[This was first posted on November 4, 2012. Commentary is from a Sinaite’s perspective. Translation: EF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.–Admin1.]
———————-
If the New Testament is merely a continuation, a fulfillment of the “Old Testament,” then how did NT church practices veer so far away from the original? It is explained that on the basis of Jeremiah 31:31, a new covenant would replace the old and original covenant with Israel. There are many articles in this website which explain the shifts.
When the NT claims that christians are not under the Law but under grace, the rationale is that the Law was given to Moses and Israel, all that is passé, obsolete. NT goes so far as calling that “Law” the “Mosaic Law,” as though Moses was the “Law-maker” or the “Law-giver” when in fact he was simply the recipient of the TORAH of YHWH and the transmittor of it to the Israelites, a mediator, if you will. And yet, with such casual and careless use or misuse of words, or possibly intentional misapplication of terms, unthinking readers of the bible (if they even seriously read and study and understand the Old Testament) swallow the line: ‘Old’ for Jew, ‘New’ for Christian. And so the replacements all fall in place, according to New Testament orientation. Replacement theology remained unquestioned because it was not widely known, until the Messianic movement arising from within Christianity made its adherents aware of many shifts from the original TORAH.
The Sabbath is one of those shifts. Bible students read as early as Genesis that the Creator Himself rested on the 7th day, when the creation of the world and man was completed on day 6. Sabbath is a testimonial, a memorial to the Creator God, as vs. 25 says, “for today is a Sabbath to YHWH.”
To add to the fact that Sabbath precedes the giving of the TORAH on Sinai, the national God of Israel who disclosed His Name as YHWH, teaches the Israelites a valuable Sabbath lesson in this chapter, linking it this time to His gracious provision of manna to feed the multitudes in the wilderness.
“God told Moses that food would fall from the sky but also that this food would be the basis of a test of faith for the Children of Israel” (Arthur Kurzweil, Torah for Dummies). How so? Why would food be a test of faith?
As this chapter explains the details for the daily gathering of food provisions, the Israelites had to have faith, to borrow a Christian phrase “live by faith” that there would be provisions for tomorrow, and the next day, and the next . . . that they would be totally reliant upon the Provider of their needs on a daily basis; that means they would not have to worry about scrambling for their portion, for there would be enough for every individual, nor scrounge around to look for it, for it would be visible to gather every day.
“I will rain bread from heaven for you,” . . . .
Ah, Divine Providence, what people have ever experienced such grace from a loving God?
Exodus/Shemoth 16
1 They moved on from Elim, and they came, the entire community of the Children of Israel, to the Wilderness of Syn, which is between Elim and Sinai,
on the fifteenth day after the second New-moon after their going-out from the land of Egypt.
2 And they grumbled, the entire community of the Children of Israel, against Moshe and against Aharon in the wilderness.
3 The Children of Israel said to them:
Would that we had died by the hand of YHVH in the land of Egypt,
when we sat by the flesh pots,
when we ate bread till (we were) satisfied!
For you have brought us into this wilderness
to bring death to this whole assembly by starvation!
4 YHVH said to Moshe:
Here, I will make rain down upon you bread from the heavens,
the people shall go out and glean, each day’s amount in its day,
in order that I may test them, whether they
will walk according to my Instruction or not.
5 But it shall be on the sixth day
when they prepare what they have brought in,
it shall be a double-portion compared to what they glean day after day.
6 Moshe and Aharon said to all the Children of Israel:
At sunset
you will know that it is YHVH who brought you out of the land of Egypt;
7 at daybreak
you will see the Glory of YHVH:
when he hearkens to your grumblings against YHVH-
what are we, that you grumble against us?
8 Moshe said:
Since YHVH gives you
flesh to eat at sunset,
and at daybreak, bread to satisfy (yourselves);
since YHVH hearkens to your grumblings which you grumble against him-
what are we:
not against us are your grumblings, but against YHVH!
9 Moshe said to Aharon:
Say to the entire community of the Children of Israel:
Come-near, in the presence of YHVH,
for he has hearkened to your grumblings!
10 Now it was, when Aharon spoke to the entire community of the Children of Israel,
they faced the wilderness,
and here:
the Glory of YHVH could be seen in the cloud.
11 YHVH spoke to Moshe, saying:
12 I have hearkened to the grumblings of the Children of Israel-
speak to them, and say:
Between the setting-times you shall eat flesh,
and at daybreak you shall be satisfied with bread,
and you shall know
that I am YHVH your God.
13 Now it was at sunset
a horde-of-quail came up and covered the camp.
And at daybreak
there was a layer of dew around the camp;
14 and when the layer of dew went up,
here, upon the surface of the wilderness,
something fine,
scaly,
fine as hoar-frost upon the land.
15 When the Children of Israel saw it
they said each-man to his brother:
Mahn hu/what is it?
For they did not know what it was.
Moshe said to them:
It is the bread that YHVH has given you for eating.
[Note from Arthur Kurzweil, Torah for Dummies: The food appeared each morning in the form of dew with little grains underneath called manna in English; in Hebrew the word is mun (muhn).
16 This is the word that YHVH has commanded:
Glean from it, each-man according to what he can eat,
an omer per capita, according to the number of your persons,
each-man, for those in his tent, you are to take.
17 The Children of Israel did thus,
they gleaned, the-one-more and the-one-less,
18 but when they measured by the omer,
no surplus had the-one-more, and the-one-less had no shortage;
each-man had gleaned according to what he could eat.
19 Moshe said to them:
No man shall leave any of it until morning.
20 But they did not hearken to Moshe,
and (several) men left some of it until morning;
it became wormy with maggots and reeked.
