SabbathPlace

     The title of this week's Sabbath reading portion is Emor, meaning "Say". The title comes from a verse in Leviticus 23 that begins this week's reading as the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: "Speak to the children of Israel, and say (amar - utter, speak, say, command, promise, to be called so, to avow, intend, certify, appoint, bring to light, cause to say, to say in one's heart.) to them: 'The feasts (mo'ed/ya'ad - congregation, feast, season, appointed time, solemn, sign, a set time, "the vision that belongs to a time"/meet, assemble, betroth, to engage for marriage, to espouse, meet by appointment, be fixed, be placed before) of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations (miqra/qara - a calling together, sacred assembly, a [prophetic] rehearsal/invited, guests, bidden, call, preach, read aloud, to be called out, chosen, be summoned, give name, cry aloud, call unto), these are My feasts." (Lev. 23:2).

     The feasts of the LORD described in Leviticus Chapter 23, are for a set time each year, for God's people who are called, bidden, invited by name to attend. They are rehearsals having prophetic meanings for events that were to occur in the future. Believers in Jesus Messiah/Christ know that He fulfilled several of these feasts: He died as the Lamb of God on Passover, He rose from the dead on the Feast of First Fruits (NOT "easter"), and He sent the outpouring and baptism of the Holy Spirit upon His believers on the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. The blood of His sacrifice became the expiation for sin on the Mercy Seat of the Holy of Holies in heaven as our Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).  All of these fulfilments of the feasts are described in the New Testament. The remaining feasts will be fulfilled by Messiah/Christ as His Bride is called to the Marriage Supper (see above meaning of "feast") of the Lamb, following which, the Lord Jesus will return to rule and reign on the earth. There are other fulfilments traditionally associated with the Feasts of the LORD such as the creation and the receiving of the Law on Mt. Sinai.

     The feasts are not suggestions to come when we decide to come. Because they are prophetic, they are commanded and appointed for specific days to all whom the LORD calls by name. Unfortunately, most of the church does not observe the feasts although Jesus did while He was here on earth. Those who do observe them usually do so according to the solar calendar, rather than the lunar calendar that the LORD used to appoint the feasts. Therefore, most of the time, the few of the church who are observing the feasts are doing so on the wrong days!

      As the feasts are specified in Leviticus 23, the first convocation mentioned, and also as a component of most of the other feasts, is the Sabbath: "Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath (sabat - cease, desist, rest, put an end to, exterminate, destroy, cause to fail, remove, desist from exertion, of land which is not tilled, day of rest of heart of solemn rest [that is a propitiation that covers], a holy convocation (see above miqra/qara). You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings." (v. 3). The Sabbath is treated as foundational and first of all of the feasts. However, I think we may find that our understanding of the Sabbath has been limited to religious practices rather than the deeper meaning of the word. As we can see from the Hebrew word sabat, there is a warfare that causes something to be destroyed or exterminated, even removed. The keeping (samar - keep, protect, guard, observe, give heed, preserve, watchman, watch for, wait for, save, as a shepherd of a flock, keep safe, preserve as loving kindness) of the Sabbath is also one of the first things mentioned as the LORD calls His K'doshim Holy Ones in Lev. 19:3. Look at what our attitude towards the Sabbath should be as described by the word "keep"/samar! We are to guard it, watch over it, and wait for it. It is not just about religious regulations - far from it, as we will see.

     We know that the Sabbath is mentioned as one of the Ten Commandments, and this will reveal even more to us: "Remember (zakar - remember, recall, call to mind, cause to be remembered, to record, make mention, the idea of a memory penetrating and infixing, the idea of pricking and piercing, to preserve, to consider, to contemplate, to call back to memory) the Sabbath  (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) day and keep it holy...For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) day and hallowed it." (Ex. 20:8-11). Here we are told that in addition to "keeping/samar" the Sabbath, we are to "remember/zakar" or call back to memory something relating to the Sabbath. What are we to remember? The LORD tells us as He takes us back to the six days of Creation in Genesis, and His rest on the seventh day. So let us go back to Genesis Ch. 1 and consider the information there. 

     When I look at the Creation in Gen. Ch. 1, I see spiritual warfare. Remember that our Hebrew word sabat or Sabbath contains this meaning of warfare (see above). The three spiritual enemies in the beginning of Genesis were formlessness (tou - nothing, confusion, empty place, desolation, worthless thing, place of chaos), voidness (bou - emptiness, waste, vacuity, indistinguishable ruin) and darkness (hosek/hasak - darkness, obscurity, as of Hades, underground prison; also used to mean: misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness/be darkened as withholding light, surrounded with darkness). This darkness was turned towards the person/face (panim) of the deep (tehom/hum/hamam - deep place, sea, abyss, grave, deep hollows of the earth/destroy, commotion, distract with noise/confuse, discomfit, break, consume, crush, destroy, trouble, vex). It's as if what was left of the earth had been turned inside out, with its inner darkness revealed. The Word which is Jesus (see Jn. 1:1-5) and the Spirit of God were present, and the weapon used in the warfare between God and this destruction was the spoken Word: "Then God said (amar - see above), 'Let there be light; and there was light..." (see Gen. 1:1-3). The Word of God is a living, sharp, two-edged sword that pierces and divides (Heb. 4:12), and with His Word-Sword, God divided (badal - divide, separate, sever out, set apart, make a difference, disjoin, be selected) the light from the darkness and created an uncrossable separation between the two. When Jesus returns, He will also come with a sharp sword in His mouth (Rev. 19:11-16).

