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The seventh-day Sabbath is sanctified by God as a blessing, for us to rest from our weekly labor and work. Many in this age do not know how to properly keep the Sabbath or even know what day it should be kept. This article will explain how and when to properly keep the Sabbath day.

GENESIS 2:1-3:
Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

God blessed and sanctified the seventh-day as the Sabbath day after He ended His work that He had done during the first six-days of the creation week (Genesis 2:2-3). Beginning Friday at sundown through Saturday sundown is the seventh-day Sabbath, according to how God counted the days during the creation week. The purpose of the Sabbath is for a time set aside for physical and mental rest, spiritual refreshment, a time to give thanks to God, and to ponder the magnificence and wonder of His creation.

EXODUS 20:8-11:
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of YHWH (the Lord) your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore YHWH (the Lord) blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

EXODUS 31:12-18:
And YHWH (the Lord) spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am YHWH (the Lord) who sanctifies you. You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you.

Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to YHWH (the Lord). Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days YHWH (the Lord) made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’”
And when He had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

God included the Sabbath in the Ten Commandments with guidelines of how to observe the day that He blessed and sanctified. The seventh-day Sabbath is a perpetual covenant and an everlasting sign (Exodus 31:16-17). Church attendance and fellowship with other believers is by no means the only requirement of properly keeping the Sabbath.

1. The Sabbath is to be observed on the seventh-day, not on Sunday, a day of our choosing, any other day, or every day. God did not give man the option to observe the Sabbath as a matter of his own preference. Choosing to revere Sunday over Saturday as the Sabbath day to honor God is not in accordance with God’s command to remember the seventh-day Sabbath (Exodus 20:8).

2. The Sabbath is a day of rest from weekly labor. No work should be done on this day (Exodus 20:10,31:14-15,35:2; Jeremiah 17:21-24). Employers should not employ workers and workers should not be employed on the Sabbath. That said, it is not a sin to do essential services such as medical care and emergency response work (fire, medical, military, police), nor is it wrong to come to the aid of a stranger. Messiah (Christ) taught that it is not wrong to do good deeds on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:12; Mark 3:4; Luke 6:9,13:14).

3. The Sabbath is a day to not buy, sell, or trade in any for profit marketplace (Nehemiah 10:28-31, 13:15-22). Purchases for food and essentials should be made in advance, before the Sabbath begins – in preparation for the Sabbath, so that they are available when the Sabbath arrives.

4. The Sabbath is a day of no household chores or cooking. Warming food with a microwave or making coffee is permissible, but most household meal preparations should be prepared beforehand, on Friday afternoon (Preparation Day) so a person does not do the labor of cooking on the Sabbath day (Exodus 16:22-30). God commands that no fire be lit in our dwellings on the Sabbath day, which would include lighting a flame to cook meals (Exodus 35:3).

5. The Sabbath is a day of reverence to YHWH (the Lord). It is a day to gather in fellowship with other believers to honor God (Luke 4:16; Acts 13:14,16:13).

6. The Sabbath is a day set apart to delight in YHWH (the Lord), to refrain from doing our own pleasure, sexual gratification, and worldly entertainment; a day set apart to be intimate with God, not with our spouses or with the things of this world (Isaiah 58:13- 14).

EXODUS 20:9:
Six days you shall labor and do all your work…

EXODUS 31:15:
Work shall be done for six days…

A believer cannot observe the Sabbath every day of the week, as some say they do in denying God’s seventh-day Sabbath. That would mean that they never purchase or sell anything nor do any labor or work and revere God ceaselessly. This would not be practical and God does not want us to observe the Sabbath in such a manner as we choose.

God commands us to do labor and work on the first six-days of the week and commands us to observe the Sabbath on the seventh-day.

LEGALISM AND THE SABBATH

Yeshua (Jesus) and His disciples were often accused of breaking the Sabbath. In Luke chapter 6, the Pharisees accused Yeshua’s (Jesus’) disciples of plucking grains and eating them on the Sabbath, considering this ‘work.’ The disciples were hungry and were eating as they passed through a grain field. The law also states that it is unlawful to muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain (Deuteronomy 25:4; 1 Corinthians 9:9; 1 Timothy 5:18). What the Pharisees were doing was being legalistic over the Sabbath and treating Yeshua’s (Jesus’) disciples worse than field oxen.

If the disciples had been in the field gathering grain for a weekly harvest, the Pharisees would have been correct in accusing them of breaking the Sabbath, as this would have constituted weekly labor. The disciples did not violate the Sabbath, as it is not unlawful to eat on the Sabbath, and that is all that the disciples did.

DEATH PENALTY FOR BREAKING THE SABBATH

EXODUS 31:14:
You shall keep the Sabbath, therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.

NUMBERS 15:32-36:
Now while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron, and to all the congregation. They put him under guard, because it had not been explained what should be done to him.
Then YHWH (the Lord) said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.” So, as YHWH (the Lord) commanded Moses, all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died.

A man was once put to death, by YHWH (the Lord) under the law for gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.

1 CORINTHIANS 6:9-10:
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the reign of Elohim (kingdom of God)? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous (greedy of gain), nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the reign of Elohim (kingdom of God).

GALATIANS 5:19-21:
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, drug sorcery, hatred, quarrels, jealousies, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the reign of Elohim (kingdom of God).

REVELATION 21:7-8:
He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. The cowardly, untrustworthy, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, drug sorcerers, idolators, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

Due to the changing of the Sabbath day from Saturday to Sunday by the Roman Catholic Church, and the first-day Sabbath subsequently being adhered to by most Protestants and other denominations of Christianity throughout millennia, many believers have not observed the Sabbath correctly throughout the generations. Thankfully God, in His grace and mercy, will not turn away deceived, ignorant, improper Sunday Sabbath observers from inheriting His kingdom, according to 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Galatians 5:19-21, and Revelation 21:7-8.

The sin of Sabbath breaking is not listed amongst the sins that can keep a believer from inheriting God’s kingdom, but Sunday Sabbath observers will need to be rebuked and corrected before entering His kingdom. Violating the Sabbath is a death penalty offense for which a man was once put to death for gathering sticks, by YHWH (the Lord), so proper Sabbath day observance is something that God is going to eventually require of all His believers.

It is perfectly fine to attend church services or to gather together for Scripture studies on Sunday or any other day of the week. The disciples came together on the first-day of the week to eat and have fellowship together (Acts 20:7). The Sabbath entails more than congregational church service or fellowship. The Sabbath is a set apart day, to rest and do no labor or work, no household chores, no employing, buying, or selling, and is a day to honor God and not pursue our own pleasures.

Those who properly adhere to God’s seventh-day Sabbath now, in this age, are a shadow of things to come when everyone will know and observe His true Sabbath day (Colossians 2:17).

Rejoice in God’s blessed and sanctified Sabbath day!

Shabbat Shalom (Peaceful Sabbath)!