The Day to Commemorate God the Creator

The Sabbath day is "a memorial day honoring the Creator, who made the heavens and the earth," and is also "a day of rest." God created the heavens and the earth in six days and then rested on the seventh day from all of His work, even blessing this day.

Gen. 2:1-3 『Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.』

In the time of Moses, God commanded His people, in the fourth commandment of the Ten Commandments, to "remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy." God explained the purpose for keeping the Sabbath by saying, "In six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy" (Ex. 20:11). The seventh day was the day that God, the Creator, had blessed and it was the day that God's people were given to commemorate God's authority. God's people, who worshiped the Creator, kept the Sabbath day as their holy day. God gave His people the Sabbath as the sign by which God would recognize them as His people (Ezek. 20:11-17; Isa. 56:1-7).

The Sabbath day is to be a day of worshiping and of offering sacrifices to God, rather than simply a day of rest. God blessed those who kept the Sabbath day and brought great punishment and disaster upon those who did not keep the Sabbath day.

Jer. 17:24-27 『"But if you are careful to obey me, declares the LORD...keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing any work on it,...this city will be inhabited forever.... But if you do not obey me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses."』