     God overcame the elements of waste and destruction through His six-day work of Creation. The final overcoming work of the sixth day was God's creation of man. Man, male and female, was the crown of dominion that would rule over all living creatures and fill the earth and subdue it. He would rule in the image of the One in which he was created: "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness...So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." (see Gen. 1:26-28).

     On the seventh day "God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested (sabat - see above) from all His work which God had created and made." (Gen. 2:2-3). The condition of creation, including man, continued in this sabat rest. A garden was fastened (nata - plant, fasten, establish, to strike in) to the earth, and man was placed within it (Gen. 2:8-15). He only had to eat from the (permitted) trees provided, including the Tree of Life. The man did not have to till the soil or provide for himself. The (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) man was commanded to "tend and keep" the garden, but this was about the spiritual guardianship of it. It is interesting that both "tend" and "keep" have a dual meaning. "Tend", or abad in Hebrew, can mean "husbandman, to worship, to serve, to minister to God, to be served as king. This is the Sabbath Place. However, the same word, abad, can also mean hard bondage, hard labor to fatigue and weariness, to impose servitude, servile work. This is the curse of the fallen man who rejected the Sabbath of the LORD (see Gen. 3:17-19). In Lev. 23, as the LORD summons His people to His appointed feasts, He commands that they are to take a Sabbath rest and do no servile work. The word "keep" is samar in Hebrew which we also saw above. Again, it means "watchman, watch, save, preserve, guard, protect, save life, observe the Sabbath/Covenant, be on one's guard." This is a purpose and blessing of the Sabbath Place. However, samar can also mean "to hedge about as with thorns" (see Gen. 3:18). This is the curse of the fallen man who rejected the Sabbath of the LORD. Here we see again the two-edged sword which is the Word of God.

     As Jesus observed and taught the Sabbath, He did many miracles and offered life-saving ministry to the people who had need. He was harshly criticized for doing this kind of "work" on the Sabbath, but He answered them: "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working." (Jn. 5:17). This is the life-saving and shepherd caring for His flock kind of "work" of the Sabbath: all needs are met according to God's riches in glory through Christ (Phil. 4:19). However, not understanding the true power and freedom of the Sabbath, one leader of the synagogue said of the person being healed: "There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath." (Lk. 13:14). The healing that Jesus had done on that Sabbath was for a woman who had spent eighteen years bent over by a spirit of infirmity who could not raise herself up. Jesus said to her, "Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity." He laid His hands on her and she was made straight. In answer to the leader's criticism, Jesus said, "...ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound - think of it - for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?" (v. 16). Jesus walked in the true meaning of the Sabbath Place of "tending" and "keeping". 

     Jesus taught us how to "Remember the Sabbath (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) day" in the present to bring the blessings of the Sabbath. We also "Remember the Sabbath (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) day" as a prophetic rehearsal associated with the feasts for fulfilment in the future when, according to the Word of God, God will bring all of creation into His Sabbath Place because of the rulership of the Messiah/Christ, the Branch from the root of Jesse: "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion together; and a little child shall lead them...They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) LORD as the waters cover the sea." (Isa. 11:1-2, 6-9, excerpt). In another place, scripture says: "And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,' says the LORD." (Isa. 66:23). The Book of Revelation brings us to the Sabbath Place of the new heaven and the new earth: "God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away...'It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts." (Rev. 21:3-6). In describing the Sabbath Place that comes down from heaven, the New Jerusalem, scripture says: "...a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Who takes away the sins of the world). In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him...the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever." (Rev. 22:1-5).   

     When the LORD commanded us to "Remember/zakar the Sabbath (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega) day and keep it holy", this is the Sabbath/sabat Place that I will recall from the past in order to bring it into the present. This is the "rehearsal" of the Sabbath feast for which God has summoned us in order to proclaim its fulfilment in the future.

     The Sabbath is mentioned in all of the readings for this Emor/Amar Sabbath reading portion.  In Psalm 81, the Psalmist is calling God's people to repentance. He expresses God's desire to provide the Sabbath Place and feast day blessings to His people, but they have rejected it: "This He established in Joseph as a testimony, when He went throughout the land of Egypt...'I removed his shoulder from the burden; his hands were freed from the baskets. You called in trouble and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder...Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it...Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways! I would soon subdue their enemies, and turn My hand against their adversaries...He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat; and with the honey from the rock I would have satisfied you." This is the meaning of the Sabbath.

     The Sabbath is not a religious ritual, but a powerful, as well as prophetic, place and condition in the Spirit. It is the victory resulting from spiritual warfare, and the substance (soma/sozo - the body as a sound whole/to save, rescue from destruction, to preserve one, to heal and deliver) of it is Messiah/Christ. (Col. 2:15-17).

     If you would like a deeper understanding of the sabat Sabbath, you can join me in my prayer: "Father in heaven, You commanded me to remember Your Sabbath day. Your Son, Jesus is Lord, even of the Sabbath, remembering mercy (Mt. 12:5-8). By Your Spirit and Word, teach me and help me to remain in the Sabbath Place that You have provided for me. Let me not turn to my own ways or rely on my own efforts to provide for myself what You have already provided for me. Let me minister to and serve You and others in the spirit of the Sabbath with rejoicing and gratitude so that Your Sabbath will be fulfilled today and in the future. I ask this in the name of Jesus. AMEN."

*NOTE: aleph-tav written in Hebrew as אֶת, are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The meaning of the two pictographic Hebrew letters can also be interpreted "Adonai (Lord) of the Cross/Covenant". In the New Testament, these letters are translated as Alpha and Omega written as Α Ω , the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. These letters are those by which Jesus Christ identifies Himself in the Book of Revelation: see Rev. 1:8, Rev. 21:6, Rev. 22:13.