Abstract
This white paper examines the biblical foundation for a nation entering into a covenantal relationship with the God of the Bible, with special emphasis on the enduring role of the Sabbath as the unaltered sign of covenantal fidelity. While covenant was first formally offered to Israel, the biblical record contains clear indications that nations may voluntarily enter into covenant with God by submitting to His rule, embracing His law, and acknowledging His holiness. Such a covenant brings great blessing but also solemn obligation. Central among these obligations is the observance of the Sabbath—not as a ceremonial relic, but as the unchanged, perpetual sign of allegiance to God as Creator, Redeemer, and Lawgiver. This paper sets forth the scriptural prerequisites for national covenant, outlines the obligations that follow, and warns of the consequences for covenant-breaking, particularly regarding the rejection or profanation of the Sabbath.
I. Introduction: National Covenant as a Biblical Possibility
The biblical vision of nations is not morally neutral. God holds nations accountable for their actions and calls them to righteousness (Proverbs 14:34; Jeremiah 18:7–10). While the covenant made with Israel at Sinai stands as the primary example of national covenant, the Scriptures do not limit God’s dealings to Israel alone. The call to national repentance, submission to divine law, and covenantal obedience echoes throughout both Old and New Testaments.
Psalm 33:12 declares, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,” affirming the possibility of national blessing through covenant. However, no nation can invoke God’s name without embracing His rule, His law, and His ordained sign of covenant—chief among which is the seventh-day Sabbath, established at creation and affirmed throughout Scripture.
II. Scriptural Foundations for National Covenant
1. The Sinai Covenant (Exodus 19–24)
God offers Israel covenantal relationship on the basis of deliverance and obedience: “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people” (Exodus 19:5). The people respond collectively, accepting the covenant, which is then sealed by blood and by their verbal affirmation.
2. Covenant Renewal Under Joshua and the Kings
In Joshua 24, the nation publicly reaffirms their covenant at Shechem. In 2 Kings 23, King Josiah leads the nation in renewed covenant, purging idolatry and restoring the Passover. These examples show that covenant is not limited to Sinai or one generation; it can be renewed by future leaders and embraced anew by the people.
3. Gentile Response and National Repentance
In Jonah 3, Nineveh repents at the preaching of Jonah, and God withholds judgment. Though not called a covenant, the city’s corporate repentance and turning to God show that non-Israelite nations may submit to God’s moral rule and receive mercy. Isaiah 56 also makes room for Gentiles who “keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant.”
These examples demonstrate that nations can indeed enter into covenant with God if they embrace His authority, submit to His laws, and honor His appointed signs.
III. Elements Required for National Covenant
1. Acknowledgment of God’s Sovereignty
A covenantal nation must publicly declare the LORD—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—as its sole divine sovereign. There can be no neutrality or religious pluralism within covenant. As Deuteronomy 6:4–5 proclaims: “The LORD our God is one LORD: and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart…”
2. Public Affirmation and Institutional Commitment
The people and their leaders must together enter the covenant, not merely as a symbolic act but as a binding national declaration. This may involve a solemn assembly, written covenantal declarations, and reforms aligning national institutions with divine standards.
3. Submission to God’s Law
A nation cannot covenant with God while rejecting His commandments. The moral, civil, and judicial aspects of divine law must inform legislation, education, family structure, economics, and public ethics. This includes reverence for truth, justice, chastity, and the protection of life.
4. Observance of the Sabbath as Covenant Sign
The Sabbath, established at creation (Genesis 2:2–3), reaffirmed at Sinai (Exodus 20:8–11), and given as the “sign between me and you throughout your generations” (Exodus 31:13), is not a ceremonial shadow but a perpetual token of allegiance. It is a holy day sanctified by God—not a human institution subject to alteration. Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28), never abolished it. Any nation that would enter into covenant with God must return to its observance.
