Tuesday: Time for Learning Priorities
The ups and downs of Israel’s experience with God were closely linked to the way they related to the Sabbath. God saw their unwillingness to respect the Sabbath as a sign of His irrelevance in their lives (Jer: 17:19-27). A renewed commitment to the Sabbath was also part of restoration – a signal that priorities were right. Isaiah 58 pictures an interesting contrast.
Read Isaiah 58:1-14. What is God saying to His people here that is relevant to us today?
Image © Deb Minnard at Goodsalt.com
The Israelites are posing as followers of God – in their worship, in their fasting – but the way they live their lives after they have finished worshiping shows that they are only going through the motions of correct behavior; there is no sincere heart commitment to the law of God.Isaiah continues in chapter 58 to identify what God does expect from His people.
This is not all. Read Isaiah 58.13-14. Why does God focus on the Sabbath at the end of this chapter? The prophet uses phrases here similar to those in the rest of the chapter: keep “from doing as you please”; don’t go “your own way”; avoid “doing as you please or speaking idle words” (NIV), the prophet warns. In other words, the Sabbath isn’t the time to go through the routine of worship, only to be thinking your own thoughts and living a life irrelevant to the one of worship. The Sabbath is to be a “delight” and to be “honorable.” In the context of the rest of the chapter, Sabbath is about delighting in learning of the character and purposes of God, and then living that character and those purposes in our relations to others. Knowing how to go through the form of Sabbath observance and worship is not enough. Learning must impact life. Sabbath is time for learning and living priorities.
| Do you delight in the Sabbath? If not, what can you do to change that? Have you learned to “honor” the Sabbath? Discuss what this might mean with the rest of your Sabbath School class. Be as practical as you can. |
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I have said before that if our idea of Sabbath is to take the liturgy and do it on Saturday instead of Sunday, then we have not really understood the Sabbath. It was never about what day you go to church on. For most of the Old Testament, there is no mention of holding a public meeting on the Sabbath, and in fact, if you read the history of "church-going" in the same sense that we do it, that did not occur until about 300AD.
I am not saying that we should not meet together in church buildings. But Sabbath is a special day, not just a day with a couple of hours of liturgy in it. One of the benefits of the COVID-19 restrictions has been that many of us have had to do without the liturgy and rise to the occasion and seek out other ways of observing the Sabbath. True, we have had on-line church services and so on, but the fact that they are available on-demand means that it has been up to me when I do the activities that are delightful on Sabbath. You expect me to say it, but bird watching and photography on Sabbath morning is something rather special. I still remember the Sabbath morning when I discovered the hard to find Black Bittern sitting out in the open in the middle of the creek. It was a very special moment. Yes, it could have happened any day of the week, but it was the culmination of a few hours of being out in nature on a Sabbath morning. And its experiences like that that recharge my batteries for the coming week.
As I sit here listening to Part ! of "Messiah" I am thankful for the Scriptural promises set to Handel's compositions. I am thankful for the lesson's Yahuah was teaching while taking care of bodily needs in sending manna to hungry children. On this second Sabbath by the full New Moon I struggle to find the answer to the correct application of the Seventh-day Sabbath? Is it by the monthly full New Moon or the Roman pagan/papal Saturnday Sabbath? When is the honest seventh day of the week worship time?
Alfred, I don't find per the Old Testament nor that the current Jews use the New Moon to determined which day would be the Sabbath. Are there any texts that indicate this?
How would that work, do you start counting 7 days from when you see the full moon? Does Sabbath then fall on a different week day every month?
Sister Shirley, I just read your questions about an hour ago. I fell to me knees and asked for guidance on how to respond. Even though it is early in the morning of Wednesday I believe I was urged to respond immediately.
My personal challenge was the text in Isaiah 66:23. From new moon to new moon and from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the Lord. This revelation along with the promise of the new heavens and a new earth in Isaiah 66:22 was something I looked forward to enjoying from my earliest youth. Yet, I knew about the sabbath having been worshipping weekly on Saturday also since I was a toddler. It was only recently while studying the prophet Ezekiel more carefully I was stunned to find a second prophet talking specifically about worship on new moon and sabbath, see Ezekiel 46:1-3.
