To whom was the Sabbath given? In Exodus 16:29 Moses specified the Israelites when he said, “The Lord has given you the Sabbath.” God introduced the Ten Commandments by reminding the Israelites that He rescued them from Egyptian slavery (Exodus 20:2). God tied the Sabbath directly to Israel’s escape from Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:15). Indeed, the Sabbath served as the special “sign” of God’s unique covenant with Israel as His chosen nation.
You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, “Above all you shall keep My Sabbaths, for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between Me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.” (Exodus 31:13-17)
The Sabbath, like circumcision, served to make Israel different from the other nations. The Ten Commandment covenant was not made with other peoples, but just with the nation of Israel (Exodus 34:27-28; 19:5-6; Deuteronomy 5:1-3; 7:6; 14:2; 26:18-19). To apply the Sabbath to all nations would destroy the Sabbath’s stated purpose. For if all owned the Sabbath, there was nothing to make it outstanding as the special sign between God and the Israelites.
In Deuteronomy 5, Moses repeated the Ten Commandments covenant, but first gave this introduction:
The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. Not with our fathers did the LORD make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today….You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:2-3, 15)
Again, God linked the Sabbath rule with the escape from Egypt. Now add the fact that God “made known” the Sabbath at Sinai. This was what Nehemiah said much later as he reviewed the history of the Israelites and prayed to God,
You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven and gave them right rules and true laws, good statutes and commandments, and You made known to them Your holy Sabbath and commanded them commandments and statutes and a law by Moses your servant. (Nehemiah 9:13-14)
“You made known to them Your holy Sabbath.”
This implies that the Sabbath was not known before, at least as a commandment. Through Moses, God “made known” the Sabbath. This matches the inspired record that the first command to observe the Sabbath was in Exodus, given to the select people, the Israelites.