Beware of the "Lunar Sabbath"
(last updated, 4/3/14)
Note: This article on the Lunar Sabbath is completely original and was initially written & posted in 2008. You may find that
other ministries have used this article in various ways as well, and that's fine. They have my permission.
If you are new to the understanding of keeping Yahweh's Sabbath, you probably have never heard of "Lunar Sabbaths." But it is pretty likely that you will eventually find someone who practices and teaches it. Just as the traditional Christian Sabbath departs from keeping the Sabbath on the day that Yahweh made holy, so does the Lunar Sabbath. This study is written to help equip the body of Messiah with a scriptural basis of keeping the Sabbath on the 7th day of every week, and to establish why any deviance from that is unscriptural.
Bias & ulterior motives
When studying out this subject I tried to be as objective as possible, not caring one way or another if I have to change anything I believe. I would not be negatively affected the Lunar Sabbath doctrine were true. Because I have been self-employed, I would have no problem at all with resting on any day of any week if I needed to change it. Also, I do not have a denominational hierarchy of men to answer to, and I'm not part of any man-made organization. I like to be free to study and learn the truth, and apply it to my life without hindrance. May Yahweh have mercy on all of us.
From 2004 to 2007 I hosted a discussion on this topic in a private forum. During that time there were over 5500 contributions by various individuals seeking to promote and/or discredit the Lunar Sabbath doctrine. In my efforts to find the truth, I wanted to be sure I had heard all the evidence. But in spite of all the discourse, I didn't see a single post that would prove the Lunar Sabbath doctrine to be true. Rather, quite to the contrary.
What constitutes proof?
I have found that there are different levels of what constitutes "proof" in the mind of individuals. Some require just a little bit of evidence to support a doctrine or belief, while others require a lot of evidence to support a doctrine or belief. But it is very important that we rely on real evidence to support our belief rather than an interpretation of evidence. In my mind, the evidence used to "prove" the Lunar Sabbath doctrine relies on a person to already be predisposed to believing in the Lunar Sabbath in order to interpret the evidence in such a way that supports their doctrine.
I've found that in order to really believe in the Lunar Sabbath doctrine, one would need to rely on a certain level of (highly interpretive) evidence rather than real "proof." Yet, strung throughout some Lunar Sabbatarian literature are very strong terms such as "conclusive proof." When examining this "conclusive proof," it becomes clear that the evidence offered is far from proof, let alone conclusive. We should beware of someone's broad-brushed use of terms like this and be a good judge of whether or not what they offer is really "proof." It's easy to be swayed by such strong terminology, so we should be willing to make our own judgments about whether or not their evidence really is "proof."
So at the heart of where we stand regarding this doctrine is determining "what truly constitutes a scriptural fact," and what is merely a surmising, or a theory which requires one believe a series of "possibilities" rather than real facts.
What is the Lunar Sabbath?
The Lunar Sabbath ignores the current weekly 7 day cycle in use today and uses the moon to determine when a new week begins and ends. So rather than observing the Sabbath on the 7th day of a recurring, uninterrupted 7 day week, Lunar Sabbatarians restart a weekly 7 day cycle near the beginning of each lunar month. A lunar month follows the phases of the moon rather than the 30-31 day calendar in use today.
Yahweh's annual feast days are indeed determined by certain days of certain lunar months. Starting from the crescent phase of the moon, Yahweh's Passover is on the 14th day of the first month of each year. But Lunar Sabbath keepers believe that the regular Sabbath falls on certain days of every month. They choose to keep the regular Sabbath on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th day of every lunar month. A few do it on the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th days of each lunar month but for the sake of simplicity we will address those who keep it on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th days. Here is an illustration to help clarify:
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Lunar Month |
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1 |
2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | ||
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | ||
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
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Because the Lunar Sabbath ignores the current weekly cycle in use today, their Sabbath may fall on any day of our modern week. It depends completely and solely on the moon phases. One major problem that Lunar Sabbath keepers face is the fact that there are extra days in the month which prevent them from being able to keep the Sabbath every seven days.
