FAQ: What Does Keeping the Sabbath Mean?
What Does Keeping the Sabbath Mean?
If
we, the church, are the bride and Yahshua is the Husband, then the Sabbath
is a special weekly 7th day
date time that Father Yahweh has set for us to focus only on our
relationship.
Leviticus 23:1-3 tells us that our Heavenly Husband Yahweh Elohim considers
the Sabbath day as one of His feast days with us, His people. Every 7th day
of the week we are to celebrate a feast date with Him. We further see in
Isaiah 58:13-14, Psalms 92:1-6, and Ezekiel 46:3 that the Lover of our souls
(Elohim) means for us to make the goal of our Sabbath day celebration a
delight of High praises and worship directed exclusively unto Him.
Now because He is a holy God, Yahweh has commanded or established specific
guideline in scripture that helps us to remember to keep the Sabbath day
Holy or set apart unto Him.
He wants us to rest on the Sabbath and take the day off from our own work
(Exodus 20:9-11). In Luke 4:16; 13:10, and Mark 1:21, we see what our
Savior and spiritual Husband, Yahshua (Father Yahweh in the flesh),
customarily did as our example of how to keep the Sabbath day. He followed
His own Leviticus 23:3 commandment to assemble for holy purposes church. Our
Heavenly Husband not only desires individual worship on the Sabbath day but
He also desires His people assemble together or meet for corporate worship
on the Sabbath Day.
Beyond doing our own work, Isaiah 58:13-14 and Revelation 4:11 tell us that we should also cease from doing our own selfish pleasures on Sabbath. Selfish pleasures are activities or preoccupations outside of our Heavenly Husband’s leading and inspiration. He doesn't want the celebration of this day to be detracted from by Earthly preoccupations such as the business of shopping or supply and demand (Nehemiah 10:31, 13:15-22). Putting Matthew 15:18 together with Is 58:13b implies that Father Yahweh wants our total preoccupation to be in and with Him. This means he also wants us to even freely yield our own activities of the heart and mind to Him. Since we can’t do our own fleshly, worldly preoccupations, many people consider their Sabbath time of focus on Yahweh a dreary boredom, and miserably go through the motions. Despite these obvious guidelines or limitations, our Heavenly Husband doesn't want this type of response. He wants us to call this Sabbath day date a delight. A big reason our Heavenly Husband (Yahweh) commands us to limit or even eliminate our own purely self motivated physical and mental activities on the Sabbath is that He desires to bless us by having our mind, body and soul yielded with the least amount of distraction possible to the liberty of His Spirit.
So strong is Yahweh Elohim's desire to eliminate distractions from His Sabbath day date with us, that in Exodus 16: 22-23, Mark 15:42, Luke 23: 54-56 our Heavenly Husband established the practice of his people (bride) using the sixth day (Friday) in advance as a day to prepare for the Sabbath. This guideline is commanded in order that every Sabbath day can begin in rest from secular, earthly employment. Every sixth day of the week (Friday), the proper preparations should be made to actively eliminate or limit as many distractions and interference as possible from our Sabbath experience.
In Isaiah 56:2-8. our Heavenly Husband declares a promise towards anyone who obeys His liberating guidelines of holiness on the Sabbath Day.
For deeper insight into this topic, see “Part 1: A Sabbath Celebration” on the Teachings Page!
-Pastor Micah B. Anthony, Sr.