SABBATH IS NOT A COMMANDMENT WE ARE BOUND TO👳

There is no evidence in the Bible of anyone keeping the Sabbath before the time of Moses, nor are there any commands in the Bible to keep the Sabbath before the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai. Read Deuteronomy 5:1-3.

1 And Moses called all Israel and said unto them, "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them and keep and do them."

2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.

3. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.

Sabbath is derived from the verb "sabat," meaning to stop, to cease, or to keep. Its scriptural meaning is rooted in God's rest following the six days of creation (Gen 2:2-3). The Greek noun "sabbat" [savbbaton] translates the Hebrew noun "sabbat," which primarily means the seventh day of the week. Hebrew words nuakh—when we stop working.

Sabbath functions to remind Israel of her specific origins. "Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore, the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day."

The Sabbath was the sign to Israel of the Mosaic Covenant (Exodus 31:16-17; Ezekiel 20:12; Nehemiah 9:14).

The purpose of the Sabbath for Israel is explained in the next verse, “I gave them My sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them” (Eze. 20:12).

The Sabbath was a symbol of a covenant between God and Israel, signifying that it was the Lord who set apart Israel from the other nations.

In Deuteronomy 5:12-15 the Israelites were commanded to keep the Sabbath as a memorial of their deliverance from Egypt by God’s mighty hand. In the Old Testament, violating the Sabbath resulted in a person’s excommunication from Israel, or even death (Num 15:32-35).

Since we are now under the New Covenant (Hebrews 8), we are no longer required to observe the sign of the Mosaic Covenant.

In Colossians 2:16-17, Paul explicitly refers to the Sabbath as a shadow of Christ, which is no longer binding since the substance (Christ) has come.

Nowhere in the Old Testament are the Gentile nations commanded to observe the Sabbath or condemned for failing to do so. That is certainly strange if Sabbath observance were meant to be an eternal moral principle.

When the Apostles met at the Jerusalem council (Acts 15), they did not impose Sabbath keeping on the Gentile believers.

The apostle Paul warned the Gentiles about many different sins in his epistles, but breaking the Sabbath was never one of them.

In Galatians 4:10-11, Paul rebukes the Galatians for thinking God expected them to observe special days (including the Sabbath).

In Romans 14:5, Paul forbids those who observe the Sabbath (these were no doubt Jewish believers) to condemn those who do not (Gentile believers).

The Sabbath was part of the Mosaic Law from which the believer was set free (Rom. 8:1-4). “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4). Christ redeemed believers from the curse of the Law (Gal. 3:10-13).

Paul describes the Law as a tutor that leads us to Christ “so that we may be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24; cf. Rom. 3:20).

In Romans 10:4, Paul wrote, “For Christ is the end [termination or conclusion] of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

When Jesus died, the ceremonial Mosaic system ended. That system included the priesthood and the sacrificial system involving animals. The tearing of the veil from the top to the bottom signified that we no longer needed human priests as a mediator between God and man. That is the message of Hebrews 8:7-13.

Sacrifices were no longer needed because Jesus is the ultimate and perfect sacrifice for our sins (Hebrews 10:11-18).

He accomplished His mission (John 19:30). The ceremonial Mosaic system ended when Jesus died on the cross for our sins, instituting the new covenant (Matthew 26:28; Luke 22:20; Hebrews 9:15-16).

The Sabbath and its symbols disappeared, and we now worship on the first of the week.

Worship on the first of the week symbolized a new beginning and new life (Romans 6:6; Galatians 6:15; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10)

Kyriakos, "the Lord’s Day" (Sunday), has been the appointed day for rest and worship observed from the time of the apostles as a day of Christian worship.

References

https://www.gty.org/library/Questions/QA135/Are-the-Sabbath-laws-binding-on-Christians-today

https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionaries/bakers-evangelical-dictionary/sabbath.html

https://www.neverthirsty.org/bible-qa/qa-archives/question/why-do-we-not-keep-the-sabbath-2/