What of these passages, do they make you think?

[SAAN]

Isaiah 56, isnt referring to the 7th day Sabbath, it is referring to the Day of Atonement, which is a Sabbath itself, as you will find no where in the Torah where it forbids you of doing anything of the pleasure of the Sabbath, BUT the Day of Atonement is the ONLY day in which your are told to afflict your soul and turn from all things of your own pleasure. So it is very clear Isaiah 56 is taking about that day and not the 7th Day Sabbath.

 

[FredVB]

Isaiah 56, isnt referring to the 7th day Sabbath, it is referring to the Day of Atonement, which is a Sabbath itself, as you will find no where in the Torah where it forbids you of doing anything of the pleasure of the Sabbath, BUT the Day of Atonement is the ONLY day in which your are told to afflict your soul and turn from all things of your own pleasure. So it is very clear Isaiah 56 is taking about that day and not the 7th Day Sabbath.

There are no passages in Isaiah 56 showing Sabbath being mentioned that are referring to just the Day of Atonement, that it is from Sabbath to Sabbath is indication that it is Sabbaths a seven day week apart. "My righteousness will be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who lays hold of it, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and keeps his hands from doing any evil." This is any Sabbath, not at all just the Day of Atonement, and it is for any foreigners who join, as shown in the passages in this context, Isaiah 56; any gentiles are included, when they do join in doing this.

 

[DamianWarS]

Maybe you are right. I myself am not sold on a position. So when I read something in Bible passages bringing it up, why should I not bring it here? If you are sure of your position, why don't you explain it? What do you think of this?

Isaiah 56:
1-2
Thus says Yahweh:Keep justice, and do righteousness,
For My salvation is about to come,
And My righteousness to be revealed.
Blessed is the man who does this,
And the son of man who lays hold on it;
Who keeps from defiling the Sabbath,
And keeps his hand from doing any evil.
6-8
Also the sons of the foreigner
Who join themselves to Yahweh, to serve Him,
And to love the name of Yahweh, to be His servants
Everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath,
And holds fast My covenant
Even them I will bring to My holy mountain,
And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
Will be accepted on My altar;
For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.
The Lord Yahweh, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says,
Yet I will gather to him
Others besides those who are gathered to him.


There was application for foreigners in the times of the old covenant, that is fair to say. But the context of these passages is prophetic, when salvation is to come and righteousness will be revealed, even when they will come to God's holy mountain, where the vision of the everlasting times in the end applies, with no more suffering and no more death. For this gentiles, those not born of the people of Israel, are with their faith in Yahweh God through Christ grafted in with Israel, those of which who remain in the end will all be saved, in the latter times, when there is God's house of prayer for all nations.

You're reading Isaiah 56 as if it's giving a future Christian obligation to keep the Sabbath, but that’s not really what the text is doing.

Isaiah is talking to Israel under the Old Covenant, and the blessing he describes assumes that same covenant framework: Sabbath-keeping and sacrifices and the Temple system (“burnt offerings,” “My altar,” “My holy mountain”). If you take the Sabbath part as binding for Christians today, you’d need to be consistent and also take the sacrificial system and covenantal markers with it, because the passage treats them as a single package.

The prophetic hope Isaiah points to (“My salvation is about to come”) is fulfilled in Christ, not in a return to the Mosaic system. The NT consistently reads these “house of prayer for all nations” promises as fulfilled through Christ’s body, not through the continuation of Israel’s ritual law (cf. Mark 11:17, Eph 2:11–22).

Foreigners joining Israel under the Old Covenant is totally true, but the NT makes a big deal that Gentiles are now included without taking on Torah markers (Sabbath, circumcision, dietary laws). Acts 15 is basically the Church settling this exact question.

So Isaiah 56 is beautiful, but it’s not prescribing Sabbath-keeping for Christians in the end times, it’s describing the inclusivity of God’s salvation as it looked from within the Old Covenant categories. If someone wants to argue Sabbath is binding today, they need to do it from the New Testament, not by importing Moses + temple + altar + sacrifices into the church age.