So if these Israelites had already been given the sabbath commandment before Exodus, why is God testing them to see whether or not they will keep the sabbath commandment in this chapter if they should’ve already demonstrated whether they would keep it or not since it was supposedly already given to them before their exodus from Egypt?
Jesus said He made the Sabbath for man- there are many men who think what Jesus said is not for them. Even though He said it explicitly the Sabbath blesses man (not Jew) when keeping Isa 56:2 and made for
everyone Isa56:6. All flesh in heaven will be keeping, not just Jews Isa66:22-23 and He will never force anyone to worship Him for eternity.
Many people today do not believe God, just as they did not back then over this same commandment.
They rebelled over Sabbath-keeping
Eze 20:13 Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness; they did not walk in My statutes; they despised My judgments, ‘which,
if a man does, he shall live by them’;
and they greatly defiled My Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out My fury on them in the wilderness, to consume them.
And it kept them from crossing over into the Promise Land
Eze 20: 15 So I also raised My hand in an oath to them in the wilderness,
that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, ‘flowing with milk and honey,’ the glory of all lands, 16
because they despised My judgments and did not walk in My statutes
, but profaned My Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.
So God tests His people just as we are being tested and told not to follow in their path of disobedience. Heb4:11 if we hear Him calling us from our rebellion Heb3:7-19
Nehemiah was after 70 years of Israel being in captivity in Babylon for disobedience to God's commandments., this was way after the wilderness experience . Nehemiah restored the wall of Jerusalem and restored worship. Nehemiah was not countermanding what God said when His Sabbath started Exo20:11 and you claim the Israelites were not made known the Sabbath before Mt Sinai but your own passage says otherwise plainly. Just like Cain knew it was sin to murder Abel, and Joseph knew about adultery all from the Ten Commandments, obviously God spoke to His people but the Ten Commandments was not written until Mt Sinai, which is probably what Nehemiah meant.
Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, then he said to them, “This is what the Lord meant
: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.” So they put it aside until morning, as Moses had ordered, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it. Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field.
Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.” It came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse
to keep My commandments and My instructions? See, the Lord has given you the sabbath; therefore He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” So the people rested on the seventh day.”
Exodus 16:22-30 NASB1995
Also they were keeping the Sabbath in Egpyt
Exo 5:5 And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now
are many, and ye make them
rest from their burdens.
The rest in this verse is:
שָׁבַת
shâbath, shaw-bath'; a primitive root; to repose, i.e. desist from exertion; used in many implied relations (causative, figurative or specific):—(cause to, let, make to) cease, celebrate, cause (make) to fail, keep (sabbath), suffer to be lacking, leave, put away (down), (make to) rest, rid, still, take away.
We really need to let God be God- God personally wrote out His own commandments placed them inside His ark, has a copy in heaven Rev15:5 Rev11:19 and numbered them by design Deut4:13 Exo34:13 and claimed ownership of them Exo20:6 in His own written and spoken Testimony Exo31:18.
This argument is not a new argument, its exactly what happened in Scripture, its the same cycle. . .
