Q: Does this mean that the Ten Commandments were binding only upon Israel because God revealed them to them?
A: To answer yes would be absurd! It defies logic to say that nine of the Ten Commandments apply to every one but only one
applies exclusively to the Jews.
God gave the Ten Commandments to Israel because they were His people at that time. However, that does not mean that they were binding only upon literal Israel. The text does not say that the
Sabbath was a sign exclusively between God and literal Israel.
Second, the motivation for the observance of the Sabbath transcends literal Israel because creation is the reason why the Sabbath is a sign between God and His people. That is to say, Israel must keep the Sabbath because God established it as a sign of creation.
Q: Would it make any sense to think that Israel alone was required to keep the Sabbath in commemoration of creation? Do not all human beings need to remember that God created the heavens, the earth and everything in them?
Third, Galatians 3:28, 29 states that those who are ‘in Christ’ are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.
--If Christians are Abraham’s seed, then they are members of Israel and as such should keep the Sabbath.
Finally, Isaiah 56:4-7 clearly states that the Sabbath was intended for Gentiles as well as Jews and Jesus explicitly affirmed that the Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27). Thus, our Lord taught that the Sab bath was a creation institution that He made it for the benefit of man. The use of the word anthropos by Jesus in Mark 2:27 is significant. He did not say He made the Sabbath for Israel but rather for ‘humankind’ (NRSV)."
Stephen Bohr
