Shabbat Morning

Shabbat mornings are always special ... they are the one day of the week that our Creator set apart to Himself as holy. (Gen. 2:3) It is the observance that He said was the sign we are His people (Exodus 31:13) – our wedding ring, if you will. This morning, though, I think He outdid Himself.

As I sat in the back yard, I drank in my surroundings: The sun shown brightly in the summer sky, yet the air was cool and refreshing. The birds sang their praises from tree tops. Squirrels raced from limb to limb in the trees in an on-going game of 'chase', with the occasional trip to the ground for a nip of wild mushroom. One cat at my feet, industriously cleaning her front paws while the other was married to the food dish at the time; and Gila sat contentedly in my lap, giving the air an occasional sniff and me an occasional lick. Sweet contentment, Sabbath delight. What a lovely oasis in time!

My heart welling up inside me brought forth the words of the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4: “Shema, Yisrael! YHVH Eloheinu, YHVH echad.”

Shema – The word literally means hear, but the connotation is that once you hear something, it effects you and you must conduct yourself accordingly because the sound has become part of you. Some would say, “Hear and obey”.

Yisrael – Not the contested piece of real estate known as the state of Israel in the Middle East, but all who follow the Elohim / God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. In Psalm 147, our Creator says He has made His covenant with no other. Repeatedly in the Torah, He says there is one law for the native born and those grafted into the family of faith. In Galatians 3 He tells us, “If you are in Messiah, you are seed of Abraham and heir according to the promise.” What is the promise then? That YHVH would raise up a nation from the one called barren and from that nation would come a Redeemer and part of that covenant promise included rules to live by and a plot of land on which to live. By faith, those who believe are part of that covenant community. Not to usurp those who are in the covenant since before birth (our Brother Judah – 'the Jews') but to stand alongside them in support and in compliance with the role we've been given to play.

YHVH – The Tetragrammaton, the four letter Name of the Creator. Written in Hebrew, it is the yud, hey, vav, hey [יהוה] It is the name He gives Himself in the Torah. Before declaring His Name, Yah describes Himself as “I am / will be what I am / will be” in other words, The Eternal One, The One who was, is and will be forever. Modern Hebrew is the descendant of paleo-Hebrew which was a pictograph. The individual letters each have a meaning. The yud ( י) means 'hand'; the hey ( ה) means 'Look! Behold!'; the vav ( ו) means 'nail'; the hey ( ה) means 'Look! Behold!' Essentially, “Behold the Hand; Behold the Nail”. Strikes a familiar chord to believers in Messiah, doesn't it?

Eloheinu – our El / God. Through this simple word, meaning OUR Elohim, we are taking YHVH as our Elohim. That means we are “pledging allegiance' to Him. Otherwise, we would have simply called Him, Elohim / God or ha (the) Elohim / God. In saying 'our' we bind ourselves to Him and to others who believe in Him.

YHVH

Echad – One. Not just 'one' in the sense of being unique, the one and only, which He is; but also in the sense of compound unity. In Hebrew, a cluster of grapes is echad and a husband and wife are echad. The latter illustration, the husband and wife, is a perfect example of the relationship we're supposed to have with Him, intimate and seeking the welfare of the other above our own. Echad: there is only ONE elohim, YHVH who was able to manifest Himself as Fire and Cloud for the Israelites of old; and who manifested Himself as a man to demonstrate how to live out the commandments and how to be fully committed, even to the point of death. YHVH echad.

The rest of the Shema comes from the Talmud: Barukh shem kevod malkhuto le olam va'ed. Translated, that is: Blessed be His Name whose glorious kingdom is forever and ever.

Matthew 12, Mark 2 and Luke 6 all record that Y'shua / Jesus said that the Son of Man (His favorite title for Himself, mentioned over 80 times in the Brit Chadesha / Renewed Covenant) is “lord” of the Sabbath. I do not think that the One who is the same yesterday, today and forever is declaring His lordship over the Sabbath to change it or negate it in any way. Rather, I believe He is declaring a special relationship to it; it is His kingdom, so to speak. Why would we not want to be in His territory since it is He who has rescued us from bondage to the wages of sin? Why would we not want to enjoy the Sabbath which demonstrates our resting in the salvation He provides? We see this theme being played out in Hebrews chapter 4: Heb 4:9 So there remains a Shabbat-keeping for Yah's people. Heb 4:10 For the one who has entered Yah's rest has also rested from his own works, as YHVH Elohim did from His. Heb 4:11 Therefore, let us do our best to enter that rest; so that no one will fall short because of the same kind of disobedience.

Yes, Shabbat / Sabbath is very special – to me and to the One who gave it in Genesis chapter 2 and exhorts us to keep it dozens of times in the Tanakh / Old Testament. Blessed be His Name forever.

Psa 92:1 [A psalm. A song for Shabbat:] It is good to give thanks to YHVH and sing praises to Your name, `Elyon,

Psa 92:2 to tell in the morning about Your grace and at night about Your faithfulness,

Psa 92:3 to the music of a ten-stringed [harp] and a lute, with the melody sounding on a lyre.

Psa 92:4 For, YHVH, what You do makes me happy; I take joy in what Your hands have made.

HalleluYah!

Shabbat blessings from our home to yours --

Yocheved