Walking Therein

Saturday Psalm & Praise: Day of Rest

Posted By Jacque on August 8, 2009

Job spoke in Chapter 30 of rest and how it eluded him. It seems to be eluding our home at this time too. Sick animals, sick animals, and work, work, work are our days lately. It is a good life, and we are learning a lot, but we need some rest.

I am so thankful we have discovered a true day of rest in the Sabbath- in the original Sabbath given to us by Yehovah God, not the man-made one that we used to think was the Sabbath. Do we have a list of rules to follow to follow Shabat? No. We are to rest from working and give this day to him instead of all the other things that keep us from him on every other day.

Exodus (Sh’mot) 31:12-18
12 ADONAI said to Moshe, 13 “Tell the people of Isra’el, ‘You are to observe my Shabbats; for this is a sign between me and you through all your generations; so that you will know that I am ADONAI, who sets you apart for me. 14 Therefore you are to keep my Shabbat, because it is set apart for you. Everyone who treats it as ordinary must be put to death; for whoever does any work on it is to be cut off from his people. 15 On six days work will get done; but the seventh day is Shabbat, for complete rest, set apart for ADONAI. Whoever does any work on the day of Shabbat must be put to death. 16 The people of Isra’el are to keep the Shabbat, to observe Shabbat through all their generations as a perpetual covenant. 17 It is a sign between me and the people of Isra’el forever; for in six days ADONAI made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day he stopped working and rested.’” 18 When he had finished speaking with Moshe on Mount Sinai, ADONAI gave him the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.

I used to tell Matt that Sunday was not a day of rest for us. We spent the day focusing more on getting to church, what class to get to, “dealing with” our children who were not allowed in the adult classes, teaching or working in whatever ministry we volunteered, then to get a crowded quick lunch, only to be back a few hours later to the evening service… NOT rest. I have heard pastors say the same thing: “This may be your day of rest, but I don’t get it as a day of rest. My day of rest is ____-day.” As if we, as mere man, are allowed to change any of the commandments. We aren’t, and most people would agree with that, until they investigated further and saw that there are some commandments they don’t want to follow as they are written – and that there are many more than just the known ten commandments. Then there would enter in all sorts of reasonings and excuses and wisdom from man. (No, we do not have to follow all the 613 Mitzvot(commandments), as they don’t all apply to every person anyway, and never have, but the commandments – Mitzvot that DO APPLY, well, we better follow them!)

Mark 2: 27-28
27 Then he said to them, “Shabbat was made for mankind, not mankind for Shabbat; 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of Shabbat.”

I give praise where it is due, and that is to Yehovah God. He has designed us with needs and made every way for those needs to be fulfilled. Shabat is one of them. We give him thanks alone for our days, Matt, as my husband and as the children’s father, blesses them and gives words to them that speak encouragement and life into their souls, just as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob blessed their children. It is beautiful and honouring to our God and our family. It is a rest in itself. We break bread and bless it and the ‘wine’, giving thanks to the Father for it, as our Messiah, Yeshua-Jesus did when he was here on earth. We praise Him and worship Him and enjoy a meal together, focused on our God. It is a spiritual rest that is awesome and much-needed.

We have felt a greater need for this rest, since we have discovered this blessing, and look forward to it and rejoice in it. It is not a bondage that we have a list of DO NOTS for the day. That is a legalistic view, and not the one that Yeshua showed us. He broke bread and blessed the Father and rested every Shabat, spending time with his family, his friends, his disciples, and he set the precedence for us to follow it, even as he practiced a Shabat meal the night before they took him away to his death.

Recognizing and celebrating Shabat is a very good thing.

Receiving the blessing of a day of rest, free from all the work – the curse on man from the Garden – and in the presence of the Father, is a very good thing! It’s like it was supposed to be for Adam and Eve… Free from the curse of work and intimate fellowship, focused on Yehovah God.

Thank you Father, for giving us this day of rest. Thank you for all you give us in our lives and especially for your Word, your teachings – your Torah – so that we can have all that is good for us from you.

blessings~

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Glad you could join me today on Shabat for Saturday Psalm & Praise. Please feel free to join us in celebration and worship and study of His teachings in the Word on his Day of Rest and Relationship! Please leave a comment and your link below to your Saturday P&P if you join us and grab the linked icon for your post!

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Comments

5 Responses to “Saturday Psalm & Praise: Day of Rest”

Sir Eric says:

August 8, 2009 at 4:02 pm

good post mom.that is true they think sunday is the lord’s shabbat but it is not.

Love from your son
sir Eric

[Reply]
Beth says:

August 9, 2009 at 6:01 pm

Hi Jacque! Is Matt able to have Saturday off from both of his jobs (assuming he is still working 2 jobs?)..I was thinking he used to have Sundays off.

-Beth

[Reply]
Jacque Reply:
August 9th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Nope, not yet, Beth. He still works at the PO on Saturday. At home, though, we get all the work for the weekend done on Friday and resume it on Saturday evening after we end Shabat.
It sure would be nice to have him home on Saturday to be able to read with us and study the Word though!

Hope you are well!
Glad to hear from you!

[Reply]
Melissa says:

August 10, 2009 at 12:36 am

I have enjoyed watching you and your family learn about the Sabbath. I grew up knowing about the Sabbath and I have found it such a blessing in my life. I find it interesting that God blessed the Sabbath and he blessed marriage… The two things these days people are trying to forget about. May God bless your family as you continue to walk in His ways. May God find a way for your husband not to have to work on Sabbath, too.

Warmly,
Melissa
Melissa´s last blog ..Sisterhood Award…

[Reply]
Jacque Reply:
August 12th, 2009 at 5:36 am
Thank you Melissa~
I am so glad to hear from you! I miss my HSB2 friends!
I love the point you made about Shabat and marriage being the 2 things that Yehovah blesses his people with and also those two things being what ppl (including His own) are abandoning pretty much.
THANK YOU for your words of blessing. I know that for Matt to not work on Shabat, that will mean a change of job, because he is a postal carrier, and they carry on Saturday (though there has been talk in the past year of discontinuing carriers on Sat, but I don’t think that will happen). I do know that the Father is in control and has moved mountains, so to speak, for his people before…. and he desires we celebrate his Shabat as commanded, so that is entirely possible!!

THANK YOU!

[Reply]

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