"Sign"
The Hebrew word is Owth (pronounced oath) and of the 79 times it is used in scripture, there are only a few times that this "sign" declares a covenant made by YHVH. That is significant.
When the word is used most often, it simply means a declaration of an event or a truth. In other words, YHVH told Moses to take the rod in his hand and he will do "signs" in Exodus 4. In Numbers 2, the children of Israel were to put the "sign" of their father's house in their designated area around the tabernacle. Joshua erected stones as a "sign" for the generations of children who would ask about the stories of their forefathers.
What makes the other few times the word is used significant, is that this "sign" declares a promise made by YHVH to man (ie: rainbow, circumcision, Sabbath) I don't know about you but when a Holy God reaches down to converse and instruct humanity, we had better listen don't you think? If we read nothing else in scripture, we read about the many times the children of Israel did not listen and the devastating consequences that followed. Are we so arrogant to believe that this would not happen to us for the same oversight? I fear we answer "yes" to that question and our own foolishness clouds our thinking. One of these days, probably very soon, the correct perspective (on our knees with our face to the ground) and proper fear of YHVH, God of heaven and earth, Creator of the universe and the reason we take our next breath, will be evident. He will see to it that we revere Him as we should. If we want to be identified as His, the only way to do that is to do what He says. My best advice is to do it now.
Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign H226 between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you. |
It is a sign H226 between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. |
And thou shalt bind them (Torah commands) for a sign H226 upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. |
And they (curses for not keeping commandments) shall be upon thee for a sign H226 and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever. |
Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign H226 between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them. |
For those of you who say the Sabbath no longer matters; or any day can now be the Sabbath; or Sabbath keeping is only for the Jews; or whatever excuse you have come up with or your pastor has taught you............. you, my friend, are not reading scripture for yourself. When a Holy God speaks, He does not change His Word. His Torah is eternal. His Word is everlasting. No one, not Yeshua, not Paul, not your minister, and certainly not Constantine has the right to change the Word of YHVH. And His Word has not changed; most have just declared it so. (Paul is being misquoted and misunderstood) However, this excuse will not hold up on judgment day. The Words by which all of us will be judged, are the Words of the Torah! Get out of the institutions of false teaching that teach LAWLESSNESS so that your Father may bless you and open your mind and heart to perceive and understand His Word (removing the veil of misunderstanding). Otherwise, the consequences WILL be devastating.
Hebrews 4 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. 4 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. 8 For if Y'shua had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remaineth therefore a SABBATH to the people of God. 10 For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His. 11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. |