Within the regulations concerning the manna, there is something in the Torah which is brand new for us. We find it in this chapter, Exodus 16, where the first reference to the Shabbat, even before the giving of the Mosaic Law in chapter 20, which includes the 10 commandments and the mention of the Shabbat, is made. Notice that here the first mention is given in relationship to the manna itself. This is an important point that will help us connect to an even greater revelation of the Sabbath.
The first mention of or allusion to the Sabbath is given in vs.5 when it says, “On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” This is given without any prior explanation. It simply says, on the sixth day; but why mention six days? And then later in vs. 23 the word Shabbat appears for the first time in the Torah. This is what the Lord said to them, Tomorrow is a Shabbat observance, a holy Shabbat to the Lord. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning”.
Note that in this passage it is simply not the word Shabbat that we read: it is שַׁבָּת֧וֹן שַׁבַּת־קֹ֛דֶשׁ לַֽיהוָ֖ה, Shabbaton Shabbat Kodesh le Yaweh. This was a Shabbat Shabbaton. The word Shabbaton is used to describe the Shabbat when it falls out on the high holidays, specifically on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Succot (Tabernacles) and it designates the highest degree of rest. Perhaps this word Shabbaton is used here because it was the first time, as a nation, Israel was celebrating or commemorating the Shabbat.
And what is striking here is how that first mention of the Shabbat is directly related to Yeshua, and the manna. This is very telling because the true Shabbat in God can only be fully experienced when we are in Yeshua. This is what Exodus teaches us by linking the great miracle of the manna with the Messiah and with the Shabbat.
This gives clarity to better understand how Yeshua is Lord of the Shabbat as we read in Matthew 12:8. He is both the Creator of the Shabbat, the Dispenser of salvation and the Giver of that perfect rest we find in Him. One cannot separate the Shabbat from the Messiah; this is what Exodus teaches us. Yeshua does not only give us salvation, He gives us rest, a heavenly rest.
But we ask ourselves this. How could they have understood what the Shabbat was in Exodus 16 even before the law was mentioned in Exodus 20? It was not only the Israelites however, who knew about the Shabbat because other nations already had a connection to the idea of a special day. The Babylonians called it the Sabattu, and they had their own imu sabbatu, the Shabbat day. The Assyrians as well had a seven day week and their Shabbat was celebrated on the 15th of the month, on the full moon.
But the question still remains; how did they know about the concept of the Shabbat? We don’t know for sure, but there are some serious leads that can help us. Where does the idea of the Shabbat come from? While it is in Exodus 16 where we first encounter the word Shabbat, the verb itself is found in Genesis, right after the account of the creation. It is found in Genesis 2: 2-3. By the seventh day God completed 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, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
Here we have the word rested, שָׁבַת (šābat), found twice. It means to cease, desist, or rest. So God rested on the 7th day, and He also sanctified it. He made it holy and set apart, even from the creation. Perhaps it is from these early beginnings that the nations and Israel knew about it. Adam must have told all his children.
And what did God rest from? The chaos, the tohu ve bohu that we find in the Genesis 1:2. In the same way, we ought to sanctify this day to rest from this turbulent world and replenish our souls with God. Indeed, this day must have been so important to Adam, for he was in the Garden of Eden, in paradise, and he experienced the full rest.
Where does the Shabbat bring us? It brings us back to that lost hope, that nostalgia of paradise. This is where our eternal abode lies, waiting for us. This is heaven. The Greek word for paradise comes from the Hebrew pardes which describes a garden as we read in Song 4:13. In Luke 23:43, we read the Greek word for paradise that Yeshua uses to describe the abode for the believers. It was here when He told the man next to Him on the Tav that he would soon be with the Lord in paradise.
Later we are told that Paul himself was caught up in paradise (2Cor. 12:4) which by this time was already planted in heaven. After the fall, the Garden of Eden was closed off to man and was brought up to heaven. We remind ourselves of this as we remember what Yeshua promised in Revelation 2:7b, To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. This will happen in the New Jerusalem so at the core of the Shabbat is the hope and great expectation of that place which the Lord has prepared for us.
Meditating on this reality should be at least a weekly event, for it is truly therapeutic. The Shabbat is a time of rest, when we move away from all those things we do during the week, and focus on our relationship with God by thinking of our eternal abode, thus fulfilling our inner nostalgia for that lost paradise. Once you do that, there would be few things in life that could gravely affect you.
Click Here for the Teaching: Exodus Sermon 16: Lord over the Sabbath