Session 2 – Week 1
Genesis 2:1-3
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.2 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
The first interesting thing we see in this passage is the word hosts. צְבָאָם
וַיְכֻלּוּ הַשָּׁמַיִם וְהָאָרֶץ, וְכָל-צְבָאָם
And the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
When we read this we traditionally think of the host of heavens and earth and all of creation; but in Hebrew the word tsava (the root) actually means armies, wars, battles, conflicts…
God saw the end from the beginning. Once He finished creating He saw throughout all time, both in the spirit realm and the natural realm. His plan was laid out and complete. It was a plan that involved creation, rebellion, redemption and restoration.
Also interestingly the Hebrew root word for completed וַיְכֻלּוּ is kalah. That is the same word as the word for bride.
Now this is getting really exciting. From the end of the 6th day not only did God finish/complete all of creation, that spanned all time; but His perfect plan included fashioning a bride for Himself. Wow.
How does it make you feel to know that way back when after the 6th day of creation God completed all this?
וַיְכַל אֱלֹהִים בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי, מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה; וַיִּשְׁבֹּת בַּיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי, מִכָּל-מְלַאכְתּוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה.
וַיְבָרֶךְ אֱלֹהִים אֶת-יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי, וַיְקַדֵּשׁ אֹתוֹ: כִּי בוֹ שָׁבַת מִכָּל-מְלַאכְתּוֹ, אֲשֶׁר-בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים לַעֲשׂוֹת. {פ}
It’s interesting that next there are 3 mentions of the seventh day in this passage.
- By the 7th day God completed His work;
- He rested on the 7th day and
- He blessed it.
Remember that all things that are specially complete are stamped with the number three.
Things get more fun when we multiply 7×3 and get 21, and 2+1=3.
Seven is the great number of spiritual perfection. A number which, therefore, occupies so large a place in the works, and especially in the Word of God as being inspired by the Holy Spirit. As a number the actual word and number “SEVEN” is used as no other number is. Seven and its compounds occur in multiples of seven in the Old Testament.
Seven occurs 287 times, or 7 x 41.
“Seventh,” the fractional part, occurs 98 times, or 7 x 14.
God is teaching us here that His creation is specially and spiritually complete and perfect.
How do we see humans demonstrating their belief that creation is not complete and perfect in today’s society?
God chose to complete creation (in its entirety – physically and temporally- (historically, progressively, time-based) in just six days. That’s mind blowing!
What does that teach us about God?
OK, back to the 3 things God did on the 7th day.
- He completed
- He rested
- He blessed
The Hebrew word for “rested” in this passage is וַיִּשְׁבֹּת (Vayeeshbot). This is where we get the Hebrew word Shabbat / English – Sabbath.
The Hebrew word actually means bring to and end, cease, do away with, silence, stop.
Prophetically speaking the Sabbath is a picture of the time when God restores His Kingdom to the earth and there’s no more war. Messiah is King of the world. All implements of war will be destroyed in favor of implements of productivity. Nations will no longer go to war. Disagreements between nations will be judged by Christ from Jerusalem. There will be world-wide peace.
Seeking out a fuller understanding of the Word of God through the Jewish/Hebraic lens, the Body of Christ has begun to have greater intimacy with Jesus, and a deeper understanding of the plans that God has for the Church.
The starting place for understanding the biblical worldview and value-system that God gave the children of Israel are the cycles of worship that God instituted in the Old Testament, known as the Feasts of the Lord.
Learning about these feasts doesn’t make us more holy or righteous in God’s sight. Our righteousness comes from Christ alone.
What understanding the Feasts does do is give us a greater appreciation and understanding of Christ.
Colossians 2: 16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. In Leviticus 23:1-2 1The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 2“Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the LORD that you shall proclaim as holy convocations; they are my appointed feasts.
Convocation: a large formal assembly; Appointed: To fix or set by authority
These are not the Feasts of Israel. They’re the Lord’s feasts. Here’s the first found in Leviticus 23.
