How to Keep A Proper Sabbath Observance

Keeping the Sabbath

      As modern Christians we considered our desire to please God and observance of the 7^th day of the week, the Sabbath, has come to our attention on more than one occasion.
The day came and a  thoughtful reading of Sabbath scriptures was due. 
For a time we even attended a Friday night service hosted by a Messianic Jewish brother, and considered purchasing a talith prayer shawl like Jesus wore.

But our traditional church meeting time was Sunday morning and we really had no clear Biblical teaching while in our old church, we only had a minimal understanding about the Sabbath observance. (in contrast to weekly exhortations to tithe, attend church, and the latest growth program).

In the Evangelical Christian world we were part of, we did not “observe the Sabbath because we were under “grace.”  We knew of 7^th Day Adventists and Baptists, Messianic Jewish Christians, and others who strongly emphasized “keeping the Sabbath” like they were. 

But we were not clear…  we saw where Jesus sort of observed the Sabbath and Paul was observed going to Synagogues to witness to his Jewish brethren that Jesus was Messiah. 

The scriptures say that a proper and Biblical Seventh day, as literally defined by God in the Old Testament, begins at sunset. 

In Genesis 1:13 for example, God said:

 “There was evening and there was morning, a third day”, and the other 6 days of creation are spoken of likewise. 
So a proper Biblical day began at sunset and a new day began the following day at sunset (on our Saturday evening)

There is no specific mention of the “Sabbath” until Exodus 16:23, which was about 2,500 years after creation.
 God did not give Abraham Sabbath observance when making Covenant with him. (However Abe was commanded circumcision)

We fast forward to Exodus and the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt.  After 430 years of serving the rulers of Egypt as slaves, the Lord told Moses and Aaron it was high time to get out of Goshen.  (Exodus 12).

The Lord God called the month they were called out of Egypt “the FIRST month (aka Abib)” (Ex.12:2), and they were given instructions for the next 14 days (which included two sabbaths).

The Lord commanded the mandatory requirement of sacrificing a lamb without blemish, and applying the lamb’s blood to the doorposts of their homes so the death angel would “Passover” and spare their lives.

This was to be observed and diligently kept as “an ORDINANCE FOR EVER”.

The Lord ordained also a mandatory feast called “Unleavened Bread” of “seven days” as an observance “an ordinance FOREVER":

And in verse 16 “And in the first day there shall be an holy *convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be a holy *convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you.”
 (*convocation: means a public meeting, rehearsal, assembly)

Here God gave them the weekend off, and no work. Hooray!

 He also gave command to eat unleavened bread for seven days, in fact, the Lord ABSOLUTELY required that “there be no leaven found in your houses” or “eaten that which was leavened”  under penalty of death!   -Exo.12:3). 

God was very particular how and what they ate or it might be their last meal. 

The children of Israel were doing well so far, the Lord giving them specific instructions regarding the observances of the Passover and the seven days of Unleavened Bread, including a FEAST on the 7^th day, and admonishing them that when they went back into the Promised Land of the Canaanites they were to keep these observances “FOREVER”. 

Seems they were happy with this arrangement and God was with them:
“And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light”.

Many “oohs” and “ahhs” were heard at this time in the camp of Israel, and the word “WOW!” was invented to express awe.

Shortly after this, evil King Pharaoh decided to do some “ethnic cleansing” but God intervened by permanently baptizing the Egyptian army in the Red Sea (not to be confused with the Dead Sea). 
 “PRAISE GOD!!” –cried the Israelites and they celebrated joyously as the final bubbles surfaced over the watery grave of Pharaoh and Co.  

For three months the folks of Israel were given a desert tour by God, being fed, watered, and given specially anointed footwear guaranteed by God not to wear out

Unfortunately, those sorry excuses for victorious believers murmured and complained about how God was treating them.
So in Exodus chapter 16, God gave them some loving correction, and got a little more direct with them about the sabbath too:
Ex 16:23 And he said to them, This is that which the LORD has said, To morrow is the Rest of the holy sabbath to the LORD: bake or boil that which you will bake to day.

