Some today claim that the Sabbath was commanded long before the law of Moses, that it was part of God’s plan from the beginning, and that God intended it to continue. Is this taught in the Bible?
Here is a similar question: “Is the Sabbath more like the rule against murder or more like the rule about circumcision?”
- Murder was wrong before the time of Moses, it was wrong in Moses’ law, and it continues to be wrong after the law. Its place in God’s basic ethical code has not changed.
- On the other hand, the “everlasting” ceremony of circumcision goes back to the time of Abraham, long before Moses. Later, circumcision took its place in the law (Leviticus 12:3). After Christ’s death, did the law about circumcision continue because it had predated the law? No. When the law of Moses was removed as the rule over God’s people, circumcision—as part of the law—was also removed. The book of Galatians links circumcision with the keeping of the law and shows that neither are to be bound on God’s people today (Galatians 5:2-4, 6).
The Old Testament had called circumcision an “everlasting covenant” (Genesis 17:12-13). It had been given long before Moses. Yet those two facts did not keep it from ceasing with the end of the law. So, the idea that the Sabbath must continue because it began before Sinai is a weak foundation on which to build. If circumcision could cease when the law ended, then the Sabbath rule might cease also. The fact that something came before Sinai does not necessarily make it permanent. However, as will be seen, it is by no means certain that keeping of the Sabbath came before the time of Moses.