The moon moves through one complete cycle (new moon, first quarter, full moon, last quarter, conjunction) in approximately 29.5 days (See graphic to the right). Since we cannot split a day in half, this means that some lunar months will last 29 days, but other lunar months will last 30 days.
So what do Lunar Sabbath keepers do on the 1st and 30th days of each month?
This is where some may differ. While everyone calls them "New moon days," some keep them as an extension of the Sabbath day on the 29th. This presents a problem though because there are scriptures which show men building (Exodus 40) and traveling (Ezra 7:9) on the new moon day. Also, it is not commanded anywhere that we must rest on any new moon day except the new moon day of the 7th month. The new moon on the 7th month is the Feast of Trumpets. This new moon would be what scripture alludes to in Amos 8:5 when some couldn't sell their grains on the new moon day.
Others only refrain from commerce or employment on those days but are free to do all other manner of work such as mowing the lawn, gardening, digging ditches, building houses, traveling, and doing housework. What this would essentially mean is they don't truly get a day of rest every seven days. They would have to wait for up to nine days to get a true day of rest.
Consider again the example of Ezra:
Ezra 7:9 - For upon the first day of the first month began he to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his Elohim upon him.
Ezra began his journey away from Babylon on the first day of the first month. On his way he stopped by in Ahava (an unknown city) and met with others who joined him on the way to Jerusalem, but his actual departure date from Babylon was on the 1st day of the 1st month.
If we were to believe in the Lunar Sabbath, Ezra would either be violating the Sabbath/New moon day of rest. At a minimum he would not be getting adequate rest on the 1st day of the month. And since a Lunar Sabbatarian doesn't rest again until the 8th day of the month, he would have engaged in strenuous physical activity until the 8th day, giving him what is essentially a "Work 7 days and rest on the 8th" principle. And actually, according to the Lunar Sabbath belief, he could have lawfully walked for 8 days (from the 30th of the previous month to the 8th of the following month), before finally getting rest on the 9th day of the month. Thus he could engage in strenuous activity for 8 days and finally get some rest on the 9th day. How can this be biblical?
It simply isn't. This is a clear example where Yahweh's command to work six days and rest on the seventh would be ignored at the end of every month.
"Moedim" scriptures proving Lunar Sabbaths?
The Lunar Sabbath doctrine is primarily founded upon three key scriptures. These three scriptures are foundational to the Lunar Sabbath believer, and they will be prominently quoted on their web sites and study papers when trying to prove their doctrine. One Lunar Sabbatarian says they are the "strongest points" for this doctrine, and most others seem to agree.
Since they are considered to be the strongest points, we should look to see if they are effective in establishing any facts. The first scripture is found in the book of Genesis:
Genesis 1:14 Then Elohim said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years;
A Lunar Sabbath believer will quickly point out that the moon, being one of the lights in the firmament of heaven, was created for "seasons." The word translated "seasons" in this scripture is the Hebrew word "Moedim," which most everyone will agree means "Appointed times."
Here is the Strong's Lexicon entry:
4150 mow`ed mo-ade' or moled {mo-ade'}; or (feminine) moweadah (2Chronicles 8:13) {mo-aw-daw'}; from 3259; properly, an appointment, i.e. a fixed time or season; specifically, a festival; conventionally a year; by implication, an assembly (as convened for a definite purpose); technically the congregation; by extension, the place of meeting; also a signal (as appointed beforehand):--appointed (sign, time), (place of, solemn) assembly, congregation, (set, solemn) feast, (appointed, due) season, solemn(-ity), synagogue, (set) time (appointed).
Now we will look at the second key scripture, the introduction to Yahweh's appointed times in Leviticus 23:
Leviticus 23:1-3 And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2 "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'The feasts <Heb. word #4150> of Yahweh, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts <4150>. 3 ' Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of Yahweh in all your dwellings.
