THE BOOK OF MATTHEW
Lesson 42, Chapter 11 and 12
We wrapped up the prior lesson with a message of awareness to a sad but
dangerous reality within Christianity in modern times, in which not only is it
acceptable within the academic branch of the Church for agnostics or even
atheists to create commentaries on the various books of the Bible, but that these
commentaries have found their way onto the desks of prominent theologians and
into the course material of many of our seminaries. While I cannot know for
certain what the motivation is for a person who believes neither in God nor in
Christ to write papers and instruction material on the Bible, in general I don't see
an intent to intentionally deceive the reader. For whatever their reasons, these
scholars have chosen Bible history, or the biblical languages, or ancient literature
as their specialty. So it is from expertise in these scholastic disciplines, and not
any personal knowledge or experience with God, that they establish their
authority to be a Bible commentator and teacher.
I incorporated in that lesson my warning to you about them because of a
comment Jesus made in Matthew 11:25 & 26 part of which is essentially a brief
prayer of praise that He made for the crowd surrounding Him to hear. Christ's
comment made reference to the sophisticated and educated... or more literally to
the wise and the learned.... but it was intended as sharp sarcasm towards those
Pharisees and Scribes and Jewish academics that operated the Synagogues and
instructed in the religious academies. Yeshua clearly had a bone to pick with
these fellows because earlier in Matthew He referred to this group as wolves in
sheep's clothing. That is, they were deceivers that harmed the flock (whether or
not their intent was to deceive). How did they deceive? The more nuanced
answer will come later in the Book of Matthew, but I'll quote some of it for you
now.
1 / 13

CJB
Matthew 15:6-9 ...Thus by your tradition you make null and void the
word of God!
7
You hypocrites! Yesha'yahu was right when he prophesied
about you,
8
'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far
away from me.
9
Their worship of me is useless, because they teach man-
made rules as if they were doctrines.'"
In the way it is used here, man-made rules are what at times are called traditions
(or Traditions of the Elders), and doctrines more refers to biblical instruction and
principles. As with most things said, they are neither black nor white but rather
exist in shades of gray. That is, Yeshua isn't denouncing all traditions as
unscriptural. But He is denouncing the ones that in essence go against the
biblical truth and intent of God. In Matthew 11:25 & 26, He lays this accusation
directly at the feet of the Jewish religious leaders, mostly aimed at the
Synagogue leadership, which was dominated by the sect of the Pharisees. The
reality is that such a negative comment can also be directly applied today to
many Christian Theological institutes, Seminaries, and Church leaders. That the
Church is fractured into at least 3000 identifiable denominations is proof of itself
that man-made rules instead of the Bible have long ago become the bedrock of
Christianity. And Yeshua says we're not going to get true divine revelation from
them if that's who they are (again, as a general but not all inclusive statement)
because God withholds revelation from them, and instead gives it to ordinary
folks because it pleases Him to do so. Who are the ordinary folks? Those who
trust God's Word, are obedient to Him, and are not puffed up with pride and self-
deceived with false beliefs and traditions that always have a hidden agenda
behind them.
Let's move on the final 4 verses of Matthew chapter 11.
RE-READ MATTHEW 11:27 - 30
Yeshua makes startling claim after starling claim in the last half of Matthew 11,
and His statement in verse 27 that the Father has handed "everything" or "all
things" over to "Me" only adds to it. I imagine that His listeners (and it's not
entirely clear who they are) weren't certain about what He meant. They were in
good company because to this day there is still no universal agreement over His
intent.
We should begin to understand it by (as always) taking it in context. And the
context is that He just finished saying that the self-important Jewish religious
2 / 13

