Enjoy Your Shabbat!
Friday, December 9, 2011 (1:25 pm)
by George Whitten, Editor of Worthy Devotions
Hebrews 4:4-6 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:
The Hebrew word "Shabbat", what we call "the Sabbath" in English, means: "to rest". The ancient Hebrew word picture unfolds its meaning profoundly and even "prophetically". Shabbat is spelled "sheen"-"beit"-"tav".
This morning we looked at the word, "repent", which also means to "return". This word in modern Hebrew, "shoov", contains the same letters that begin the word "shabbat". As we analyzed the word "repent" yesterday, we learned that it means "to acknowledge that your old house is destroyed", and to go forth (without looking back).
Now today's word, "shabbat", ends with the letter "tav" which, you remember, represents a cross, and means, "covenant". So, a literal rendering of the letters in the word "shabbat" could read, "return to a covenant" – or "repent toward the cross"!
Isn’t it amazing that the word for "rest", in ancient Hebrew, "Shabbat", the day which all Jews love, wait for, and look forward to as a picture of the days of Messiah, — also points by its very letters, to "repentance toward the cross", the cross which gives us (and them) eternal rest?! Is this "coincidence" or "providence"? We see the Lord's Hand in it; His "writing on the wall", as it were. We pray you are enjoying these studies on the ancient Hebrew alphabet; enjoy your weekend – your "Shabbat", remembering the One who gave His rest to you through His finished work on the cross!
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