Shabbat Violation The Torah helps to paint a picture of work and rest, slavery and freedom, which spiritually amounts to life and death. How so? In the Renewed Covenant book of Galatians, Rabbi Sha’ul tell us: "Don’t delude yourselves: no one makes a fool of God! A person reaps what he sows. Those who keep sowing in the field of their old nature, in order to meet its demands, will eventually reap ruin; but those who keep sowing in the field of the Spirit will reap from the Spirit everlasting life. So let us not grow weary of doing what is good; for if we don’t give up, we will in due time reap the harvest. Therefore, as the opportunity arises, let us do what is good to everyone, and especially to the family of those who are trustingly faithful." (6:7-10) The better first half of Leviticus chapter 25 uses harvest language, sowing and reaping, working and resting according to faith. To leave the ground unplowed for an entire year requires faith indeed—especially living in an agricultural land such as Isra'el! The guilty man was found gathering wood on the “day meant for resting”. Today, our faith lies in the fact that we have rested from our labors of self-righteousness. Before our faith in Messiah, we worked year after year to meet our own needs. Our harvest was the product of our own hands. Consequently, it was a harvest of death. Our “working” to be accepted by God, outside of genuine, Biblical trust in Messiah, could only result in death. But to place one’s trusting faithfulness in the atoning work of the Messiah Yeshua is to rest from one’s own labors! To be sure, without the faith of Messiah at work in our lives, we truly do not have a proper concept of Shabbat! To rest (the Sabbath) is to cease working in our own fields, and to begin "resting" in the fields of the Master! When we were in the world, we were "slaves" to sin! But now in Messiah Yeshua, we have experienced our spiritual Jubilee—our year of release from debt! We are no longer slaves to sin, and our wages are no longer death! We have been set free by the power of his Sabbath rest! What does the Torah say? "What the Messiah has freed us for is freedom! Therefore, stand firm, and don’t let yourselves be tied up again to a yoke of slavery." (Galatians 5:1) And again in another place, "So there remains a Shabbat-keeping for God’s people. For the one who has entered God’s rest has also rested from his own works, as God did from his. Therefore, let us do our best to enter that rest; so that no one will fall short because of the same kind of disobedience." (Hebrews 4:9-11) And finally, "Keep my Shabbats, and revere my sanctuary; I am ADONAI." (Leviticus 26:20 )