Breaking the Sabbath
“Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation; and they put him in custody. …Then Yahveh (the Lord) said to Moses, ‘The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside of the camp’” (Numbers 15:32-35). Very interesting; in the previous Scripture, God Almighty just talked about despising and defying Him, and the first thing He mentions is the Sabbath. In the book of Genesis, Yahveh set the Sabbath day apart and it was the first thing He called holy, “Kadosh”. Thousands of years later, on Mount Sinai He gave the Sabbath to Israel to be an everlasting covenant between Him and them. Yahveh had just talked about defiance against His Commandments and He immediately emphasized breaking the Sabbath.
In Exodus 34:2, Moses has just come down the second time with the Ten Commandments, and he assembled all the congregation of the sons of Israel and told them the things that the Almighty God has commanded them to do. The first thing he says is, “For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to Yahveh [for His glory]; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death” (Exodus 31:15). The rabbis of old state, “Of all the Commandments, keeping the Sabbath holy was the most important because it is the only outward sign that we have, and that the world has, that we worship the Holy One of Israel.”
Whether Jew or Gentile, it doesn’t matter, we are “one new humanity—one new man” in the commonwealth of Israel. If we are really part of Yahveh’s people, we will keep His Commandments and we will keep His Sabbath holy. Yahveh (the Lord) is continually in the midst of major scenarios, accentuating out of the clear blue, keeping the Sabbath holy along with the consequences of breaking the Sabbath, emphasizing His holiness.
“Speak to the sons of Israel, and tell them they shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and that they shall put on the tassel of each corner a cord of blue. It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of Yahveh, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot [meaning you turned against the Almighty; because you loved something of this world more than you loved Him], so that you may remember to do all My commandments and be holy to your God. I am Yahveh your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God; I am Yahveh your God.” (Numbers 15:38-41)