And the Sabbath gift was introduced.
Exodus 16:29 “See, for that the LORD has given you the SABBATH”.

Life was good, no taxes, a nice day of rest, God was feeding them, leading them, and they were getting real comfy with their walking tour through the countryside.

By chapter 19 of Exodus, it was time for God to give Moses more complete rules for His people, so He called Moses to come meet Him up on Mt. Sinai, and bring the people so they could fellowship and find out about God’s plan for their lives. 
 The Lord mentioned them being so special and how He wanted to bless them.  

But then in chapter 20, God stopped being “seeker-sensitive” while giving them His “Best Life Now” agenda for prosperity.
When “all the people saw the thunderings, and lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. “  

Then it happened: “WHOAA!! –we’re outa here!” they said when they saw and heard God was really awesome, serious, and they skee-daddled away from the mount where Moses was receiving the LAW.. 

“Ten’s enough for me!!!” - they hollered over their  shoulders as they “removed”.  -“Next thing ya know, He’s gonna bring up tithing!”

God had only got as far as giving the Ten Commandments when this happened. After the dust settled, He and Moses got back to work up there on Mt. Sinai, and the rest of the folks got back to their sports, games, and small talk about their neighbors and the weather. 

So The Lord and Moses worked out the rest of the details regarding God’s contract with Israel including things like “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” (Ex. 21:24), smiting those that broke it, 
and… the SABBATH.

Sabbath times…

God was very picky when it came to His orders about the Sabbath.

It began on sunset Friday, (that was before Friday was invented, back then they only had numbers).  And the new interpretation (from God Himself) of the 3 month old Sabbath rules went like this:

Ex 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Ex 20:10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

Everyone, even slaves and animals had chores, no tasks for your employees, and no dishes or laundry.  No honey-do’s, no campfires, no stove cooking. 
And please do not make sabbath breakers of the “waitress”, or the chef in the restaurant that you used to visit after Sabbath before you read this.

Ex 31:14 Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy to you: every one that defiles it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

Ex 31:15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. 
 Now there’s some strong incentive to be Sabbath-careful! 
Keep that in mind when you read the next one!:

Ex 35:3 Ye shall *kindle no fire throughout your living quarters on the sabbath day.
  (*means consume, to burn, or heat.) 
You know, like the heater or house furnace, your car’s engine that burns gas, or the blow dryer for your hair. 

Now here’s a super Sabbath for you, it lasted a whole year!
Lev 25:4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest to the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard. 

No plowing, planting, pruning so with that death penalty, we recommend not pruning the lawn either, just in case.  Even the ground itself got a vacation.

Suddenly, keeping the true Sabbath becomes challenging, and don’t forget that death penalty in Exodus 31:15.  

If you are going to keep the Sabbath now, you just can’t pick and choose verses, you know.

Num 28:9  on the sabbath day two lambs of the first year without spot, and two tenth deals of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil, and the drink offering thereof: (was also commanded for the Passover Sabbath)

According to the law of the Passover Sabbath, you must remember to kill two spotless lambs, give two tithes of wheat flour with oil, and a drink offering to the priest.

Lev 16:31 It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall *afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.  *humble, submit, weaken, abase. 
Sports fans and football play-off watchers…beware!

Lev 23:24 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. 

 Now here’s a special little Sabbath you probably never heard about…  And a bit more about that:

Lev 23:32 It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even to even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.

Lev 23:39 Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. 

Now hold on, God just said there was a special SABBATH on 7-1, 7-9, and 7-15 of the Jewish calendar??!  

Hmmm, how about that, God snuck another Sabbath or three in on the folks just to make sure they were paying attention!  

Lord have mercy, this Sabbath keeping just got complicated and you have us on a different calendar to boot!

And just to make sure they got the Sabbath correct, this happened in Numbers 15:
32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.

