Discovering The Jewish Jesus

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: I want to look at principles of Shabbat, of the Sabbath, to help us be motivated to apply the Sabbath to our life because remember there's an anointing and a blessing that comes to us when we get into divine alignment and do what the Creator did: working six days and resting one. To begin to understand the theological implications and the blessing that's been made available to us, let's read now the Book of Exodus, chapter 31, verse 13 through 18. We're going to find two things in this reading that will help us understand the blessing and the potential that's here for us as we apply it to our lives.

Dustin Roberts: All right, so the Lord is speaking to Moses and He says, "But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel saying, 'You shall surely observe My Sabbaths, for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. Therefore, you are to observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death. For whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.

"For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord. And whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death. So the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever, for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor and was refreshed.'"

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Okay, let's stop right there for a second. I want you to draw attention to that word "refreshed." The Lord rested on the seventh day and was refreshed. Now, we know that God is not like a man that He becomes weary or tired, but this is what we call in theology anthropomorphic language. In other words, it's God speaking as though He's human. He's speaking in such a way to identify with us.

But notice here, God is saying He was refreshed. And so the blessing that the Lord wants to impart to us each week on Shabbat is to refresh us. He wants to refresh us. We need to stop in order to be refreshed. And notice also in the 13th verse here, the Lord said that we would know that He's the Lord who sanctifies us. You read just now, Dustin, that you might know the Lord is saying, "I am the Lord who sanctifies you."

So two principles here that we're deriving from this reading. Number one, that the Lord sanctifies us. That we would know that the Lord is sanctifying us when we participate in honoring Him through Shabbat. And secondly, in doing so, we would be refreshed. You see, when you and I stop on Shabbat and obey Him and honor Him, He does something in us that brings us up to the next spiritual level.

Because we're not just human doings; our work does not define us. We're human beings. And so by stopping, what happens is we give the Lord an opportunity to realign us and strengthen us and empower us. We find ourselves ascending and growing in the strength of God's spirit. We come to a realization that there's a divine empowerment that's taking place upon our life.

During Shabbat, when we give the day to the Lord, when we honor Him as holy and sanctify Him as holy in our life, what the Lord does is He shows us things in our life during this day that He wants us to grow in, things that He might want us to turn away from, new things He might want to bring us into. So there's a sanctification process that takes place when we truly take a day a week to honor Him on Shabbat.

The Lord says you're going to know that I'm at work in your life and sanctifying you. If we want to know that God is truly in the here and the now working in our life today, practice Shabbat and you'll gain a new grasp of this.

Dustin Roberts: I've got to be honest, Rabbi, if you hadn't pointed that out, I would have missed it. And I think maybe a lot of us, the church, is missing this because what stood out to me when I read that is you're going to be put to death if you don't celebrate Shabbat. I immediately jumped back into the habit of feeling the law and thinking, "Oh my gosh, I've got to do this," and it felt like work. But what I hear you telling me is the principle is actually so much better: that God wants to sanctify us and refresh us. I'm actually missing that blessing because I'm so focused on the penalty that Israel was going to face for not doing it.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Exactly. And remember, we're not under the law anymore. God's not going to put you to death, but you're going to miss an opportunity, a huge opportunity. The truth is eventually everyone's going to be brought into this divine alignment. We read this in Isaiah 66, where the Lord speaks about the new heavens and the new earth and He said, "And all flesh will worship Him during Shabbat."

So you have to understand that this is not something that's done away with; it's something that's relevant today. It's an opportunity to be refreshed, to know the power of God in your life. And eventually, you're going to get in alignment with it if you're His because it's His plan for humanity. Let's read that again, Mark 2:27 and 28, and notice that Jesus is saying the same thing that I'm saying: it's an opportunity for blessing.

Dustin Roberts: Mark 2:27 says, "Jesus said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.'" And verse 28, "So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: It's about creating a sanctuary in time. When we take a day a week—and let me point out that when we speak about taking a day a week to rest, we're not talking about recreation. We're resting unto the Lord. It's a Shabbat unto the Lord. So taking a day a week to rest unto the Lord, that's what makes it holy. Not saying, "Okay, I'm not going to work today, I'm going to go golfing." That's not Shabbat.

