another question about the Sabbath

[ginakay]

Hope this is an appropriate place to ask this question.

I know that the ten commandments had the command about honoring the Sabbath. Did Abraham recognize the Sabbath in any way? Did Noah? I have read recently that there was nothing about Sabbath keeping prior to Moses on the mount. I know Genesis says God sanctified the day but did he expect people to honor it or rest on that day prior to the Commandments?

Thanks for any comments on this.

[cymba22]

As I understand it....people didn't know about it until God gave the command to moses...so they couldn't logically honour a day that they new nothing about

but i reserve the right to be completely and utterly wrong

[wordsower]

Deut. 5:1-3 clearly states that this law was given to those there that day it says the Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those which are here today. The 10 commandments follow in verse 6

Before the fall man was connected to God, He told Adam and Eve that if they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge and evil they would die that day. They did not die physically that day but they died spiritually, they knew they were naked, they then became separated from God.

Israel was to be a special people the laws, including the Sabbath were to point them to Christ Who would again give them access to God, to approach the throne bodly, before the cross a high priest interceeded for the people, Christ's death removed the veil and gave us access again to God as He interceeds for us as our High Priest now.

When the ark rested God told Noah that he could eat of every animal even though 7 times more "clean" animals were put into the ark. The ritual cleansing laws, food laws, circumcision, etc were especially for Israel. I believe their contrary and disobedient hearts show us in part that rules can't take the place of relationship. Laws change the outward man, love changes the inward man.

Love fulfills the law.

[Guest yod]

Amen!

except for one little different distinction.

They did die when they ate that fruit. It wasn't completed on that same day but the process of death began.

[ginakay]

Thanks for all comments.

I am only asking because, since Genesis talks about beginnings, it reveals that God did sanctify the 7th day at the time of creation. Yet I realize that perhaps no one was aware of this until it was revealed to Moses.

Therefore Adam did not observe the Sabbath, nor Noah, nor Abraham...is that correct? Neither did Isaac or Jacob? When you think about that it seems very odd. The founding fathers of the Jewish faith did not keep the Sabbath!

I wish I could remember where I had read this, but somewhere I had read that all the world was aware of the 7th day being holy, way back from the beginning. In fact that book said that even the pagans recognized the 7th day even tho their ceremonies around it were tainted and even wicked. Unfortunately I cannot remember where I read this. Have not idea where or what their sources were for saying that.

[wordsower]

except for one little different distinction.

They did die when they ate that fruit. It wasn't completed on that same day but the process of death began.

Gen. 2:17 says that God told them "in the day that you eat the fruit you shall die."

The serpant showed Eve that he ate it and didn't die, problem is, Eve didn't understand the big picture, that her "life" was more than her breath. God didn't exaggerate or lie, she did die that day, spiritually, which was what God meant.

[ginakay]

Wordsower, you were mentioning that the commandments were given at that particular time and that is so true, but the commandment not to murder or steal were surely not new so I don't see how that shows that the 7th day observance was something new. Anyway I was hopeful of getting some feedback on what Jewish tradition says about that. Have any of you heard anything from that source?

[Guest shiloh357]

It is an assumption on our part that the righteous, prior to the giving of the Torah at Sinai, did not know or observe the Sabbath. I would point out that Noah was instructed to bring 1 pair of each animal into the ark, but was also told to bring seven pair of the clean animals into the ark.

Now, the Scriptures do not show God instructing Noah which were clean and unclean. God appears to expect Noah to know exactly what He is talking about. Noah is not recorded as being confused by the command at all. Soooo, since the Torah speaks of clean and unclean animals, and we see Noah able to make the same distinction before the Torah was given, then why could not have Noah understood what the Sabbath was?

Furthermore, Noah is described as being the ONLY righteous man on the earth. How could that distinction have been made if there were no standard (law) by which judge the actions of Noah versus the rest of mankind? If Noah was a righteous man, then he knew what would please God, and he lived according to that standard.

Job was considered righteous and yet he lived prior to the law given at Sinai. Both he and and Noah made sacrifices unto God, and yet the Levitical Sacrificial system had not yet been given. How did they know what kind of Sacrifices were acceptable unto God?

I challenge ANYONE to find ONE righteous person mentioned in Scripture, before or after the Torah was given at Sinai, who ate Pork and was not criticized for it.

God accepted Abel's sacrifice, but did not accept Cain's sacrifice. Why? There was a standard (law) that Cain did not obey, and God says exactly that to him.

So since we have righteous people prior to Sinai, it is incorrect to assume that no law was available to them. We can find them performing works acceptable unto God that match what is described in the Torah even though the Torah was not to be given for hundreds or even thousands of years later.

If they were able to understand the Sacrifices, and the difference between clean and unclean animals, why couldn't they have known about the Sabbath as well?

I think we make assumptions that are just not valid when they are cross examined in the light of Scripture.

[Botz]

And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you. Lev 11:7

I challenge ANYONE to find ONE righteous person mentioned in Scripture, before or after the Torah was given at Sinai, who ate Pork and was not criticized for it.

I challenge anyone to find mention of pork before the Torah let alone eating it.

[wordsower]

Gen. 9:3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.

Now, this even though there were 7 times more clean animals on the ark.

I don't know if anyone ate animals before the flood. Seems they would think it unnatural, but I'm not making a doctrine out of it. It was a necessity after the flood at least until the vegetation grew back. God does give a sort of standard of human government in the Noahic covenant--whoever kills, should be killed.

I believe Gen. 9:3 is another way of making Israel very distinct and separate. God had a special plan for them and wanted them set apart from the rest of the world.