Now this sent me on a decided search of the relationship between the sabbath and the new moon. This came after a revival in my personal experience with Yahuah and Yahusha haMashiach. (Why I use those names is another challenge which does not relate to the discussion at present.)I prayed and studied for understanding of new moon and sabbath relationship as testified my two prophets in the Scriptures.
This lead me to the creation description in Genesis 1. Did Yahuah have an organization of time in the creation? I found two distinct descriptions. (1.) The day and night was described in Day 1. (2.) The other time regulating descriptions were on day 4 with the appearance of the sun, moon and stars. (These were never to be worshipped but never forgotten as Yahuah's method of time regulation.)The sun was to rule the day and the moon and stars were to rule the night. These set the years, seasons, months, weeks, days, and hours.This arrangement was clearly set on day 4. Since Yahuah was Lord of all, past, present and future, knowing end from beginning, Isaiah and Ezekiel were only testifying of His authorship and loving ruler of all.
Each of the larger units starting with years regulated each of the smaller units. Yahuah was ruler of all. Then I began to see the connection that the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel were sharing in their testimonies. There was a relationship between the new moon day and the corresponding seventh day weekly sabbaths. That order existed from eternity past, to present, and as Isaiah testified will be fully restored in the new heavens and the new earth. After the fall every group in opposition to Godly order, lead my agents of Satan, attempted to set up there own earthly order. This lead to the idolatry of sun, moon and star worship, alternative calendars of every ancient to modern civilization, and all alternative forms of god worship. This is why the call to "Worship Yahuah"is the constant call from Genesis to Revelation. From Adam to Noah, Noah to Abraham, Abraham to Moses, Moses to Yahusha haMashiach, His disciples to the end of time, the call goes out Worship Yahuah, the Yahuah of creation. This is response to your first and second questions
To answer your second question my simple response is Yes. This does stand in complete and direct opposition to the continuous weekly cycle of weeks and days set forth and traditionalized in and after the fourth century. This is why I referred to the Saturnday Sabbath. The present continuous weekly Roman pagan/papal calendar as been in use and our controlling calendar in its varying forms for 1500 to 1700 years. It is of interest that the time of the Roman calendar establishment was also the time Constantine established the first day of the week as the Christian day of worship about 325. Also of interest is that in 33 years of that date the Rabbinical Pharisaical Jews accommodated the Roman emperor with calendar changes of their own to escape persecution and attempts to once again completely erase them and their worship ideas from the world.
Shirley,
My last paragraph is a response to your third question not your second. I missed that in my proof reading. I am fellowshipping with believers in the Saturday Sabbath as I have many friends in that fellowship. As I have raised the questions very few have thought about or studied the relationship between the structure of time in the creation description in Genesis 1. Most simply tell me that the Jews keep and have always kept the Saturday Sabbath. I did not have a problem keeping Sabbath by the Roman calendar until this present challenge. But in light of the overwhelming connection between the beast powers of the world and false worship I accepted the challenge to search the Scriptures with prayer to Yahuah to guide me by His breath, the Word. Thank you for your thoughtful inquiry and praise Yahuah for His Word made flesh that dwelt among us.
We find our True Rest in Him Yahusha haMashiach.
Alfred,
I understand your concern not to be led astray.
This is what I have discovered.
In Numbers 28 there is list of the following sacrifices the children of Israel were to make:
Daily - a lamb morning & evening
Weekly - on Sabbath two lambs
Monthly - two bulls, one ram, 7 lambs
Annually - Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles
Also in Lev 23, they were told :
Lev 23:2 Tell the Israelis, "These are my feast times appointed by the LORD that you are to declare as sacred assemblies.
The annual feasts were a memorial to how the LORD saved them and no servile work was to be done and on the Sabbath, a memorial of Creation, no work of any kind was to be done.
Num 10:10 At the beginning of the month, during your time of rejoicing at the appointed place, sound the trumpet over your burnt offering, then sacrifice your peace offering, since they are to be your memorial before the LORD your God. I am the LORD your God.
The only link I see between the Sabbath and the New Moon are that they are both memorials of various kinds, one weekly and the other monthly.
My understanding of time in Genesis as ruled by the sun and the moon only cover the days and months, not the weeks, which are independent of them. Only the fact that the LORD determined there would be six days of work and a seventh of rest determines a week.
