Exodus 35:1–38:20: A weekly reminder from Messiah Yeshua to ‘enter His rest’

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The skills of those who assembled the Tabernacle were a reflection of the One who gave them their skills. If those who made the tabernacle were not careful in their design and decoration of the tabernacle, it would have reflected poorly on Him.

It’s interesting that the Shabbat is embedded within the discussion of how the tabernacle was to be made. One of the key lessons Messiah Yeshua  taught us about Shabbat is that we are to keep any “traditions” of the elders in their proper context. They give us guidance into those things not explicitly noted in Scripture but they don’t supplant or replace scripture. They are not above the scripture. The “authority” of tradition is not above the authority of scripture.

These are a starting point to guide our conversation and our thoughts. A number of the things that the scribes and the pharisees racked the Messiah and His apostles over the coals about were arguments about tradition, not about the Law of Moses.

When you read the Sermon of the Mount (Matthew 5–7; Luke 6:20–49) and you see the phrase “You have heard it said … but I say to you…” are places were Messiah Yeshua is calling out those traditional interpretations that had sullied Scripture rather than upholding it.

Get our priorities straight when building a place for the LORD to dwell

“Then Moses assembled all the congregation of the sons of Israel, and said to them, ‘These are the things that the LORD has commanded you to do: For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day, a sabbath of complete rest to the LORD; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death. You shall not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the sabbath day.'” (Exodus 35:1–3 NASB)

This is where the discussion of the building of the Tabernacle starts. One of the main purposes of the Tabernacle is to be a gathering place to worship on the Shabbat.

In Hebrews 3–4, we read about rest, rest and more rest. A few chapters later, it discusses Yom Kippur. Shabbat and the Tabernacle fit together. The Shabbat is a ohel mo’ed — place of meeting — in time.

This reading ends with a discussion about the door of the Tabernacle. One question to ask yourself is: Are you going to enter in yourself? Do you actually want to go enter His home?

The Pharisees took what happened in the Priesthood and from the Temple into daily life. Strictly speaking, the only Shabbat commandment that would apply to us in the post-temple age is the prohibition against kindling fire.

The Shabbat is a time to pause and reflect about what work is to be done on the six days of the week vs. the Shabbat.

Paul says that each of us must be convinced in our own minds. This conversation is to help us have mercy and understanding of other people who might not keep Shabbat the way that we do. We are not to go out of our way to cause offense to those who keep the Shabbat differently than we do.

Here are the traditional categories of work that Jewish tradition discourages people from doing on Shabbat. We are to not thinking about what we have created or what we have done and instead what God has created and what He has done.

Looking at the sages and their understanding of work can help us consider how we have crept into our Shabbat. We often don’t think about how our actions can create “work” for others.  Do we demand others do thing that cause them not to have a restful Shabbat? Do we take away from someone else’s Shabbat with our demands?

Do we approach the Shabbat with dread or with anticipation? What do we do on Shabbat and during the rest of the week that separates us from Him?

The people who made the Tabernacle took their work serious. There was a great deal of workmanship that went into the tabernacle. It was a beautiful place.

39 types of Shabbat work

The Sages reasoned that the Shabbat prohibition, placed right before a discussion of the construction of the tabernacle, was a sign that the definitions of prohibited melachot were in Exodus 35–35. So 39 avot (“fathers”) of melachot were developed (m.Shabbat 7:2).

• Field to loaf: 11 actions
• Sheep to sheets: 13 actions
• Animal to leather and writing: nine actions
• Production: six actions

Field to loaf: 11 actions

Fieldwork: four

Animals

From Ex. 23:12 “ox and donkey may rest” came the direction not to ride donkeys on Shabbat.

Plowing (חורש)

This is preparing soil for seeds.

Sowing (זורע)

This is putting seeds into the soil.

Reaping (קוצר)

“even during plowing time and harvest” (Ex. 34:21 NASB)

In Matt. 12:1–2, the Pharisees were alarmed at the incidental harvesting that Yeshua and His Apostles did simply to alleviate hunger. Yeshua acknowledged that His students’ picking grain heads as they passed through was melachah, but He emphasized that their hunger took precedence, as it had during the time of David.

Grain processing: three

Yeshua’s closest students not only plucked grain but “threshed” it by rubbing it in their hands to remove the husks (Luke 6:1).