The word translated "feasts" in verse 2 is the Hebrew word "Moedim," the plural form of "Moed." Notice that the weekly Sabbath is chiefly listed among the "moedim." This is a very important scripture to the Lunar Sabbath believer. For them, it proves that the moon must be involved in setting the time of the weekly Sabbath. Since the Sabbath is listed as one of the "moedim" along with the other festivals such as Passover and the Feast of Weeks later on in this chapter, and Genesis 1:14 says the moon is for the "moedim," the logic of Lunar Sabbatarians is that the moon must also be used to determine the regular weekly Sabbath.
Let's now move onto the third and final scripture which Lunar Sabbath believers use as the "strongest points" for their belief:
Psalm 104:19 He appointed the moon for seasons <Heb. word #4150>; The sun knows its going down.
Again, we have the Hebrew word "Moedim" in this verse, translated "seasons." For them, this scripture puts to rest any argument that the moon is not used to determine the weekly Sabbath, because it is among the "moedim."
On the surface, this might sound like pretty sound logic:
1) The moon is for "moedim."
2) The regular Sabbath is called a "moedim" in scripture.
3) Therefore, the moon must somehow be used determine the regular Sabbath.
However, the above logic is not based on all the facts. It is important that we base our beliefs on the full counsel of Yahweh, and not on what "sounds plausible" from just looking at a few scriptures and assuming we have the truth.
In reality, this logic does NOT center around the understanding that the moon is for "moedim." This logic actually centers around the belief that the moon must be used in setting ALL "moedim." It is very important to understand the difference.
If there are any examples in scripture where the moon is not used to determine a "moedim," then their entire argument will fall to the ground. Why? Because if we have examples in scripture where the moon is not involved in setting some "moedim," it proves that the moon doesn't necessarily need to be involved in the weekly Sabbath either.
So let's take a look:
Judges 20:38 Now the appointed signal <4150> between the men of Israel and the men in ambush was that they would make a great cloud of smoke rise up from the city,
In the above scripture, the word "moed" is translated "appointed signal." It comes from the same Strong's lexicon word number. Contextually, the appointed signal was making a cloud of smoke rise up from the city. No moon required. Obviously we can't use the moon to light a fire.
Here the word is translated "appointed time:"
Numbers 28:2-4 "Command the children of Israel, and say to them, 'My offering, My food for My offerings made by fire as a sweet aroma to Me, you shall be careful to offer to Me at their appointed time. <4150> ' 3 "And you shall say to them, 'This is the offering made by fire which you shall offer to Yahweh: two male lambs in their first year without blemish, day by day, as a regular burnt offering. 4 'The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, the other lamb you shall offer in the evening,
This is describing a daily sacrifice in the temple or tabernacle. There were two lambs were offered daily, one in the morning and the other in the evening. Yahweh says, "you shall be careful to offer to Me at their appointed time <4150>." The "appointed time" or "moed" here is morning and evening. The moon is not involved in determining the morning or evening, yet these are called "moedim." This clearly demonstrates that some of Yahweh's "moedim" do not involve the moon at all.
It is true that Yahweh did appoint the moon for "moedim," but obviously not ALL of Yahweh's "moedim" as Lunar Sabbath keepers indicate. Therefore, their assertion that ALL of Yahweh's "moedim" must involve the moon (and thus the Sabbath must also involve the moon) is simply not true.
To prove this point even further, consider the context of Psalm 104:19:
Psalm 104:18-19 The high hills are for the wild goats; The cliffs are a refuge for the rock badgers. 19 He appointed the moon for seasons; The sun knows its going down.
If we choose to follow the belief of Lunar Sabbath keepers, it becomes evident that they are adding to Yahweh's inspired word when they say Yahweh "appointed the moon for ALL 'moedim and ALL 'moedim' must involve use the moon.'"