These are my thoughts, I would recommend you have a look at the Sabbath Truth website for more in depth studies.
Sister Shirley,
Thank you for your thoughts as we reason together. I will take a look at your recommended website. Yahuah's riches blessings to you as we seek a closer walk with Yahusha our True Sabbath rest. Thanks be to Yahusha in His ministry for us in heaven's Sanctuary on high.
Great question Alfred. As you know the sun and moon were created on the fourth day of creation week. This proves that it's not connected to the lunar calendar. If you check and see what day the Jewish religion considers the Sabbath to be. You'll see it's the day we call Saturday. Sabbath keeping is the oldest form of religious observance in the history of mankind. God has seen that the day has never been lost.
Brother Dan,
Thank you for your response! What do you think of the whole meaning in the fourth day description? How have most to all of humanity related to the creation of time units? Taking the creation description of Genesis 1 can we reason together on the two descriptive days on which Yahuah the Creator described units of time, days 1 and 4? Come let us reason together.
In studying this day's lesson I was amazed how generous Yahuah was in His provision for each person daily. 9.3 US cups of manna for each person. I had to go to the kitchen to find something of that volume. The closest I could find was a 4 pound bag of sugar which was 1.3 cups short of Yahuah's provisions for each person per day. I could have made over 5 dozen small cakes(cookies) to eat each day. And that was for every day and preparation of over 10 dozen cookies for preparation day and Sabbath. Blessed praise to a gracious loving Yahuah. What a lesson just like the Messiah Yahusha's blessing of healing when He walked among us.
You must be part engineer Alfred. I tried to find out how much an Omer was with no success, and you posted it. Thank you ever so much! It kind of makes you feel a little sorry for the person gathering manna for a family of ten. To bad the manna recipes of the Hebrews didn’t survive the passing of time.
When Lazarus was dying Jesus took His time getting there.
“Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was” (John 11:5-6).
At first that seems a strange display of priorities. Lay low when your close friend is at death's door and you have the power to heal him?
Jesus' relationship with His Father is the perfect picture of work/rest balance. Jesus lived a constant Sabbath as described in Isaiah 58:1. Earthly pressures were not His priorities. Waiting for the Father's leading and timing so that He was honored was His priority (John 11:4).
We see that Jesus' Sabbath day looked a lot like the rest of His week - saving lives and doing good (Mark 3:4; Matthew 12:12; Luke 13:10-17; John 9:16).
I delight to do thy will, O my God, thy law is within my heart. Ps 40:8
It is only when God law is within our heart that we delight to do his will. Luke 22:42. Without his law in the heart, we will delight to do our own will. The two wills are different in outcome. My will is to find sometime and go shopping, paying bills, catchup on the gossip for the week, cleaning, cooking, laundrying, playing secular music, speaking about the good deals on Saturday, going to my secular work if not heaping the sick etc,etc. Gal 5:15-21.
His will is his lifestyle, his character that he lived while on this earth. The Holy Spirit must be living in me, in so doing, he takes my will and gives me his character. Gal 5:22-26.
I never gave it a thought that there was a difference between keeping the Sabbath and celebrating the Sabbath. To me celebrating the Sabbath was a part of keeping the Sabbath.
It is intriguing to me that there is a sacrificial aspect of Sabbath keeping: we sacrifice our entertainment, we sacrifice our income, we sacrifice our money in terms of offerings, we sacrifice our very thoughts. Contingent on these things, God promises a blessing that far exceeds anything we could do for ourselves. If we are doing things that are self serving on the Sabbath, perhaps we should take a closer look at what we are doing.
