The Messiah said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is fulfilled.” (Matthew 5: 17-18) He also said, “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.” (Luke 16: 17) The fourth commandment isn’t just another law. It’s one of the big 10, and you can be certain that the Messiah included it when He said “one stroke of a letter of the Law.” It’s clear that all is not fulfilled at this point.

Intro to SnyderTalk

Make SnyderTalk® Your “Go To” Place and Consider Making It Your Homepage

____________________

“For here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”

Thomas Jefferson

____________________

Facebook Group His Name is Yahweh

I use the Facebook group His Name is Yahweh to notify people when a new SnyderTalk has been posted. If you are not already a fan, you should consider signing up. Click here to visit the site. Eventually, this may be unnecessary, but for the time being it seems to be an effective way to distribute information.

____________________

For Your Information and Enjoyment

Business: Charles Schwab, Fidelity Funds, Google Finance, Precious Metals Prices, Vanguard Funds, Yahoo Finance

Debt Clock: The Debt Clock

Email: Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail

Entertainment: TV Guide, Yahoo Movies

Israel: About Israel, The Israel Project, Tourist Information, the Holocaust, Israel map, Israel’s War of Independence, the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War, the First Intifada, the Second Intifada, Arab-Israel conflict, and anti-Semitism

Maps: Google Maps, MapQuest

Networking: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube

Search: Bing, Google, Yahoo

Shopping: Amazon, BizRate, Google Product Search, Yahoo Shopping

Sports: College Football Polls, ESPN, Yahoo Sports

Weather: The Weather Channel, Yahoo Weather

____________________

Today’s Bible Feature

Exodus Chapter 31—Note: I have switched to the New American Standard Bible. Keep in mind that when “the LORD” appears with all the letters in LORD capitalized, the Name Yahweh belongs there. Also, when you see “the Lord GOD” with all the letters in GOD capitalized, Yahweh belongs there as well. See His Name is Yahweh for details.

Now Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.
“I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship,
to make artistic designs for work in gold, in silver, and in bronze,
and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood, that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship.
“And behold, I Myself have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all who are skillful I have put skill, that they may make all that I have commanded you:
the tent of meeting, and the ark of testimony, and the mercy seat upon it, and all the furniture of the tent,
the table also and its utensils, and the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, and the altar of incense,
the altar of burnt offering also with all its utensils, and the laver and its stand,
the woven garments as well, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, with which to carry on their priesthood;
the anointing oil also, and the fragrant incense for the holy place, they are to make them according to all that I have commanded you.”
Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
“But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am Yahweh who sanctifies you.
‘Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.
‘For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to Yahweh; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death.
‘So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.’
“It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.”
When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.

____________________

SnyderTalk® Commentary

The Sabbath Day

Exodus 20: 8 says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Every Word spoken by Yahweh is important, but this command is distinctive because it is fourth on the list of the Ten Commandments. I point that out so you will understand that the Sabbath day is very special to Yahweh, and I want you to know that changing it in any way requires an explicit and unequivocal command from Him alone. I covered this issue in a previous SnyderTalk post but I’ll do it again here because it is important.

The Messiah said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is fulfilled.” (Matthew 5: 17-18) He also said, “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.” (Luke 16: 17) The fourth commandment isn’t just another law. As I said, it’s one of the big 10, and you can be certain that the Messiah included it when He said “one stroke of a letter of the Law.” It’s clear that all is not fulfilled at this point.

Exodus 20: 9-11 provides details about the Sabbath. In a nutshell, Yahweh commanded us to set apart the Sabbath day for rest and for fellowship with Him, and the day He referred to is Saturday—not Sunday. The Sabbath actually begins at sundown on Friday and ends at sundown on Saturday because God counts days from sundown to sundown—not from 12:00 midnight to 12:00 midnight.

Between the time Yahweh issued this command and the time the Messiah came, Jewish rabbis concocted a lengthy list of “laws” governing the Sabbath day, and Jewish people were required to obey their “laws” or suffer the consequences. Even today in Jerusalem, if you drive your car through some orthodox Jewish neighborhoods on the Sabbath, you are likely to get stoned, and I mean that literally. They will throw rocks at you because they believe driving a car is forbidden on the Sabbath.

Ancient rabbis came up with a distance people were allowed to travel on the Sabbath and referred to it as a “Sabbath day’s journey.” It’s the distance between Mount Moriah, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives across the Kidron Valley from the Temple Mount. If you went farther than that, you were violating the Sabbath. The ancient rabbis also made up rules about lighting fires or lamps, so many contemporary orthodox Jews refuse to turn on a light switch to avoid breaking the Sabbath. Yahweh did not say these things. These are simply traditions accepted by many Jewish people, and in Jerusalem not knowing about these traditions can get you into trouble.

Looking Across the Kidron Valley

When the Messiah came, one of His goals was to explain what Yahweh actually intended when He proclaimed the Ten Commandments, and His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5 through 7) is the best example of this in the New Testament. But He also performed many miracles on the Sabbath to demonstrate that the rabbis had gone far beyond what Yahweh had in mind when He told us to set the Sabbath apart and to keep it holy.