IV. National Obligations Under Covenant
1. Exclusive Allegiance to the LORD
Idolatry in any form—whether religious pluralism, state atheism, or mammon-worship—is incompatible with covenant. A covenantal nation must reject the worship of false gods, eradicate institutionalized blasphemy, and orient its public life toward God’s honor.
2. Upholding God’s Justice
Justice is not defined by shifting political ideologies but by divine standards. Rulers must be impartial, honest, and defenders of the weak. Bribery, theft, perversion of judgment, and oppression of the poor are national sins that break covenant.
3. Restoring the Sabbath in Public Life
The Sabbath must not be relegated to private observance. As a national sign, it must shape economic activity, work schedules, education, and public space. The biblical Sabbath is the seventh day—sunset Friday to sunset Saturday—and must be guarded against secularization and commercialization. Its observance honors God as Creator and Deliverer, reminds the people of their dependence on divine provision, and protects the dignity of laborers, animals, and even the land.
4. Education in Covenant Identity
Deuteronomy 6:6–7 commands that God’s words be taught “diligently unto thy children.” A covenant nation must embed biblical truth into its education systems, family life, and civic rituals. Its people must know the terms of the covenant, including the Sabbath, and be trained to walk in obedience.
5. Readiness for National Repentance and Renewal
Covenantal nations will not always be faithful. But the path back is repentance. As shown in Nehemiah 9 and Daniel 9, collective confession and covenant renewal are always possible. Leaders must be willing to call the people to fasting, mourning, and return to God’s laws—including forgotten laws like the Sabbath.
V. Blessings and Curses of National Covenant
Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26 spell out the terms. Obedience brings:
- Agricultural abundance
- National security
- Prosperity and peace
- Divine presence and favor
But disobedience brings:
- Drought, pestilence, and famine
- Defeat by enemies
- Economic collapse
- Social unrest and dispersion
Jeremiah 17:27 warns: “If ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day… then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.” National desecration of the Sabbath was no small infraction—it was a central ground for judgment.
VI. Continuity in the New Testament Era
Some suggest that national covenant is a relic of Old Testament theocracy, or that Sabbath observance was abolished in the New Testament. Scripture contradicts both assumptions.
Jesus explicitly states: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law… but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17). His life affirms the Sabbath, not as bondage, but as mercy and restoration. The apostles observed it (Acts 13:14, 42; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4), and Hebrews 4:9 confirms “there remains therefore a sabbath-keeping [Greek: sabbatismos] for the people of God.”
Covenant has widened in the New Testament, not narrowed. Gentile nations are now invited to “observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). Revelation portrays the end-time faithful as “they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12)—not one or the other, but both. The covenant and its sign remain intact.
VII. Conclusion: The Call to Covenantal Faithfulness
To enter covenant with God is to embrace His lordship, obey His law, and reorder national life around His holiness. This is not a symbolic or cultural gesture. It is a binding moral reality that demands conformity to the Word of God—including the honoring of the Sabbath as the enduring weekly sign of national allegiance and rest under divine authority.
No nation can rightly claim God’s favor while trampling His appointed day. A return to covenant is a return to the Sabbath, to justice, to truth, to reverence.
As Isaiah 58:13–14 proclaims:
“If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day… then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD…”
Covenantal nationhood is possible. But it must be honest. And it must be whole. Let the nations remember the God who made heaven and earth, and remember His Sabbath day—to keep it holy.