There is a story from my childhood that I think would fit this line of thought. I grew up on Grandpa Albert’s farm. One year Albert planted a field of peas. He didn’t have the equipment to harvest the peas so he contracted it out to a company who specialized in harvesting peas. The machines were huge and there were always five or six pea harvesters that worked together followed by a nurse truck. Albert stipulated that they could not be in his field one hour before sunset on Friday; the harvesting had to be completed before sundown if they came on a Friday. As fate would have it they showed up to harvest the peas on Friday. By the time sundown came the machines had only harvested about half of the field. Albert talked to the supervisor and let him know that they had to leave. The supervisor pleaded with Albert to let the big machines finish because they had a schedule to keep, and come
Monday they would be far away. The big machines did not harvest enough to pay the expense of growing the crop, and Albert stood to loose a lot of money, but he remained true to God, and sent them away. That Sabbath was a solum Sabbath and little was said because we all knew it would be a tough winter without that money. Sunday morning when we were doing the chores we heard a familiar sound and ran to see, and there was a long line of pea harvesting machines coming our way. We wondered where they might be going until they turned into Albert’s pea field. Albert jumped into his pickup, and went to talk to the supervisor. It just happened that after they left Albee’s pea field that nothing would go right and they couldn’t get anything done Sabbath in the pea field that they were scheduled to harvest, so the supervisor decided to come back on Sunday and finish what he started on Friday since he was so close. The Lord honors faithfulness, and blesses us in so many ways. The lord blessed Albert because of his loyalty to Him, and worked miracles for Albert. He does the same for us today. By sacrificing all for Jesus, we gain all.
Can someone enlighten me om what Rom 14:1,2,5 and 14 is about in reference to Sabbath keeping
Amos, I think the key to these verses lie in the explanation later in the chapter from verse 13 and on. The point is one the Maurice has stressed many times in his commentary.
The verses that you are inquiring about are laying down a principle. Religion is not about church dogma and showing people that we have more “light” then them and that because of this they should agree with us. The verses in question are expounded on in the later part on the chapter. Do not argue over individual beliefs this will only lead to division. Be a friend and help one another first and mutual understanding will follow.
“Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8), do this first and a respectful, caring relationships that lead to shared learning and common ground will follow. It is hard to walk humbly with God if all one is concerned about is being “right” about their individual religious beliefs and proving to people that they have the “truth”.
People often use this verse to prove that Sunday worship is just as good as Sabbath worship but that is not the point. It certainly is a good thing that one worships God on any day and sets it aside to acknowledge Him. I think we would all agree that this is a good thing and better than giving God no recognition at all. As always in scripture, the Bible without question backs up the seventh day Sabbath as sacred, if looked at in its entirety but this verse is reminding us that even the Sabbath truth should not be used as a club as that will more likely end a relationship then start one.
Isaiah 58:1-14 was part of the Sabbath’s lesson introduction and I looked it up to comment then. I very much appreaciated studying it and found how the Spirit of God always cuts to the quick, exposing the deceptions man's mind suffers under and, if not remedied, keep him from having fellowship with the Father.
Yes, the Sabbath is a time when we can find out where our priorities lie. Keeping the Sabbath is not mentioned in the Book of Genesis; this includes the patriarchs, including Israel when he came to Egypt with his children's tribes – the children of Jacob who God named - Israel.
He had been forgotten as the Supreme Creator God of the Fathers. Though He kept a remnand, called and prepared to remembered Him, He had to be introduced as the Supreme God, the Creator God to the now many children of the tribes of Israel. As their new and only God, He prepared their exodus from Egypt and sent them on their way to the Promised Land; on their way the *LORD of the Sabbath* introduced Himself and called upon them to worship Him as such.
What is the most important aspect establishing our relationship with our Creator God? I believe it to be the understanding that we are made by Him, that we are made in His Image, and that we are part of His Creation and able to worship Him by the way He designed us to be – holy and undefiled; observing the fourth commandment will keep this in the forefront of our minds.
Sabbath is the day when the faithful willing consciously take a step back, remove themselves from the all absorbing focus on ‘living and making a living’, and remembering who really is providing the what/why/when/how/what-for of living.
Isaiah58:1-6KJV speaks to the spiritual blindness and inability for the unregenerate mind to know the true meaning of fasting - the expressing of *godly* conduct by abstaining from satisfying appetites of the flesh. Man might think he is *fasting* rightly, as long as his conduct does not express the attributes of the character of God, he is still engaged in gratifying his self-righteous appetites.
Isaiah58:7-14KJV speaks to the meaning of what we should be fasting from and the blessings associated with doing so.
Paraphrasing verse 13-14 says: 'If you turn away(eliminate) your (own) foot(print) from the Sabbath, (and stop) doing your pleasure on My Holy Day, and (instead of doing what you please) and call the *SABBATH* a delight, (calling) the Holy Day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then shall you (be able to) delight yourself in the LORD; And (you will experience that) I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father.'
