I came across a
study by Roy Gane, one of the authors of books I have who is very in depth. Here are some excerpts on this issue..
Is the seventh day Sabbath a
universal institution, or was it only for the literal Israelites?
My short answer to this question is: The seventh day Sabbath is universal because it was instituted at Creation for the benefit of all human beings, before the nation of Israel existed. This answer is based upon exegesis of
Genesis 2:2-3, which reads:
2:2 And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.2:3 So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
God rested, i.e. ceased,
(1) his work at the end of the Creation week because his work was done, not because he was tired (cp.
Isa 40:28;
Ps. 121:3-4).
(2) On the seventh day he stopped to celebrate what could be regarded as the "birthday" of the world.
There is evidence that God intended not only to celebrate, but also to provide an example for human beings.
Exodus 31:17 refers to God being "refreshed" as a result of his rest on the seventh day of Creation. The verb translated "refreshed" here, i.e.
npsh is used only three times in the Hebrew Bible (all Niphal stem):
Exod 31:17;
2 Sam 16:14; and
Exod 23:12. In
2 Samuel 16:14, the verb
npsh describes David and his people recovering from fatigue induced by their flight from Absalom (
2 Sam 16:14).
Exodus 23:12 reiterates the Sabbath command given in the Ten Commandments (
Exod 20:8-11):
23:12 Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed.
In this context, rest (verb
nwh) on the seventh day Sabbath clearly relieves the fatigue of human beings and animals (cp.
Deut 5:14) and refreshes (verb
npsh) them. Now the question arises: If the verb
npsh describes relief from fatigue in
Exodus 23:12 and
2 Samuel 16:14, why does
Exodus 31:17 use the same word with reference to God being "refreshed"? The answer lies in the purpose of
Exodus 31:12-17, which is to have God's people follow his example by resting on the seventh day of the week (Cassuto: 1967: 245,404; Sailhamer 1992: 309). Even though God did not need rest from fatigue, the Bible here speaks of him anthropomorphically
(3) as receiving some kind of refreshing benefit (Sarna 1991: 202) in order to show people how to rest on the seventh day, as a result of which
they would gain relief from fatigue (
Exod 23:12).
Lest it should seem strange that God would do something as an example for human beings, consider two similar cases:
1. In the Israelite ritual system, the blood of a sacrificial animal was drained out and applied to the outside or horns of the altar in the courtyard (see e.g.
Lev 1:5;
4:25) or to the area of the outer sanctum and the horns of the incense altar (
Lev 4:6,
7) with the remainder disposed of by pouring it out at the base of the outer altar (
Lev 4:7). The blood did not go up to God in smoke along with the meat as a "pleasing aroma" (see e.g.
Lev 1:9). Why not? Because the meat constituted a "food gift" to God (cp.
Num 28:2)
(4) and God had commanded the Israelites not to eat meat without draining out the blood because the blood represents the life (
Lev 17:10-12; cp.
Gen 9:4). By not eating blood with their meat, the Israelites acknowledged that they did not have ultimate control over life. But God did have such control. So why didn't he show it by accepting blood with his meat? Apparently because he wanted to be an example to his people, thereby practicing what he preached.
2. Jesus asked John the Baptist to baptize him, but John recognized that Jesus did not need baptism (
Matt 3:13-14). Baptism symbolizes purification from sin (
Rom 6:1-5), but Jesus was sinless (
Heb 4:15). Nevertheless, Jesus insisted that John baptize him, saying to him:
"Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness" (
Matt 3:15).
So Jesus went through the motions of baptism because it is part of a righteous human life, even though the righteousness which he already possessed transcended the fallen state and did not require baptism.
Thus far, we have found that God's rest served as an example for human Sabbath observance. But did this example begin to operate thousands of years after Creation, or did God intend for human beings to follow his example from the beginning? Jesus succinctly answered the question by declaring that "the Sabbath was made for humankind . . ." (
Mk 2:27). He viewed the original purpose of the Sabbath as providing benefit to human beings. This means that when God rested on the seventh day of Creation, he did not simply intend to benefit himself.
It is true that there is nothing in the text of Genesis 2 which explicitly tells us that the Sabbath was made for human beings as Jesus later declared. Nor does Genesis state that the Sabbath is to be an on-going, cyclical event, occurring on each seventh day. However, Genesis did not need to explicitly state these things because the context makes them clear....
