Disregarding Shabbat

Observe the Shabbat day, to keep it holy, as YHVH your Elohim commanded you. You shall labor six days, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Shabbat to YHVH your Elohim, in which you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates; that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Mitsrayim, and YHVH your Elohim brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm: therefore YHVH your Elohim commanded you to keep the Shabbat day. Devarim 5:12-15

It is with a small bit of irony that YHVH has chosen this day for us to launch a new blog, and close out the old ones. Our public ministry turns eight years old today. A new beginning. A new focus. What a journey we have been on! But, that is not the focus of this blog. What is the focus is putting what we have learned over the last eight years into a teaching format, so that others can learn how to live the Scriptures in "today's times" while looking at the examples from more than two millennia ago. We are told very plainly in Qohelet 1:9 that there is nothing new under the sun. So, on that premise, we are embarking to show people how to equate the lives and experiences of our matriarchs and patriarchs from the Tanakh into today's culture. We will be exposing the deceptions, lies, and misguided doctrines that have formed the religious world of today, all the while not keeping any of the commandments they think they uphold. YHVH is on a mission to take his people back, and we have been chosen to be a mouthpiece for those who are seeking more than the local church can offer. Most people have already been through some kind of hell, i.e., abuse, molestation, or other life-changing experience, and what they find in today's religious society is an allusion of an illusioned group of people. The B'rit Hadashah says the very elect will be deceived. Those days have been upon us for centuries. 

So, what are some of the signs of deception? What are some of the signs designed by the enemy to make people believe they are worshiping their Creator, their Elohim when, in fact, they are just slaves to a worldly system set up in a religious format?

How can a person know they are a slave to Egypt? The Hebrew word is Mitzrayim, and it means boundaries, limits, restrictions or narrow place. YHVH's objective through Moshe was his people being able to freely worship him, in the way he required, and not the within the boundaries that Pharaoh wanted to enforce. Look at some the clues:

• Enforced slavery, with no time for rest. 
• Owned by the company, building and promoting their objective: profit and self-pride. 
• No time for family, friends, or life outside of the job.
• The management expects perfect products from inferior materials.
• The management expects productivity even without the materials needed to make it.
• Refuses to give the proper time for worship. 
• Appears to relent, but attempts to confine worship to within their rules and regulations.

In short, being a slave to Egypt keeps a person from resting on the Sabbath, which was made for him to do so. And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Mark 2:27
(This list is not exhaustive. Read chapters 7 through 12 of Shemoth (Exodus) to see every example.)

Now therefore fear YHVH, and serve him in sincerity and in truth. Put away the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, in Mitsrayim; and serve YHVH. If it seems evil to you to serve YHVH, choose this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve YHVH. Yehoshua 24:14-15 

Being a slave to Egypt makes them an easy mark to be taken captive by Babylon. Yes, the great whore mentioned in Revelation. The one the people were told to come out of. The deception of today is that most people have been taught that this command is earmarked for some generation out there in the future, during "tribulation," "the thousand years, " "rapture," and all the other lies that have been passed down through false doctrines in the last hundred-plus years. While being a slave to Egypt lies in a person's earthly existence, financial circumstances, and job-related life, being captive in Babylon has to do with what a person's belief system. 

The reason we are told to come out of her is because being captive in Babylon, the Hebrew word being Babel, meaning confusion -  where YHVH confused the language - is the false doctrines that have sprang up from the enemy to, again, deceive the very elect. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there YHVH confused the language of all the earth. From there, YHVH scattered them abroad on the surface of all the earth. B'Reyshith 11:9  

Why were the people in captivity to Babylon in the first place? The following had been set up by Moshe at Mount Sinai, in the giving of the law:

YHVH said to Moshe in Mount Sinai, "Speak to the children of Yisrael, and tell them, 'When you come into the land which I give you, then the land shall keep Shabbat to YHVH. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in its fruits; but in the seventh year there shall be a Shabbat of solemn rest for the land, a Shabbat to YHVH. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. What grows of itself in your harvest you shall not reap, and the grapes of your undressed vine you shall not gather. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. The Shabbat of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you. For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all its increase be for food. WaYiqra 25:1-7

So, by the time of Yirmiyahu, the people were believing a false prophet, who had made them believe a lie and, among other things, also were not giving the land its rest, as commanded per Moshe.

Those who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfill the word of YHVH by the mouth of Yirmiyahu, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete. Dibri HaYamim 36:20-21

How can a person know they are captive in Babylon?

• Not keeping YHVH's sabbath.
• Listening to false prophets 
• Worshiping their gods and idols, on their day and in their way. (Read Daniel 6)
• Taking on customs that seem harmless, but are rebuked by YHVH in Scripture.

In short, being a captive in Babylon keeps a person from honoring Shabbat and keeping it holy, which was commanded for him to do. YHVH spoke to Moshe, saying, Speak also to the children of Yisrael, saying, 'Most certainly you shall keep my Shabbat: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that you may know that I am YHVH who sets you apart. You shall keep Shabbat therefore; for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Shabbat of solemn rest, holy to YHVH. Whoever does any work on Shabbat shall surely be put to death. Therefore the children of Yisrael shall keep Shabbat, to observe Shabbat throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Yisrael forever; for in six days YHVH made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. 

The conclusion is that both slavery and captivity is rooted in not keeping Shabbat, regardless of whether it is in Egypt, where the rest and worship is restricted or not allowed, or whether it is in Babylon, where worship is allowed, but only to their god, on their day, and in their custom.

How can anyone claim they are serving YHVH, when the very simple requirement to do so is being ignored and, furthermore, being taught that it is no longer they way to worship? YHVH has not changed. The only thing that has changed is man and his culture, who want to make themselves demagogues, so as to carry out the work of their true master, whose mission is to kill, steal and destroy the people of YHVH.