Dustin Roberts: So it's not about going out and just doing whatever is fun?

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Exactly. It's not about recreating; it's about being restored and refreshed in the presence of the Lord. In fact, Israel was commanded in the Torah to not even leave their house on Shabbat. They were to stay in their home. And so you go to Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods today and they build a fence around the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood saying that you can't travel outside of this boundary line because if you travel outside of the boundary line, you'll be breaking Shabbat.

The point is you're not going to be running everywhere. You're supposed to be resting unto the Lord. And so it's important to realize that by taking this day, being at home or close to home, not running around in your car—because what happens when you run around in the car? You're stressed on the road. You want to limit your traveling on Shabbat. You don't want to be driving here and driving there. As much as possible, you want to limit travel.

Dustin Roberts: But I can drive, right? Like if I need to drive for something, do I need to not drive?

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Well, let me tell you what Orthodox Jews do and then speak directly to your question. They will buy homes in areas that they can walk to synagogue on Shabbat because they don't want to break the commandment. They don't want to go far from their home. They take it that seriously. I think it's important that I am not driving in my car in such a way that would cause me stress. We have a park ten minutes from our home, so Cynthia and I sometimes on Shabbat will drive to the park.

Again, I'm not about legalism. I'm helping people understand the principle. So my recommendation is don't drive if you can avoid it to places that are going to just be stressful for you. Don't go shopping on Shabbat. Don't go to the grocery store on Shabbat. Everything that you could do to preserve it as a time of no stress is going to help you to receive the anointing that God wants to give you. "Come unto Me all ye that are weary and heavy laden," Jesus said, "and I will give you rest."

And so many Christians think, "Well, I don't need Shabbat anymore because my rest is in Jesus." And that's true 100 percent. But the one doesn't disqualify the other. Both are true. We enter into rest in Jesus and then we enhance that rest by taking a day a week to truly celebrate the creation principle.

Dustin Roberts: That's right, Rabbi. We're going to continue in just a moment. You're listening to Discovering the Jewish Jesus. But first, did you know that you can easily access Rabbi's teaching right on your phone? Just download the Rabbi Schneider app today from your phone's App Store and unlock a wealth of content including daily devotionals, videos, and so much more. These resources are available because we want to help you stay engaged in the Word every day.

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Rabbi K.A. Schneider: I like what Jeremiah said. Let's read it, because if we forsake God's principles in the law, we're going to suffer for it. What did the prophet say?

Dustin Roberts: He said, "For my people have committed two evils: they've forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water."

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: That can hold no water. So we said, "Okay, we don't need God's principles. We don't need the Torah anymore. We don't need all that." In essence, what we've done is replace it with running all over the place thinking we're going to get satisfied with the things of the world. And the Lord said, "You've forsaken Me, the God that revealed in Genesis 2 that He created the world in six days and rested on the seventh." We've forsaken Him for fountains that hold no water. There's no water in running around seven days a week. Look what Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter 30 verse 15 that kind of speaks to this principle.

Dustin Roberts: Isaiah 30:15 says, "For thus the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel has said: 'In repentance and rest you will be saved. In quietness and trust is your strength.' But you were not willing."

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: You weren't willing. God says, "I want you to return to Me in quietness and in rest." The power of our salvation, beloved, is made known in quietness and rest. Again, Psalm 46: "Cease striving and know that I am God."

And so at the end of the day, this is an opportunity for spiritual blessing. But some of you are asking the question, "Well, how exactly do I practice it? And how can I do it when I've got so much work to do?" So many of us are very, very busy. We're working five days a week and we look at the weekend as a time to catch up on laundry, catch up on paying bills, and all these other things.

We're living in a difficult time. It's much more stressful today than it was 50 or 100 years ago in many ways, and specifically as it relates to having to be busy all the time to keep up with the progression of the speed at which life moves.