To prove this notion wrong, we need only check the context of Psalm 104:19. Take a moment and notice closely the previous verse, which uses a similar kind of sentence structure. It says, "the high hills are for the wild goats." For a Lunar Sabbath keeper to be consistent in his belief, consider the problem here:
IF: Yahweh "appointed the moon for ALL 'moedim and ALL 'moedim' must involve use the moon."
THEN (by the same logic): Yahweh has also made "the high hills for ALL wild goats and ALL wild goats must use high hills"
Of course, this is ridiculous but it demonstrates the fallacy of being so dogmatic that ALL 'moedim' involve use the moon.
What we're looking at here in Psalm 104 is Hebrew poetry, not dogmatic, legalistic statements. Otherwise, you could even go on to verse 20 and find that ALL the beasts of the forest need to wake up and creep about at least once every night.
In summary, the assertion that all of Yahweh's "moedim" must use the moon is simply not true. The meaning of the word "Moedim" in Hebrew is broader than Lunar Sabbath keepers make it out to be, and when you examine their very rigid interpretation of Psalm 104:19 more closely, it defies the basics of common sense.
We do need to be careful about things like this. Anyone can pull a scripture out of context here or there and it might appear to fit their theology. But in order to fully understand the meanings of Hebrew words, we need to consistently examine the meaning and context of various scriptures. When we do this, the true meanings come to light.
So for me, all of this begs the question, "If these scriptures are the 'strongest points for the Sabbath by the moon,' and the interpretation given is obviously quite groundless, what does that say about their weaker points?"
In the absence of any scriptures telling us that the moon must be involved in the weekly Sabbath, there is no real scriptural basis for Lunar Sabbath keeping.
Pinpointed Sabbaths proving Lunar Sabbaths?
The second of the "strongest points for Sabbaths by the moon" are the places in scripture that speak of Yahweh's Sabbath occurring on days of the month that Lunar Sabbatarians identify as the Lunar Sabbath. However, I don't see why it would even be a strong point to begin with. The Lunar Sabbath will agree with the 7th day Sabbath once out of every 7 months or so. This is almost twice a year on average. The fact that one of them would be mentioned in scripture proves absolutely nothing.
For a Lunar Sabbath doctrine to really be established, one would need to prove that the Sabbath was on particular day of the lunar month for two or more months in a row. Because the Lunar Month is 29 or 30 days, this would be impossible with the recurring weekly cycle. But, in spite of valiant efforts by Lunar Sabbatarians, they have yet to prove it has ever happened in scripture. If anyone thinks that they have, feel free to contact me.
In my own examination of their claims, there are only one or two places in scripture that one might be able to prove Yahweh's Sabbath fell on a particular day of the month.
The first one appears when you examine Exodus 16:1 which places the completion of Israel's journey to the Wilderness of Sin on the 15th day of the 2nd month:
Exodus 16:1 And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt.
It might be assumed that Yahweh began to send His manna on the following day. This assumption comes from verse 22 where He told them to gather twice as much on the sixth day:
Exodus 16:22-23 And so it was, on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. 23 Then he said to them, "This is what Yahweh has said: 'Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to Yahweh. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.' "
Assuming that "the sixth day" is the sixth day that manna fell rather than a reference to the sixth day of the week, this would place the seventh day Sabbath on the 22nd day of the month. But this would be an assumption that we cannot prove.
This would also pose a problem. If the 22nd is indeed a Sabbath, this would mean that the 15th (7 days prior) would also be a Sabbath. But if congregation of Israel had actually arrived on the 15th day of the month (Exodus 16:1), they would have either been traveling on a small part of the day, or at least needed to set up camp after arrival. This would potentially involve a lot of work.
Either way, even if we could find a scripture where the Sabbath happens to fall on the 22nd day of the month, this does not prove the Lunar Sabbath doctrine. As I previously mentioned, this can take place nearly twice a year on average.