leadership are not going to understand God's revelations, so His next claim is
only for those who don't fall into that category of people. He then follows this up
with the revelation and wisdom that The Father has handed over "everything" to
Him. And then follows that up with saying that only the Son truly knows the
Father, and only the Father truly knows the Son. We are entering the realm of the
enormous and the mysterious, and it is challenging to comment on some of the
things Christ is saying in any kind of a succinct way. I mean that in the sense that
we live in a "bumper sticker", short attention span world that craves having the
complex reduced to a sentence or less of explanation. That which by its very
nature necessitates deep study, prayer, and much nuance to understand
correctly and to properly apply to our lives is to be described by a glib and very
short phrase. And I promise you that what comes next...... the Sabbath
controversy..... is even more complex.
That said, modern Christianity has used this statement about the Father turning
"everything" or (depending on your Bible version) "all things" over to Christ as if it
was a mammoth Christmas tree on which every type of ornament can be hung.
There is simply no way around the fact what is meant by, and included in "all
things" can seem ambiguous because in the English language that term is by
nature general and non-specific. So great liberties have been taken to use this
statement to validate any number of man-made Church doctrines. For instance:
some say it means that the Father has handed the entire physical Universe and
the Spiritual world over to Christ and gone into retirement. Or, it means that since
Jesus is now in charge whatever the Father has previously ordained can now be
updated and changed because He has given His Son the authority to do so.
Some say that it is pointing towards what He is about to say in the next couple of
verses (several wisdom sayings). I suggest that if we simply remove the
paragraph changes and verse markings that our Bibles have in them, the
meaning becomes a little more clear.
It bears repeating that the Hebrew Bible..... the Tanach... the Old Testament,
which is the only Bible that existed in Jesus's time or would for the next 150
years, had no chapters, paragraphs, or verse numbers. While on the one hand
these sorts of simple devices make our ability to reference various parts of the
Bible easier to read, study and communicate by breaking up the narratives into
smaller bite-sized chunks, they can also misguide us. How so? Because in
Western literature chapters and paragraphs indicate definite changes in the flow
of words such as the end of one scene and the beginning of another, or the end
of one thought and the beginning of another. And because we find in most Bible
3 / 13

translations a paragraph change between verses 26 and 27, then we think that
Christ has ended one train of thought and moved on to the next. I want to remove
those markings and read it to you in a way that I think may make the meaning of
"these things", or "all things", or "everything" more clear.
CJB
Matthew 11:25-27
25
It was at that time that Yeshua said, "I thank you,
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you concealed these things from the
sophisticated and educated and revealed them to ordinary folks.
26
Yes,
Father, I thank you that it pleased you to do this.
27
"My Father has handed
over everything to me.
He next goes on to speak of the Son and Father knowing each other. It is my
opinion that the best choice is to connect the statement concerning "these things
which the Father has concealed" in verse 25 with the "everything" of verse 27.
That is, the Father has turned over all the knowledge of all revelatory wisdom to
Yeshua. It is not an issue of transfer of possession of physical property such as
the Temple or even of the entire planet. Nor is it about turning over the
possession of literary property such as the Law Code (The Law of Moses) or the
entire Old Testament. Remember: Matthew has structured his entire Gospel
around a handful of concepts among which is that Jesus is Wisdom. He is the
tangible form, the embodiment, of Wisdom. And wisdom is to be understood as
meaning divinely sourced knowledge.
Yet another concept that Matthew puts forth is that Yeshua is the 2
nd
Moses. And
thus when we add these verses I just quoted to the statement that "no one fully
knows the Son except the Father, and no one fully knows the Father except the
Son", it connects nicely to Moses in Exodus chapter 33.
CJB
Exodus 33:11-14
11
ADONAI would speak to Moshe face to face, as a
man speaks to his friend. Then he would return to the camp; but the young
man who was his assistant, Y'hoshua the son of Nun, never left the inside
of the tent.
12
Moshe said to ADONAI, "Look, you say to me, 'Make these
people move on!' But you haven't let me know whom you will be sending
with me. Nevertheless you have said, 'I know you by name,' and also, 'You
have found favor in my sight.'
13
Now, please, if it is really the case that I
have found favor in your sight, show me your ways; so that I will
understand you and continue finding favor in your sight. Moreover, keep on
seeing this nation as your people."
14
He answered, "Set your mind at rest-
my presence will go with you, after all."
4 / 13

