I have two points to make about this issue:
1. Sabbath keeping was given directly to the descendants of Abraham/Isaac/Jacob AFTER God had brought them out of Egypt.
2. Sabbath keeping was NOT given to Adam and Eve in the garden.
There is no record that Sabbath was kept by Adam and Eve, or any of their descendants, until God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, and gave them the 10 commandments.
Deuteronomy 6:1-15
1 And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them.
2 The LORD our God made a covenant
with us in Horeb.
3 The
LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. ....
12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee.
13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work:
14 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.
15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm:
therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.
What we see here is a covenant made between God and Israel because of the great deliverance out of Egypt. The Israelites were given a specific set of commandments, that were not given to mankind before, not even to Adam & Eve. (This covenant was not made with the fathers vs. 3). The purpose of this covenant had to do with the Lord's deliverance of them as a nation out of Egypt.
Then we see the Lord say specifically again in
Deut. 6:15 after he was giving instruction on how to keep the sabbath, then he said: "And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm:
therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.
It is obvious in this passage, that the Sabbath was given specifically to the group of Israelites who had been delivered out of Egypt to keep the Sabbath as a memorial to the Lord for what he had done for them in Egypt.
If the Sabbath was meant for all mankind to keep, it should have been taught in the garden to Adam & Eve, and their descendants. Yet, God did not command the Sabbath to be kept until after he had delivered the Israelites out of Egypt. So we understand that Sabbath keeping was to be a sign, and a remembrance of that covenant God had with them.
Consequently, in the NT, we do not ever see the commandment "Thou shalt keep the Sabbath" directed towards the Gentile Christians. That was because the Jews understood, and knew that the purpose for the covenant of the Sabbath was because of what God did for the Israelites coming out of Egypt, and was not meant for any other group of people.
And God further fulfilled and finalized his covenant with the Jewish people when Jesus became their high priest, died and rose again, changing the covenant forevermore into a new and glorious thing, as
Hebrews 4 speaks of the rest that remaineth for the people of God through faith in Jesus. Those people of God now being both Jews and the Gentiles who have been grafted in after Calvary - now all can be part of the new covenant whereby our rest is complete and perfect in Christ.
Hybrid Mode
