Vayakhel — "Synagogue," the Sabbath, and the Cost of Following Where God Leads

Moses Gathered the "Synagogue"

Parshat Vayakhel-Pekudei closes the book of Exodus — and it opens with a word most Christians completely miss. In the Septuagint, the earliest Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the second century B.C.E., the word used here for "congregation" is "synagogue." The word "synagogue" means "congregation." Moses gathered the congregation to give them instructions he received from the Lord.

In the early 1960's in the United States, most of the pastors carried in their suit pockets a leather-bound copy of the New Testament. During the two years that I was in high school in South Georgia, the preaching in the local church in Dasher was 99.9% only from the New Testament. This was true when I traveled through the Old South — Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Yet Yeshua and Paul and the other disciples of Yeshua continued to attend and participate and read from the Torah and from the prophets on the Sabbath day like all the other Jews in their world.

Yeshua went to the synagogues on the Sabbath day for two reasons — to pray and to read the Torah:

When Yeshua returned to the Galilee after the temptations by Satan, the news spread all over the Galilee and Yeshua was invited to teach in all the Jewish synagogues — because He was already well known and respected as a teacher of what we call today "the Old Testament." And the Apostle Paul followed the same pattern:

The Sabbath

I wonder why the command to rest on the Sabbath is so important that it is commanded so many times throughout Bible. In the Hebrew Bible, the Sabbath is mentioned 191 times. The command to keep the Sabbath Day is given 34 times, starting from Genesis and ending in Malachi. In the New Testament, the Sabbath is mentioned 12 times. And here, the very first command Moses gives after gathering the whole congregation is: you shall work six days. Not may work. Not if you want to work. Shall work.

There is no love without sacrifice and no sacrifice without giving from the heart. The Lord is presenting some of the most important things that these people of Israel need to know and do as they set forth on 38 years of wilderness wandering. This amazes me: it is the Sabbath and the contributions and sacrifice of the people of Israel that bonds these ex-slaves together and forges through suffering and sacrificing, twelve estranged tribes into a nation.

Where He Leads Me I Will Follow

The highest value of Western civilization in these years of the 21st century is freedom — freedom from everything that puts a demand on you. This "Now Generation" wants to live free from obligation, free from commitments. Many want to enjoy the privilege of being disciples of Yeshua but are perpetual visitors in the church and not willing to make commitments and follow. This spirit of a disciple that will follow his teacher all the way is just about lost in the teaching of the evangelical Protestant churches.

When I was a young believer in the USA, away from my family, long before there were messianic Jewish congregations in the world, one of the worship songs they sang often in the churches was, "Where He Leads Me I Will Follow":

The result of following the Lord as Israel did in the wilderness: the Lord fought their wars and gave them victory over enemies that were much better trained, bigger, and stronger. The Lord provided them with daily food from heaven, manna by day and quail for dinner. Their shoes did not wear out and their garments did not get worn down. They had divine judgment, arbitration, and intervention for their good — all the way to the amending of the Torah for the sake of individuals and families. What more could anyone want from a leader?

The prophet Jeremiah captures what God remembers about this period with striking tenderness:

And:

May we all learn to truly trust and to truly follow.