Both Moses and Jesus speak of knowing the Father and the Father knowing
them, but then notice how the thought ends with the concept of rest. God tells
Moses to "rest" because His presence will go with Him into the wilderness, and in
Matthew 11:29 Yeshua tells His followers that if they'll take on His yoke, they will
find rest. This is not a coincidence.
So Yeshua knowing the Father fully, and the Father knowing the Son fully at least
includes the idea of having mutual knowledge. As always, we must understand
this in a general and not a precise or all-inclusive-without-exception sense. I
caution this because another common Christian doctrine (especially in the
Evangelical branch of the Church) is that Yeshua's knowledge is a carbon copy
of the Father's, which then makes them co-equals. In other words, the doctrine is
that Jesus and God the Father are equally omniscient. However this doctrine is
clearly dashed in any number of statements out of Yeshua's own mouth,
including this as perhaps His most famous concerning the subject:
CJB
Matthew 24:34-36
34
Yes! I tell you that this people will certainly not pass
away before all these things happen.
35
Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will never pass away.
36
"But when that day and hour will
come, no one knows- not the angels in heaven, not the Son, only the
Father.
So here Yeshua confesses that there are things, there is knowledge, which the
Father holds but it has not been imparted to the Son. We need not see this as a
contradiction to Matthew 11:27 but rather we need to understand that the words
of the various authors of the Bible and the words of the many Bible characters
who are quoted, are similar to how we talk in everyday speech. "Everything" and
"all" doesn't have to mean 100%, and it usually doesn't. Rather it more typically
means the majority but with some exceptions.
No matter how we might wish to nuance and understand what Yeshua meant by
this statement of the Son knowing the Father and the Father the Son, we must
once again put on our 1st century Jewish mindset and try to see this the way the
Jews who heard Him would have taken it. Clearly Christ was setting Himself in
the position as being the Son; and just as clearly the Father meant God the
Father (and not Yeshua's own human father, Joseph). So, Yeshua was saying
that He was the Son of God who possessed the same wisdom that God the
Father had and that He (God) was the one who would reveal divine revelation to
whomever He chose. Yeshua was making a strong case for His own divinity and
5 / 13

all that came with it.
Now that He has made this pretty straightforward claim, He takes it a step further
in verse 28. He says that because of who He is, all who are struggling and
burdened can find rest in Him. I think the KJV translates these words the best
and most literally. The KJV says:
KJV
Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest.
Yeshua is making a word play in order to make an illustration. The English words
labor and heavy laden, play well with the final word of the passage, which is rest.
These 3 words translate the Greek words kopiao, phortizo, and
then anapauo that work together to form a mental picture for His Jewish listeners
of hard labor, heavy loads, and then a welcome break (a rest) to allow the body
to refresh and re-energize. The focus of the passage is that it is Yeshua who will
provide the welcome break. He then continues with this word play by employing
the word yoke. In its literal sense, a yoke is an uncomfortable-looking, heavy
wooden device made to join two work animals together in order to pull a wagon
or a plow. However mid-sentence we see that the mental picture this conjures up
is to be taken metaphorically. Jesus is not talking about literal hard manual labor,
or carrying heavy loads, and then some blessed idleness that comes about in
order to let the exhausted body rejuvenate. Rather, He says, "learn from Me".
And the reason they should learn from Him is because He is gentle and meek.
Other Bible versions might say that He is humble and gentle, or lowly in heart.
OK, pause. Why does the quality of being gentle (or humble) and meek make
Him the better choice for the people seeking truth? What did Christ just finish
saying about to whom God chooses to give revelatory wisdom, and to whom He
withholds it? God gives it to the humble and the meek (which is what Yeshua
says He is), but withholds it from the arrogant and self-important (Scribes and
Pharisees) who see their own wisdom as equal to, or above, God's. I'll repeat:
Christ says that He is humble and meek, so He qualifies (even from the purely
human aspect) to be one that God would choose to reveal Heavenly wisdom.
Therefore, the people should seek Yeshua for true knowledge and wisdom and
not those they had been listening to.
So the term "yoke" in this passage becomes a metaphor. In Jewish thought
"yoke" is used to mean obedience and subordinance. It also includes the idea of
education, commitment and connection. It was common then, and still is among
6 / 13