34 And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.  They put him in JAIL for sticks on the Sabbath?

35 And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.

36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses.

Whoaa, you mean the church had to take that guy out and let him have it with the rocks?  Yes, that’s what God told them to do because he violated the Sabbath law.

About this time you may be thinking, “this Sabbath thing is pretty scary and they sure didn’t explain all those OTHER Sabbath scriptures to me very well.” 
 If you thought that you are CORRECT! 
And if you thought observing the Sabbath only meant driving over to a meeting Friday night or Saturday morning you were WRONG!

We could stop now with just those verses from the OT Law, and you would have plenty to think about.
 Remember, when Christ and the early church apostles came along, they knew those verses. 
All of them, death penalty and taking a year off from farming included.

So when someone tries to put you under the Sabbath, chances are 100% he does not keep the Sabbath law the way it was given either.

 Let’s see, to summarize a few points about really keeping the Sabbath:

-It was a mandatory observance upon penalty of death.

-In the 7^th year Sabbath, no planting or pruning. 

-No fire.  Period. Not the one in your cars engine, the house heating system, nor the stovetop.

-No work. Not for you, your kids, your employees, or your servants like the waitress and cook at the restaurant.

-No travel.  Whoops! –there goes the trip to church in the car whose engine burns gasoline for fuel.

-Observance of those tricky 7-1, 7-9, and 7-15 Sabbaths of the Jewish calendar you forgot to buy, and then there is that Passover Sabbath with the two lamb-sacrifice to watch out for.

Please don’t stone me, go back and re-read those Sabbath verses for yourself.
 About now you may be thinking:     "we got us us sabbath problems here"

Why even the apostle Paul said to the church in Galatians: 3:¹⁰ For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continues not in all  which are written in the book of the law to do them.

But not to worry, dear reader, the NEW Covenant is called a “BETTER covenant” than the Old Covenant which Paul said “was done away in Christ”, and “Christ is the END of the Law to all that believeth”, and “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace –Eph. 2:15; you can have peace with God and be free of the obligation of trying to keep the law of the Sabbath as given in the Old Covenant. 

See article "Tell Me, You Who Desire to be Under The Law"  

for a more thorough Scriptural explanation of our relationship to the OT law.  

Will a man ROB GOD?

Will a man ROB GOD??? 

-by Rory Moore

James 3:1 Do not be many of you teachers, my brethren, knowing that we (teachers) shall receive heavier judgment.

... a good friend has been corresponding with several Texas ministers that teach Christians should "tithe" to the church, i.e., the 10% of members income should go to them or the ministry.

-His questions and challenges have alienated him from people there. “HOW could our pastor be wrong” as they explain tithing to the church?

---But my friend found the church leaders will not answer his questions nor have an honest dialog with him.... Instead they do "damage control" and seek to confirm the error by fraudulently mis-teaching God's Word, or charge non-tithers with selfish withholding.

“Dave” was focusing more on communion yesterday when talking about Gen. 14, then talked about the tithing aspect.
 Melchisedek brought out the bread and wine when meeting with Abram, so Dave said that was like communion. I don’t see how he came to that, but whatever.  I need to add that he did say that we’re not under the law to tithe in the NT now, but he made it a point to say that Abram gave ALL because he had faith that his God would provide. So now the 10% went to ALL.

  <because he questioned them> I do believe that they now understand that tithing is not biblical, but they’re doing damage control to still make people believe they have to give.  For example, in the service that I sent you from 1/31, “T” starts out that we don’t have to tithe, but if a person has a problem giving 10% to God, then I have concern for their soul.

Here is my response to my friends email, and I give him credit for being brave enough to question the pastor and his associate ministers:

Dear bro. ------

Why question a persons soul over 10%?? It is Christ’s nature and fruit of the Holy Spirit to give to others.
Why pick 10% out of the air when that was never taught by the apostles or given to any church in the epistles or Acts?

Abraham tithed?
 Why didn’t Abram record a tithe on his wealth in the context of Genesis 13?
(2) "Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold".

