One of the most important and misunderstood commandments today, is Sabbath in the bible. So, what is the true Sabbath Day?
Most people, so called believers included, have a hoard mentality, meaning when they hear the topic of Sabbath keeping they immediately have to associate it to something familiar…
In this case that would be the “Seventh day Adventists”, who today, are the main advocates of the 4th commandment. Hopefully, today you will get a brand new understanding, one supported by the scriptures.
I’m sure we can agree that The Most High never commanded the formulation of a church based around a specific commandment. That being said, I will be explaining the reason the Most High set up the Sabbath and some of the common defenses people use for not keeping Sabbath day such as…
“We keep every day Holy”
“We are not expected to keep all the commandments today”.
“Keeping all the commandments was for the people in that day”.
“We are saved by grace”
“The sabbath day is Sunday”?
and many others…
What Does Sabbath Mean?
Sabbath:
The word Sabbath comes from the Hebrew word Shabbat. It means to “rest from labor”
What About The Sabbath?
So let’s look at what the scriptures say about the Sabbath day? Let’s first see the significance of the Sabbath to the Most High.
When we read the scriptures, we see that the Most High ended his works of creating the world on the seventh day.
Genesis 2:2-3
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 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.
After the Most High finished his creation he stopped work on the seventh day and blessed and sanctified it. Sanctified, meaning he made it holy.
We see more detail of the Sabbath day amongst the Ten Commandments also:
Let’s take a look at the 4th Commandment –
Exodus 20:8-11
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Remember our faith means that we keep the commandments of the Most High, as you can see in the scripture below:
Ecclesiastes 12:13
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
So the Most High has set apart a day that we MUST REST on. The Sabbath is that day.
What Day Is the Sabbath?
In the same scriptures above it is clear to see see what day the sabbath is, according to the scriptures the sabbath falls on the Seventh Day
Exodus 20:8-10
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
Now we know the Sabbath is the Seventh Day we have to clarify what the Seventh Day is.
Is The Sabbath Day Sunday?
Some say that the seventh day is Sunday, claiming that Monday is the first day of the week, but was this true in ancient times, if not, who changed the Sabbath Day?
If you are unaware all the churches of the world today take their lead from the Papal Roman Catholic Church, so I shall be using there authoritative Canon Law to prove what day the Sabbath day is.
When we look at The Council of Laodicea around 364AD, they have 59 decreed Canon laws. The one we are interested in is the final one Canon XXIX (59)…
Canon XXIX: “Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.” (Percival Translation).
Above clearly we see that it says that Christians must not act like Jews by resting on the Sabbath, which is a contrary command to the laws of the Most High.
Furthermore it goes on to say that Christians should rest “if they can“, on the Lord’s Day. This means there is no command for a Christian to rest on this so called “Lord’s Day”.
It gets worse as they go on to call Christians that would dare to keep the biblical Sabbath Anathema’s from Christ. Meaning they should be called haters of Christ. All of this is clearly complete heresy and lies.
What’s important to understand is that this Canon accepts that the Christians are not following the Sabbath Day, but the instead they follow the Lord’s Day, which is supposedly Sunday.
Today we know that most Christians profess that Sunday is the Sabbath day, so let’s find out if Sunday was the seventh day of the week historically.
Roman Sun Worship And Sunday
When we look at a good quality dictionary, i.e. Websters in this case it tells us historically what day Sunday was and is today:
Sun worship, “the day of the sun,” and “Sunday”
The Romans called the sun god “Mithra” and “Apollo,” and they especially worshiped the sun on “the first day of the week,” also called “Dies Solis” (Latin), which means, “day of the sun.” The name “Sunday” was adopted “because this day was anciently dedicated to the sun, or to its worship. The first day of the week.” (Webster’s Dictionary; 1929 edition).
Above we are clearly told that Sunday is “the first day of the week”, which debunks any claims of Sunday ever being the seventh day of the week…
Couple this with the fact that the Papal Church have Roman origins, the evidence undoubtedly speaks for it’s self.
Just to clarify the Encyclopedia Britannica also confirms that Sunday is also the First Day of the Week not the Seventh:
“Sunday, the first day of the week. It is regarded by most Christians as the Lord’s Day, or the weekly memorial of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection from the dead”. Encyclopedia Britannica
When Does The Sabbath Day Start?
We know the Sabbath Day is the seventh Day, so keeping the Sabbath should be as simple as resting on the Seventh Day, which is called Saturday to the world.
But there is another question that you should ask, which is when does the Sabbath Day begin? You may or may not know but days in the bible start and end according to the sunset not the 24 hour clocks that we have.
The scripture tell us that Evening and Morning was the first day:
Genesis 1:5
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Hopefully you see that a Day in the scriptures start in the Evening of the previous day. So from Sundown (Sunset) on Friday to Sundown on Saturday (Sabbath) is the Sabbath Day.
