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Who is the Sabbath For?

Is the Sabbath for everyone or just for the Jews? Even if you are not an Israelite, you should keep the seventh day holy, because the Sabbath is for everyone!

Many people would agree with this statement. But, does the Bible agree? What does it say on the topic?

Before I explore whom the Sabbath is for, let me introduce myself. I am Leroy Daley of Blogging About the Word. I can be found at www.atothe word.com.

On that website and on this channel, I teach Christians how to better understand their Bibles. I utilize Bible studies to accomplish this.

I teach using Scriptures, here a little, there a little, line upon line, precepts upon precepts. Precepts must be on equally relevant precepts or else we will have confusion and misinformation in the Church.

This week, I’ll utilize the Bible to demonstrate whom the Sabbath is for. Is it for everyone or is it exclusively for the Children of Israel?

If you stick with me until the end of this Bible study, I’ll have a special bonus just for you. So let’s dive right into the content.

Fifteen days and in the second month after departing Egypt, the Lord gave Moses instructions to Israel, concerning the Sabbath, among other things.

The instructions he gave to Moses are for the Children of Israel only and not for the entire world. Now we need to take the Sabbath in context.

Now we’re going to look at the details of why the Jews keep the seventh day holy and why the rest of the world needs not do that?

If you would rather watch the video of this Bible study, click this link.

My Sabbaths You Shall Observe!

Now, who was in Egypt and slavery for four hundred thirty years? The Jews! Who did Moses deliver from Pharaoh and was in the wilderness with for more than forty years? The Jews!

So, you don’t even need to guess this, so let’s look at the details and we’re going to go to the book of Exodus, the exodus from slavery.

This is what exodus really means, the children of Israel exiting Egypt or slavery or bondage, and traveling to the Promised Land.

Exit, or exodus from Egypt.

And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Speak thou unto the children of Israel”, note you know, the Lord is telling Moses, this is what you need to say to the children of Israel, not to the world, not to everyone.

Remember the Bible is a Jewish book. We are reading the experiences of the Jewish people as a nation.

We can borrow spiritual things from this book and apply them to our lives, but we cannot use everything in the Bible out of context and think everything applies to us, because everything does not apply to us from the Bible. We need to take it in context.

And this is why we have much confusion concerning the Bible.

So going back to this, the Lord said to Moses, speak to the children of Israel, note the target audience. The Children of Israel, “Saying, verily, my Sabbaths ye shall keep“.

So there are more than one Sabbaths.

The Sabbath is “a Sign Between” the Lord and Whom?

“For it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations” (Exodus 31:14).

So the Lord tells Moses, Israel should keep the Sabbath. Then He gives the reason. He explains that because it is a sign between them and the Lord.

Note that it’s not a sign between the Lord and anyone else. It’s only a sign between the Lord and the Children of Israel.

And it perpetuates. He wasn’t just talking to Moses and those people, for, he says “between me [the Lord ] and you [the Children of Israel] throughout your generations“.

So even posterity, people to come. That is why today, thousands of years after, the Children of Israel are still keeping the Sabbath holy.

And this Sabbath that the Lord is talking about is the seventh-day. The holy rest of the Lord.

Now, let’s continue.

That ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you” (Exodus 31:13).

Which Nations Observe the Sabbath as Holy?

So here the Lord is saying to Moses, tell the children of Israel that they should keep my Sabbaths because it’s a sign between me and them throughout all their generations, that they may know that I the Lord is the one who is making them holy.

Let’s go on to the next verse.

“Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you.”

But the Children of Israel make it holy by observing it according to the commandment of the Holy Lord God!

See, the Sabbath is not holy to the world. It’s not holy to the Italians, not holy to the Spanish, it is only holy to the Israelites.

The remainder of the world, generally, does not care about the Sabbath!

How Does One Defile the Sabbath?

“Every one that defileth it“, meaning the Sabbath, “shall surely be put to death” (Exodus 31:14).

If that were the case now many people who worship on the Sabbath day would be dead today.

“For whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people” (Exodus 31:14).

Remember I told you in the previous Bible study that the Sabbath, the seventh day, is a time of rest. It’s not even a time to go to church.

Here the Lord is telling Moses that anyone who works on the Sabbath day should be put to death. They are defiling the Lord’s Sabbath.

And he said anyone, meaning any Jew? It doesn’t mean any person, because the Sabbath means nothing to people who are not Jews.

Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord, holy to the Lord, not to everybody.

“Whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, He shall surely be put to death.” (Exodus 31:15).

Those are the penalties for defiling the Sabbath day.

Whom Did the Lord Instruct to Keep the Sabbath?

“Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant” (Exodus 31:16).

“The Children of Israel“, not Jamaicans, Americans, Italians, Cubans, Canadians, not English, but Israelites, the Children of Israel. Why?

Because the Lord declares that the Sabbath is “a sign between” He and the Children of Israel. Then, He supplies another reason.

“For in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day, He rested, and was refreshed” (Exodus 31:17).

The Lord desires that the Children of Israel keep the Sabbath day holy because He did. He honored the seventh day; therefore, His people must observe that day as holy too.

So we see that the Sabbath is for the Children of Israel. It is not for the entire world. There is no reason why anyone besides the Hebrews should observe the Sabbath as holy.

What Other Reason Did the Lord Provide For The Children of Israel to Keep His Sabbaths?

“And He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18).

So we find out from those Scriptures that the Lord insists that Israel, the Children of Israel, keep the Sabbath, His Sabbaths.

Now there are two more reasons the Jews keep the Sabbath.

Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee” (Deuteronomy 5:12).

So we see that the Lord commanded the Children of Israel to keep the Sabbath. He never commanded anyone else, only them.

If you are not a Jew then when and where, in the Bible, does the Lord commands you to keep the Sabbath?

Unless you’re a Child of Israel, or you are one of the Children of Israel you are not compelled to keep the Sabbath holy.

This Is One of the Main Reasons the Children of Israel Observe the Sabbath Day Holy!

In a previous Bible study, I told you that the Children of Israel were slaves in Egypt for four hundred thirty years.

Consequently, they had to work every day. Every single day, they had to work.

They had no rest day, but they didn’t have a choice because they were in slavery.

So when the Lord delivered them, He for the first time, instructed them via Moses to keep the Sabbath. And I’m going to read again from the Scriptures.

And remember, this is Moses speaking now to the Children of Israel.

He says, “And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore, the Lord thy God commandeth thee to keep the Sabbath day.

This is Moses explaining to the Jewish people, why they need to keep the Sabbath day. He provides the main reason.

He says, it is because the Lord rescued them from bondage; therefore, they should keep the Sabbath day holy.

So if you keep the Sabbath, share in the comments, why you do.

Earlier, I told you anyone who sticks with me to the end, I’ll give a bonus. Well, I’m at that point, where I’m giving you the bonus.

A Peculiar People

Now, the children of Israel are not like everybody else in the world. They are very special to the Lord. Yes, they are a peculiar people. They are not like all other peoples in the eyes of the Lord on this planet. They are special.

I’m continuing to read, and this is Moses who is continuing to talk to the children of Israel you know? (Deuteronomy 4:33),

Did ever people hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as thou hast heard and live?

He’s asking the Jews.

Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation.

The Lord went into Egypt and plucked out the Israelites. So Moses is saying now, “or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, how? By temptations, by signs, by wonders, by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes” (Deuteronomy 4:34).