Incidentally, these passages do more damage to the Lunar Sabbath doctrine than help. Notice that Yahweh gave Manna for six days but withheld Manna on the Sabbath:
Exodus 16:24-30 So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. 25 Then Moses said, "Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to Yahweh; today you will not find it in the field. 26 "Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there will be none." 27 Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. 28 And Yahweh said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? 29 "See! For Yahweh has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day." 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.
Notice that it says, "How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? "See! For Yahweh has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days." Yahweh was trying to teach them which day the Sabbath was by giving them bread for two days. They were sent enough Manna to last two days, the 6th and 7th days of the week, so they would not need to gather any on the Sabbath.
With the Lunar Sabbath, such a principle falls into trouble at the end of the lunar month. Did Yahweh give triple or quadruple the amount of Manna so that Israel could keep the 29th, 30th and 1st day of the following month? Or, did He rain the double portion of Manna on the 28th day of the month and allow them to collect Manna again on the 30th day and 1st day of the following month?
Either way would conflict with the principle that Yahweh was teaching in Exodus 16. Either Yahweh would have to send a quadruple portion on the 28th day to cover the 28th, 29th, 30th and 1st day (they might be up to their knees in Manna!), or He potentially sends Manna for the 7-8 days following the 29th day of the Lunar month (which conflicts with the principle "Six days you shall gather it.")
The second place in scripture where it might be demonstrated that there was a Sabbath on one of the Lunar Sabbath days is during the week that Yahushua died on the tree. The day after His death was clearly some kind of Sabbath:
John 19:30-31 So when Yahushua had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!" And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. 31 Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
We know that Yahushua was killed on the day of Passover, which would be the 14th day of the 1st month. If we believe the above Sabbath to be a weekly Sabbath, that would indeed place the 15th day of the 1st month on a Sabbath. However:
Matthew 12:40 "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
If Yahushua was speaking here of His time in the grave, and we take the expression "three days and three nights" literally rather than understanding it as an idiomatic expression, we cannot say that Yahushua died on the 6th day of the week. Personally, I believe He died on the 5th day of the week, but Lunar Sabbatarians would be required to place His death on the 6th day of the week because the evening after He died was a Sabbath.
Even if it was true that Yahweh's Sabbath fell on the 15th day of the month, this does not prove it was always on the 15th day of the month. Despite this, Lunar Sabbath keepers regard these "pinpointed Sabbaths" and the dogmatic "Sabbath is a Moed" we discussed earlier to be, as one person puts it, the two "strongest points for Sabbath by the moon."
All I can say is that such a threshold for establishing the truth of a doctrine is way too low, especially for something as important as keeping the fourth commandment! The basis upon which we make statements as if they are "fact" is very important. If someone is able to state something as fact when facts haven't really been established, this speaks to the mentality with which they are approaching the topic to be quite suspect. When we make a statement of fact, we must have proof to support it. But even in their two "strongest points," there really isn't much strength to them at all.
Scriptures which declare the real Sabbath
A real problem with the Lunar Sabbath doctrine is a lack of a clear explanation anywhere in scripture. It would be different if there were two scriptures that seemed to contradict one another and we were trying to figure out why that seemed to be. But there is nothing in the weekly Sabbath pattern that contradicts the scriptures.
I don't believe anyone reading the Sabbath commandment in Leviticus 23, or Exodus 20 alongside the creation account is going to come up with a "Lunar Sabbath" doctrine. There is no commandment anywhere in the scriptures which says:
"On the day following the new moon of each month, six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of Yahweh your Elohim. You shall do this for four weeks. Then, depending on whether the new month has started, you shall not engage in commerce or paid work for 1 or 2 days. Then you shall reset your week into the 'Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest' pattern."
Obviously, Yahweh never said any such thing, but this is the actual commandment that most Lunar Sabbath keepers follow. This is nothing more than a commandment of men because it is not found in the scriptures anywhere.
