no where in the OT can the 7th day of creation be proven as the Sabbath of the Law.
So what is available to define the differences of the 7th day and the Sabbath day? Let me suggest a look at a Psalm. Ps 90:4 For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night. Here we have a unique view of time. The comparison of 1000 years with yesterday, a "24" hour period may give us some insight to that period of time in Genesis for creation. Now before we conclude anything, we must be careful to see if the time frame is established in the NT. We must use proper Scriptural definitions and even if we establish the time we still must show the proper usage in the Scripture going past the define and plug that most people do in their understanding.
Now to the NT we go! 2 Pet 3:8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Peter states the same thing as the Psalmist states. Therefore we may conclude that a day in context of discussing the Lord may be the same as 1000 years. Some have used this in conjunction of comparing creation time with God's plan for man arriving at 6000 years of creation comparing it to 4000 years of OT + 2000 years of NT = the same, thus concluding that the 7th millennium is the sure return of Yashua, His 2nd advent.
Does Scripture offer any other substantiation for what we are discussing? The 7th day God rested, so we must keep rest in mind as we look at Scripture. He 1:1-2 GOD, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; The writer of Hebrews will reveal that we are interpreting properly as he starts by telling us the Son of God has spoken to us (Jewish Christians specifically, and us in principle). The writer establishes the deity of Yashua in Ch 1, that we should not neglect His salvation in the beginning of Ch 2, and what His sacrifice has done to the enemy at the end of the chapter.
In Ch 3, the writer compares Moses and Yashua, Moses faithful to the Lord but the Jew rejected because of unbelief the Promised Land, and Yashua in whom our confidence must now be placed because He is Lord. However, the writer uses some simple points from what happened to show the Jewish Christian, probably former Pharisees and their adherents who were returning to Judaism because they weren't' seeing what they wanted to see and receive in Christ.
Let's look at the writer of Hebrews' conclusions. He 3:7-11 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, In the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, And saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, And said, 'They always go astray in their heart, And they have not known My ways.' So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest.' " The Holy Spirit told the wilderness Jews the same thing as the writer is showing the Jewish Christians! The heart must not get hard because the results are they will NOT enter His rest! This rest gives substantiation to what we have already discovered about the 7th day which God rested and sanctified and blessed!
The writer draws these conclusions for the Jewish Christians. He 3:12-15 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." The Jewish Christians were returning to Judaism and the Holy Spirit clear;ly states that they will NOT enter God's rest! Why? The same thing happened in the rebellion and happened in the Jewish Christian, unbelief! Returning to the Jewish Law was a display of their trust in Christ or should I say, their lack of trust which the Holy Spirit called unbelief. So returning to the Law was unbelief and this unbelief did not permit them to enter God's rest!
He 4:1-1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.
He 4:3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, 'They shall not enter My rest,' " although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
He 4:4-5 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all His works"; and again in this place: "They shall not enter My rest."
The conclusions by now are very clear. The Jew of the wilderness never came to the Lord because of unbelief, those Jewish Christians who returned to the Law because of unbelief never entered His rest, and for all those since then who serve God by the Law will not enter His rest!
The rest of God's 7th day, is the 7th millennium, the 1000 year reign of Yashua participating as kings and priests resting from the trials of 6 millennium of earthly tabernacles and now residing in a heavenly tabernacle. The writer of Hebrews goes on to substantiate all of the marvelous perfections of Christ, His superiority as Priest until the 11th Chapter when faith is once again revealed as key to the relationship through Yashua to our God!
We live in a New covenant, not the Mosaic covenant. The New covenant includes the Gentile and the Jew who accept Yashua as Lord and by faith live their lives accordingly. The Law and any part of the Law shows unbelief and ignorance and the support of the sabbath is a part of the Mosaic Law. Thus to keep the sabbath is NOT a part of the New covenant or a relationship with Yashua because it is a part of the Law and it against the Lord whom sabbath keepers say they love so much.