the Jewish Orthodox today, that "yoke" is a term used to define a Jew's
relationship to the Torah and to the Law. That is, they speak of the "yoke of the
Torah" or the "yoke of the Law" and it is intended in these several senses. It was
(and remains) a positive term, and not something to avoid. The thing to
understand is that a man could, in the metaphorical sense, yoke himself to the
Torah, yoke himself to his wife, yoke himself to his family and clan, yoke himself
to his Rabbi and to a number of other things all at the same time. So in this way a
person could have more than one "yoking", but one was never to be yoked to
opposing or opposite things.
Therefore Yeshua is saying to change who and what you are yoked to. The
question for Believers then becomes, so what yoke is it that Christ is saying they
should discard in favor of His yoke? The standard answer within Christianity is
that we should shuck-off the yoke of The Law of Moses. But the Law of Moses
has not been part of the conversation about what it is that Yeshua is speaking
about or denouncing. When Yeshua says that His yoke is "light" this is clearly not
in contrast to the biblical Torah or the Law of Moses. Rather it was in contrast to
the burdens of a yoke of man-made traditions that was hung upon the necks of
the common people by the wise and learned (the Scribes and the Pharisees); a
yoke that was indeed heavy and full of needless difficult burdens. By turning
people away from those man-made burdens and back to the comforting truth of
God's Torah, Jesus offered rest in the sense of peace of mind and soul instead of
ceaseless activities that revolved around behaviors rather than a Godly attitude
and determination.
I hope most of you have studied the Torah with me. If you haven't, I wonder why
you're trying to follow these lessons on the Gospel of Matthew? You're not as
prepared as you could be because you're putting the proverbial cart before the
horse. For those who have studied the Torah then you know that it is anything
but a system of heavy burdens placed upon us by a stern God, and Jews have
certainly never considered it so. Rather the Torah and the Law instructs us on
how to love God and how to love our fellow man. It tells us how to be in harmony
with the Universe as God created it, rather than battling against it. It provides for
the welfare of the poverty stricken and the defenseless of society. It provides a
proportional and fair standard for civil and criminal justice. It gives us a perfect
moral compass whose needle never deviates simply because circumstances
change. It provides us with firm and unequivocal definitions of good and evil. It
provides us the source for determining our personal worth and value as human
beings. The Torah is the indispensable foundation for all Believers and the New
7 / 13

Testament assumes our familiarity with it.
So by Yeshua saying "learn from Me", He was telling the Jewish people to give
up the Scribe or Pharisee they were listening to for their religious instruction and
instead listen to Him. He made it abundantly clear back in Matthew chapter 5 in
the Sermon on the Mount that the people were to return to, cling to, and obey,
the biblical Torah.... every last detail. And if they'll do that with the sincere
motivation of loving God, they'll find rest for their souls and become members of
the Kingdom of Heaven. Yeshua is using words many of the people hearing Him
might have found familiar from Jeremiah chapter 6. This is a very dramatic and
heart-rending passage, but... oh!.... how this also applies to us of this world of the
21
st
century. Or better to those of today who claim to worship God but don't pay
attention to Him; so their disobedience produces a weak faith that is exposed for
what it is as they live lives of anxiety, worry, trouble and without the contentment
that comes from meaning and purpose.
READ JEREMIAH 6:1 - 16
Let's move on to Matthew chapter 12.
READ MATTHEW CHAPTER 12 all
This chapter begins with what I call the Sabbath controversy. I have for some
time pondered how to teach this section of Matthew because its ramifications are
both immense and terribly misunderstood. We'll spend some time discussing the
Sabbath because what you think you know about Sabbath is likely either not
sufficient for understanding Matthew's Gospel or it is laced with manmade
doctrines from both Judaism and Western Roman Christianity. I may get more
emails on this subject than any other. The first question I get is usually: as a
Christian do I have to obey the Sabbath law? Second after that is: what is
considered as work?
The subject of Sabbath is big enough for at least one large book, and it is
covered in Jewish Law by a number of books and documents. It is quite difficult
to teach this effectively because it is a matter that is often smothered in details
and nuances that themselves require lengthy explanations. Sometimes much
must be unlearned about Sabbath before we can learn what God actually says
about it. Let's begin with the 1st verse of chapter 12 and use Matthew's words
and Christ's instructions as a skeleton framework upon which I hope to flesh out
8 / 13