Let's remember that Yahweh said:
Deuteronomy 12:32 "Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.
The lack of such a command is, in my mind, quite damaging to the Lunar Sabbath doctrine. It basically means we need to assume that Yahweh thought people knew these things already, and always would, so He didn't need to explain it.
But...
If Yahweh was expecting man to work six days and keep the Sabbath on the seventh day on an uninterruptible recurring pattern, it would be easy to see that all He needed to do was command us to do our work for six days and rest on the seventh -- no further explanation needed.
And that's exactly what He did:
Exodus 20:9-10 "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of Yahweh your Elohim."
Exodus 23:12a "Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest."
Exodus 31:15 "Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to Yahweh."
Exodus 31:17 "It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.' "
Exodus 34:21 "Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest;"
Exodus 35:2 "Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh day shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of rest to Yahweh"
Deuteronomy 5:13-14 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of Yahweh your Elohim.
If we start without any fanciful ideas, and just take the scriptures for what they say, not adding anything to it, we could only arrive at the understanding that Yahweh's Sabbath falls on an uninterruptible seven day (weekly) rotation. There really isn't room for any other possible interpretations. Six days you labor, and you rest on the seventh. Once the seventh day is finished, you work another six days and rest on the seventh.
To further illustrate that a recurring pattern was intended, let's go back to the beginning of creation and find the Sabbath that Yahweh Himself established.
As we know, Genesis 1 details six days that Yahweh used to create the heavens and the earth. Each of those days consisted of an "evening and morning." Yahweh said that each of the "evenings and mornings" were specific days of a week.
When the seventh day came in Genesis 2, Yahweh said that He rested from his work, then blessed and sanctified that day:
Genesis 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day Elohim ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then Elohim blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which Elohim had created and made.
Later, when giving the Ten Commandments, Yahweh said:
Exodus 20:8-11 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of Yahweh your Elohim. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
Now, please pay close attention to what Yahweh has said. He blessed and sanctified one day. Twice He called it "the Sabbath day" and twice He called it "the seventh day."
Meditate on this a moment:
The fact that Yahweh blessed and sanctified one specific day... clearly demonstrates that a cyclic pattern is to follow. If that cyclic (recurring) pattern is ever interrupted by extra days, the one specific day (the 7th day) disappears!
If Yahweh wanted to sanctify and bless the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th days of the month, He would need to say that He blessed and sanctified specific days of the month. In other words, the blessing and sanctifying would have been in the context multiple days of a lunar month, not one specific day of a 7 day week. Thus, the fact that there is one particular day called "the Sabbath day" demonstrates that you can't interrupt the week.
To further illustrate this, let's go back to the beginning and look at things from Adam's perspective.
Yahweh had just created the heavens and the earth in six days. Adam observes Yahweh blessing and sanctifying a particular day of the week--the Sabbath day. All was beautiful and perfect.
Now what?
The following day is obviously going to be a day for fulfilling Yahweh's command to work in the garden. If we were Adam, what would we do if six "evenings and mornings" go by? Obviously, we keep holy the seventh day, the one specific day that Yahweh commanded be kept holy.
Then what? We have additional evenings and mornings coming so what do we do? The obvious choice is that we work six more and rest on the seventh day. The recurring seven day week cycle is born from the moment Yahweh rested on the seventh day and told man to do the same. It is very obvious and not difficult to understand at all.
Now suppose Yahweh instituted the Lunar Sabbath at creation. After 3 weeks of following a recurring 7 day week with observing the one specific day that Yahweh called the Sabbath, six more "evenings and mornings" go by and what do we do? We rest again on one specific day, the seventh day.
Then what? This is where even Lunar Sabbatarians differ from one another. Some say, if we were Adam we would rest on the eighth day, and then rest the ninth day also if the moon isn't in new yet. But for what reason? This doesn't fit any pattern that Yahweh set forth in creation. We would no longer be keeping "the Sabbath" on that one specific day, the seventh day. To allow that pattern to be interrupted is to walk away from keeping the Sabbath on the one specific day that Yahweh made holy, the seventh day!
