When I seriously dedicated myself to investigating the Hebraic roots of Christianity --- "digging up my roots" as I like to say --- one of the very first roots I ran smack dab into was the Sabbath. Or, in the Hebrew - Shabbat, (pronounced sha BOT) . All of my Christian life, which is a convoluted journey of many decades, I considered the Sabbath to be a bygone deal. Meant for the Jews only. Not relevant today. "nailed to the cross" with the "old law" as Christians like to dismiss (erroneously, by the way). However, after earnest digging into Scripture, the only conclusion at which I could arrive is that the Sabbath is very much for today. How do you like that ---- I realized that God really meant what He said when He commanded something. One of the things I like about God is His conviction. When His kids are playing at the park and He says " it's time to go", you never hear God saying "Okay now...one........two........." He's not "a counter" like a wimpy parent. When He says it, He means it. "This is what I want you to do", end of story. No "one........two........"in order to weakly give His kids permission to decide whether they will respect and obey Him or not. But I digress. The Sabbath -- definitely for today. I always thought the Sabbath was commanded on Mt. Sinai and meant for the Hebrews. Dig a little deeper and you find that
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all His work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done. (Genesis 2)
During the first week of creation God gave just three blessings. He blessed the birds and sea creatures on the fifth day. He blessed Man, both male and female,on the sixth day, and He blessed the seventh Day - the Sabbath. Not only was the Sabbath a set-apart "special" day, but it was also blessed by God Himself, and the Sabbath did not just pop up as one of the Ten Commandments that Charlton Heston ....er...Moses received on Mt. Sinai, the Sabbath actually existed from the very beginning of creation - before there were Jews, the Torah, or Israel. Well now, as the serpent said to Eve in the Garden --- "how about them apples"?!! Since man was created on the sixth day, his first full day of life he got to observe God's set-apart Sabbath Day. And, since we are commanded not to work on the Sabbath, and his first full day of life was a day off, Adam probably said "Man, this is really livin' !!"
Shabbat Sholom (sha BOT sha LOAM -Hebrew for Peaceful Sabbath) everyone.
