Derek Leman, a messianic rabbi from Atlanta, GA in this guest post for Jewish Studies for Christians deals with an issue of whether or not Jews and Gentiles are bound by the same commandments. While there are other well-argued opinions, I am happy to present his post to you for your careful consideration and engagement. (You are cordially invited to visit one of his blogs “Messianic Jewish Musings” of this talented and prolific author. To do so, please, click HERE).
* * *
Whose commandments are they? That is, for whom were they laid down as stipulations? Does that still matter or did something change, such as God issuing a new covenant that made the original commandments a law for everyone? Or did a new people come to God who were then transformed in some way, made to have the same relationship to God as this first people, the Jewish people?
The logic of “one law” or of the divine obligation of all people of faith in Messiah to the same laws as those given to Israel is usually based on one of a handful of arguments. Aren’t non-Jews grafted into the Jewish tree through Messiah and if so, doesn’t this eliminate the Jewish-Gentile differentiation? If a commandment is holy, then isn’t it unholy not to follow it? Since the Torah is the only ordered list of God’s requirements, it has to be for everyone, because God nowhere gives a “law for the Gentiles,” right?
People often base their opinion about the commandments on their experience and not on the Bible. I am not against the importance of our personal experience with God. It’s just that experience can be misinterpreted. It seems to be far better if we interpret our experiences with reference to the great ideas that are in the Bible and find answers which bring together Bible and experience.
So, for example, a Christian may experience a deep awakening upon discovering the joys of Passover and Sabbath and the rhythm of the Torah calendar. Likewise, eating a restricted diet can feel like intensifying holiness. And the whole experience of becoming a Torah-observer may feel like getting very close to God. Then, when encountering Jewish beliefs about Torah — that Torah is a covenant between Israel and God, not between the nations and God — such a person might feel as if they are being denied membership in an exclusive club.
I would like to explain why, in simple terms, God’s way is not one law for everyone, and suggest a middle path for non-Jews who want to have a closer relationship with Israel’s Torah.
First, it would be helpful if people would go back to the giving of the Torah from Sinai in Exodus 19. Would Jewish people be asking too much if we say, “Please keep in mind the importance of this event as something special between us and God?” When you read Exodus 19, can you not see God is making a covenant with the Jewish people? Yes, there are clever work-arounds such as “Gentiles were there too in the form of the mixed multitude.” But those tortured arguments look like a way to deny the simple truth: Torah was given as a covenant to Israel. The commandments are the stipulations of the covenant.
Second, what is in the Torah? Do people who want to read it as “one law for everyone” actually take into account what is actually contained in it? Many things in Torah no longer apply to anyone today, Jewish or non-Jewish. Do you need laws about how to treat your slave? Have you seriously entertained the idea of taking a war-bride after giving her a month to mourn her father? Were you considering stoning your rebellious teenager? Reading the Torah calls for some maturity in reading, some willingness to learn history, to see the difference between the ideal in Torah and the time-bound social and civil legislation it contained for an ancient nation in a barbaric world.
Third, when people talk about how they are “Torah-observant” or say that they “keep the commandments,” they mean only a handful of them. What they are really talking about is the observances given to Israel which the church has not made part of its practice: Sabbath, dietary law, circumcision on the eighth day, tassels on one’s garment, and festivals. There is no Temple anymore, so the laws about offerings and giving the tithe to the priests cannot really apply. But these few commandments that differentiate Israel from the nations — which can be referred to as the sign commandments, since they are signs of Israel’s uniqueness — are a cause for controversy. It may help (or maybe not) to point out that the Sabbath is specifically said to be such a sign: “Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations” (Exod 31:13). When God said this, it is clear the “you” was Israel, and Israel’s generations are still very much alive today.
Fourth, it is possible — and I try to get people to see this — that what is holy and required for one person is not holy and required of all people. One person — a priest in Israel — may not be able to attend a burial or walk in a graveyard. If the whole world follows the “one law” principle, none of our dead will ever be buried. One person — someone under a Nazirite vow — must avoid wine and even grapes and raisins. If the all-commandments-apply-universally notion is followed, well, we will all miss out on some great Cabernet and the joy of raisins in our oatmeal. Likewise, it is possible that Sabbath is a holy sign of Jewishness (just like Exodus says) and that it is not holy for Gentiles. It may be that Israel’s diet was restricted and this marked them as a different people in the ancient world, but that there is no reason why pork is inherently unclean — just as Genesis 9:3 suggests.
