Seventh (7th) Day Sabbath (Shabbat) Observance

The scriptural things to do and not do on the Sabbath include:

1. Prepare all your food in advance. Do all cooking boiling, baking, etc. the 6th day of the week in preparation for the Sabbath (Exodus 16:23).
2. Do not start fires on the Sabbath day (Exodus 35:3). Kindling a fire also includes starting arguments I would think, but literal fires are included as well. I also do not drive on Shabbat because of this command unless it is necessary to go sight the first or seventh new moon that night or if going to a local gathering was needed for the spiritual well-being of myself or someone else and driving was the only way to get there.
3. Limit your traveling on the Sabbath to what would be considered a local commute, also known as a "Sabbath Days' Journey" (Exodus 16:29, Acts 1:12).
4. Don't do your normal occupation or anything for payment. Let your animals rest and do not hire any servants either (i.e., don't pay anyone to do anything for you). (Exodus 20:10)
5. Don't do laborious work on the Sabbath (Exodus 31:15). Yahushua showed us that this doesn't mean that we can't lift a finger to do good things, but it does mean that we shouldn't be doing things like mowing our lawn, laundry, etc. normal work-like things that we can do at other times of the week and have nothing to do with healing others or doing good for others etc.. One example of laborious work is in Numbers 15:32 where the man was gathering sticks.
6. Have a Set-Apart Reading which implies also therefore a gathering (Leviticus 23:3). The reason a reading implies a gathering is because in the past you could not hear the Word being read unless you gathered together. Remember, people didn't have their own Bibles. Only after the invention of the printing press was it more common eventually for Bibles to be so easily available. If Christians did not keep Sabbath on the seventh day of the week, they would have never heard the Scriptures read 2,000 years ago.
7. Keep it "Holy" (Set-Apart) (Deuteronomy 5:12). To keep it Set-Apart, we should only be doing things that are about the Heavenly Father and His Word. We shouldn't be using the Shabbat as a day for ourselves to just "have fun". We should be reading His Scriptures and learning more what it means to be like Yahushua. If we treat it like the rest of the days of the week by doing our normal thing, then we aren't keeping it Set-Apart.
8. Do not buy or sell anything on the Sabbath Day (Nehemiah 13:15-22).

What Gatherings or Places Can I Go To On Sabbath?

How do you know if you can go to an event or gathering someone invites you to? Ask yourself this: Are all the people there Sabbath keepers? if they're not, then it's not a Sabbath gathering and not something you should attend. We should be with people who keep Sabbath Set-Apart (Holy) on Sabbath. I don't know anyone who is extremely serious about their sabbath observance that would, for example, schedule a funeral on the Sabbath. It's OK to mourn for those we lose, but anyone I know who keeps Shabbat in a serious way that plans a funeral schedules it on another day. When people schedule a funeral on a Sabbath who aren't Sabbath observant, they may not in some cases understand why we don't attend. But they have a choice too - they could choose to schedule it for another day. The greatest command is to love Yahweh, and if family wants us to choose between Yahweh and them, then Yahweh wins every time (Luke 14:26). I do not attend any gatherings on Shabbat that are not hosted and consisting of Sabbath observant individuals, because this is part of keeping the Sabbath Set-Apart (Holy) to avoid those kinds of gatherings where people are focused on theirself instead of Yahweh and the Scriptures. People may try to make you feel bad for not being like them, but you shouldn't feel guilty for doing what's right. Keeping the Sabbath Set-Apart (Holy) is the right thing to do, and not something to feel guilty about - regardless how your family members may feel about it. Yahweh comes first.

What Did Yahushua Teach?

Yahushua taught it is OK to do good on the Sabbath. That doesn't mean it's a free for all to do whatever you want, because anyone could say what they're doing is "good" in their opinion and justify sin in that way. When Yahushua and the disciples plucked heads of grain, they only did what was needed to eat which is permitted by Deuteronomy 23:25 and it was not a Sabbath violation. Nobody took the grain and sold it in Matthew 12:1, Mark 2:23, or Luke 6:1 - they just took food to eat - like if a child took an apple off a tree to eat an apple. No sin occurred and no sabbath violation.

The Pharisees at that time had their own view of Sabbath that was incorrect, where they added things Yahweh didn't command, and so in the view of the Pharisees - they viewed it as a Sabbath violation, but in the view of the Scriptures, Yahushua and the disciples never violated the Sabbath because that would be a sin, and Yahushua never sinned and never condoned sin. Healing the man in Matthew 12:13, Mark 3:5, and Luke 6:10 did not involve any physical work or buying or selling or paying of wages, so no Sabbath violation occurred. It was simply a miracle from Yahweh. Doing miracles doesn't violate any commands. The Pharisees obviously didn't understand Sabbath observance.