Dustin Roberts: Well, I feel like I can't take a day off. I mean, if I work five days, Saturday and Sunday's not enough. It feels like you can't get it all done.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Right. So to speak to that, let's first of all remember when Israel stopped working on the seventh day of the week, remember God supernaturally preserved that manna on the sixth day so they could eat it on the seventh. So the same thing is true with us. If we will honor God in this and take a day a week to rest unto Him, He will supernaturally bless the other six days of the week. So we'll get more done and have more prosperity by honoring Him and taking a day of rest unto Him than we would have had we worked seven because we think we can't afford to stop. We have too much work to do.

Dustin Roberts: And you really don't have that blessing if you're working. If you're trying to go, you actually miss that blessing that He's trying to give you otherwise.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Exactly. So what does it mean? Number one, it means prepare to take a day of rest. In other words, if you're used to doing your laundry both days during the weekend, you have to work a little harder and discipline yourself to get the work that you would have done on Shabbat to get that done earlier in the week.

For example, in Judaism, they'll pre-cook their meals so they don't have to cook on Shabbat. So number one, we have to do some planning so that we can have a day a week when we rest. You might have to get up a little earlier during the six days of the week, maybe stay up an hour or so later, but you have to prepare to celebrate it.

And it does take discipline. Unfortunately, much of the church has thrown off discipline. We don't hear much teaching on discipline in the church today. We're free; we just do whatever we want. But it's not always beneficial. No, Paul said, "Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness." So we discipline our lifestyle to be able to have a day a week unto the Lord, and as a result, we are blessed for it.

Dustin Roberts: It's not that we have to do this; it's that what we're missing by not doing it.

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Exactly. There's a call of God upon everyone that's created in His image to walk in the divine design that He's given us. But it's not like God's going to put a sledgehammer on you if you don't do it. But I think it will grieve Him if we resist His wisdom. And eventually, we're going to be brought into divine alignment. We're not under the law, and so it's not like that, but again, it's like we have to understand this is God's divine pattern for humanity. There's a blessing by getting into alignment with Him. Eventually, He's going to bring the whole world into alignment with it. So why wait until then to be blessed? You see, God promises a blessing if you'll practice Shabbat. Let's read, Dustin, Isaiah chapter 58, verse 13 and 14.

Dustin Roberts: Isaiah 58, verses 13 through 14 says, "If because of the Sabbath you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the Lord and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: My favorite part of this verse is the Lord said, "I will make you ride on the heights of the earth." Let's look at the scripture together again. The Lord says, "If because of the Sabbath..." What does this mean? This means because we're committed to receiving God's word and applying it to our life, and we recognize that the Sabbath is a creation principle. And so we want to honor Him as the God that created everything, so we're going to honor the Sabbath.

So the Lord says, "If because of the Sabbath, because you want to honor Me in this, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day." So we're making a conscious decision. When I celebrate Shabbat, there's a lot of things that I'd like to do that I'm saying "no" to. Why? Because I want to honor the Lord in a special way on Shabbat.

So the Lord says, "If you do this and call the Sabbath a delight," even though it's hard. It's hard to celebrate Shabbat because we're used to being busy. It's very difficult to stay close to home, to not be addicted to your social media, because you don't want to be on social media during Shabbat. You don't want to be on social media; you don't want to be engaged in the things of the world.

Remember, you're being refreshed unto the Lord, and that's hard for us to break away from that because we're addicted to the technology. So we're making a conscious decision to resist it, to turn away from it, to say "no" to it. And the Lord says, "When you do this in order to honor Me, and you call the Shabbat, the Sabbath, holy and a delight..." In other words, even though it's hard for us, we're still saying, "Lord, this is a blessing, and I'm blessed to be able to participate in it."

Dustin Roberts: Now with social media, what if I feel like I'm getting rest from it? Why is that possibly harmful for me? Because for me it's like, "Oh, I disengage, I'm less stressed, it's entertaining me." Why are you saying that's harmful?

Rabbi K.A. Schneider: Well, it depends. Like if you're looking at your emails, that's stressful; don't do it. If you're watching YouTubes that are not honoring to the Lord, anything that you watch, you have to filter it through, "Is this honoring to You, Lord?" And I do that every day of the week, but especially on Shabbat, I make sure that I'm not going to be receiving any content that's going to excite me unnecessarily and cause stress.