the issue of Sabbath.
The opening word of verse 1 makes it clear that the context of everything that
happens in the opening scene has to do with observing Shabbat. Shabbat is the
Hebrew word from which we get the English word Sabbath. We don't know how
near to the time of the actions described in the previous verses of chapter 11 that
this is occurring; it could have been hours or a few days. Perhaps weeks. We
also don't know exactly where Jesus was; but there's nothing to definitely indicate
that He had journeyed to a different region of the Holy Land, out of the Galilee.
But what we do know is this: the Jews hearing what Yeshua was speaking held
some pretty rigid views about Shabbat because the weekly life for Jewish society
revolves around it. Some of those views and practices were biblically grounded
and some not.
Christ and some of His disciples were walking through an unidentified grain field
and obviously the grain was ripe enough to eat. The grain was either of barley or
wheat; we can't say with certainty which it was. So the time of year was
anywhere from spring to early summer. Matthew says that the disciples Yeshua
was with were hungry. I doubt that this was the 12 Disciples but rather they were
some other disciples, because we don't read of any of the 12 returning from their
mission (although we know that at some point they must have) and they aren't
characterized as "The Disciples" but only as His disciples. They did what
probably seemed natural; as they strolled through the grain fields they plucked off
some heads of grain, rolled them in their hands to expose the edible kernels, and
ate them. But some Pharisees spotted them and confronted Yeshua as their
leader and Master. At once they told Yeshua that what they (and probably He as
well) were doing was violating Shabbat. So what law concerning Shabbat were
they violating?
There's much involved here that is needed as preparation for understanding the
problem. So let's take this from the top. The disciples were walking in someone's
field and taking grain from it. However this was not stealing; it was permissible
according to the Torah.
CJB
Deuteronomy 23:25-26
25
"When you enter your neighbor's vineyard,
you may eat enough grapes to satisfy your appetite; but you are not to put
any in your basket.
26
When you enter your neighbor's field of growing
grain, you may pluck ears with your hand; but you are not to put a sickle to
your neighbor's grain.
9 / 13

The purpose for this law is twofold. First, it is a means for the poverty stricken to
have a way to have food. Second, it is for travelers to be able to get a little
something to eat on their journey as they go through people's vineyards and
fields. But of course, the accusation of the Pharisees had nothing to do with theft
or eating. It had to do with it happening on Shabbat.
Shabbat (Sabbath) is the 7
th
day of the week. In the old Hebrew system it is the
only day of the week that is given a name instead of a number. Since among
Hebrews a day is defined as beginning and ending at sunset, then in Western
terms Sabbath begins Friday at sundown and ends Saturday at sundown. Do not
confuse this with another use of the word Shabbat that we seen in the Old
Testament. In addition to this every-weekly Sabbath there were others that were
associated with various of the 7 biblical feasts of Leviticus. The rules for what is
to be done, and not done, on the weekly 7
th
day Sabbath were generally not the
same as that for the feast Sabbaths... or at least not all of them.
An important question to be answered is: where did Shabbat come from? The
usual answer from Christians is that it is the 4
th
of the 10 Commandments given
to Moses on Mt. Sinai. Yes and no. The Sabbath law came much earlier. I'll
quote an extended passage so that the context is established.
CJB
Genesis 1:27-2:3
27
So God created humankind in his own image; in the
image of God he created him: male and female he created them.
28
God
blessed them: God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and
subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air and every living
creature that crawls on the earth."
29
Then God said, "Here! Throughout the
whole earth I am giving you as food every seed-bearing plant and every
tree with seed-bearing fruit.
30
And to every wild animal, bird in the air and
creature crawling on the earth, in which there is a living soul, I am giving as
food every kind of green plant." And that is how it was.
31
God saw
everything that he had made, and indeed it was very good. So there was
evening, and there was morning, a sixth day.
CJB
Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, along with
everything in them.
2
On the seventh day God was finished with his work
which he had made, so he rested on the seventh day from all his work
which he had made.
3
God blessed the seventh day and separated it as
holy; because on that day God rested from all his work which he had
created, so that it itself could produce.
10 / 13