Fifth, it is fairly easy to see — but clever and specious arguments are used to avoid seeing what is obvious — that the apostles believed Jews in Messiah should keep all the commandments but that the Gentiles did not need to “keep the law of Moses.” They did not mean by this that Gentiles in Messiah were free to steal and murder. “Law of Moses” means the covenant stipulations from Sinai as a total system. It is clear in reading Paul that he taught his Gentile adherents they were not bound by diets and days and the use of flint knives to remove a foreskin. To many people, this makes Paul seem problematic, anti-Torah. Did it occur to anyone he was being a good Jew and interpreting Torah according to its true sense?
Sixth, it is also fairly easy to see that the church went too far in distancing itself from Torah and the Jewish people. Christian theologians regularly write about this and recovering the Jewishness of Christianity is standard form today in many circles. Yes, plenty of Christians remain oblivious to what the theologians and historians within Christianity are saying about Jewish roots, but the church has definitely turned a corner. It is possible now to argue that Christians practice a form of Judaism and to point this out entirely from Christian thinkers and scholars.
Seventh, it is often overlooked that Christians keep most of what is in Torah, at least what I call the ideals of Torah. Love God and neighbor is the ideal center of Torah. It is expressed in ways we treat the powerless, honor one another, serve those in need, form community, and repair the world. Christians have always been very involved in love and service and good works.
Eighth and finally, there is a middle way for people who want to keep some of Israel’s Torah without those same people denying Israel’s unique relationship to God. It is not necessary to say, “I am grafted into Israel’s tree and so I am virtually an Israelite now.” It is not necessary to say, “All the commandments are holy for everyone and there are no distinctions.” It is possible instead to adopt the philosophy of one of the earliest writings of the Yeshua-movement, the Didache (pronounced deed-ah-KHAY). The Didache came out of the first century Messianic Jewish movement and a few decades after Paul died, the Didache argued that Gentiles could keep Torah. It is possible to see that in Paul’s time this could have been dangerous, it could have rendered Messiah null and void. But after many Gentiles came in, it was possible some of them would want to live close to Jewish communities and worship with them.
So in the Didache, Gentiles were encouraged to “keep as much Torah as they are able” and to live in fellowship with Jewish disciples. The audience of the Didache, then, were Messianic Gentiles — as we often call people today who are in Messianic congregations or, even if not members of a Messianic congregation, live a Messianic Jewish lifestyle and maintain friendships with Messianic Jews. And the Didache does not encourage these Gentiles to simply act as if they are Jewish. Some distinctions remain.
So, for example, in Messianic Judaism today, Gentiles have a welcome place. The best practices of Torah will include making distinctions without discrimination. It is possible to distinguish and not discriminate.
And it is not necessary that Gentiles who choose this middle way should claim that all Christians must do the same. Living as a “Messianic Gentile” (or just as a “Messianic”) does not make a person holier. It is one way and God has many ways for people. The most important commandments are not Sabbath and dietary law anyway. To over-exalt these is to practice a form of cheap self-righteousness.
Jewishness is not a privilege. It is a responsibility. Jewishness is not a status of higher blessing. It is a calling to be a distinguishable people and to pass on that identity to children and children’s children forever. Gentiles who love the Torah should not try to erase Jewish distinction, to render Jewishness inert, to say all Messiah-followers are essentially Jews.
It does matter whose commandments they are. And the ideals of Torah apply to everyone even if some of the specifics are about Israel’s peoplehood. One law for everyone fails to read Torah according to its own distinctions. Being grafted in is a way of explaining how Gentiles come into the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant, one given long before Sinai and which included Gentiles from the beginning (Gen 12:1-3). God did not ever say, “I now take the commandments given to Israel and make them apply to all of Messiah’s people.” But Paul did show his Gentile adherents how they could derive from the Torah what was required of them. And like Abraham (Gen 26:5), it is possible to keep all of God’s statutes without having a specific law-code.
