Bar’chu et YHVH ha-m’vorach, Baruch YHVH ha-m’vorach
l’O’lam va-ed!
Baruch ata YHVHEloheinu melech ha-olam asher bachar
banu m’kol ha-amim, v’na-tan lanu eht Torah-to. Baruch atah YHVH, noteyn
ha-Torah. Ameyn.”
(Bless YHVH the
blessed One; Blessed is YHVH, the blessed One for all eternity. Blessed are
you, YHVH, our Elohim, King of the Universe, you have selected us from among
all the peoples, and have given us your Torah.)
Isa
58:13 “If you do turn back your foot
from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My set-apart day, and
shall call the Sabbath ‘a delight,’ the set-apart day of יהוה ‘esteemed,’ and shall esteem it, not doing your own ways, nor
finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words,
Isa 58:14 then you
shall delight yourself in יהוה. And I shall cause you to ride on the
heights of the earth, and feed you with the inheritance of Yaʽaqoḇ your
father. For the mouth of יהוה has spoken!”
Nor speaking thine own words - Lowth and Noyes render this, 'From speaking vain words.' The Septuagint, 'Nor utter a word in anger from thy mouth.' The Chaldee renders it, 'Words of violence.' It is necessary to add some epithet to make out the sense, as the Hebrew is literally, 'and to speak a word.' Probably our common translation has expressed the true sense, as in the previous members of the verse the phrase 'thine own' thrice occurs. And according to this, the sense is, that on the Sabbath our conversation is to be such as becomes a day which belongs to YHVH. It is not less important that our conversation should be right on the Sabbath than it is that our conduct should be.”
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יג אִם-תָּשִׁיב
מִשַּׁבָּת רַגְלֶךָ, עֲשׂוֹת חֲפָצֶךָ בְּיוֹם קָדְשִׁי; וְקָרָאתָ לַשַּׁבָּת
עֹנֶג, לִקְדוֹשׁ יְהוָה מְכֻבָּד, וְכִבַּדְתּוֹ מֵעֲשׂוֹת דְּרָכֶיךָ,
מִמְּצוֹא חֶפְצְךָ וְדַבֵּר דָּבָר.
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13 If thou turn away thy
foot because of the sabbath, from doing (creating) your own pleasure on My
Set Apart day; and call the sabbath a delight, and Set Apart of YHVH honourable; and shalt
honour it, (more than) (from)doing thy
ways, pursuing thy pleasure, speaking a word (possibly creating something
with your words that was not yet created, speaking something into existence
that was not there before eg a business deal)
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This
interpretation of the verse seems to suggest various options of how we can and
should understand the verse. It may even appear that YHVH has allowed room for
interpretation to test us as to how we would make rulings (halachot) on the
Sabbath. The rabbi’s have sadly placed so many “fences” around the Shabbat that
has robbed many believers of the joy of celebrating the Shabbat.
Yet keeping
the Sabbath the way YHVH intended is a sign (‘’ot’’) for those who are part of
the bride of Messiah.
Exo
31:13 “And you, speak to the children of
Yisra’ĕl, saying, ‘My Sabbaths you are to guard, by all means, for it is a sign
(‘’ot’’) between Me and you throughout your generations, to know that I, יהוה, am setting you apart. Footnote: 1The only sign of יהוה setting us apart, the only sign of the everlasting covenant, is
His Sabbaths, one of them being the seventh day Sabbath. This is repeated in
Ezek. 20:12 & 20.
We were
meant to enjoy what YHVH had already created and given to us on the Sabbath. We
can reflect and enjoy His goodness and His creation on the Sabbath. We must
involve ourselves with activities that would be more pleasing to YHVH than to
us.
Maybe hooking
up your boat to go water skiing on a Sabbath is doing your own pleasure.
However sitting next to the beach enjoying the left overs of your Sabbath meal
(prepared on the sixth day) having fellowship with your loved ones, may be more
acceptable to YHVH.
Watching or
taking part in sport on the sabbath is not honouring the Sabbath as sportsman
are often involved in strenuous activities.
“At the heart of Sabbath-breaking is idolatry, having other gods before YHVH(Exodus 20:3). The basic, physical manifestation of idolatry is the worship of idols—graven images, statues, etc.—but its spiritual manifestation is much more subtle and dangerous. It is putting anything above YHVH: money, a job, a house, or even a spouse! If anything becomes more important than YHVH, idolatry is committed. Thus, if in the weekly observance of the Sabbath we do anything that becomes more important to us than our relationship with YHVH, we have broken the Sabbath and committed idolatry. It could be said that idolatry is at the heart of all sin, as our willingness to esteem something higher than YHVH and His way of life causes us to sin.” “Torahlessness”
It has been stated that when YHVH finished creation, His blessings overflowed upon his creatures and upon man. Man did not have to toil daily for existence, everything was provided. This was lost through the fall of Adam, but not forever; through redemption and mercy YHVH will restore it. This "rest" of YHVH is the goal creation is destined to reach. The weekly Sabbath was a command for man to see, and experience in a small way, what was lost under the curse of sin; a restful, peaceful existence to enjoy life and walk humbly with our creator.