It's not about legalism, but you have to be honest with yourself and you have to not compromise and you have to not make excuses. Because once you open up the door a little bit in making an excuse, then it's not long before the door's open all the way. Before we end and you conclude us today, I want to make sure that a lot of people are asking this question: Is Shabbat Saturday or Sunday? And like, "Okay, if Shabbat is Saturday, I go to church on Sunday, I don't even have time to do a true Shabbat." How do we fit Shabbat into our lives?

So first of all, Shabbat, the Sabbath has never been changed from Saturday to Sunday. That happened in the 300s under Constantine, who wanted to make Christianity the state religion, and he became anti-Jewish. And he wanted to disconnect himself and his people from everything that was Jewish. And so he said, "From now on we're not going to celebrate Shabbat on the Jewish day," and it's not just the Jewish day, it's God's day. He said, "We're going to do it on the day of the sun."

So they used to worship the sun during Constantine's time, the physical sun. So they said, "We're going to from now on make Shabbat during the venerable day of the sun." That's why it's called Sunday, after the sun. So he switched Shabbat from Saturday to Sunday. However, Sunday is the day that the early church met because it's the day Yeshua was raised from the dead. And so it's the first day of the week.

So the truth is, is Shabbat has always been from Friday at sunset to Saturday at sunset because in creation we find that each day began actually in the evening. But the practice of Shabbat will be part of the millennial kingdom and the age to come. It's very important for us to hear this. The practice of Shabbat, honoring the Lord as the God of creation, will be evident even in the world to come.

When there's a new heavens and a new earth, the Bible says all flesh will worship the Lord during Shabbat. So this is a creation principle; it acknowledges the fact that God is the Creator of heaven and of earth. I want to encourage people at the most basic level to take a day a week. If you can do it on Sunday but can't do it on Saturday, do it on Sunday.

Eventually, the time's going to come where we're all going to do it on the last day of the week. We're going to do it from Friday night to Saturday. But right now, I'm not wanting to put people under legalism. I'm wanting you to open up to understand that the pattern of the Creator is to take a day a week and honor Him on that day so that we can be blessed and refreshed.

I haven't heard a sermon on the widow's mite lately. Have you? Maybe some of you have; perhaps you don't even know the story. Yeshua, Jesus, was at the temple one day observing people as they were coming to put their offering forward unto the Lord. And a widow came and she just gave just a little bit.

But Yeshua, Jesus, commented to His disciples that her offering was actually the greatest of any He had observed, even though it was a small amount. Because He said she gave out of her poverty, when the others gave out of their abundance. They had so much money; it didn't cost them anything to make an offering. It didn't hurt.

But that widow gave out of a position where it was just pure love, pure adoration for the Lord, pure obedience; it was a sacrifice. It reminds me of David that said, "I will not offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing." I want to encourage us all: let's be faithful to the Lord with our finances. It should hurt a little bit, and God promises it's going to come back good measure, running over into our laps. I encourage you to give unto the Lord through this ministry if it's feeding you.

Dustin Roberts: To respond to Rabbi right now, please go online to discoveringthejewishjesus.com or give generously to Discovering the Jewish Jesus by calling us. Our phone number is 800-777-7835. That's 800-777-7835. You can also text your donation to us by typing the keyword "GIVE" to the number 88777.

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Rabbi K.A. Schneider: The words from the Aaronic blessing in the Book of Numbers, chapter 6, verses 22 through 27, helps us to realize how good God is to you and I personally. So receive His blessing into your life and then, beloved one, go bless somebody else in Jesus' name today.

The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift you up with His countenance and the Lord give you, beloved one, His peace. And now in Hebrew.

[Rabbi Schneider sings the Aaronic blessing in Hebrew]

God bless you and Shalom.

Dustin Roberts: I'm your host, Dustin Roberts, and this program is produced and sponsored by Discovering the Jewish Jesus. Be sure to join Rabbi Schneider tomorrow when he explains how to respond to the darkness that we all face. That's Thursday on Discovering the Jewish Jesus.