Seventh Day Adventist

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The Sabbath(s)...  A Sign Between God and whom?

Problem:

Seventh Day Adventists argue that the sabbath law is eternally binding on all believers.

Solution:

The scriptures make it very plain to whom the sabbath laws were given -- they were given specifically to the children of Israel.  Verse after verse confirms this to be the case.  Nowhere are the Gentiles commanded to keep any sabbath.  Sabbaths were a sign between God and the children of Israel:

And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it [is] a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that [ye] may know that I [am] the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it [is] holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth [any] work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh [is] the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth [any] work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, [for] a perpetual covenant. It [is] a sign 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.  (Exodus 31)

In Exodus

Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and [how] I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth [is] mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These [are] the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. (Exodus 19:4-6)   And God spake all these words, saying, I [am] the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me....Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work... (Exodus 20:1-2, 8-9)   ...And the Lord said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. (Exodus 20:22)  ...Now these [are] the judgments which thou shalt set before them. (Exodus 21:1)... 

 

The covenant made with whom, and ratified by whom?

And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do. (Exodus 24:3)  ...And he [Moses] took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled [it] on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words. (Exodus 24:7-8)

Keeping the sabbath was just one part of the covenant that God made with the children of Israel.  But nowhere is this covenant between God and Israel binding upon a Gentile.

Leviticus

Leviticus (the book pertaining to the Levites) closes with these words, regarding all of the commandments found therein...

These [are] the commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.  (Leviticus 27:34)

Among these commandments was the observance of sabbath days.  Note how Leviticus concludes, stating that these commandments were for the children of Israel.  They were not commandments for the Gentiles, or for any group other than the children of Israel.

Deuteronomy

The fifth book of the Penteteuch includes many repetitions of the laws contained in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers.  Among these are the 10 commandments, among which is the commandment to keep the Sabbath...

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. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, [even] us, who [are] all of us here alive this day. The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire, (I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to shew you the word of the Lord: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount;) saying, I [am] the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods before me...  (Deuteronomy 5:1-7)  ...Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: 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. 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. (Deuteronomy 5:12-15)

 

Conclusion

The Sabbath was just one of many commandments that were given by God at Mount Sinai to Moses and that were to govern the to children of Israel.   God was their King, and His kingdom had laws and commandments which the subjects were to obey.   It should be clear that those subjects were the children of Israel.   These laws and commandments served many purposes:

1) Prior to fleeing from Egypt, the Israelites were slaves.  After passing through the Red Sea, the Israelites were unorganized.  Moses found himself in the role of leader.  It was impossible for one man to govern such a large group of people.  The Israelites were full of Egyptian pagan ways and ideas.  The Israelites needed to be educated and organized if they were to succeed as a nation in Canaan.  The laws given to the children of Israel were to serve this purpose, and of course to draw them closer to the God who brought them out from the land of bondage.

2) Wherefore then [serveth] the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; [and it was] ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. (Galatians 3:19)

3) Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster [to bring us] unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. (Galatians 3:24-25)

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