As you have seen, of the many Scriptures we have read commanding us not to work on the weekly Sabbath, none mentions "afflicting your souls" or a prohibition of "doing thine own ways, finding thine own pleasure, or speaking [thine own] words." The problem is how some define this phrase. In Isaiah 58, this phrase is referring to unrighteous and unloving behavior toward others. It is an idiomatic phrase from the Hebrew language. A word to word translation without considering the context of the chapter leads to misunderstanding, which is why some think that the phrase means "having fun" (good clean fun), and that it is to be eliminated on weekly Sabbaths as part of "ye shall afflict your souls," which they also erroneously think refers to the weekly Sabbath. So, they eliminate playing ball with your son in the back yard, listening to some classical music, asking someone how their family is (non-biblical topic), and taking their daily shower; these are not unrighteous actions that YHVH wants us to eliminate.
Yes, we should turn away from unrighteous and abusive behavior toward others (as described in chp 58) at all times, not just on one High Day.
But, let us not make our weekly Sabbaths an incorrectly restrictive day due to the misunderstanding of a few words. Let us back away from the tree and look at the whole forest. Let us cross check our ideas of what we think one line of verse means, to see if it fits the Sabbath concept. The weekly Sabbath rest looks forward to the eternal rest, and we will not be continually afflicting ourselves in the eternal rest. “ (The Seventh day in the first place looks forward to the rest of the Millennium reign (Thousand years of shalom) of Yahshua which will start on the ''Seventh Day"/''Seventh thousandth' year, then the Eight day eternal rest after the Millennium).
Chapter 58 is a chastising of the
people by YHVH, because they are unkind to their fellowman and placing their
own interests above those of YHVH. This is sadly not something new and occurs
in abundance even in our day.
Exo
16:25 And Mosheh said, “Eat it today,
for today is a Sabbath to יהוה, today you do not find it in the field.
Exo 16:26 “Gather
it six days, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there is none.”
Exo 16:27 And it
came to be that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but
they found none.
Exo 16:28 And יהוה said to Mosheh, “How long shall you refuse to guard My commands
and My Torot1? Footnote: 1Torot - plural of Torah,
teaching.
Exo 16:29 “See,
because יהוה has given you the Sabbath, therefore He is giving you bread for
two days on the sixth day. Let each one stay in his place, do not let anyone go
out of his place on the seventh day.”
YHVH did not want them to go
outside to collect manna. (In the Second Writings a hallechah of a Sabbaths'
day journey was put in place. Yahshua said in Matt. 24:20 "But pray that your flight
will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbat”.) This verse does not mean you must
stay confined to your house on the Sabbath. What about the coming together of
believers on the Sabbath?
Exo 16:30 So the
people rested on the seventh day1. Footnote: The seventh day of the
week, the weekly Sabbath, was observed before the Ten Words were given on Mt.
Sinai.
Exo 16:31 And the
house of Yisra’ĕl called its name Manna. And it was like white coriander seed,
and the taste of it was like thin cakes made with honey.
Exo 16:32 And
Mosheh said, “This is the word which יהוה has commanded: ‘Fill an omer with it, to keep for your
generations, so that they see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness,
when I brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim.’ ”
Exo 16:33 And
Mosheh said to Aharon, “Take a pot and put an omer of manna in it, and set it
down before יהוה, to keep for your generations.”
YHVH assuring them through
this remembrance that He would always provide for them.
Exo 16:34 As יהוה commanded Mosheh, so did Aharon set it down before the Witness,
to keep.
Exo 16:35 And the
children of Yisra’ĕl ate manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited
land. They ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Kenaʽan.
Exo 16:36 And an
omer is one-tenth of an ĕphah. (an omer is approx. 2litres)
Exo 17:1 And all the congregation of the
children of Yisra’ĕl set out on their journey from the Wilderness of Sin,
according to the command of יהוה, and camped in Rephiḏim.(resting places) And there was no
water for the people to drink.
Exo 17:2 Therefore
the people strove with Mosheh, and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Mosheh
said to them, “Why do you strive with me? Why do you try יהוה?”