Thus, the 7
th
day ended Creation and was consecrated by God the Creator and
set apart as holy at that time. The 7
th
day would be special and completely unlike
all other days of the week. So much later in Exodus when Moses is given the 10
Commandments and in the 4
th
one concerning the Sabbath we read:
CJB
Exodus 20:8-11
8
"Remember the day, Shabbat, to set it apart for
God.
9
You have six days to labor and do all your work,
10
but the seventh
day is a Shabbat for ADONAI your God. On it, you are not to do any kind of
work- not you, your son or your daughter, not your male or female slave,
not your livestock, and not the foreigner staying with you inside the gates
to your property.
11
For in six days, ADONAI made heaven and earth, the
sea and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. This is why
ADONAI blessed the day, Shabbat, and separated it for himself.
We see a fair amount of detail is offered about this commandment, but let's not
overlook the first word of it: remember. Remember. So this is not about creating
something new but rather about calling to mind something old. It was an
ordinance that God made a long time before Mt. Sinai, at Creation. And what is
really interesting is that while the majority of the mainstream Church argues that
the Law is only for Jews, and therefore Sabbath is only for Jews (so gentiles
don't have to obey it) there were no Jews around when God originated this
commandment. In fact, there was (at most) 2 people on the entire face of the
earth and they weren't Jews or Hebrews or Israelites or even gentiles because
none of those sorts of identities that eventually came as a result of divisions of
society even came about until the time of Abraham. Thus it is rather hard to
argue that of all the Laws of Moses, or even of the 10 Commandments, that the
Sabbath is uniquely for the Israelites and their descendants.
Biblically speaking Shabbat, the weekly Sabbath, is the day following the 6th
day..... the 7
th
. There is no other day of the week that is Shabbat. Since Shabbat
is actually the name of the 7
th
day, to claim that there is "a" Sabbath each week
as opposed to "the" Sabbath is bogus. It would be like saying that there is "a"
Saturday each week, but we can place Saturday anywhere in the week we like,
and change it as often as it suits us.
The Christian notion of a 1
st
day Sabbath (Sunday) as opposed to the biblically
ordained Sabbath (the 7th day) is a misnomer. In fact, Christianity (meaning early-
on the Church at Rome, long before it was called the Catholic Church), didn't
change the Sabbath to another day, it abolished it. In 363 A.D. at the Council of
11 / 13

Laodicea, the Church created a long list of new Church rules called canons.
Many of them were specifically aimed at customs the Jews followed, and
therefore in their view gentile Christians should not. Here are the actual words of
the canon that effectively abolished Sabbath for Christians.
Canon 29. Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must
work on that day, rather honouring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting
then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be
anathema from Christ.
The Lord's Day was referring to Resurrection Day..... Sunday as the Romans
called the 1
st
day of the week. Sunday was so named in honor of the Sun God.
The primary religion of the Roman Empire as of that time worshipped the Sun
God, and Sunday was declared as the day of communal worship of the Sun God
(hence Sun Day). The suggestion of the Laodicean council that if a Christian felt
the need to take a day off, to do it on Sunday was to be in tune with the rest of
Rome. But please notice: this was NOT a change of Sabbath from Saturday to
Sunday....from the 7
th
day to the 1st day.... it was the abolition of the God
ordained holy day of Sabbath for the Christian Church. Instead of the biblical
Sabbath the canon said that Christians should rest on the Lord's Day. So
Sabbath was exchanged for the Lord's Day. They are in no way the same things,
nor do they celebrate the same things.
Most modern day Christian denominations (some even confused by their own
doctrines on the matter) will admit at the upper levels of Church government that
they have never observed Sabbath. But at the lower level (the individual
congregation level) the Pastor or Minister will sort of mumble that Sunday is
Sabbath rather than trying to explain what the Bible obviously says about
Sabbath, and just as obviously what is in the minutes of the Council of Laodicea
about what the Church did to that God-ordained holy day. I've always found it
curious that Church members will so easily dismiss the ONLY day in the Bible
listed as Shabbat, the 7
th
day, in exchange for the 1
st
day without blinking an eye.
That said, some denominations are more forthcoming about it and condemn any
Christian for celebrating Sabbath whatsoever. They see Sabbath as a thing of the
past, a burden, and a repudiation of Christ.
I can't count the times that I've heard Christians say something like: "Well, I make
Tuesday (or some other day) as MY Sabbath" as though they are in the holy-day
ordination business. In other words, their notion is that God has told us: Just
12 / 13

take a day off each week; I don't care which one. Any day you choose is fine;
just call it Sabbath. Folks: Sabbath, Shabbat, is directly linked to Creation. It is a
set-apart day honoring the completion of God's Creation. Shabbat is the day after
God finished His work of Creation. So it would be comical, instead of
blasphemous, if we could just understand that by declaring some other day of the
week as Sabbath, we're essentially declaring the end of the Creation as some
other day than God says it was. But this is how far Christianity has gone to
distance itself from the Old Testament, from God's laws, and from Jesus's own
people, the Jews.
We'll continue with understanding Shabbat and the Sabbath controversy of
Matthew 12 next week.

Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
13 / 13