Ex 20:8--Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
God rested on the seventh day, and commanded His covenant people, Israel, to observe the Sabbath laws given in the Law of Moses. Just how serious God was about having this law observed is recorded in Num 15:32-36--Now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering wood on the sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation; and they put him in custody because it had not been declared what should be done to him.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp."
So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.
The Law demanded obedience in order to escape death. The wages of sin is death. Thankfully Jesus paid the price for us so that sinners can be counted righteous by faith in the blood of Jesus.
Jesus also explained that the Sabbath was given for man, as a day of rest from labor. He taught that we are allowed to do good on the Sabbath.
Actually, the sabbath under the Law was a picture of the eternal rest of God’s people that is waiting for the faithful. Heb 4:1-11--Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.
For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said,
"AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST," although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.
For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: "AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS"; and again in this passage, "THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST."
Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, He again fixes a certain day, "Today," saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, ‘TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS."
For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.
We must be diligent to honor Jesus, for Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, Matt 12:1-8--At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat.
But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, "Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath."
But He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his companions, how he entered the house of God, and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat nor for those with him, but for the priests alone?"
"Or have you not read in the Law, that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent?"
"But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, "I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,' you would not have condemned the innocent."
"For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."
We should focus our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, so that we can enter our eternal rest. We are free from Sabbath keeping under the Law of Moses, Rom 8:1-2--Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.