More proof of how a Day is measured in the scriptures can be seen when we look at the Day of Atonement, which is a one day fast:
Leviticus 23:27-32
27 Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
28 And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God.
29 For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people.
30 And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people.
31 Ye shall do no manner of work: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
32 It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.
As you can see in Verse 32 the fast for the Day of Atonement takes place from “the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even”, this is from the ninth day in the evening until the tenth day in the evening. Keep in mind the Day of Atonement was is on the Tenth day of the Seventh Month.
This shows that a day starts in the evening. So in the case of the Sabbath that would be on Friday evening to Saturday evening as previously explained.
What Can You Do On Shabbat (Sabbath) day
Now we know what day the Sabbath day is and when it starts let’s look at how the Most High expects us to keep it and some of the questions surrounding it.
Let’s start with the relevant scripture.
Exodus 20:8-11
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
When we read this scripture in isolation, it can appear to be saying that the only requirement is not to work on the Sabbath Day, but there is more to it.
Here’s an example of what Israel was commanded to do when preparing for the Sabbath, after they collected Manna which fell from the sky as food:
Exodus 16:22-24
22 And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
23 And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
24 And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.
What we are shown here is that Israel were told to gather twice as much Manna (food) on the sixth day, so it would last two days to account for the Sabbath day.
Can We Cook On The Sabbath Day?
The same order was given to the people about cooking too. Israel were told to “bake”, “seethe” (boil) and make preparations before the Sabbath, meaning, No cooking on the Sabbath day.
Exodus 16:22-24
23 And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
The question is can you eat hot food on the Sabbath? My immediate answer is no, but, if you have a high quality flask for food or drink you may be able to eat some warm food the next day, if it can maintain the heat of the food well.
When we read scriptures below we see more information regarding fire.
Exodus 35:2-3
2 Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the Lord: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.
3 Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.
Above we are told not to “kindle” fire during the Sabbath. This can be interpreted to mean, we are not to use electric lighting to light our homes, instead we should use the natural light during the actual Sabbath Day, where possible.
Of course if you have places in your home that need light then turning a light on may be necessary, you need to use your judgement.
During biblical times the kind of light that would have been kindled would be light for lanterns. This would also include kindling light for fires and cooking use, more emphasis in this scripture would be on fires to keep warm and light for visibility.
Keep in mind during the Sabbath there is natural light, so the moment the light begins to diminish we know the Sabbath has ended. This makes not using light the perfect indication of the Sabbaths end.
Remember the main reason for the Sabbath is to spend a day with the Most High.
Can We Buy And Sell On Sabbath Day?
We know that we are not supposed to work on the Sabbath Day, but there are more instructions concerning our actions. The scriptures below tell us there is no buying or selling:
Nehemiah 10:31
And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day:
As you can see from scriptures buying or selling clothes or (victuals) food is also not permitted on the Sabbath Day.
These are all things that we would be unaware of, if we hadn’t studying the scriptures the way we have been commanded to:
2 Timothy 2:15
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
How To Think When Keeping The Sabbath
Now you know what to do and how to keep the Sabbath let’s look at the mindset we are supposed to have on this Holy Day:
Isaiah 58:13-14
13 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:
14 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
In the above scriptures you can see that the Sabbath day is a day that is dedicated to the Most High. The Most High says that if we turn away from our own pleasure, he will bless us and cause us to “ride upon the high places of the earth”, meaning he will bless us.
Christ fulfills the keeping of sabbath and gives are a fuller understanding, showing us that mercy exists, we see this when the Pharisees attempt to condemn Christ's disciples for picking corn on the Sabbath.
Mark 2:27-28
23 And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; and his disciples began, as they went, to pluck the ears of corn.
24 And the Pharisees said unto him, Behold, why do they on the sabbath day that which is not lawful?
25 And he said unto them, Have ye never read what David did, when he had need, and was an hungred, he, and they that were with him?
26 How he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and did eat the shewbread, which is not lawful to eat but for the priests, and gave also to them which were with him?
27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.
Christ makes it clear that we can do good on the sabbath, thereby showing us that God always intended that the Sabbath was to be kept in good faith not as a stumbling block for man.
The scriptures above are literally telling us that we should be doing things that are biblical on the Sabbath…
This may include things such as :
Handing out biblical leaflets.
Reading and studying scriptures.
Doing good such as charity work etc.
Conclusion
So let me summarize the Sabbath Day Rules…
What is the original Sabbath Day? The Sabbath is the Seventh Day of the Week, which is Saturday. Sunday is not the biblical Sabbath day.
When keeping the Sabbath all your work and preparation for it should be done before it begins.
The Sabbath Day begins in the evening (sunset) on the Sixth Day, which is Friday and ends at evening on the Seventh Day.
You are not allowed to buy or sell anything on the Sabbath Day.
Doing good and Emergencies are permitted in the Sabbath
So, above are the rules according to the bible…
I will conclude with scriptures that tell us keeping the Sabbath (which is Saturday) will be re-instituted worldwide again, when all prophecy is fulfilled…
Isaiah 66:23-24
23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.
24 And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
The scriptures above give us a foreshadow of what is to come, which should give us a greater incentive to practise now.
Shalom and share this with someone that needs it…