#166 THE SABBATH THAT WAS NEVER OURS 9-21-26
Imagine, if you will, a commandment standing on an ancient mountain. Smoke surrounds it. Thunder rolls across Sinai. A nation stands trembling below. And God speaks.
The command is real. The Sabbath is real. The consequences for breaking it are real.
But there is one small detail that can easily disappear in the fog of religious tradition.
Who was it given to?
Exodus 31:13 says, “Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.” Who is the “you”? God answers the question in the same chapter: “Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath” (Exodus 31:16).
A sign.
Between God and Israel.
A covenant.
With Israel.
Now imagine taking that covenant sign, walking across centuries, crossing Calvary, passing through the resurrection, entering the church, and saying, “This belongs to us too.”
But where did God say that?
Deuteronomy 5:15 gives another clue: “Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.” Why? Because “you were a slave in the land of Egypt.” The Sabbath was connected to Israel’s redemption from Egyptian bondage.
Nehemiah 9:13-14 looks back upon Sinai and says, “You came down also on Mount Sinai. You made known to them Your holy Sabbath.” Ezekiel 20:12 says, “Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me.”
There it is again.
I gave them.
Not everybody.
Not every nation.
Not the human race.
Them.
Israel.
And then the Old Testament turns another page.
Jeremiah 31:31 says, “Behold, the days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” Then God specifically contrasts that new covenant with the covenant made when He brought Israel out of Egypt (Jeremiah 31:32).
The old covenant had its signs.
The old covenant had its priesthood.
The old covenant had its sacrifices.
The old covenant had its Sabbath.
And then came a new covenant.
Hebrews 8:13 says, “In that He says, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete.”
That is where the argument should end.
Not because the Sabbath was insignificant.
It was significant.
Not because God’s commandments were meaningless.
They were holy.
But because a command belonging to an old covenant cannot simply be carried across the covenant boundary and nailed onto the church without God wanting us to do so.
The strange thing is that some people want to take the Sabbath more seriously than the covenant that created it.
They want the sign without the covenant.
The command without the context.
The shadow without the reality.
And perhaps that is the real mystery.
The Sabbath was never ours to begin with.
It belonged to Israel.
And when the covenant changed, so did the covenantal obligations.
It’s not rebellion against God’s law.
It is respect for God’s Word.
And there, standing somewhere between Sinai and Calvary, is the question:
Are we going to follow what God actually said, or what religious tradition says He said?
The answer should never be difficult when the Bible has already spoken.
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Father, help us to love Your Word enough to read it honestly and obey it faithfully. Give us wisdom to understand the covenants, courage to reject human traditions, and humility to submit ourselves to Your truth. May we never add to Your Word or take away from it, but follow Jesus with faithful hearts. In His name, Amen.
BDD
