Many people write to us and sincerely ask, “How should I be keeping Shabbat holy?” We hope this article on the subject helps and blesses you in your knowledge and spiritual growth!
Shabbat shuva always falls on the Shabbat before Yom Kippur and is a time for Repentance and Return to Covenant! Shabbat Shuvah (“Sabbath [of] Return” שבת שובה) refers to the Shabbat that occurs during the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur!
God’s people are called to love the Lord with all their heart, mind and soul . Luke 10:27 Deut. 6:5
God says, “‘You shall most certainly observe My Sabbaths, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, so that you may know [without any doubt] and acknowledge that I am the Lord who sanctifies you and sets you apart [for Myself].” Exodus 31:13
Thus keeping Yah’s Sabbaths holy is what sets us apart as His People and makes us holy, sanctifying us from sin!
Q: What is sin?
John said, “Sin is transgression (breaking)of the Torah (Commandments) I Jn. 3:4
Q: Aren’t we under grace and able to break the law now?
No… Paul said, “Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be!” Rom. 6:1,2
Q: Didn’t Yeshua do away with the law by fulfilling it?
No… Yeshua said, “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stoke of a letter of the law to fail.” Luke 16:17
Q: Can’t we break just one?
James said, “If we break one law, we are guilty of all.” Jms. 2:10
Q: If we know of someone who strays from the truth and sins, what are we to do?
James said, “we are to turn the sinner from their error!” Jms. 3:19,20
Q: Which law are we breaking?
God said in the Ten Commandments, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.” Ex. 20:8-10
Q: Which day is the seventh day?
“And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James,…very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun… ” Mark 16:1-6. (Note: everybody knows that Sunday was the resurrection day. The Sabbath was past when it dawned. Thus it is evident that the Sabbath is Saturday, the day before Sunday.) In many languages the Saturday is named after the Sabbath
Q: How did God himself set the example of keeping the seventh day Sabbath?
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed and all their hosts. And on the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day… then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it (sanctified means set apart for only holy use). Genesis 2:1-3
Q: Is Sabbath only for the Jews?
No, Scripture clearly shows that the Bible Sabbath was given to mankind at the end of the Creation Week, (Genesis 2:1-3) thus fixing of the seven-day weekly cycle on a world-wide basis, and giving an ancient world-wide knowledge of the Seventh-day Sabbath as revealed in over 70 languages (as seen below)
Few realize that the word “Sabbath” and the concept of resting from work on the seventh day of the week (Saturday) is common to most of the ancient and modern languages of the world. This is evidence totally independent of the Scriptures that confirms the Biblical teaching that God’s seventh day Sabbath predates Judaism. The Babylonian language, was in use hundreds of years before the Hebrew race was founded by Abraham. That language designated the seventh day of the week as “sa-ba-tu,” meaning rest day — another indisputable proof that the Bible “Sabbath” was not, and is not, exclusively Jewish.