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Shabbat Guide

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Biblical Feasts Jewish Roots Shabbat
Shabbat is a weekly feast welcomed every Friday at sundown. Shabbat provides a beautiful time to rest from the busyness of life, re-center our faith, celebrate God’s goodness, and unite the family. Shabat is about faith. Faith in God’s provision and trust in His goodness. Faith that while we rest and restore our body, soul, and spirit, God will take care of us. Faith that by resting from all our labor, God will provide everything we need. When we create a weekly rhythm to pause and honor God, pray for our family, and be merry with food and laughter with a special meal, whether simple or elaborate, our families grow in peace, love, and unity.
 
For Christians, Shabbat is also significant because with the wine and bread we remember the sacrifice of our Savior Jesus, Yeshua, the Passover Lamb of the New Covenant.

Instructions for Israel

In the book Exodus we read that God gave Moses the instructions for Israel to keep the Sabbath as a perpetual covenant:

The people of Israel must keep the Sabbath day by observing it from generation to generation. This is a covenant obligation for all time. It is a permanent sign of my covenant with the people of Israel. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day he stopped working and was refreshed. (Exodus 31:16-17)

 

Remembering where God brought us from or out of keeps us humble and dependent on Him.

In Deuteronomy 5:12-15, Moses reminds Israel about keeping Shabbat before entering the Promised Land. Verse 15 reveals that God made this covenant with Israel so that they would never forget His deliverance:

Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt, but the Lord your God brought you out with his strong hand and powerful arm. That is why the Lord your God has commanded you to rest on the Sabbath day. (Deut. 5:15)

Invitation for Gentile Believers

Gentile Christians are grafted into the Olive Tree (Israel) and have the beautiful invitation to partake of the feasts. Through His death, Jesus made out of two peoples ONE – both Jew and Gentile to partake of His goodness and salvation (Ephesians 2:11-18; 3:6)
 
Isaiah 56:2-7 (TLV) outlines God’s blessings to foreigners (gentiles) who honor Shabbat, not out of obligation, but out of a loving relationship with God:
 
2 Blessed is the one who does this,
the son of man who takes hold of it,
who keeps from profaning Shabbat,
and keeps his hand from doing any evil.
3 Do not let a son of a foreigner who has joined himself to Adonai say,
‘Adonai will surely exclude me from His people.”
Nor let the eunuch say,
‘Behold, I am a dry tree.’”
4 For thus says Adonai,
“To the eunuchs who keep My Shabbatot,
who choose what pleases Me,
and hold fast My covenant:
5 I will give to them in My House and within My walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters.
I will give them an everlasting name
that will not be cut off.
6 Also the foreigners who join themselves to Adonai, to minister to Him,
and to love the Name of Adonai,
and to be His servants—
all who keep from profaning Shabbat,
and hold fast to My covenant—
7 these I will bring to My holy mountain,
and let them rejoice in My House of Prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be acceptable on My altar.
For My House will be called
a House of Prayer for all nations.”

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