Following on from the idea that the Moedim of Yah were created on day 4 (or 7), and listed in Leviticus 23, we find that pre-eminent place is given to the 7th day; the Sabbath day.
Deu 5:12 `Observe the day of the sabbath–to sanctify it, as Jehovah thy God hath commanded thee;
Deu 5:13 six days thou dost labour, and hast done all thy work,
Deu 5:14 and the seventh day is a sabbath to Jehovah thy God; thou dost not do any work, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy handmaid, and thine ox, and thine ass, and all thy cattle, and thy sojourner who is within thy gates; so that thy man-servant, and thy handmaid doth rest like thyself;
Deu 5:15 and thou hast remembered that a servant thou hast been in the land of Egypt, and Jehovah thy God is bringing thee out thence by a strong hand, and by a stretched-out arm; therefore hath Jehovah thy God commanded thee to keep the day of the sabbath.
Yah is quite adamant about the Sabbath and we ignore it at our peril.
Roman Catholics claim that they have the right to change Yah’s (Saturday) Sabbath to the Constantinian ‘Venerable day of the sun’; but keeping a Sunday Sabbath is a Babylonian tradition and it is a blasphemy as such to pretend that man has the authority to adapt pagan traditions as tools with which to worship Yah.
That being said, we must be careful to correctly separate Sabbath commandments from Sabbath tradition. According to the Psalms, on Sabbath we rest, we meditate and we commune together. Anything else is a tradition and not a commandment.
The Rabbis have made Sabbath a nightmare by mal-interpretation of the idea of not working on sabbath. I work as a computer programmer, therefore I do not program computers on Shabbat for that is my normal work. Rabbinical interpretation however takes the idea of work as the expenditure of energy of any kind. It is thus (to them) ‘work’ to carry something etc. etc.
It is also forbidden for a smelter to kindle his fire, which the rabbis interpret as firstly applying to everybody, and secondly to not only lighting a fire but switching on an electric light or any appliance or even pressing the buttons on a lift/elevator. One lady knocked on my door to request that I remove the automatic lamp on the stairs outside the apartment because it caused her to ‘sin’ as the light came on on Shabbat.
On the other hand, many business deals are made in the synagogue at the Shabbat service, which the scriptures forbid.
So how do I personally keep Sabbath? I am in my late sixties and my family is grown up and left home. But we usually have Shabbat dinner with other truth seekers, either on Friday evening or on Saturday evening depending upon commitments. Often we visit my son and his family for lunch on Saturday, sometimes I write, we (my wife and I) meditate and discuss the things of Yah, and we try to rest.
In my house I take responsibility for the way I and my family keep Sabbath, within the framework that Yah supplies. If I want to do candles, bread wine and blessings, then that is my privilage, Shabbat is made for me and I am not its slave, as long as I observe the basics, then I am at liberty to enjoy.
By keeping (Saturday) Shabbat we demonstrate that we have separated ourselves unto Yah to keep his commandments not man’s (or Satan’s) traditions. But keeping Shabbat is not easy in those places where a Sunday (or Friday) is considered the norm and there are times when circumstance make life difficult, but do not despair Yah knows that donkeys fall into pits on Shabbat as well.
He in turn reminds us that it is He who brought us out of slavery, with the implication that He can easily put us back into slavery. The nation that keeps a national Saturday Shabbat will indeed be great. But the nation that keeps the Sunday of Babylon throws its godship in Yah’s face. To keep Sunday is to tell Yah that man is greater than God!
mike93c 
Hello Mike,
Just to let you know that I tried more than once to leave a comment on your Sabbath article.
Each time, my remarks disappeared instantly.
I’d sure like to know if that is not an accident. I really enjoy your website, and so I am at a loss as to why my comments disappear when other comments do not.
Maybe it is a WordPress problem? I see that my “like” is there, but not my remarks.
Since basically I agree with you, my son suggests that I ask instead something you could really help us with, and that is an easy one:
We have in times past kept Passover. (I should point out that my grandparents were all Christians, and that I was raised a Presbyterian.)
I have been invited to traditional Seders and have been delighted at the joy and happiness at those occasions. The big difference for us is the lack of tradition, so, for us, Passover is very simple and basic.
Be that as it may, how are we to observe the other six Biblical Holy days? I think of the Feast of Weeks and Feast of Tabernacles, in particular since they involve literally weeks. How to make those seven day holy days meaningful?
FWIW, my prior remarks:
Hello Mike,
I’ve been hoping and waiting for quite some time to read an article such as this one.
Once I realized the Sabbath was really and truly Saturday (and that was quite some years ago) my only regret was that I didn’t keep such to myself.
The Evangelicals called me a cultist.
The Protestant Reformed folks blasted me arguing that in times past the Sabbath could be any day of the year, confusing the weekly Sabbath, no doubt, with other Holy days.
No one, not one, was ever able or even willing to show me a single NT passage justifying Sunday as the Sabbath day. I think en masse they have trouble counting days from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection..