The Torah is not one law for everyone. But neither do we have to forbid people from keeping it. There is a middle way.
What do you think?
Kat,
The Hebrew term for Holy Spirit is Ruach Ha-kodesh, which literally means the breath of God. The Holy Spirit and Ruach ha-Kodesh are one and the same.
Thank you Bill.
1. No one, not even Orthodox Jews are capable of observing Rabbinic Torah
2. Torah observance is not a salvation issue but rather an issue of sanctification. How “set-apart” for God do we want to be on this earth? Many are called but few are chosen. My understanding of the Kingdom of God is that there are multiple levels – the parables teach us that there are wedding guests and there is the Bride. Only the Bride is taken into the inner chamber to be intimate with the Bridegroom. The basic condition for entering the Kingdom of God is salvation through faith in Messiah Yeshua. However, that basic condition doesn’t speak to our set-apartness (Kedusha). There is a 30/60/100 fold principle to the Kingdom of God. My goal is to be in the 100-fold group.
Dear Cathy,
Shalom. I must admit that I am not sure what you mean by Rabbinic Torah so please forgive me if this comment misses the mark (no pun intended).
To my mind, Scripture teaches that the entire salvific process, which includes our justification, sanctification and glorification, was accomplished by God in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. See Romans 8:29-30; Ephesians 1:4; Matthew 25:34.. I mean doesn’t the Lord sanctify the believer and ordain his fruitfulness? John 17:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; John 15:16. For where it any other way, the believer would be able to boast and such boasting would contradict the plain teaching of Scripture. See Ephesians 2:8-10; 1 Corinthians 1:26-29. “For WHO makes you to differ from another? 1 Corinthians 4:7(a) (emphasis supplied). Is it not the LORD? And what do you have that you did not receive? 1 Corinthians 4:7 (a). Was it not a gift? See Ibid; Ephesians 2:8; John 3:27.
Moreover, and if by the TORAH you mean the Ten Commandments or the moral law more broadly (which I doubt and that’s why I ask), I would say that Scripture teaches that the moral law is not for the righteous at all (those saved by Christ’s atoning sacrifice), but rather for the lawless and the disobedient (to the gospel), and everything else which is contrary to sound doctrine. See 1 Timothy 1: 8-11; Galatians 5:18; Romans 6:14. It is for such because its purpose is to shut their mouths and to convict them of their guilt before God, so they may be led to trust in Christ. See Romans 2:1-4; 3:19; Galatians 3:22-25. This is the proper and lawful use of the moral law. See 1 Timothy 1:8-11.
For our Lord Jesus, the living TORAH, taught that the Ten Commandments were not the standard to which he was being held, but rather a practical shadow of greater and holier spiritual principles which only he could perform to the complete satisfaction of the one true God. He did so when he explained that, in God’s economy, the judgment for killing a man differs in no way from the judgment for being angry with one’s brother without a cause, (see Matthew 5:21-22), or when he explained that the sin of committing adultery is accomplished already in the heart of a man when he looks upon a woman to lust after her. See Matthew 5:27-28. In sum, only the LORD knows the heart of man, (see Jeremiah 17:9), only the Lord could perfectly fulfill the TORAH, and so only the LORD can and will righteously judge the secrets of every man by Jesus Christ according to his gospel. See Romans 2:16.
Anyway, these were my thoughts when I saw your comment. Please forgive me if I didn’t properly understand it. I still would like to know what you meant by Rabbinic Torah.
Shalom.
Wow, you have so much we could discuss for what you wrote but lets leave it to the question on this one. I apologize, I am sure I said it wrong. Rabbinic Torah, is probably not the correct way to say it. I am not really sure at this point what I wrote that you are talking about. But to me Rabbinic Torah is the Oral, the fence around the Written Torah, the Dogma added requirements, more than what G-d states in His Written Torah. If to give a silly example, tearing toilet paper and having it sit by the toilet because ripping toilet paper is considered working on the Sabbath. It doesn’t say that anywhere in scripture, I don’t know where or who came up with that one, and I don’t think it is correct.
As to your other comments….talking points with lots of scripture verses attached. I may start answering them one by one…. as I go through those verses to make sure that I answer responsibly. As I have the opportunity.
