Now YHWH said to Moshe (Moses):  And you, speak to the Children of Israel, saying:  However, my Sabbaths you are to keep!  For it is a sign between me and you, throughout your generations, to know that I, YHWH, hallow (“make holy“) you.  You are to keep the Sabbath, for it is holiness for you, …  Exodus 31:13-14a  Schocken Bible

 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
Mark 2:27 English Standard Version Bible (ESV Online)

 Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.  
Mark 3:1-5 ESV Online

          For all of our readers who are religious “outsiders”, and for all of our readers who despite all of their best efforts are painfully aware of their “un-holiness”, we have some more good news for you:  one day, you WILL be holy.  It is given as a promise directly from the mouth of Father God.  There is a day coming, a day when the Sabbath-sign will be fulfilled, when the holiness that God has stored up for you will be administered by Him to hallow you, or make you holy.  Remember this on a weekly basis, throughout all generations, Father says, for a “day” is coming that I will perform all that I have desired in my children and in my creation–all because of what Jesus has done!

          What is so remarkable and praise-worthy about this is that Father is going to pull this off whether you agree with it or disagree with it, whether you cooperate with it or resist it, whether you run toward it or run away from it.  We believe that when it is your time, you will agree, cooperate and run toward it!  However, for all of you who insist upon the supremacy of human will over God’s will, we say this:  we suggest you agree, cooperate and run toward it sooner than later–you’ll be glad you did!  For all the rest of us, here is all that Father God requires:  REMEMBER the Sabbath, and when I make you holy, KEEP it that way.  In other words, YOU are holy, not the day!  Therefore, rejoice in your holiness!

          Our “take” on the Sabbath and its meaning is not new–it is the reason the religious insiders of Jesus’ day were so angry with Him.  That is why Jesus said, “the Sabbath was made FOR man.”  Somehow the Israelites, and later the Judahites (Jews), confused the importance of what Father intended for man and instead placed the emphasis of holiness on the day.  Somehow, we humans always manage to put the emphasis on the wrong syl-LAB-le.  In the next verse in Mark 3, the reaction of the religious leaders to the man’s hand being restored is stated:

The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him (Jesus), how to destroy him.  Mark 3:6 ESV Online

          It is NOT the day of the week that is important.  That is why the apostle Paul said each man could decide what day of the week that man wanted to remember as the Sabbath.  Whatever day–even if it is every day–was selected, it was to be honoring to God.

 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.   Romans 14:5-6 ESV Online

          Although it is not the day of our worship, we prefer to set aside the traditional Shabbat for our observation and remembrance of the coming fulfillment; that is, from Friday evening at sundown until Saturday evening at sundown.  For us, it is a special day to rejoice, to give thanks, to lift up and extol the name of our living God, to do good in the name of Jesus to others.  In short, to do what we see our Savior doing and say what we hear our Savior saying until the time when He is ready to make us holy. 

          Students of prophecy believe that the coming “day”, the Sabbath of God, is the great millenial (1,000 years) reign of Messiah and the overcomers upon the earth.  In God’s timekeeping, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day.  See 2 Peter 3:8.  Biblical chronology lists the years that have passed as approximately 6,000, or on God’s clock, six days.  Thus, the next 1,000 years, will be the seventh “day”, or the Shabbat, the day of rest.  It is for this reason that Jesus (and Father) could be “working” and not be in violation of God’s law–it was not the Sabbath according to Father’s timekeeping.

          To prove that the seventh day of each week is NOT the fulfillment, but only the picture or foreshadow of the fulfillment, we can look as the word “sign” as used in the opening verse.  In Hebrew, the word is‘owth, and means a signal, an omen, a token; in other words, something that portends or illustrates a greater event or truth.  This is the word used to describe the rainbow, which God gave as a “token of the covenant” (in the King James Version) which He made with man and every living creature not to flood the earth again.  When the Judahites made the weekday holy, they ignored the ‘owth aspect of what God said.  This was directly attributable to their hardness of heart, as is clear from the passage in Mark 3.

          As a result, many of the rest of us have come to regard Father as angry and vengeful, ready to kill all of the “unbelievers” when Jesus comes back.  The sentiment is:  “Jesus is coming soon, and boy, is He mad!”  There is really no disagreement to speak of about Jesus’ return beginning the 1,000 year Sabbath reign; instead, the disagreement is over what He is going to do when He gets here.  But Jesus answered that question with His own question:  Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?  Later He answered the question:  So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.  Therefore, as a sign, or a signal or token, the Sabbath is not merely a prohibition against work, but an indicator of something good, something that creates life, that is coming from Father.

           Dear reader, do you see the obvious contradiction?  To the religious insiders, it was not lawful to do good and heal the man’s hand, but in their view it was lawful to plan to kill the Author of Life!  Typical with the religious insiders (hypocrisy aside), they had it exactly backwards.  It IS lawful to save lives and do good on the Sabbath.  Therefore when Jesus (and Father) were doing good and saving lives, they were not violating Father’s law against “work” on the Sabbath, even if it occurred on a Sabbath day according to man’s timekeeping.  What is NOT lawful is to do harm (or fail to do good when it is within your power to do so) on the Sabbath.  It is not lawful to murder at any time, whether on the Sabbath or not.

          What then shall we expect when the great Millennial Sabbath from Father arrives?  Will it be lawful for Father to do harm or kill the vast majority of the world’s population during the so-called “Great Tribulation” when Father commences to judge the sinful world?   (To be fair, some of those expecting the great tribulation to occur in the future do not count their version of the tribulation period as a part of the 1,000 years, but as the last part of the age preceding it.  However, they completely ignore the Sabbath aspect of the time period and the fall feasts of the Lord:  the feast of trumpets, the day of atonement and the feast of booths, and their corresponding Sabbaths, not to mention the actual commencement of the seventh 1,000-year period, since in their view, “no man knows the hour.”)

          Setting aside all the technical disputes surrounding the Great Tribulation theory, will Father disregard His own law and kill and/or do harm as He is widely expected to do, which the religious insiders refer to as “righteous judgment”?  We are happy to announce that Father keeps His own law, and even happier to announce Father is about to save lives and do good on a scale never before seen among mankind!  During this time, all mankind will see that to which Jesus was referring when He said, “For God so LOVED the world…”  We believe that when Father fulfills the sign of the Sabbath, He will release mercy in the entire world, fulfilling also the word of the psalmist:  His mercy endureth forever.

          In order to carry out the kind of judgments which the future-tribulationists claim, Father would have to violate His own law–something He never does!  (And why would He or should He?  He is both all-knowing and all-powerful.  ALL of His LAW is intended to demonstrate His LOVE.)  No, when that 1,000-year “day” begins, everyone everywhere in the world will begin to see and know Father as He truly is, and has always been.   We believe this is the wisdom of Father to draw all men to Himself, leading men to repentance.  It is the kindness of God that leads to repentance.  Romans 2:4 

          When this process is completed (which may, by the way, extend beyond the 1,000 years), everyone everywhere will have been made HOLY, just as He promised:  “I, YHWH, hallow you.”

Blessed are You, O Lord, our wonderful God, for You have given us the sign of Shabbat, as a promise of holiness in You, Father, through the sacrifice of Jesus, who paid our sin debt that He did not owe and that we could not pay.  May Your kingdom come.

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