there remains a rest

 

The Deeper Meaning of Shabbat

 

by Yashah Ben-Y'shua

 

 

For those of us who have been blessed to receive the knowledge of our true identity and destiny as Hebrew Israelites, the fourth Commandment to consecrate the Sabbath Day should take on a whole new cultural and spiritual significance. Certainly it should cause us to re-examine its meaning in light of our rediscovered direct national relationship to the law.

 

But unfortunately, for many of us, just as it was before we lost our national identity, the Sabbath has become nothing more than a misguided source of cultural pride. It has for many of us, become a carnal means of drawing a false distinction between "us" - 'Messianic' Hebrew Israelites - and "them" - "those dreaded Christians".

 

The truth is - just as with the whole law given at Sinai - the keeping of Shabbat was originally commanded of us not as a badge of cultural uniqueness; but frankly, as a divine principle. And as a means of introducing a carnal group of Hebrew slaves to the spiritual and invisible Elohim...

 

But beyond it causing us to reflect upon the seven 'days' of creation, or the principle of weeks or 'sevens', there is a profound deeper meaning of Shabbat, as well as everything written in stone by the finger of the Most High [and the whole body of the laws, statutes, and commandments of Moses as well].

In this final hour, YAH is revealing to a faithful remnant in Mashiach/Christ, a new and profound revelation of Himself, His vision, and His purpose and plan for our lives, through the hidden meaning of Shabbat.

 

Of course, the Sabbath Day is fundamentally about rest. YHWH created the heavens and the earth in six 'days', and on the seventh day He rested. Now, being omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, and thus having no need, why would He then choose to rest?

 

Truly, YHWH was establishing for all time in the very process of creation itself, a divine principle of victory over sin, which sees its ultimate fulfillment in His people ceasing from their own labor in righteousness, and resting in the salvation of Christ.

 

The forth chapter of Hebrews, illuminated by Ruach Ha Kodesh, reveals to us this mystery, hidden to the ancient Israelites who saw no deeper than the surface of the law [and rejected the revelation of the prophets into its true meaning and purpose] - that the Shabbat in the Commandments was much more that a memorial feast commemorating YHWH's rest after creation, or the exodus from Egypt, and rest from the burden of slavery; but a foreshadowing of a spiritual rest from the letter of the law of Moses, under the law of Messiah...

 

Although our fathers entered into the promised land under Yahoshua (Joshua), and a rest from slavery, it was Joshua himself who spoke of a SPIRITUAL rest that would come to the children of Israel under Mashiach!

 

As it is written, "For if Yahoshua (Joshua) had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of YAH. For he who has entered into His [YHWH's] rest has himself also ceased from his works as YAH did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience." (Ibrim [Heb.] 4:8-11).

 

[In the King James version, the word "Jesus" in this passage is in italics, and was thus added by the translators, who failed to understand this great and glorious mystery.]

 

We as Messianic Israelites must know and understand that Y'shua (Yah'shua) has freed us from the curse of the law - the burden of hard slave labor for righteousness through ritualism - emancipating us unto a true spiritual rest... the heavenly Shabbat... Sélah.

 

Our liberation as a people must be absolute - not just in mind and body, but in spirit! And love simply cannot flourish in a climate of confusion - especially not in the midst of the long and difficult struggle to gain our freedom. At ALL times, and under all circumstances, all things must be done decently and in order.

 

Hear O Yisrael - our greatest rest is not found in the Exodus of our fathers from Egypt, nor in being unchained by our American slave masters - nor even in the physical rest of the weekly Shabbat...

 

Our greatest rest is found in the knowledge that the blood of Y'shua, the sacrificial Lamb offered up once and for all, for all believers, for all time, has freed us from the law of sin and death; that each of us may finally stand with a clear conscience, purged from the dead works of our own righteousness, to serve our Father, the living Elohim, with LIVING works - in deed and in truth! HalleluYAH!!

 

Shalom Aleichem!