Have a blessed day. Shalom
Dr. Eli, I am a Ten Commandment convert . What I lacked when I walked into a church was a developed language that described what I needed from God. I reread you insight on the word Shalom and I understand it to mean pay the debt. There was something else I needed that I had no words for. Time permitting of course, is there a Biblical Hebrew word that describes the Holy Spirit (thirsting)?
Clearly the Jews, and the non-Jews have not “ one way” in any way. Briet Chadasja is very clear about the circumcision, for example. However, I can’t agree with everything . There is a lot to say, but I limit myself to four points.
(1) I would say that Eph. 2:12.19 told us that the Gentiles in Christ were no longer outsiders, but belongs to the household and the nation of Israel. So I can’t imagine that the Ten Comments is an exclusive part of God’s relationship with the Jews and not with the not-Jews. On the mount Sinai, they were written on tablets of stone, in Christ on tablets in human hearts (2 Cor. 3:3) . It’s still the same law, and the believers from the Gentiles are not humans without heart.
(2) The Sabbath- comment of the is the most important of the ten and can’t be eliminated. Moreover, the Sabbath finds his first motivation in the fact that God rested after creating the universe. Before the covenant with Noah and before the covenant with Moses! It’s also not true that the Church did not keep the Sabbath from it’ s beginning. The Sabbath was replaced by Sunday at the papal decision. Not only, to make Christianity the state religion in 380 n.Chr. It was also an anti-Jewish expression. Only in the eleventh century celebrating the Sabbath among Christians was complete eradicated by Rome with force.
(3) The biblical feasts are not mentioned, “the feasts of Israel” but “the feasts of the Lord” (Lev. 23:1-2) So God is also the Lord of the believers coming from the Gentiles. In initial, the Church always kept the most scriptural feasts. Coming from the same anti-Jewish attitude some scriptural feasts were celebrated on a date other than the Jews and then filled with pagan elements.
(4) The discussion in Acts 15 took place around the Law of Moses as interpreted by “the sect” of the Pharisees. A fact to think about.
BS”D
My Brother and grand-friend Charles, great! 🙂 that’s the idea!
Shalom!
Seems who nobody has realized who G-d talk to each one as He wants to do: To some, directly by His word in Bible; to others, by third person, and to others by dreams or personal revelations( the world talk to us, so you must stay alert, like virgins were). I say this three ways, may have others, but this who I know. Perhaps it’s useful for anybody.
Shalom all,
Concerning the Jewish people, it seems clear from a careful reading of Scripture that the New Covenant does indeed have as its object the replacement of the Old Covenant. See Romans 7:1-7; Galatians 3:24-29; 5:1-6; Hebrews 7:11-18;8:7-13;10:9,10. What is promised in the Old Testament by the prophets (a new heart, a new spirit, etc. Ezekiel 11:19: 36:22-32; Jeremiah 31:31-34) is fulfilled in Christ and the new birth and creature descriptions which we find in the New Testament. John 3:3; 2 Corinthians 5:17: Galatians 6:15, etc.
As to the requirements placed upon the two groups of believers in Christ (Jew and Gentile), there are indeed plain instructions which show that the two groups were not asked by the apostles to observe the same laws. See Acts 15:22-29. Yet, the real question is not what precise laws these two groups were asked to follow, but rather why these two groups were asked to follow these particular laws to begin with. For plainly neither group was asked to observe laws in order to justify themselves before God! See Romans 3:20; 4:20; Galatians 3:11, Psalm 143:2; Job 25:4. Such a view would have contradicted the very gospel which had been offered to Jew and Gentile alike. That gospel requires belief, not in one’s own works according to the letter of any law, but in the promised and fulfilled redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ. See Romans 11:23; Hebrews 3:19: 6:1. By the which covenant, we are no longer under law, but under grace. See Romans 6:14-15. Set free by God’s grace from the bondage of the law, we are called to live by faith according to the law of his Son. See Galatians 6:2; 1 Corinthians 9:21. “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” Romans 10:4. The law of Christ, also termed the law of liberty,(James 1:25), we fulfill by Christ’s spirit which is given unto us and which teaches us, without the need of any teacher, to love one another as he loved us and gave himself for us. See 1 Corinthians 6:17; Galatians 4:6; Jeremiah 31:34; 1 Thessalonians 4:9; 1 John 2:27.