From the Messianic Christian types it was even worse! I was warned of hellfire for once washing my car on Saturday. With modern polymer paints this was hardly a chore, but more of a relaxing recreation, and although no one, save One, can discern my thoughts from afar, having that hour to myself and Him was very pleasant, just being able to enjoy another day of life in a created world made beautiful in every conceivable way.
One Messianic wrote me off with considerable anger and disgust because I questioned whether he extinguished the gas pilot light in his water heater or even if he flushed a toilet on Sabbath, since both acts incur costs, the meters running seven days a week.
It could be that I am one among many, early perhaps, but there must be many others who are beginning to understand there is a big difference between the revealed Biblical Truth and organized religion which, however ever well it intends, and however ever much good it achieves, often it does so at the expense of introducing non-Biblical beliefs and ideas.
I discovered this quote the other day in an article about Mark Levin, and I thought it worth sharing for its purity. (source — http://dissectleft.blogspot.com/) I’ll skip most of the discussion and get straight to the point. After criticizing the Left, he says:
So when someone comes along who can make Leftist thinking sound half-decent, he is greeted rapturously, hailed as an “intellectual” and given lots of publicity.
Conservatives don’t need that. Between the Bible and America’s founding documents, they have all the guidance they need to create a good society and a good life for its people. They already have policies and ideas that work and are well-known. Erudite men like Levin can help publicize those mighty founding ideas and show how they apply in modern times but that is just a badly-needed educative role, not any kind of new discovery.
My own critique of organized religion in general is that it tends to give people a superiority complex, when it is humility, not pride that our Creator desires of us…
Thank you again. I really enjoy and look forward to your posts.
Phil S
Many thanks…
Phil
Hi Phil
Thank you for the comment, I do not get many comments so it is strange that yours disappear, I will enquire from WP.
I am currently working through Leviticus 23 and the next article will be about Passover and what it means, once again there are the basics which must be kept, and a set of garnishings of which the Seder is one. The traditional Orthodox seder is a long drawn out affair quoting Rabbi after Rabbi and with little actual scripture. If you are the ‘senior’ male then you decide what goes on in addition to the basics (but make sure you discuss it with the ladies), if you are lucky enough to have children present, then you could do something like Passover ‘Charades’ and have a laugh. Yah’s feasts should be FUN for all. The serious side is that they present a picture, a tableau of an appointment with Yah, a Moedim.
Passover makes sense if one understands that we too died to Yah whilst in Eden (“dying you will die”) and we live in a state of separation (death) from Yah. But on Passover night the Angel of death passed over those who were prepared, those who had, in all humility, done things Yah’s way. Yah regards this physical life of ours as death, and only when we start to undo the fall by seeking first the Kingdom (Creation) of Yah do we start once more to have His life in us, according to His eyes, and His messenger of death passes on (see Moses. Zipporah and the circumcision of Moses’ sons).
In our little group all of us are in our 60’s so the feasts are somewhat more staid.
I am sorry you get so much flak from religionistas, we too find Messianics very difficult, they have seen the next step but usually want to make yet another religion of it, they are usually no longer seeking truth, believing that they have already found it. The word Rabbi is a Chaldean word and describes those who elevate themselves. They derive from the Pharisees of scripture and it is they who brought the Babylonian Talmud back from Baghdad and so polluted the relationship between Yah and His Chosen. The Messianics perpetuate the judgemental exclusivity of Babylonian Orthodoxy by keeping the traditional aspects of its religion.
The Rabbis also brought with them the idea of a religious parasite living off the congregation and in turn taking responsibility for their religious life. This is a pagan concept for each adult is solely responsible for their own relationship with Yah. In scripture we support (tithe) those who labour for us, but these are people are ordained by Yah, not by themselves or by the xxxxx church. “By their fruit you shall know them.” They should be helping you find Yah, not inserting themselves between you and Yah.
That you rest by cleaning your car I can well understand, I have done similar things, Shabbat, too should be Yah themed but also enjoyable as the highlight of the week. I have this dream of families celebrating Shabbat at a shared picnic/BBQ by a lake, playing, singing and discussing the things of Yah. But we do our best (no lakes here in the Negev desert). Today (Saturday 08:16) we will visit my 1 year old Granddaughter at Kibbutz Revivim (and her parents) and have lunch together at the Kibbutz then drive back before it gets dark (we are not so good driving in the dark), last night we had dinner with Stewart and Eti as a group and discussed the events of the week and how we can sponsor a Philippine woman (63) who was refused entry to Israel having arrived at the airport and was deported to Switzerland of all places (she was not allowed out of the airport there). She is a Christian but was treated very shabbily by those other Christians who were meant to love and care for her.
In all things keep faith and seek Yah’s truths. Yah wants us to be compliant with His Creation, and to do that we must put aside our (knowledge of good and evil) fallen self, and in all humility to put on the mantle of Yah’s Knowledge of GOOD and EVIL (Torah). If we try to define good and bad for ourselves we WILL be using the gift of the serpent no matter how good our intentions. The prodigal son has the humility to go back to his Father’s house as a servant, ready to obey his Father in all things and without question (having left his father’s house because he did not want to obey his Father and wanting to question his Father’s authority in all things). We too can live with the pigs, or we can seek the things of the Creator in all humility – our choice!
In Faith
Mike