Exod 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of Yahweh your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”
The weekly Sabbath is a memorial of Yahweh’s six-day creation. They were 24 hour days, according to the Genesis account- “evenings” and “mornings.“ “God certainly anticipated the controversy over the Genesis account of Creation. He knew that after the fall of man, there would be doubts about His claims of manufacturing all the staggering mass of matter by merely commanding it to exist. To safeguard His sovereignty, He established a mark that denoted His absolute right to rule as Lord. He chose to memorialize His display of creative power by setting aside the seventh day of the Creation week as a holy day of rest and remembering…Once a week, as the earth rotates on its axis, the Sabbath reminder travels around the earth reaching every man, woman, and child with the message of an instant creation and the One who did the creating.Why did God say remember? Because to forget the true Sabbath is to forget the true Creator.” ("Why God Said to Remember" by Joe Crews)
A multitude of Christians call the seventh-day Sabbath the "Jewish Sabbath." “Nowhere is this expression found in the Bible.” (Joe Crews) The seventh day is called "the sabbath of Yahweh" (Exodus 20:10) but it is never called "the sabbath of the Jews.” Thus: “This is a law claiming to regulate a seventh portion of human life. If a man lives twenty-one years, this law claims control of three of them. It is therefore important." (W. S. Plummer)
"Many Christians view the Sabbath command as a ceremonial law, one that therefore passed away wiith the rest of the Jewish ceremonies after the resurrection of Christ.... [However:] The Sabbath is moral in its constitution… No doubt, Hebrews 4 teaches that what natural Israel enjoyed in earthly terms through Sabbath observance was a figure of the salvation rest spiritual Israel (God's redeemed people from every age) enjoys in Christ. But that does not make the Sabbath part of the ceremonial law. The law of the Sabbath is one on the Ten Commandments, and it is moral, not ceremonial. There is nothing in the biblical statement of the Decalogue to set this commandment apart from the others. Dwight makes the following points to establish the case for recognizing the Sabbath as a continuing part of the moral law:
* By Divine design it was placed in the middle of the Decalogue.
* It was spoken with the awful and audible voice of God Himself from the midst of the thunders and lightings which enveloped Mount Sinai.
* It was written twice by the finger of God on tables of stone.
* It was delivered in the same absolute manner as the other nine commandments.
* It has the same universal application as the other nine; that is, it provides the benefits of Sabbath observance, needed by men of all nations.”
(“Chariots of God” by Alan Cairns)
As we strive to keep the Commandments of God, there is a rest which will enable the believer to keep them. It is trust in Jesus, which results in an indwelling of His Spirit. God wants us to enter into that rest firstly. That is what Paul taught in Hebrews 4. “The Hebrews might well say, ‘We have always enjoyed the Lord’s Sabbath, and our fathers have long occupied Canaan, why then do you speak so much about entering into God’s rest?’ The verses which follow meet this objection, showing that neither of those ‘rests’ was meant by David in Psalm 95, nor by himself here in Hebrews 4… The ‘rest’ to which the apostle was pointing the Hebrews was so blessed, so important, so far surpassing anything that Judaism had known, that he was the more careful they should not be mistaken in connection with its nature and character.” (A. W. Pink)
In Hebrews 4:4-11, the apostle Paul argues” God "has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: 'And God rested on the seventh day from all His works' (Genesis 2:2); and again in this place: 'They shall not enter My rest.' (Psalm 95:11)
Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, again He designates a certain day, saying in David, 'Today,' after such a long time, as it has been said: 'Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.' (Psalm 95:7-8) For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.”
First, Moses led a generation of Israelites in the wilderness. They kept the seventh day Sabbath outwardly. But of that generation, all except Joshua and Caleb died in their sins in the wilderness. Second, Joshua led another generation of Israelites into the land of Canaan. Hebrews 4:8 implies that, even though Joshua led them into the land, he did not give God's intended rest to His people. And third, there are all subsequent generations. King David spoke in his generation in the Psalms; and Paul preached to the Hebrews of his generation of the rest that remains for the people of God.
We turn “from types and shadows to the substance itself” (A. W. Pink), as we switch from the Old Covenant with the Commandments written on tablets of stone, based on self effort- “all that Yahweh has said we will do”- to the New Covenant in which God writes His Commandments on our hearts by faith.
“Why had God taken ‘six days’ to make what is described in Genesis 1? Had He so pleased, all could have been done in one day, yea, in a moment! Obviously it was for the purpose of teaching us… And just as God has ceased from all the works of those six days and on the seventh day ‘rested,’ so must we… The argument is that a rest remains BECAUSE IT WAS NOT ENTERED by the Hebrews [of Moses and Joshua’s day]! Therefore, it [the rest for the people of God] was not entering Canaan, nor keeping the Sabbath day, for they did that [outwardly]. Thus, the marvelous rest referred to here can be neither of those things but must be understood as a reference back to the rest of God Himself which is still in progress, a rest the Jews could have entered but did not, and likewise a rest that many now have the right to enter but may come short of it; hence the warning.” (Burton Coffman)
“No promise of His can be utterly made void. Though many reap no good thereby, yet others shall be made partakers of the benefit of it. Though the vast majority of the adult Israelites perished in the wilderness, yet Caleb and Joshua entered Canaan…The Gospel proclaims salvation to all who believe. Its terms are ‘whosoever believeth shall not perish.’ That promise is ‘left’ for faith to lay hold of.” (A. W. Pink)
And you are invited: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts. (Psalm 95:7-8)” (Hebrews 4:7) Moses and Joshua cannot give rest the people of God; that is a job totally left the King Messiah, the Prince of Peace. But by faith in Him, the generation that dwelled in the wilderness could have occupied the land of Canaan. It would not have been true if the Israelites had said that they could not enter in because of difficulties. “There was the Jordan before them, and when they entered the land, there were cities; walled to heaven, and giants before whom, they felt like grasshoppers. Yes, but that did not hinder, for God divided the Jordan, made the walls of Jericho to fall flat to the ground, and sent the hornets before them to chase out the giants. Israel had little more to do than to go up and take the spoil. Now, soul, there is no difficulty between you and eternal life which Christ either has not removed already or will not remove as you believe in him. As for your iniquities, when you believe, they are gone — the Jordan is divided. As for your inbred sins, he will surely drive them out little by little, when you believe in him. As for your old habits, which are like the high walls of the Canaanitish cities, they shall fall down at the sound of the ram’s horns of faith. Only believe, and thou shalt enter into rest. Trust in God, and impossibilities shall vanish, and difficulties shall become a blessing to you… ‘If you believe not,’ says Christ, ‘that I am He, you shall die in your sins.’”(C. H. Spurgeon)
Many cite the following Scriptures in favor of a Sunday Sabbath: “’One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.’ (Romans 14:5-6) ‘Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.’ (Colossians 2:16-17) ‘Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.’ (Galatians 4:10-11)” Joe Crews counters: “Usually, the bare recitation of these texts is considered sufficiently persuasive to dismiss all argument for the permanence of Sabbath observation. It is confidently held that at very least, Sabbath observation is not mandatory for Christians, while at its worst Sabbath-keeping may become legalism. Never was confidence more misplaced. The texts cited do not teach that Sabbath observation has been discontinued or made optional. One vital fact must be noted: None of these texts cited makes any reference to the weekly Sabbath. In Judaism there were many ceremonial Sabbaths. Being purely ceremonial, they passed away with the coming of the gospel substance of which they were foreshadowing.
But the Lord never spoke a word about abrogating the weekly Sabbath.”