And Moshe became furious with them.
21 They gleaned it in the morning, (every) morning, each-man in accordance with what he could eat,
but when the sun heated up, it melted.
22 Now it was on the sixth day
that they gleaned a double-portion of bread, two omers for (each) one.
All the exalted-leaders of the community came and told it to Moshe.
23 He said to them:
It is what YHVH spoke about:
tomorrow is a Sabbath/Ceasing, a Sabbath of Holiness for YHVH.
Whatever you wish to bake-bake, and whatever you wish to boil-boil;
and all the surplus, put aside for yourselves in safekeeping until morning.
24 They put it aside until morning, as Moshe had commanded,
and it did not reek, neither were there any maggots in it.
25 Moshe said:
Eat it today,
for today is a Sabbath for YHVH,
today you will not find it in the field.
26 For six days you are to glean,
but on the seventh day is Sabbath, there will not be (any) on it.
27 But it was on the seventh day
that some of the people went out to glean, and they did not find.
28 YHVH said to Moshe:
Until when will you refuse to keep my commandments and my instructions?
29 (You) see
that YHVH has given you the Sabbath,
therefore on the sixth day, he gives you
bread for two days.
Stay, each-man, in his spot;
no man shall go out from his place on the seventh day!
30 So the people ceased on the seventh day.
31 Now the House of Israel called its name: Mahn.
-It is like coriander seed, whitish,
and its taste is like (that of) a wafer with honey.-
32 Moshe said:
This is the word that YHVH has commanded:
An omer of it for safekeeping throughout your generations,
in order that they may see the bread that I had you eat in the wilderness
when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.
33 Moshe said to Aharon:
Take a vat and put an omer of mahn in it,
and put it aside in the presence of YHVH, in safekeeping throughout your generations.
34 As YHVH had commanded Moshe, Aharon put it aside before the Testimony, in safekeeping.
35 And the Children of Israel ate the mahn for the forty years, until they came to settled land,
the mahn they ate, until they came to the edge of the land of Canaan.
36 Now an omer-it is a tenth of an efa.
[Note from ArtScroll Tanach: The manna fell until the 7th of Adar, when Moses died, before the people had crossed the Jordan into Eretz Yisrael. From then on, remnants of manna remained in their vessels and they continued to eat it until the 16th of Nissan, when they were in the land and were able to eat its produce. (Kiddushin 38a).]
From Paul Johnson (Christian historian), A History of the Jews, p. 37:
The Sabbath was the other great and ancient institution which differentiated the Israelites from other peoples, and was also the seed of future unpopularity. The idea seems to have been derived from Babylonian astronomy, but its rationale in the Books of Exodus and Deuteronomy is variously stated as commemorating God’s rest after creation, the liberation of Israel from Egyptian slavery and the humanitarian need to give laborers, especially slaves and beasts of burden, some respite. The day of rest is one of the great Jewish contributions to the comfort and joy of mankind. But it was a holy day as well as a rest day, being increasingly associated in the minds of the people with the belief that the elect nation of God, so that eventually Ezekiel has God present it as designed to differentiate Jews from others:
Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.
So this, too, became an element in the belief of other peoples that the Jews held aloof from the rest of humanity.
Typical of Christian thinking, the Sabbath is perceived even by a supposedly objective and scholarly historian as a “Jewish” observance, only for Jews, exclusively for Israel. It is conveniently forgotten by Sunday-worshippers that—
- Sabbath is time sanctified by the Creator Himself,
- then taught and later commanded as Torah, in fact the 4th in the 10 Commandments.
- The Sabbath precedes the Sinai Covenant with Israel.
- It is not “derived from Babylonia astronomy” as Johnson surmises;
“in fact, the Sabbath is the mark of a span of time that is dependent NOT on planetary movements unlike the month (days the moon goes around earth) or the year (days the earth goes around the sun), or even a day (24 hours the earth revolves on its axis). There is no astronomical or scientific reason why a week should be 7 days other than the fact that the Creator ordained it on day 7. “
How important is the Sabbath to our Creator God? You should know the answer by now.
NSB@S6K
P.S.
As Sabbath-keepers, loving the Sabbath and looking forward to celebrating it individually or with family at sundown Friday, I looked for a special song for Sabbath worship and discovered a beautiful hymn composed by a 7th-Day Adventist music director; I added two extra stanzas (2&3) to their original (#1 & 4). Now that I have learned how to upload the accompaniment, get familiar with the tune enough to sing the lyrics on your Sabbath celebration. I am deeply grateful to the composer whose name I have yet to research; I happened to hear their chorale sing on TV, recorded it on my Iphone.
REMEMBER THE SABBATH
[Original] 1. Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy, honor the day;
And our Lord commands us to sing songs holy, and we obey,
That we may know Him and learn His sacred ways,
Keeping the Sabbath holy in all our days.
[Added] 2. The Lord God Creator, ceased from creating on the 7th day.
He blessed it, declared it the 4th commandment, never changed the day.
So why does the world today observe another day,
They forgot God’s Sabbath, the seventh day.
[Added] 3. But we who’ve discovered the ancient pathway, where Jews have led the way,
Where Sabbath is sacred and still kept holy, from all other days.
We’ve come to worship the God Whose Day is blest,
To His Sabbath-keepers, in Him we rest.
[Original] 4. So enter His temple with hearts thanksgiving, worship our Lord,
And fill up His house with your voices ringing, let them be heard
For we are longing to lift our hearts in praise, keeping the Sabbath holy in all our days.
[Added] YHWH is Lord of Sabbath, in HIM we REST.
Reader Comments