Why Is This Sabbath Different from All Other Sabbaths?

Shabbat shalom, dear friends!

Some time in the future this sabbath, known in the Christian world as “Holy Saturday,” will be a High Sabbath in Judaism.

In fact, it will be the highest of all sabbaths.

In Judaism, the “Great Sabbath,” Shabbat HaGadol, immediately precedes Passover.

But in the Christian faith, the Sabbath during Holy Week is called Holy Saturday, or more appropriately, the Great Sabbath, as it is known in Orthodox churches, when Messiah Yeshua lay in the grave.

Today is known in Christianity by various other names, such as Great Saturday and Holy Saturday.

The shabbat of Holy Week is also known as “Hallelujah Saturday” in Portugal and Brazil, “Glorious Saturday” in the Philippines, “Joyous Saturday” or “the Saturday of Light” among Coptic Christians in Egypt.

It’s fortunate that Holy Week and Passover this year converge because in the New Testament, Jesus died at Passover to fulfill many Bible prophecies.

Ezekiel 37:1-14 is read on the Passover Shabbat, which happens to be the Shabbat when Messiah Yeshua lay in the grave. God arranged that Jews worldwide read about bones coming to life – resurrection power!

In Genesis we read that God “rested on the Seventh (Sabbath) day.” It obviously cannot be taken in the literal sense that God needed rest. There is a deeper mystery. In the interpretation of the Christian Fathers and in the life of the Orthodox faith, God’s Sabbath is fulfilled in the Messiah, who rests in the tomb, after His death on the Cross from which He said, “It is finished.”

The Sabbath of God, His rest, was not a non-fruitful cessation of activity. As Adam slept and God removed from his side his rib and fashioned Eve, so too, Messiah “slept” in death and at the Cross, from His pierced side flowed blood and water, the Eucharist and Baptism, from which God forms the Lord’s bride, his Church.

Additionally, in His journey into death, on Holy Shabbat Jesus “trampled down death by death,” and gained victory for all through His resurrection. The Eastern Orthodox Church has a major service on the morning of Holy Saturday in which the Lord’s descent into Hades is remembered and His victory over death and Hell is celebrated. [Art is by Fra Angelico, the Great Sabbath and the Harrowing of Hell.]

After his death, the soul of Jesus descended into the realm of the dead. The Harrowing of Hell (“the descent of Christ into Hell”) is the triumphant descent of the Lord into Hell (or Hades) between the time of his Crucifixion and his Resurrection.

The Lord Jesus brought salvation to all of the righteous who had died since the beginning of the world. This doctrine is included in the Apostles’ Creed and the Athanasian Creed. On Holy Saturday, Jesus was active spiritually, having descended into Hades and having preached in Hell (1 Peter 3: 18-20), conquering death.

Surely within Israel, when revelation of Messiah comes, Holy Saturday will be THE most PROFOUND and HOLY of all shabbats, the MOST HIGH SABBATH, remembering when the Redeemer lay in the grave, having COMPLETED the work of Atonement for time and eternity.

This revelation of the holy Super Shabbat is a matter of prophetic prayer.

Shabbat shalom, Lord Yeshua!

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