Exo 17:3 And the
people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Mosheh, and said, “Why did you bring us out of
Mitsrayim, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”
The Hebrew word for “grumble”
is “lun” Strongs 3885. It also means to “lodge ,remain or abide” In other words
we become obsessed with our problem. When we grumble, we just remain in a
“wilderness”?
Exo 17:4 Then
Mosheh cried out to יהוה, saying, “What am I to do with this
people? Yet a little and they shall stone me!”
Exo 17:5 And יהוה said to Mosheh, “Pass over before the people, and take with you
some of the elders of Yisra’ĕl. And take in your hand your rod with which you
smote the river, and go.
Exo 17:6 “See, I
am standing before you there on the rock in Ḥorĕḇ. And you shall smite the
rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people shall drink.” And Mosheh
did so before the eyes of the elders of Yisra’ĕl.
Exo 17:7 And he
called the name of the place Massah and Meriḇah, because of the ‘strife’ of
the children of Yisra’ĕl, and because they ‘tried’ יהוה, saying, “Is יהוה in our midst or not?”
A similar complaint would
eventually bring great sorrow and disqualification for Moshe. See Ps 106 &
Num 20:8-12
Psa
106:32 And they provoked wrath at the
waters of Meriḇah,
And Mosheh suffered on account of them;
Psa 106:33
Because they embittered his spirit, And he spoke rashly with his lips.
Exo 17:8 And
Amalĕq came and fought with Yisra’ĕl in Rephiḏim. (Amalek means “valley dweller” they were descended from Esav – the spirit
of Esav will always be hostile to the spirit of Yakov)
Exo 17:9 And
Mosheh said to Yehoshua, “Choose for us men and go out, fight with Amalĕq.
Tomorrow I am stationing myself on the top of the hill with the rod of Elohim
in my hand.”
Exo 17:10 And
Yehoshua did as Mosheh said to him, to fight with Amalĕq. And Mosheh, Aharon,
and Ḥur went up to the top of the hill.
Exo 17:11 And it
came to be, when Mosheh held up his hand, that Yisra’ĕl prevailed. And when he
let down his hand, Amalĕq prevailed.
Exo 17:12 But
Mosheh’s hands were heavy, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he
sat on it. And Aharon and Ḥur supported his hands, one on one side, and the
other on the other side. And his hands were steady until the going down of the
sun.
Exo 17:13 And Yehoshua
defeated Amalĕq and his people with the edge of the sword.
Exo 17:14 And יהוה said to Mosheh, “Write this for a remembrance in the book and
recite it in the hearing of Yehoshua, that I shall completely blot out the
remembrance of Amalĕq from under the heavens.”
Exo 17:15 And
Mosheh built an altar and called its name, יהוה Nissi,
Exo 17:16 for he
said, “Because a hand is on the throne of Yah, יהוה is to fight against Amalĕq, from generation to generation.”
As long as the teaching of Moshe is held up high Esav will not prevail;
but when the teaching of Moshe does not prevail as delivered by our Messiah,
the descendants of Esav (the church) will prevail, but only for a season until
YHVH brings judgment upon all lawlessness (Torahlessness).
Isa 24:1 See, יהוה is making the earth empty and making it
waste, and shall overturn its surface, and shall scatter abroad its
inhabitants.
Isa 24:2 And it
shall be – as with the people so with the priest, as with the servant so with
his master, as with the female servant so with her mistress, as with the buyer
so with the seller, as with the lender so with the borrower, as with the
creditor so with the debtor;
Isa
24:3 the earth is completely emptied and utterly plundered, for יהוה has spoken this word.
Isa
24:4 The earth shall mourn and wither, the world shall languish and
wither, the haughty people of the earth shall languish.
Isa
24:5 For the earth has been defiled under its inhabitants, because they
have transgressed the Torot,a changed b the law, broken the everlasting
covenant.c Footnotes: aTorot - plural of Torah - teaching. b Jer_23:36.
cSee also Isa_13:9, Isa_13:11, Isa_26:21, Isa_66:24,
Mic_5:15, Zep_1:2-18.
Isa
24:6 Therefore a curse shall consume the earth, and those who dwell in it
be punished. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth shall be burned, and few
men shall be left.
Baruch atah YHVH, Eloheynu, Melech ha-‘Olam, asher
natan lanu Toraht-emet, v’chay-yeh o’lam nata-b’tochenu. Baruch atah YHVH,
noteyn ha-Torah. Ameyn.”
(Blessed are you Yahweh, our Elohim, King of the
Universe, you have given us your Torah of truth, and have planted everlasting
life within our midst. Blessed are you, YHVH giver of the Torah – Ameyn.)