Other Lunar Sabbatarians would say that Adam would have only needed to refrain from commerce and/or working for money on the eighth and ninth days. But in Adam's day, there wasn't anyone around to buy or sell to, and there certainly wasn't anyone to pay Adam for any work.
In fact, with this understanding Adam could have resumed his tending of the garden of Eden on the day after the Sabbath and would continued his work in the garden for a total of 7 or 8 days, then rested on the ninth day. The fact that he could continue working in the garden for 7 or 8 days violates the pattern that Yahweh set forth in Genesis. The seventh day passes by and is ignored with this understanding of Sabbath keeping.
The truth is, Yahweh didn't rest two days and He didn't rest for three days. He didn't say to do a half-rest for one day or two days following the 4th Sabbath of the month. This is a commandment of men. Yahweh made one specific day holy and one day only. He worked for six days and rested on the seventh day. It is His pattern that we are supposed to be following when it comes to keeping the holy Sabbath, as He said here:
Exodus 20:11 For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
It says "Yahweh blessed the seventh day and hallowed it." Notice it does not say "Elohim blessed the seventh day, and sometimes the eighth and ninth days are blessed and sanctified too, depending on whether or not the new moon has shown up yet."
There is only one day out of the week that Yahweh sanctified, and that is the seventh day of the week. There is no such thing as an eight day week or a nine day week. If there were, the pattern established at creation is thrown into confusion. A Sabbath could last not one day, but one, two or possibly three days--thereby causing the one day sanctification pattern to disappear. If one chooses to work for 7 or 8 days rather than rest on the extra days, it causes the seventh day sanctification pattern to disappear.
In acknowledgement of this contradiction, some Lunar Sabbath observers have started referring to the leftover days at the end of the month as "non-days." In other words, those days at the end of the month aren't really days at all. They're just nothing.
Of course, this is all they really can say.
But we know from Genesis 1 that a day consists of an evening and a morning. The days at the end of Yahweh's months are days with an evening and a morning, no matter how hard you try to ignore it. Two or three "evenings and mornings" are going by, so they are indeed "days." We can't just hide our heads in the sand and pretend they don't exist so that we can continue to believe what we want.
The truth is, the concept of a week extending to 8 or 9 days is foreign to scripture. In fact, it is a direct contradiction of scripture. In Hebrew, the number seven and the word translated "week" are both rooted in the same Hebrew root verb which simply means "seven."
The Strong's Lexicon defines "week" (#7620) as:
7620 shabuwa` shaw-boo'-ah or shabuan {shaw-boo'-ah}; also (feminine) shbu.ah {sheb-oo-aw'}; properly, passive participle of 7650 as a denominative of 7651; literal, sevened, i.e. a week (specifically, of years):--seven, week.
And the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament states:
Shabua - period of seven, a week, the Feast of Weeks. This term occurs twenty times in the OT, always indicating a period of seven. Indeed, the word obviously comes to us from sheba (q.v.) and could literally be translated always as "seven-period."
Notice that this reference says "Shabua" is derived from "Sheba"7651, the word translated "Seven" all throughout the scriptures:
7651 sheba` sheh'-bah or (masculine) shibrah {shib-aw'}; from 7650; a primitive cardinal number; seven (as the sacred full one); also (adverbially) seven times; by implication, a week; by extension, an indefinite number:--(+ by) seven(-fold),-s, (-teen, -teenth), -th, times). Compare 7658.
"Shabua" is just another form of the same word. "Sheba" is translated "seven" over 350 times in the KJV scriptures.
Clearly the word "week" cannot be separated from the number seven. The entire reason a "week" is called a "shabua" is because it always contains seven days. This being the case, a week cannot be 8 or 9 days.