Why didn’t Abraham tithe on the gifts in Gen. 20:14?   And Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and men-servants and women-servants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife.
15   And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before you. Live where it pleases thee. 16   And ... he said, Behold, I have given <Abraham> a thousand pieces of silver. (silver and gold is money)

If 10% was a universal amount from everyone, all the time, why then did God only ordain agricultural tithing in the law from Sinai?

Was the temple tax a 10% tithe?
Exodus 30:13      This they shall give, every one that passes among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) a half shekel shall be the offering of the LORD. 15 The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering to the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls.

So when they try to impose a 10% “measure”, they cannot go to the apostles who wrote Christ’s commands, they must refer to the covenant that was “disannulled” at the cross (Heb. 7), the “ordinances blotted out” (Col 3, Eph. 2:15).

What they are doing is sowing that 10% law of men and reinforcing the error among people that think the 10% is God's set amount and teaching performance to a duty.. (as we know).

How much better it is to have the Lord direct us in our stewardship over the 100% He owns and what He has allowed us to steward? 

We ourselves have heard the Lord MANY times direct us in giving telling us to whom and how much or what He wanted us to do. In doing so, we have been very blessed.

-Tithing robs the people of this blessing, it robs those that could benefit from our giving, and robs the ministers of truth. It corrupts them into believing the tithes should go to them.

-Tithing robs people of the blessing of giving in secret and robs those that have needs.

-It robs bishops and ministers of the blessing of honest labor and setting an example for other men and often leads to a self-indulgent lifestyle.. It appeals to the greed within the hearts of ministers who grasp the fact that more tithers = more $$$.

-Even Pastors T, D, and J must know and have observed that. We sure did with many ministers in our church association.

FYI: Acts 20.. Paul speaking to the *bishops*:
33 I have desired no one’s silver or gold or clothing.
34 You yourselves know that >>>these hands of mine provided for my needs and the needs of those with me.
35 By all these things, I have shown you that by WORKING IN THIS WAY *WE* (ministers) must help the weak,  and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, >>> ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Examples of Spirit filled saints not tithing:

Acts 4:31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken wherein they were gathered together; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spake the word of God with boldness.

32  And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and soul: and not one [of them] said that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.

Again, Spirit filled saints not tithing..

Acts 2:44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common; 45 and they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as any man had need.

no tithes here either. Acts 4:34 For neither was there among them any that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold,

35 and laid them at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto each, according as any one had need.

 If we do not go to God with our questions and seek *Him* for Truth, we will be deceived by our faith in ministers, teachers, church, denomination, priest, pope, politician, and by our own depraved nature.

Why didn't the Levite Barnabbas just tithe?
Acts 4:36 Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, Act 4:37 sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. 

Why did Ananias and his wife die for giving a “portion”?

Act 5:1 But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, :2 and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. I don't believe they were required to give all the proceeds, but what they did was lie.

-And the apostles did not keep the proceeds for themselves, it was distributed among others.

 Why didn't Paul mention a tithe when collecting for the Saints in Jerusalem?
 1Co 16:1 Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do.

1Co 16:2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

You see, it is the nature and fruit of Christ to give.. Not just from finances. We give from what we are given and accumulate.. Yet we are not under compulsion.. We give in love and compassion to real people and real needs, not just a dutiful feeding of a plate being ritually passed.

 The only excuse for tithing a tenth might be under Luke 6:38   give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give into your bosom. For with what measure you use it shall be measured to you again. But even here Jesus did not suggest 10% as a baseline.

We might compare the doctrine of tithing as taught in churches today with other doctrines taught in churches today using similar reasoning and twisting:
"Transubstantiation" the act of a Catholic priest in magically turning the "host" into the actual body and blood of Christ.
"all are saved, nobody goes to hell",
"ye are gods": men become god-like.

What money tithing has in common with these commonly believed teachings is that all of them sound religiously correct, but can only be taught as such by perverting the scripture.