3 “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places.
Each week on the 7th day of the week God prescribed a day of rest. This day was to be considered holy by the children of Israel.
The Sabbath (or Shabbat, as it is called in Hebrew) is one of the best known and least understood of all Jewish observances. People who do not observe Shabbat think of it as a day filled with restrictions, or as a day where all you can do is pray. To those who observe Shabbat it is a precious gift from God; a day of great joy eagerly awaited throughout the whole week. It’s a time that we can set aside all of our weekday concerns and devote ourselves to fellowship with friends and family, and to God. In Jewish literature, poetry and music, Shabbat is described as a bride or queen. It is something that is treasured and desired.
It is said…. “more than Israel has kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept Israel.”
Shabbat is the most important ritual observance in Judaism. It is the only ritual observance instituted in the Ten Commandments.
Exodus 20:8-11
8 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
Shabbat is primarily a day of rest and spiritual enrichment.
The word “Shabbat” means to cease, to end, or to rest.
In modern America, we take the five-day work-week for granted. What a radical concept a day of rest was in ancient times. The weekly day of rest had no parallel in any other ancient civilization. In ancient times leisure was for the wealthy and the ruling classes only, never for the serving or laboring classes. In addition, the very idea of rest each week was unimaginable. The Greeks thought Jews were lazy because they insisted on having a “holiday” every seventh day. In today’s busy “workaholic” world the concept of rest is foreign to most people. People are busy running here and there. They don’t realize that rest is extremely important for physical and emotional health. Unhealthy work patterns have caused families to be destroyed, and for people to burn out.
But God gave the Sabbath to Israel as a gift. It is weekly gift that the people are given to help them realign with their families and with their Creator. One of the reasons that the early Church was healthy and strong was because they celebrated the Shabbat. They didn’t celebrate it out of religious obligation or a legalistic mindset – but out of a desire to want to reconnect with each other, and with God.
Jesus alluded to the benefits of the Shabbat in Mark 2:27 “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”
The Sabbath, like all other Jewish days, begins at sunset, because in the story of creation in Genesis Ch. 1, it says, “And there was evening, and there was morning, one day.” From this, we infer that a day begins with evening, that is, at sunset.
Each of the feasts of the Lord are prophetic pictures of Jesus’/Yeshua’s “redemptive career” as Messiah.
It’s interesting that to usher in the Shabbat each week the woman of the house lights two candles. It’s actually a very prophetic act and is a testimony to the fact that it was a woman who was chosen by God to birth the “light of the world” 2000 years ago, when Jesus was born.
Also prophetically, some say the six days of creation parallel the six millenniums of this world. It is believed that the Shabbat is a prophetic picture of the Millennium when Yeshua/Jesus will reign for a thousand years.
The Shabbat is a beautiful day of celebration of the family, and of God. On Shabbat it’s traditional for the husband to bless his wife and children. This act of blessing is a beautiful way for the family to experience deep spirituality rooted in the Word of God and done in love, honor and respect for one another.
Sadly, many Christians have been taught that God doesn’t want the Church to celebrate the Shabbat, or any of the Feasts of the Lord. This belief is the result of the anti-semitic decrees of Constantine in the 3rd century.
Jesus says something very different in Matthew 5:17-19
17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 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 accomplished. 19 Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Other Scriptures that talk about the blessings resulting from keeping the Sabbath are found in Isaiah 56:1-8 and 58:13-14.
It’s important to remember that there is freedom with regard to the keeping the Feasts. We must guard against the dangers of falling into legalism, or the influences of a religious spirit, with regard to our adherence to any of the Feasts of the Lord. We are under a New Covenant now. To protect us from that, it’s essential as the New Testament Church, that we’re led by God’s Holy Spirit in our practice and adherence to God’s Word.
Let’s look at Genesis 2:1-3 again.
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.2 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
How can you walk in the blessings of the sanctified seventh day of creation each week?
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