Suggested Scriptures for Further Study
- Genesis 2:1–3
- Exodus 19–24; 31:12–17
- Deuteronomy 5–6; 28
- Joshua 24
- Isaiah 56; 58
- Jeremiah 17:19–27
- Mark 2:27–28
- Matthew 5:17–19; 28:18–20
- Hebrews 4:1–11
- Revelation 14:12
Edge Induced Cohesion 
So was I right in my follow-up question yesterday: By “covenantal,” at some level you did mean specifically Sabbath observance? Isaiah 56:6 refers to full-on proselytes, due to the reference to connection to God’s “covenant.” (Circumcision, not Sabbath observance, is the means of entering “the covenant” of the time.) Nineveh is never said to have adopted Sabbath observance, and there is no reference to an offer to them of a “covenantal relationship,” simply a deliverance from destruction. It is known from history that in the first century A.D., it was an open question among the Jews and Gentile God-Fearers as to whether sabbaths and food laws applied to non-proselyte Gentiles. Formulations of the Noachide Code rarely if ever include Sabbath observance. And no explicit answer is given in the New Testament. If one was, there wouldn’t be a controversy about the seventh-day sabbath. Hence, objectively, speaking, Romans 14 is the closest thing to an explicit directive on the matter (cf Titus 3:9). (Herbert Armstrong in his autobiography states that he won a public debate — something I would love to see Armstrongist ministers do today – by claiming to have a statement by the Apostle Paul commanding Gentiles to keep the sabbath. He even claims that he presented that passage to the assembled crowd. However, he specifically does not record the supposed passage in his account. Nor does he mention laying Sabbath observance before that Southwest Africa constitutional convention in 1977.) The Armstrongist John 6:44, et al, belief in an esoteric intuition on the matter of Sabbath observance, whether correct or not, is an issue applicable to Christian repentance, not general national repentance. Israel as a nation was called upon to repent without being given that esoteric drawing to Christ. And intuitions by their very nature cannot be objectively proven. Claims that Sabbath observance in itself creates a “covenantal relationship” with God would be a Galatians 4 violation, attributing an essentially superstitious value to the “observance” of a time period. It would be disingenuous to state in Scripture that nations believing themselves to be Gentile are to repent, not explicitly and objectively answer the Gentile applicability question in that scripture (remember Romans 14), and yet secretly demand Sabbath adoption as a specific and essential condition for reward and protection.
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REPOST: I thought I had the formatting of using an email reply down. Following is an identical post, but hopefully this time the paragraph breaks hold.
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So was I right in my follow-up question yesterday: By “covenantal,” at some level you did mean specifically Sabbath observance?
Isaiah 56:6 refers to full-on proselytes, due to the reference to connection to God’s “covenant.” (Circumcision, not Sabbath observance, is the means of entering “the covenant” of the time.) Nineveh is never said to have adopted Sabbath observance, and there is no reference to an offer to them of a “covenantal relationship,” simply a deliverance from destruction. It is known from history that in the first century A.D., it was an open question among the Jews and Gentile God-Fearers as to whether sabbaths and food laws applied to non-proselyte Gentiles. Formulations of the Noachide Code rarely if ever include Sabbath observance. And no explicit answer is given in the New Testament. If one was, there wouldn’t be a controversy about the seventh-day sabbath. Hence, objectively, speaking, Romans 14 is the closest thing to an explicit directive on the matter (cf Titus 3:9).
(Herbert Armstrong in his autobiography states that he won a public debate — something I would love to see Armstrongist ministers do today – by claiming to have a statement by the Apostle Paul commanding Gentiles to keep the sabbath. He even claims that he presented that passage to the assembled crowd. However, he specifically does not record the supposed passage in his account. Nor does he mention laying Sabbath observance before that Southwest Africa constitutional convention in 1977.)
The Armstrongist John 6:44, et al, belief in an esoteric intuition on the matter of Sabbath observance, whether correct or not, is an issue applicable to Christian repentance, not general national repentance. Israel as a nation was called upon to repent without being given that esoteric drawing to Christ. And intuitions by their very nature cannot be objectively proven. Claims that Sabbath observance in itself creates a “covenantal relationship” with God would be a Galatians 4 violation, attributing an essentially superstitious value to the “observance” of a time period. It would be disingenuous to state in Scripture that nations believing themselves to be Gentile are to repent, not explicitly and objectively answer the Gentile applicability question in that scripture (remember Romans 14), and yet secretly demand Sabbath adoption as a specific and essential condition for reward and protection.
LikeLike