Now, having said all that, and in answer to “why” the two groups were asked to follow different laws, I believe the answer is quite simple. As Christ’s Spirit is in the believer working to will and to do the Lord’s good pleasure, (Philippians 2:13), the believer, like Christ, will desire to preach the gospel to the lost and lovingly minister to his fellow Christians. To do these things, however, the believer, like Paul for instance, will act at all times to protect the consciences of those within the church whose faith is weak, (1 Corinthians 8:10-12; 10:32-33) as well as to appeal to those without by meek submission to the existing laws and customs to which they themselves are subject (in so far as they don’t contravene the law of Christ). These are some of the good works of faith and love which are ordained by God to fulfill his express will: that, through Christ, we love one another as Christ loved us (unworthily and without respect of persons), so that all men might be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. See John 13:34; Ephesians 2:10; 1 Timothy 2:4-5.
The apostle Paul explained that we are to walk without offense towards those who are without (both and Jew and Gentile) in 1 Corinthians 10:32-33. Elsewhere, both he and the apostle Peter make plain that, for Christ’s sake, we are to submit to all the ordinances of men (which would of course include God ordained ordinances which were mediated by a man, i.e. Moses),to each other, and to our masters whether they be mean or kind. See Romans 13:1-2; 1 Peter 2:13, 18; Ephesians 5:21. While Christ himself taught this very thing by his example, there is a particular incident which clearly illustrates the Christian principle that we should submit to laws even though we are not obliged to follow them. On that ocassion, Peter was challenged as to whether his master would pay the two drachma tax. When Peter submitted the matter to Christ, Christ told him bluntly, (though in parable), that they were under no such obligation to do so, but that he should go and pay it nonetheless, so as not to offend them. See Matthew 17:24-27.
This, to my mind, (and without getting into the Talmudic tradition concerning its positive regard for Gentiles who adhered to the Noahide laws, or whether the Old Covenant laws were, or were not binding (on the Jews) until the city was burned and the temple destroyed in 70 a.d.), is the very principle at work behind the desire of the apostles and disciples to have the two groups adhere to two different sets of laws. As a ministry of reconciliation is committed unto us, we submit to whatever laws we are subject to and are all things to all men, (though never without the law of Christ or our faith), so that we might win some. See 1 Corinthians 9:19-22; 10:32-33. Moreover, we do this for Christ’s sake and because we understand that God works all things according to the counsel of his own will. See Ephesians 1:11.
Should anyone believe me to be in error, I pray you will correct me with God’s Word so that I may be edified in the truth. Shalom.
Daniel,
Hebrews 8:8 For finding fault with them, He says, “BEHOLD, DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD, WHEN I WILL EFFECT A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH;
Who is the New Covenant made with? If you believe you are in the New Covenant then you are one of the 2 groups listed above. Because it was only made with them, no one else.
Eph 2:12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Eph 2:19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,
Paul says that if we are in Christ we are no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens of Israel. So we are counted as equal with those already in the covenant. Now if we are Israel, then and only then does the New Covenant apply to us. And what does G-d say to Israel, what does He require of us?
Deu_10:12 “Now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require from you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
What did the New Testament believers study? There was no New Testament at the time. They studied the Torah and the Tonach. PAUL WAS NOT A NEW TESTAMENT SCHOLAR! He was a Torah Teacher! What does WALK IN ALL HIS WAYS & LOVE HIM MEAN TO YOU?
Shalom Cathy,
I know Paul was teaching from the TORAH and the TANAKH but he also had more revelations of the truth which were previously hidden. See Ephesians 3:1-9; John 1:51. These revelations (and his considerable learning) allowed him to exegete the Torah and the Tanakh in a way he never had. As a Pharisee he never would have interpreted the following text as he did, which you should pay close attention to:
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written,
“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than those of the one who has a husband.”
Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.
Galatians 4:211-31.
