ok I am fine with that. The numbers are not assigned to each commandment in the actual Hebrew manuscripts but the Jews had that custom of numbering the commandments such that the Sabbath was the 4th commandment and that is the numbering that Protestants use.
In Romans 3 Paul says of the Jews "they were entrusted with the the oracles of God" meaning they are custodians of the OT Canon so I am fine with that.
Actually this is one of those points where you and I may both agree. (numbering of the Ten Comm) I am not Catholic I am Seventh-day Adventist and we use the Protestant system for example Historicism and Historic Premill etc.
I see that as a reference to the making of both mankind and the Sabbath in Gen 1-2 where we see both "made"
Mark 2:27 'the Sabbath was made for mankind , not mankind made for the Sabbath. ... are reference to the "making" of both mankind and the Sabbath in Mark 2 . And Gen 1-2 also deals with the making of both mankind (Gen 1) and the Sabbath Gen 2:1-3. Ex 20:11 in the Sabbath commandment goes directly back to Gen 2:1-3
Good observation, sir! You're exactly right! Both mankind and the sabbath were
created by God in time and space. And there are profound implications to this truth -- so deeply profound that this becomes the fundamental "acid test" in determining what is
eternally and intrinsically moral and what isn't! So, permit me to unpack this truth to prove that ALL the sabbath commands (including the 4th) in the bible are not eternally and intrinsically moral, which makes them temporary in nature, and, therefore, moral only up to the point where they expire in temporal reality.
Let me explain this last sentence. Recall when God commanded Abraham to offer up Issac as a sacrifice to God? But who here thinks that human sacrifices to God is an eternal truth and that such sacrifices in and of themselves morally inhere in God? But at the same time, there is a paradox here. Abraham was most definitely morally obligated to obey God
for the duration of God's testing of Abraham's faith. And so it is with all the ceremonial ordinances, civil statues and dietary laws in the Covenant Law of Moses. The OC people of God were morally obligated to obey those temporary laws
until their expiration date, which occurred at the Cross of Christ which is when the New Covenant was ratified in Christ's blood, rendering the
Old Covenant null and void! And this is why the 4th commandment is not repeated in the NT. But I don't want to get ahead of myself until I lay out my argument. I will argue initially from the Royal Law (the 2 Greatest Commandments upon which all the Law and Prophets are hinged), and then apply it to the Decalogue. So here we go. Buckle up <g>.
The commands to love God and to love our neighbor are
eternally and intrinsically moral truths, since all the Law and the Prophets (that is to say, the entire OT!) hinges on these two commandments. We also know that Love does no wrong. We know that Love covers a multitude of sins. And Love unselfishly and proactively seeks the general welfare and good of others, etc.. This and much more all make God an intrinsically moral being.
Also, Love isn't something that God created; rather, Love is something that
God eternally is in His very essence. Love is as "ancient" as the Ancient of Days is! To deny this truth is to deny that the three Persons of the Godhead eternally loved each other!
These truths stand in sharp contrast to the
created and temporary ceremonial, civil and dietary laws. It's no wonder, whatsoever, that Moses characterized the 7th day sabbath as being a ceremonial law when he listed the 4th commandment first in the long list of other sabbaths in Lev 23! In fact, Moses considered the 7th day sabbath a feast day, along with all the others in this chapter.
And, of course, Jesus made that well known analogy in Lk 6:3-5 in which He drew a parallel between one type of religious ritual that David and his companions violated and another ritual of weekly observance of the 7th day. It is on the basis of the ritualistic aspects of both types that Jesus was able to
logically make this analogy.
Paul taught that the ceremonial days were but types and shadows of the Substance (Col 2:16-17), namely Christ. Also, Paul himself drew an analogy between the observation of "special" days and the dietary laws (Rom 14:1-8)! In this passage, he teaches that we all have the freedom to observe special days or not, or to eat only vegetables or not -- according to the dictates of our conscience -- not the Law!
Having said all that, in which category do the other 9 commandments in the Decalogue belong: Eternal and Intrinsically moral or Temporal and Temporally moral? I think Paul answers that for us in Rom 13:8-10; for stealing, murder, envying, adultery, etc. all militate violently against God's eternally righteous and holy nature -- and he wraps up these commandments in the blanket of Love! Even Jesus himself taught essentially the same truth (cf. Mat 19:18; Mk 10:19; Lk 18:20). The consistent absence of the 4th commandment in all these passages speaks volumes to the temporal and temporary nature of the Sabbath. The Sabbath was
created by God in time and space and the Sabbath Day ceased in time and space; for the Sabbath was a shadow that pointed to God's ultimate spiritual rest: Christ! Christ is the "[an]other" Day (Heb 4:8) of which God spoke about later, since He is the Light of the World. And He is this Light EVERY DAY of the week!
Before I close out this post, I will address an anticipated objection to this preponderance of biblical evidence that some sabbatarians might try to make via Isa 66:23 which reads:
Isa 66:23
23 From new moon to new moon,
and from Sabbath to Sabbath ,
all flesh shall come to worship before me,
declares the Lord.
ESV
Three observations should be made. First, this is figurative language that actually denotes eternal worship. How we can know this with certainty is that there is no progression of time in eternity. Eternity is the infinite NOW, the infinite TODAY -- the Today that never had a beginning and will never have an end. There are no yesterdays or tomorrows in the new eternal order. The prophet uses such language to accommodate our finite understanding of the infinite! It was his way of addressing ongoing, ceaseless, endless worship.
Another way we can know this is symbolic language is that there will be no moons (new, old or otherwise) in the eternal order; therefore, it's illogical to think that there will be a succession of new moon festivals. Jesus himself tells us there will be no need for the sun or the moon (the two major temporal markers of Time of this world!) since God Himself will be the Light of the saints and the Lamb will be their Lamp (Rev 21:23).
And lastly, all Typology is a one-way street! All typology flows from past Old Covenant historical persons, events, institutions, etc. to the ETERNAL New Covenant Substance, which is Christ who totally and perfectly fulfills all the types and shadows of the temporary Old Covenant era. There's no going back ever to the weak and beggarly types and shadows (Gal 4:9-10) of this new eternal covenant order.
