This is one of those topics that has caused a lot of arguments in the Messianic Movement. As believers we are so zealous for Torah (the first five books in the Bible, God’s Instruction for us on how to live our lives to please Him) that we want to do everything in our power to make YHVH (God) happy and to follow all of His commands to us to the best of our ability. But is cooking on the Sabbath one of those no no’s, are we to be cut off from Israel if we reheat food or even toast a bagel on the Sabbath? My husband and I were tired of the argument so we did an in depth study with a really good friend on the subject and this is what we came to for our family on this subject.
The first thing that is so important to have when embarking on any serious study of the Bible is a program that you can search the Bible with, something that can get every single verse about one topic or the other. Some like to use a Strong’s Concordance, which is awesome by the way, only what do you do when looking for verses that have more than one word you need to find. Just using Strong’s can be extremely time consuming and difficult, so I prefer to use my computer. If you do not have an electronic program like this already I have a suggestion, e-sword. It’s free as are most of the versions of the Bible that you can download including the Hebrew Old Testament, which is really great when you are questioning a word and would like to see the other choices the translators had while translating from the Hebrew to whatever language you are reading in. http://www.e-sword.net/
The next step we went through was deciding whether there are any differences in the Sabbath’s. Is there a difference between the weekly Shabbat, and say the Sabbaths that we are given for the feasts and festivals? Since we began our walk with Yah over five years ago we have always heard people refer to the Shabbat, and then the ‘High Holy Days’. What are the High Holy Days? Funny question, because the Torah doesn’t refer to any Shabbat or feast of festival as a ‘High Holy Day’!!! What? Do the search for yourself, we were surprised as well, since we had been referring to them as High Holy Days to our children and our families for years now, and making a bigger deal out of them than maybe we should have. In fact there is only one scripture in the whole of the Bible that refers to any Sabbath as a ‘High Day’:
John 19:31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
So in all of the Torah, the Prophets, the Writings and the New Testament we only see one reference to any Sabbath being a “High Day”, and let’s look at that for a moment, why did Yahshua (Jesus) come to the earth in the first place? I believe it was to bring His people Israel back to the Torah, like any good prophet he says, ‘Hey people, Torah’s back there!’ Jerking his thumb behind him the whole time, since we had been carried so far from Torah by our associations with the pagans around us and all the man made rules and laws created by perhaps well meaning Rabbi’s and such, who were trying to keep people in Torah with thousands of extra commands that weren’t even in the Torah to begin with. Were we not warned about EXTRA?
Deu 4:1 Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you.
Deu 4:2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
Deu 4:3 Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baalpeor: for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the LORD thy God hath destroyed them from among you.
Deu 4:4 But ye that did cleave unto the LORD your God are alive every one of you this day.
Deu 4:5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.
Deu 4:6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
Deu 4:7 For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for?
Deu 4:8 And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?
Deu 4:9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;
So we were warned my Moses not to add anything to Torah or take anything away, and he even gave us examples to warn us. So it doesn’t make much sense to me why the Jews continued to add and take away from the Torah even though they continued to get dispersed and persecuted because of it, I supposes some lessons are hard learned.
Back to the topic at hand, so by the time Yahshua came to save us the Jews had already added TONS of extra to the Torah, including referring to the first day of Unleavened Bread as a “High Day” Which YHVH had never done in all the Torah or the Prophets. So I conclude that we cannot go by that reference in John to make a blanket policy regarding feasts and festivals as being set higher or more special than the fifty-two other Sabbaths that Yah so graciously provided for our rest.
So if Yah did not separate the feasts and festivals as ‘different’ from the other Sabbaths, which we have clearly seen that He hasn’t, than what do we do about this scripture? Where Yah is telling us what we can and cannot do on the Feast of Unleavened Bread’s Shabbats.
Exo 12:16 On the first and seventh days, you are to have an assembly set aside for God. On these days no work is to be done, except what each must do to prepare his food; you may do only that.
Hum, so He tells us that we are allowed to prepare food on the first and the last days of Matzah, and He never once differentiated between weekly Sabbath’s and the other Sabbath’s. So that leads me to conclude that we are allowed to prepare our food on the Sabbath, and that that is THE only work, if you will, that is allowed on the Sabbath. Now let’s take a moment and talk about the nature of our God, He is very specific in all that He says and does. He gives us detailed instructions on how to deal in our marriages, what to do when on your monthly period, how to cleanse yourself after touching a dead body; for crying out loud, He even walks us through what to do if you borrow an animal from your neighbor and it dies on your watch, what to do if is dies while it’s owner is with you, and the difference between what to do if it’s an accident or not. Now, knowing this about Yah, how could you even for one minute think that He would leave something that would cause this much contention and strife up to us simpletons to figure out for ourselves?
There is one set of scripture that all who are against cooking on Shabbat go with, it is about gathering Manna on the Sabbath:
Exo 16:23 And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
So, if you look only at that verse than you could conclude that we are to bake it all up on the 6th day and eat leftovers as we know them today on Shabbat. But if we take the whole command in context, which in these times people do not like to do, as it’s really hard to weave your manmade doctrine from whole paragraphs, instead of numbered sound bites, than we start to see the original intent behind that verse:
Exo 16:19 And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.
Exo 16:20 Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.
Exo 16:21 And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.
Exo 16:22 And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
Shows how hard it was for us to trust Him even when we have daily proof of His existence. He told us to gather up what we needed for one day, and yet we still wanted to get more, to so it our way!
Exo 16:23 And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
Exo 16:24 And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.
Exo 16:25 And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a Sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field.
Exo 16:26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none.
Exo 16:27 And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.
Exo 16:28 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?
Here again a prime example of our unwillingness to do His will, but what struck me is how He did not tell us we could not prepare it, or cook it on Sabbath, but that we were not allowed to GATHER it on the Sabbath. Because let’s be honest stooping and gathering is work, not to mention that Yah Himself, takes a day of rest on the seventh day as well. So He rests from creating the Manna, and we rest from collecting it. But nowhere does he say that we are not allowed to prepare it, and if we were not allowed to prepare it on the weekly Sabbath, than why are we allowed to prepare and cook on the other Sabbaths?
Exo 16:29 See, for that the LORD hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
So we are told to gather our food on the 6th day, and not to leave our place on the 7th, so I personally choose not to go the Walmart on the seventh day, I am careful to gather my food and make sure that I have all that I need for the Shabbat, on the 6th day.
Exo 16:30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
So in conclusion, Yah commanded us not to gather food on the Sabbath, he gave us permission to cook and prepare on the Sabbath, when telling us how to deal with the extra Sabbath’s for feasts and festivals. Important to note that He never made a differentiation between the weekly Sabbath and the other Sabbath’s, Yah is very precise and tells us what He loves and what He hates, and if we were not allowed to prepare food on the Sabbath I truly believe that He would have given us a direct command saying that, maybe something like this: DO NOT PREPARE OR COOK YOUR FOOD ON THE SABBATH!
We try to get as much prepared on the 6th day as we can, but we do not feel that we are breaking Torah in any way by toasting a bagel or reheating a casserole prepared the day before on the Sabbath. We as believers need to be very careful not be false prophets and teachers, in regards to what we interpret Torah say, heed the words of Moses in Deuteronomy, and let us not forget what the Messiah Himself had to say on the subject:
Mat 5:19 “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
I know that I do not want to be “least” in the kingdom, do you?
Let every man interpret Torah for himself, and let him deal with the consequences, unless you see a blatant disregard for the word, keep your opinions to yourself, I truly believe that you will fare better come judgment day, following those words of advice.