Yes. In Ephesians Paul is talking to Gentile believers. See Ephesians 2:11. They were strangers to the two covenants (the promises to Abraham and his seed, which you can see above is in Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah), and then the promises to the House of Israel on Mt. Sinai. I am not an expert on the covenants, but I do know that the Gentiles were without God and, therefore, fatherless before Christ came, just as the Jews became widows after Christ was crucified. See Romans 7:1-4. The Jews now, as afflicted widows, are being asked to marry ANOTHER MAN the one who was raised from the dead, Jesus Christ!!! See Romans 7:4. This is the NEW COVENANT. I could be wrong, but if I am, then what in the world is James talking about in James 1:27?
What everyone fails to understand in this discussion is that the Torah is a code and not just a collection of stories . So when we speak of commandments and Laws ( the word used in the Bible was actually utterances and not commandments) , we fail to see its deeper meaning and how it does affects until today.
There are secrets behind those stories that the kabbalists have been studying for centuries. And these secrets about how the universe works and our relationship with G_d and one another apply to all of humanity. The Zohar is the soul of the Torah, is what explains Torah at a “subatomic level” so to speak. And it will never be understood properly until humanity study Zohar.
I think who not only the jews were or are blesseds with the Law and the pact about a Mashia: I remember the words from God to Abraham, when say: ” In your seed will be blessed all the nations”, and if I am not wrong “all the nations” means just that: the whole people living on earth; then, each inhabitant on the world is under the law, at least in one part, according the learning who could have received, believing or not in Hashem and of course in Jesus, who came to fulfil the Law, not to abolish it.
I think who not only the jews were or are blesseds with the Law and the pact about a Mashia: I remember the words of God to Abraham, when say: ” In your seed will be blessed all the nations”, and if I am not wrong “all the nations” means just that: the whole people living on earth; then, each inhabitant on the world is under the law, at least in one part, according the learning who could have received, believing or not in Hashem and of course in Jesus, who came to fulfil the Law, not to abolish it.
I basically agree with the argument that The Sinai Covenant applies to Jews only and gives them a special distinctiveness. Gentile believers are not bound by all the commands of this Covenant, and should not try to ‘muscle in’ on it. However, contra Luther, the Ten Commandments apply to the goyim too. So what about the commandment to observe the Sabbath Day? Yes, the real Sabbath is yet to come, but we should still anticipate that rest by resting on one day in seven. But if Gentile believers keep the seventh-day sabbath, they are taking away from the distinctive nature of Jewish worship. Therefore it is better to observe the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week as the sabbath as far as Gentile believers are concerned. What do people think about this?
Sorry, I have to say something about this. I do believe we need to follow what the scripture says. Not attempt to rationalize our disobedience. I won’t get into all the laws of the Torah or whatever you can see that in my comments (long as they may be to the writer of the original article. At to the Sabbath, G-d only has one Sabbath day. Messiah rose at the end of the 3rd day. Being crucified on a Wednesday day go three 24 hour periods where does that put you? He rose at the end of the Sabbath, Saturday evening before sunset. No one saw Him until the next morning because no one was going to go out there at night. (sign of Jonah). Ephesians 2 we are Israel if we are in Messiah, the Sabbath is a sign between G-d and the children of Israel forever. Don’t attempt to change G-d’s word or Sabbath day, it isn’t going to work out well. The Messiah is said if you love me keep my commandments…… where does he list his commandments? You have to go back to Genesis, Levl., Numb., and Deut. To get His commandments. Remember, Yeshua is the image of the invisible G-d, so who did the 70 elders see, when they saw G-d on mount Sinai? Yeshua is the image of the invisible G-d. Also, remember this Judah (the Jews) are the leading tribe. They have kept the written Torah safe for us for thousands of years they are the tribe of the KING. They lead, into battle, into the Land. We honor them by following their good example of keeping Sabbath on it’s proper day. We do not need to keep any extra laws layed down by men about the Sabbath, but we should keep Sabbath as G-d instructs in the scriptures. (Not even the Catholic or any other church or any rabbi has the right to change G-d’s law.) Yeshua, and the apostles never changed the Sabbath. It still remains to this day, let us Honor G-d and love Him by keeping it. Let us honor our brothers the Jewish people by keeping it. That G-d may be glorified.