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No work on Day of "Worship", Sabbath
Nehemiah 13:17 “What evil thing is this that you do, by which you profane the Sabbath day?“. Some translations rather don’t like the word “Sabbath” and they will remove it in most places, and rather use “the day of worship”.
The Hebrew word for Sabbath is Shabat H7676 – šabāṯ, and root word H7673 – šāḇaṯ, which literally in Hebrew means : to cease, to rest! That is it.. It is a REST Day, because Genesis 2:2-3 says, “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it..” And the very first command, even before the forbidden tree rule, everyone must rest. How amazing that we have a Rule.. a Law – You Shall Rest! And yes, this counts for the animals too, Exodus 20:10, “but the seventh day is the Sabbath of YHWH your Elohim. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.”
But for some reason.. people just love to work. Or perhaps the greatest temptation, is shopping and selling – money performs. And this is why Nehemiah is so upset.. how is he going to get these people to stop buying and selling, and working on the greatest and most important day ever?! He literally has to shut the gates and chase people away. Why can’t people just stop everything, forget about money for one day, and rest with our Creator – is it so hard?
But for those who have learned how to shut down, they will tell you, it is the most amazing and liberating thing ever! It is so rewarding and amazing to exit from the crazy world, stay at home, forget about work and money, and just relax. And not any day, it has to be the day YHWH the Creator commanded, He is Elohim and King, we cannot make our own days holy and more important than the day He Chose! Keeping Sabbath is not just about shutting off and chilling, but it is about submitting to the will of YHWH, to worship Him on His day – not our day. Do we have a heart of submission and to please our Father, or are we rebellious and behave like naughty children kicking and screaming “I want it my way”..?
Unequally yoked marriages
Nehemiah 13:26 “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? Yet among many nations there was no king like him, who was beloved of his God; and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless pagan women caused even him to sin.”
King Solomon is always praised for his wisdom, but few people know that because of Solomon’s pagan wives, Israel forgot about YHWH and served the pagan gods instead! The problem with marrying someone, especially a wife of another religion, is that the children are usually taught in the language, culture and religion of the wife. Which means, the children are lost to false gods, and there is no child to continue the teachings of YHWH. Both Ezra 10:1–44 and Nehemiah 13:23–31 tells this exact same story, and these men had to let the wifes and children go.
The term used in cases like these is “unequally yoked“, because a marriage should be seen like two animals that are placed together under one yoke. They are bound together, and they should work together towards the same goals. If one wants to keep going into another direction, the yoke will break at some point. If the one animal is built different that the other, the yoke will just not work as both will suffer in a bond that just doesn’t want to fit.
The concept of “unequally yoked” can be illustrated by the prohibition against plowing with an ox and a donkey together, as found in Deuteronomy 22:10 which says, “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together”. Deuteronomy 7:3-4 says, “Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of YHWH will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.” This law is explained throughout the stories of the old testament, like Exodus 34:15-16 also explain, that combining different kinds of animals or people that would result in spiritual conflict or a departure from YHWH’s path.
