07/02/13

Sabbath Year, where are you?

Leviticus 25:1-3
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.
3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.


Believers debate on the Sabbath - Sunday or Saturday, the Jews in 300 to 200AD even killed people for breaking the Law of Sabbath. The tiff between the Pharisees and Jesus started on the issue of keeping the Sabbath (weekly).

Some time back I was debating with a Muslim with regards to eating pig meat. Muhammad got the concept of pig being forbidden from the Bible. But like the piece bit information he had of the Bible so also he knew only of the pig and not about the other animals and birds which the Lord forbid. We can know how confused Muhammad was with facts from the Bible and what he knew was from hearsay and that he had not personally read the Bible - Torah (Books of Moses), Zaboor (Psalms) and Injeel (Gospels). He confused Mary the mother of Jesus with Mariam the sister of Moses. The Quran refers to Mary as sister of Aaron and daughter of Imran (Amram). The same is seen with all his records of Noah, Abraham, Ismael, Moses, David, Jesus and others.

Initially when I knew nothing of Islam I thought they also worshipped God and had some truth in their books, later when I knew little I though their scriptures are totally satanic, inspired by Satan (Jinn) who come as Gabriel to minister to Muhammad every now and then (Muhammad used to get fits, float in the mouth, get attacks like possessed people do). Later when I came to know more even this view of mine changed to it being more of insanity used by Satan to destroy.

What we see is people due to their half knowledge or other reasons take part of God's Word and consider it Law and ignoring the other parts.

When the Lord instructed His people to keep the Sabbath Day He also instructed His people to keep the Sabbath Year which came after every six years, also after 49 years (7 Sabbath years) the 50th year was a Jubilee Year a grand Sabbath Year. What people did is initially ignore most parts of it but did the ritual of all meeting together in their own respective towns on the 10th of the 7th month (the Feast of Tabernacle) on the Jubilee Year (the year Jesus was born was Jubilee Year therefore the King initiated the census of the Jews that year). Nowadays not only the Sabbath Year is not kept, even the Jubilee Year is rarely kept by the Jews (2001 and 2008 were Sabbath Years according to Jewish calendar).

In today's message the Lord is telling us we need understand His Word in its Truth. We cannot take part of His Word which we find easy to follow and ignore which we find hard. Also by rituals or traditions we cannot justify our obedience of God's Word. God is Spirit and His Word needs to be understood in spirit and kept firstly in spirit.


[ Prayer Starter ]
Lord, the people of the Lord worship with rituals and traditions. They feel they can please You with these. Lord we pray your people know You and worship You in Spirit and Truth, for You are not man but Spirit. Lord we pray by your Spirit You open our hearts and minds to know and abide by You...

This prayer we make in Jesus' Name, Amen.


[ Reference Scriptures ]
Leviticus 25:4-9
4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.
5 That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.
6 And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,
7 And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.

Koran 19:27-34
27 At length she brought the babe to her people, carrying him in her arms. They said: "O Mary! Truly an amazing thing hast thou brought!"
28 "O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not a man of evil, nor thy mother a woman unchaste!"
29 But she pointed to the babe. They said: "How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?"
30 He said: "I am indeed a servant of Allah: He hath given me revelation and made me a prophet";
31 "And He hath made me blessed wheresoever I be, and hath enjoined on me Prayer and Charity as long as I live";
32 "He hath made me kind to my mother, and not overbearing or miserable";
33 "So Peace is on me the day I was born, the day that I die, and the day that I shall be raised up to life again!"
34 Such was Jesus the son of Mary: It is a statement of truth, about which they vainly dispute.

Koran 66:12 - And Mary the daughter of Imran, who guarded her chastity; and We breathed into her body of Our spirit; and she testified to the truth of the words of her Lord and of his Revelations, and was one of the devout servants

The Word of God was given free to us, therefore we should also share it freely with others. (All rights are with God)