Although the New Testament includes many examples of Yeshua challenging the rabbis on the Sabbath, I will present only one. It’s discussed in Luke 13: 10-17. Yeshua was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath, and a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit for 18 years was in the congregation. When Yeshua saw her, He called her over, laid His hands on her, and said, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness.” (Luke 13: 12)

Her healing was instantaneous. She stood erect for the first time in almost two decades and immediately began praising God. But the “president of the synagogue” (Luke 13: 14 from The New Jerusalem Bible) was indignant because Yeshua healed her on the Sabbath, and in his mind that was work and work was forbidden on the Sabbath. He said, “There are six days in which work should be done; therefore come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” (Luke 13: 14)

Yeshua was furious! He looked directly at the rabbis and said, “You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall, and lead him away to water him? And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?” (Luke 13: 15-16)

Everyone in the synagogue except the rabbis rejoiced. Luke 13: 17 refers to the rabbis as the Messiah’s opponents, or His adversaries, and the Bible describes Satan as Yahweh’s adversary. In this case, the rabbis were following Satan’s lead. Although the “president of the synagogue” aimed his remark at the healed woman, the Messiah was his real target because He had violated their tradition by “working on the Sabbath.”

With a simple demonstration of Yahweh’s healing power, the Messiah showed everyone, including the rabbis, that their traditions were way off base. He was setting the record straight by revealing Yahweh’s point of view on this critical issue, but not once in the New Testament did He challenge their belief that the Sabbath is Saturday.

Charles Ryrie is one of the world’s leading Bible scholars and author of the Ryrie Study Bible. In his note on Exodus 20: 8-11, he says, “This is the only one of the Ten Commandments not repeated after the day of Pentecost. The church made Sunday her day of worship (Acts 20: 7), commemorating the resurrection of Christ.” (The Ryrie Study Bible Expanded Edition, Moody Press, Chicago, 1995, p. 122.)

Since Ryrie is a world-renowned Bible scholar and he references Acts 20: 7 as the sole basis for changing the Sabbath day from Saturday to Sunday, you would expect this verse to be crystal clear on the subject. It would have to be because it violates one of the Ten Commandments. Take a look at it and see if it provides clear and unambiguous instructions about changing the day for Sabbath observance:

“On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight.” (Acts 20: 7)

That’s it. According to Charles Ryrie, this verse is justification for rewriting one of the Ten Commandments, but as you can see, Acts 20: 7 says absolutely nothing about the Sabbath day. It merely points out that a group of believers, including Paul, gathered together on Sunday to share a meal before Paul set off on a journey. Acts 20: 7 also says nothing about what they did the day before, and it certainly doesn’t qualify as a ringing endorsement of Sunday as the Sabbath day. If you were a lawyer presenting this verse in court as your sole justification for making that change, the judge would laugh at you and throw your case out of court, and you don’t need to be a lawyer to understand why.

Two more passages of Scripture are used to support the argument that Sunday is the Sabbath day: Galatians 4: 9-11 and Colossians 2: 13-17. Let’s take a look at them.

“But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.” (Galatians 4: 9-11)

Does this passage of Scripture sound like a ringing endorsement for rewriting the Ten Commandments? Hardly! If Yahweh intended to change the Sabbath day, you can bet He would do it in a spectacular and convincing way. Think about the circumstances surrounding the introduction of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. The top of the mountain was ablaze, and the Children of Israel heard Yahweh’s voice thundering as He proclaimed the fourth commandment. Now read Galatians 4: 9-11 again. It’s not even close, and above all, it doesn’t mention the Sabbath day. Don’t you think Yahweh would be clear about something as important as altering the Ten Commandments?

Now let’s take a look at Colossians 2: 13-17:

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. Therefore, no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.” (Colossians 2: 13-17)

Again, does it sound like Paul is saying the Sabbath is now Sunday instead of Saturday, or is it more likely that he is alluding to the fact that we are not obligated to keep all the “laws” regarding the Sabbath day that were created by ancient rabbis? The Messiah addressed that subject, and He made it clear that they went way too far. But He said nothing about changing the Sabbath day and neither did Paul. Surely the Messiah would have made it clear if He intended to alter one of the Ten Commandments.

The arguments supporting a change in Sabbath day observance are very weak, and they don’t hold up under careful scrutiny. Even though this view goes against Christian tradition, it does not contradict anything Yahweh said in the Old Testament or the New Testament.

Thankfully, we have a Redeemer and a Savior. In Ephesians 2: 1-10, Paul talks about what the Messiah did for us:

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2: 1-10)

I want to be perfectly clear. This is NOT a salvation issue. It’s an obedience issue. The Messiah didn’t die on the cross for us so we can engage in adultery (the seventh commandment), did He? Of course not. Similarly, He didn’t shed His blood so we can ignore the Sabbath (the fourth commandment), but keep in mind that we don’t observe the Sabbath because we want to earn favor with Yahweh. Nothing we do short of placing our faith in Him will earn us anything with Yahweh. We observe the Sabbath because we love Him and want to fellowship with Him. It honors Yahweh when we obey His commands.

If there is any doubt in your mind about which day is the Sabbath day, choose Saturday. We know Yahweh set that day apart and called it holy. He said nothing about Sunday. For some helpful information on this and other important subjects, read Time is the Ally of Deceit by Richard Rives.

____________________

News Items of Interest

____________________

His Name is Yahweh

There is a wealth of material available for free download on www.hisnameisyahweh.org including the book His Name is Yahweh. His Name is Yahweh is also available at Amazon on Kindle for just $5. If you haven’t read His Name is Yahweh, you should. The importance of Yahweh’s Name is becoming more apparent with each passing day.

HNIY bookcover in JPEG Kindle edition