I believe that all our days can/should be a reflection of the new nature which honors our Creator by living His Way in His Truth and Light - living by the Spirit of the Sabbath.
Hi Brigitte, in Mark 2:27 Jesus says the Sabbath was made for man. The Sabbath was made in Genesis 2:1-3 for all mankind.
This is an excellent resource to answer many questions about the Sabbath:
Sabbath truth
Genesis is a book of beginnings not commands, He didn't command them to love Him like He did through Moses. The LORD stated in Genesis that the Seventh Day was a special day of rest set aside and that it was holy. That was all He needed to say! They were created in His image so would do what He did - rest on the holy, blessed, sanctified day.
We discover later that the Sabbath was part and parcel of the LORD's orders so that if any one obeyed them it would have included the Sabbath. Note the LORD's comment about Abraham to Isaac and compare it with Moses' instruction which definitely included the Sabbath, so I believe it shows Abraham celebrated the Sabbath which was included in what He heard from the LORD.
Hello William – I appreciate your comment! Yes, Genesis 2:1-3KJV states that after the earth and all the hosts of them were made, God rested on the seventh day; this statement does not imply a commandment to Adam and Eve to worship Him on this, His Day of Rest nor is there a record or implication of them doing so during their fellowship with their Father.
What is recorded, though, is that they broke the 'Rest of the Father' by committing the sin of self-determination, and with that commencing/instituting *works*.
Mark 2:27KJV – “And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” Yes, the Sabbath needed to be instituted(made) for man, included in the Commandmands of God by which to honor Him, because His chosen people did no longer remember who their Creator God is and how to worship Him - the Crerator God who, after forming man, rested and declared His Work of Creation perfect.
God chose/made/apointed/designated His Own Rest-Day as a Sabbath for man to identity Himself as their Creator and help mankind to remember/observe/focus/reflect on that he is but a creature, made by God, in the Image of God - holy and undefiled -, with the desparate need to KNOW that His God is His FATHER who cares for him.
The Sabbath Day of Rest was given to the children of Israel and us because our nature does not recognize our Creator God any longer; giving us His Day of Rest is how He chose to bring us back into fellowship with Him, reminding us of who it is that provides for all our needs.
We honor Him when we rest from works and pleasures of our own imaginations, knowing that they are but VANITY and instead remember that our true life exists only in fellowship with the God who created us; the Provider of all we are and have life in.
According to Mark 2:27 the Sabbath was made at creation for man or Adam and Eve at the time not so much as a command but more as a gift.
Writing, "The Sabbath Day of Rest was given to the children of Israel," inconsistent with Christ's statement in Mark 2:27 where He said that the Sabbath was made for humanity, not that the Sabbath was "given to the children of Israel."
The idea that the Sabbath was given to Israel is popular among Sunday keepers, but it is not found in the Bible.
The Sabbath commandment begins says "Remember the Sabbath," implying that the people knew the Sabbath. As a matter of fact, before the Ten Commandments were given, the people were to keep the Sabbath, as indicated by the command to gather twice the amount of manna on the Sabbath because it would not fall on Sabbath.
Please be sure to check out William's post, "Did God tell Adam & Eve to keep the Sabbath?" It deals with the issues you are bringing up.
Could we say that Israel's experience, including the Sabbath, was closely linked to how they regarded the Lord? Our attitude towards the Sabbath is a byproduct of either our faith or unbelief.
As I was reading this lesson, I was thinking about that very first Sabbath. Here were Adam and Eve, newborns, so to speak, waking up with the anticipation of getting to meet and spend the day with the One who had just created them. They didn’t know God. Yes, they met Him the day before after He had created them, but they did not get to know Him. This first Sabbath was spent getting to know God, on a very personal level. They got to physically be with Him, walk with Him ask Him questions.
We can have that same experience. As we spend time with Him during the week, usually limited by work, we can look forward to an entire day that involves communing with Him in one way or another. If we aren’t spending time with Him during the week, then Sabbath will become unimportant to us. That has been my experience in the past, it became a day kept if it worked into my plans, and by “kept”, I mean we went to church. Now, both my husband and I both look forward to Sabbath and our Zoom Sabbath school class. I am thankful that our view of Sabbath has changed and that we have it each week to look forward to.