Binding sheaves (מעמר), i.e. harvesting procedures

Threshing (דש)

Winnowing (זורה)

Sorting (בורר)

Yeshua taught about sorting fish (Matt. 13:48).

Bread production: four

Grinding, milling, grating (טוחן)

Incense for the tabernacle had to be ground together, turning something whole into pieces.

An ancient instruction against using medicinal compounds on Shabbat may have been why Yeshua’s healing on Shabbat caused the backlash.

Sifting and straining (מרקר)

Kneading (לש)

Combining powder with liquid into a paste.

When Yeshua healed a blind man by spitting into the dirt and making mud, he was accused of not being from God because He broke Shabbat (John 9:16).

Sages were divided on whether applying eye salve was OK, but the consensus allowed it to save life but not existing conditions (b.Avodah Zarah 28b).

Cooking, boiling, baking and melting (אופה)

From Ex. 16:23 we see the instruction for baking, cooking and boiling manna ahead of Shabbat. The manna provided temporal sustenance but it did not provide everlasting life.

How this was applied in the first century can be seen in an early second century letter from Ignatius, an overseer criticizing believers who prepared food ahead of Shabbat:

“Let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner … not eating things prepared a day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and walking within a prescribed space, not finding delight in dancing and clapping, which have no sense in them.” (Magnesians 9:3)

Sheep to sheets: 13 actions

Wool production: five

Shearing (גוזז)

This has been extended to shaving and haircuts.

Washing (מלבן “bleaching”)

Washing dishes doesn’t involve cloth, but wringing the sponge or rag does.

Bathing and showering isn’t part of this melachah, but because of any hot water involved tradition has discouraged it.

Combing wool or cotton (מנפץ)

Dyeing (צובע)

Changing something’s color.

Spinning (טווה)

Weaving: four

Stretching the loom warp (מיסך)

Making two loops (עושה שני בתי נירין)

Setting up the woof of the loom. Extension: needlecraft, braiding, basket-making and net-making.

Weaving (אורג)

Separating two threads (פוצע)

Textile production: four

Tying (קושר)

Knots that will be holding for considerable time, like on a tent or sailing vessel. Tradition doesn’t count temporary knots such as shoelaces or neckties.

Untying (מתיר)

Reasoned as the reverse of prohibited tying. Sages specifically included untying of knots for animals to get water as allowed.

Yeshua touched on that in applying this allowance to healing on Shabbat:

“But the Lord answered him and said, ‘You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water him? And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for 18 long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?’” (Luke 13:15-16)

Sewing

Tearing

Animal to leather and writing: nine actions

Getting the hide: three

Trapping

Slaughtering

Skinning

Making leather: four

Tanning

Scraping

Cutting

Marking on the parchment: two

Writing

Erasing

Production: six actions

Building/demolishing: two

Building

Demolishing

Blacksmithing: three

Extinguishing

Burning fire

Finishing

This is completing a task.

Transporting: one

Carrying a load

An extension of this is buying and selling. This could be behind Paul’s instruction for the Corinthians to set aside money on the first day of the week because of the tradition against handling money and finances on Shabbat (1Cor. 16:2).

Marking (משרטט)

The Mishna doesn’t include marking or scoring surfaces for measurements among the 39 avot of melachot, but the Gemara considered it’s “salting” and “preparing” as the same task. So “marking” was added to bring the number back to 39.

Keeping the appointment with the LORD

In conclusion, God considers the Shabbat so important that even the mitzvot of building His house should not interfere with it.

God tells us how to worship and how we should not worship Him. God also tells us how we are to show our appreciation to Him. He tells us how He is holy and separate from us and how we are to be holy and separate from idolatry and evil.

He has set up appointments for us to meet with Him and we are to be happy and excited to show up to these appointments, not to think of them as a burden or a drudgery.

We are to be ambassadors of God to the world and to those in our immediate sphere of influence. Just as those who built the tabernacle went to great lengths to create a beautiful place for God to live, He will also take our tents and make them into a beautiful Tabernacle for His purposes.

Summary: Tammy.

Banner image: Public domain drawing posted on Breadsite.org: “We would not buy it of them on the sabbath.” (Nehemiah 10:31)