As we read in the Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, the very word translated "week" literally means "seven-period." It would be a contradiction to say in Hebrew "an eight day week" because you would need to say "an eight day seven-period." Just like a "dozen" always means twelve in our language, a "week" always means seven in Hebrew.
Thus, an 8 or 9 day week is totally foreign to the scriptures. To create one is to add to Yahweh's word. Of course, their solution is to not count those days, and call them "non-days" because that's all they can really say. Their pat answer is "those days aren't included in the count." How convenient!
Scripture says that the opposite. Scripture says that an "Evening and morning" are one day. And one of the days they refer to as being a "non-day" is called a "day" in this verse:
Haggai 1:1-2 In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day <3117, "yom"> of the month, the word of Yahweh came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, 2 "Thus speaks Yahweh of hosts, saying: 'This people says, "The time has not come, the time that Yahweh's house should be built." ' "
With such logic, there are 1-2 days in a month where you aren't even living within the context of a week. On the 30th day of the month and the 1st day of the month, the week ceases to exist! The days are coming and going, but you need to pretend like they aren't there.
The truth is, if a week is interrupted by extra days, we are no longer keeping the Sabbath on "the seventh day." If we change the pattern that Yahweh set forth in creation, we are departing from Yahweh's example and keeping the Sabbath on some other day. The Sabbath would no longer be on "the seventh day."
Lunar Sabbath keepers wait on the day after the new moon to restart the week every month. But if weeks are determined by moon phases, this would mean that Yahweh would have needed to create the earth, create the moon, put it in orbit and maybe even wait for a day after the new moon before starting the first week!
But the moon wasn't even made and given its place in the heavens until the 4th day:
Genesis 1:16-19 Then Elohim made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 Elohim set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And Elohim saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
So there was no sun to even give light on the earth, and no moon to reflect that light on the earth (thereby creating the moon phases) until the 4th day of the week. If we were to believe that each week is determined by the moon phases, this would be yet another direct contradiction.
If Yahweh wanted to set a pattern of Lunar Sabbath keeping for us, and the pattern is to be found in His creation of the world, why would He not create the world in one lunar month, not resting every seventh day but resting on certain days of the month so that we have an accurate pattern of Sabbath keeping to go by?
Of course, Yahweh could have created the heavens and the earth in an instant, but instead He set in motion the concept of a "week" so that we would follow His example in working six days and resting on the seventh. The Lunar Sabbath violates this pattern at the end of every month by doing physical labor six days and resting on the 7th, 8th and possibly 9th days -OR- doing physical labor 7 to 8 days and resting on the 9th day.
Leviticus 23:3 'Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of Yahweh in all your dwellings.
The most logical and clear choice here is to do just what Yahweh said. Work six days and rest on the seventh. This is the pattern given for us in the scriptures.
Yahweh never specified certain days of the month for His regular Sabbath, but a specific day of the month is given for each of His feast day Sabbaths. Does this not speak volumes?
Leviticus 23:4 'Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of Yahweh in all your dwellings. 4 These are the feasts of Yahweh, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. 5 'On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is Yahweh's Passover. 6 'And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to Yahweh; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 7 'On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it.
Notice also that Yahweh needed to inform us that the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread, being the 15th day of the first month, is a day that "no customary work" is to be done. If indeed the 15th day of each month is already a regular Sabbath, why would He even need to inform us that it's a day of rest to begin with?
The regular Sabbath is a memorial of the seven days of creation. The holy days scattered throughout the year are observed on certain days of the year as a memorial to other acts of Yahweh such as the anniversary of when the children of Israel went out of Egypt, etc.
But the Sabbath is given for us to remember the creation of the world and rest as Yahweh did. We need to do what He did and do all our work on six days, but rest on one specific day, the seventh day. The day that Yahweh made holy and commanded that we "Remember" is one specific day, the seventh day, and we are to "keep it holy."