If you use the idea of doing good on the Sabbath to purposefully profane the day doing things that are involving buying, selling, causing others to work for money, when you aren't actually in an emergency situation that you didn't plan for, then you are making the choice to sin and violate the Sabbath which is not acceptable. Yahweh expects you to make plans to keep the Sabbath Set-Apart (Holy), not plans to profane it. If you "plan" to "work a paid job to save lives for 16 hours on Sabbath" for example, you aren't "stuck in an emergency" you then chose to do something you could have avoided. When could someone work 16 hours on Sabbath to save lives? Suppose the end of the world has come, a foreign country has invaded your city. Each day, 2 new blocks of houses are ransacked by the invading country and people are being killed in dozens each day. If you were a doctor on the outskirts of that city and injured bodies were being brought to you in the dozens every day, and you were working for free to save life every day hours on end without pay, of course you're not going to stop trying to work on Sabbath to help the wounded people. There is a WAR going on and the end of the world has come, and since there aren't any other doctors around who know how to do medical procedures, you're not going to sit on your hands and do NOTHING in a crazy end of the world emergency where nobody else is available, and nobody is being paid. So as a Sabbath keeping person in that situation, you would be listening to your brothers read the Scriptures at various times on the Sabbath to stay spiritually strong and do your best to save life. So nobody here is saying "do nothing" to save life, but we need to distinguish between true emergencies we didn't plan for and situations we could have avoided which we have chosen to place ourselves in.

The purpose of Yahushua teaching the Sabbath was made for man is to show that in the creation process, Yahweh first made the man, then gave Sabbath to the man - he didn't make the Sabbath and then say, "Now I've made the Sabbath, let me make a man to observe it." So if you were, for example, in a Sabbath assembly, and someone started having a heart attack, you may have to do things you normally wouldn't on a Sabbath to get that person to a hospital to save their life. That doesn't mean you should purposefully plan to profane Sabbath in advance. It means if you find yourself in an emergency of a life and death situation, that you didn't plan for, obviously you should try to save the life. But that doesn't mean you should "plan" to put yourself in those situations on purpose that cause you to profane the sabbath when you could have avoided it. We are not responsible to make the systems of the world run which they have incorrectly designed to profane the Shabbat. Those who run hospitals and businesses and security and other things - they are the ones who are responsible to figure that out. Believer's responsibility is first to Yahweh. If a believer finds theirself in a life and death situation, then yes, try to save the life obviously as the life of man is important to Yahweh to the extent that you may end up doing things you normally wouldn't in those emergency situations - but if you "choose" to put yourself in those situations on purpose - then that's not an "emergency you found yourself in" - then it's you "choosing" to do that.

The world's systems are not designed to be Sabbath friendly, so the world is responsible to maintain their systems. Believers would run things differently, for free without pay, if things were run only by believers. Also, someone who is ignorant to keeping the Sabbath is not in as great of sin as someone like you who knows better. Now that you know you should keep Sabbath, you are in greater sin than them, serious sin, much worse than those who are ignorantly doing it and actually don't realize how wrong it is.

Matthew 9:13 "But go and learn what this means, 'I desire compassion and not offering.' For I did not come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners." Matthew 12:7 "And if you had known what this means, 'I desire compassion and not offering,' you would not have condemned the blameless."

Yes, we are to be compassionate and merciful - that's why I don't draw lines in the sand and treat believers judgmentally who haven't realized we should keep Shabbat. But being merciful and compassionate doesn't mean we condone sin and don't recognize there is a standard of righteousness we are supposed to be seeking to walk out. We can be compassionate and merciful, but that doesn't mean we would condone adultery, right? So I don't have to condone Sabbath breaking to be a merciful person, I just need to avoid being judgmental to those who are ignorant. Yes, Yahweh is merciful, and when you believe in Yahushua, realize you've sinned, and confess the sin and repent, he forgives because He is merciful. But that doesn't mean you don't need to repent in the first place. It is a sin to violate Sabbath. Yahushua and the disciples never violated Sabbath, and the Pharisees had a problem just with them plucking heads of grain to eat - basically just for the purpose of eating food from a field or a miraculous healing from the Creator which is not a Sabbath violation - so they had an issue/problem with improper judgment and lacking compassion. Being compassionate doesn't mean you toss all caution to the wind and "do what you feel like is loving". The Scriptures define boundaries for Sabbath and if we toss those out claiming to be loving or doing good when you're not in an unexpected and unplanned life and death situation, then you're missing the mark.

