From: Eddie Chumney
To:      heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject: Chapter 4: Restoring the Two Houses of Israel


                                 CHAPTER 4

           THE SABBATH: OUR REST IS IN MESSIAH

                    from the book by Eddie Chumney

                "Restoring the Two Houses of Israel"

         Copies can be purchased for individual or group study by
         writing to me (Eddie Chumney) at: (chumney@hebroots.org)

                                        PART 2 of 3

                    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


                                       CHAPTER 4

           THE SABBATH: OUR REST IS IN MESSIAH


                    DISOBEDIENCE TO G-D'S WORD
                         KEEPS US FROM ENTERING
                          INTO HIS SABBATH REST

      The Sabbath (Shabbat) is a day of rest. In Genesis (Bereishit)
      2:2 it is written:

      "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made;
      and he rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had
      made."

      In the Bible, the G-d of Israel associates entering into His
rest with believing the written Torah/Word of G-d. In Isaiah
(Yeshayahu) 28:9-13 it is written:

      "Whom shall he teach knowledge? [which is the Torah/Word of G-d
      - Hosea 4:6] and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them
      that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For
      precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon
      line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For
      with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this
      people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause
      the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would
      not hear [shema]. But the word of the Lord was unto them precept
      upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon
      line; here a little, and there a little."

     The first occurrence of the word rest in Isaiah (Yeshayahu)
28:12 is the Strong's word 4496 in the Strong's Hebrew dictionary and
is the Hebrew word menuchah. The Hebrew word menuchah means, "an
abode, ease, quiet, resting place, a settled spot, peace, home."

     The G-d of Israel associates believing and trusting (emunah) in
Him and being obedient (shema) to His Torah/Word with entering into
His (Sabbath) rest. In Psalm (Tehillim) 95:7-11, it is written:

      "For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and
      the sheep of his hand. Today if ye will hear [shema] his voice,
      harden not your heart as in the provocation, and as in the day
      of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me,
      proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was I grieved with
      this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their
      heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my
      wrath that they should not enter into my rest."

      In Hebrew 3:7-19, 4:1-12 it is written:

      "Wherefore as the Holy Ghost [Ruach HaKodesh] saith, Today if ye
      will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the
      provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When
      your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty
      years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said,
      They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my
      ways. So I swore in my wrath, they should not enter into my
      rest. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in you an evil heart of
      unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one
      another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be
      hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made
      partakers of Christ [Mashiach], if we hold the beginning of our
      confidence steadfast unto the end; While it is said, Today if ye
      will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the
      provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit
      not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was he
      grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose
      carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swore he that they
      should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
      So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. Let
      us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering
      into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For
      unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the
      word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in
      them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into
      rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall
      enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the
      foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the
      seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from
      all his works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into
      my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter
      therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in
      because of unbelief: Again, he limited a certain day, saying in
      David, Today, after so long a time; as it is said, Today if ye
      will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus
      [Joshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have
      spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the
      people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also
      hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us
      labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after
      the same example of unbelief. For the word of God is quick, and
      powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to
      the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and
      marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the
      heart."

     Therefore, spiritually, we experience the Sabbath (Shabbat) rest
of the G-d of Israel when we obey (shema) and believe (emunah) the
Torah/Word of G-d and put our trust and confidence (emunah) in the
Jewish Messiah (Mashiach) Yeshua/Jesus.


                  THE MESSIAH IS OUR SABBATH REST

     Isaiah (Yeshayahu) 11:1, 10 speaks about the Messiah (Mashiach)
and the Word of G-d tells us that His rest (menuchah) shall be
glorious (kivod) as it is written:

      "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and
      a Branch shall grow out of his roots . and in that day there
      shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the
      people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest [menuchah]
      shall be glorious [kivod]."

      In Matthew (Mattityahu) 11:28-30 it is written:

      "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
      give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me: for I am
      meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
      For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

      In John (Yochanan) 14:23 it is written:

      "Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will
      keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come
      unto him, and make our abode with him."

      In Matthew (Mattityahu) 7:24-27 it is written:

      "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth
      them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house
      upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and
      the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not; for
      it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these
      sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a
      foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain
      descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat
      upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."


               THE SABBATH IS A SHADOW/BLUEPRINT
                                OF THE MESSIAH

     The Sabbath (Shabbat) is a spiritual shadow/blueprint given to us
by the G-d of Israel to teach us about the Jewish Messiah (Mashiach)
Yeshua/Jesus and the redemptive plan of the G-d of Israel for His
people. In Colossians 2:16-17 it is written:

      "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in
      respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath
      days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of
      Christ [Mashiach]."

            AFTER THE MESSIAH COMPLETED HIS WORK,
                                     HE RESTED

     The Jewish Messiah (Mashiach) Yeshua/Jesus came to the earth at
His first coming to be the suffering Messiah (Messiah ben Yosef). He
completed the work that G-d the Father sent (shaliach) him to do. In
John (Yochanan) 17:1, 4, it is written:

      "These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and
      said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son
      also may glorify thee . I have glorified thee on the earth: I
      have finished the work which thou gavest me to do."

     After the Jewish Messiah (Mashiach) Yeshua/Jesus completed the
work that G-d the Father sent (shaliach) Him to do by dying on the
tree/cross and coming to the earth to fulfill the role of the
suffering Messiah (Messiah ben Yosef), He sat down (rested) on the
right hand of G-d the Father. In Psalm (Tehillim) 110:1 it is written:

      "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I
      make thine enemies thy footstool."

      In Hebrews 1:1-3, 10:12-13 it is written:

      "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time
      past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days
      spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all
      things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the
      brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,
      and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had
      by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
      Majesty on high .But this man, after he had offered one
      sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God;
      From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
      footstool."


                         BOTH JEWS AND NON-JEWS
             ARE COMMANDED TO KEEP THE SABBATH

     Both the house of Judah (Judaism) and the house of Israel
(Christianity) are commanded by the G-d of Israel to keep His Sabbath
(Shabbat). In fact, the G-d of Israel promises great blessings to the
non-Jew/Christianity (house of Israel) who keeps His Sabbath
(Shabbat) and all those who are grafted into the family of the G-d of
Israel. In Isaiah (Yeshayahu) 56:1-8 it is written:

      "Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my
      salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
      Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that
      layeth hold on it: that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it,
      and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Neither let the son of
      the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak,
      saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people:
      neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus
      saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and
      choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;
      Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a
      place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will
      give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. Also
      the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to
      serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants,
      every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh
      hold of my covenant; Even them will I bring to my holy mountain,
      and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt
      offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine
      altar; for mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all
      people. The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel
      saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are
      gathered unto him."


             THE SABBATH IS PERSONIFIED AS A BRIDE

     Earlier in this chapter, it was seen that the Sabbath (Shabbat)
is personified in Jewish tradition (house of Judah) as a bride. The
G-d of Israel and the Jewish Messiah (Mashiach) Yeshua/Jesus is the
bridegroom of the house of Judah (Judaism) and the house of Israel
(Christianity). Once again, the Hebrew term for the Biblical / Jewish
marriage ceremony (kiddushin/betrothal) really means
"hallowing/sanctified." The Hebrew word for marriage
(kiddushin/betrothal) comes from the three letter Hebrew root (K =
Kaf, D = Dalet, SH = Shin). The Hebrew word for sanctified (6942 =
Kadesh) which comes from the Hebrew word for holy (6944 = Kodesh) is
also derived from the same three Hebrew root letters (K = Kaf, D =
Dalet, SH = Shin). Therefore, the traditional Jewish rabbis from the
house of Judah (Judaism), in