Consider these verses:

1 Samuel 15:21 "But the people took of the spoil, of the sheep and cattle, the best of that which should have been put under the ban, to sacrifice to Yahweh your Elohiym in Gilgal."
22 Then Shemu'el said, "Does Yahweh delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of Yahweh? Look, to obey is better than an offering, to heed is better than the fat of rams.

If we're wanting to give Yahweh what we think is "our Sacrifice of doing good" which is an unnecessary and pre-meditated Sabbath violation, instead of being obedient to "Keep the Sabbath Holy", that's kind of similar to the above situation where someone wanted to offer a Sacrifice to Yahweh that Yahweh didn't want - and what Yahweh really wanted was OBEDIENCE to what He said - period. So just because you think you're sacrificing something good to Yahweh doesn't mean you're doing what HE wants or is pleased with. What Yahweh wants is OBEDIENCE, and only in those life and death situations which you unexpectedly found yourself in would you end up doing something on Shabbat you normally wouldn't, because of course then you would want to save a life.

Yahushua told the man who was crippled to take up his mat and walk. My guess on this is that the man's mat wasn't that heavy for the man to take it up and walk with it, and it must have been easier to take up and walk with than the sticks the man in Numbers 15 was gathering it seems (just my understanding or guess at this time, anyhow).

Also, notice the man in Numbers 15 was gathering sticks, not just "carrying" them. Part of the reason it was a sabbath violation was probably the time consumption of the activity. if you had to "gather feathers" for example - it might not be heavy, but it will distract your time from the appropriate and correct Sabbath activities Yahweh intended Shabbat for and is not keeping the Sabbath Holy (Set-Apart). The term for gathering in Numbers is the same in Hebrew for when Pharaoh wanted the Israelites to gather straw in Exodus - do a search in the Hebrew.

What About Staying Warm In The Winter When Living Off The Grid?

Taking pre-gathered wood from a nearby wood pile and putting it on an "already lit" fire that was lit before Sabbath is not a violation to keep the fire going for warmth in the winter in the woods - just make sure the fire is lit before Shabbat, the wood is gathered before Shabbat, and don't use the fire for cooking food or water, and if it goes out you can't re-light it unless perhaps if it were life and death to save a life.

Gas-fueled cars are burning gas which is why smoke comes out the back pipe, and this burning is a Sabbath violation. So the only justification to use them is to attend a Sabbath gathering or in an un-planned emergency to save a life.

Doesn't The Resurrection of Christ on the First Day of the Week Prove Sabbath Was Replaced?

No. The first day of the week observance when Christ rose from the dead already existed in the Old Testament before. This first day of the week observance co-existed alongside the weekly Sabbath before Christ came, so to think that His resurrection "replaces Sabbath" with the first day of the week doesn't make any logical sense. Here is where this first day observance is mentioned:

Leviticus 23:15 And from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you shall count for yourselves: seven completed Sabbaths.

Notice it says the morrow after the Sabbath - what day comes after the Sabbath? The first day of the week! WOW!

Some people incorrectly think this refers to the 16th of the first month is the start of the Omer Count every year, however, Joshua 5:10-11 shows they ate the parched grain on the 15th of the month which proves that year in Joshua 5:10-11 the Omer Count started on the 15th, which disproves the traditional view of starting the count always on the 16th. The year that Christ rose, the Omer Count started on the 17th of the Month on the First Day of the Week, the day he rose from the dead.

Since this first day observance already existed alongside the weekly seventh day sabbath before Yahushua came, why do churches teach that's related to church on the first day? Because people are confused and following a man-made tradition and because they're confused and trying to make sense of life, they try to find things to explain their actions - but the reality is that the first day of the week church attendance every week is from a man-made tradition that came after the time of the Apostles, not the assembly under the direction of the Apostles.

The first day of the week observance when Christ rose mentioned in Leviticus 23:15 was a once-a-YEAR observance, NOT once-a-week. Don't get confused by man-made traditions. All Christians under the instructions of the Apostles kept the Sabbath (Acts 15:21).

Sabbath Is A Delight!

I look forward to the Sabbath every week from the time it ends all the way up until the next time it starts. It's a time to rejuvenate myself physically with great rest and napping if I want to, as well as fellowship with others to discuss the Word and study scriptures more thoroughly on whatever subject I am studying. I also do a regular reading through the Torah and the other parts of Scriptures that I pick up where I left off at the end of the previous week. It really has been the greatest blessing I think in regards to keeping me strong in Him and also just an enjoyable time of the week to look forward to all the time. I couldn't imagine life without the Sabbath anymore, I think I couldn't do it. It's a blessing beyond measure and I am grateful to Yah for it.

I hope this helps. Shalom!

Helper