God blessed and sanctified the Sabbath at creation. – Genesis 2:3 – And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.

The Sabbath Essential to Man
God saw that the Sabbath was essential for man, even in Paradise. He needed to lay a side his own interest and pursuits for one day of the seven, that he might more fully contemplate the works of God and meditate upon His power and goodness. He needed a Sabbath to remind him more vividly of God an to awaken gratitude because all that he enjoyed and possessed came from the beneficent hand of the Creator. PP48

The Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments and is the seventh day of the week. – Exodus 20:8-11 – ⁸Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord you God. In it you shall not do any work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who in within your gates. ¹¹For 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 the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

The Seal of God
The fourth commandment is the only one of all the ten in which are found both the name and title of the Lawgiver. It is the only one that shows by whose authority the law is given. Thus it contains the seal of God, affixed to His law as evidence of its authenticity and binding force. PP 307

The Sabbath is a sign between God and His people. – Exodus 31:12-17 – ¹²And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ¹³”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 the Lord who sanctifies you. ¹⁴You 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. ¹⁵Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. ¹⁶Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. ¹⁷It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’”

The Sabbath a Sign
The Sabbath is a sign of creative and redeeming power; it points to God as the source of life and knowledge; it recalls man’s primeval glory, and thus witnesses to God’s purpose to re-create us in His own image. The Sabbath and the family were alike instituted in Eden, and in God’s purpose they are indissolubly linked together. On this day more than on any other, it is possible for us to live the life of Eden. Ed 250

The Sabbath a sign of sanctification (set apart as holy). Ezekiel 20:12 – Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

A Sign and a Delight
The institutions that God has established are for the benefit of mankind… Since He made all things, He made the Sabbath. By Him it was set apart as a memorial of the work of creation. It points to Him as both the Creator and the Sanctifier. It declares that He who created all things in heaven and in earth, and by whom all things hold together, is the head of the church, and that by His power we are reconciled to God. For, speaking of Israel, He said, “I gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them,” – make them holy (Ezekiel 20:12). Then the Sabbath is a sign of Christ’s power to make us holy given to all whom Christ makes holy. As a sign of His sanctifying power, the Sabbath is given to all who through Christ become a part of the Israel of God. As the Lord says, “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable;… then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord” (Isaiah 58:13, 14). To all who receive the Sabbath as a sign of Christ’s creative and redeeming power, it will be a delight. Seeing Christ in it, they delight themselves in Him. The Sabbath points them to the works of creation as an evidence of His mighty power in redemption. DA288, 289

Israel kept the Sabbath before Sinai. – Exodus 16:22 & 23 – ²²And so it was, on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each man. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. ²³Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves al that remains, to be kept until morning. ‘”

Jesus Himself kept the Sabbath. – Luke 4:16 – So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.

Apostles, Jews, and non-Jews kept the Sabbath. – Acts 18:4 – And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.

Sabbath will be kept in the New Earth. – Isaiah 66:23 – And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, says the Lord.

The Sabbath is Forever
The Sabbath was embodied in the law given from Sinai; but it was not then first made known as a day of rest. The people of Israel had a knowledge of it before they came to Sanai. On the way thither that Sabbath was kept. When some profaned it, the Lord reproved them, saying, “How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws?” (Exodus 16:28). The Sabbath was not for Israel merely, but for the world. It had been made known to man in Eden, and, like the other precepts of the Decalogue, it is of imperishable obligation. Of that law of which the fourth commandment forms a part, Christ declares, “Till heaven and earth pass, on jot of tittle shall in no wise pass from the law.” So long as the heavens and the earth endure, the Sabbath will continue as a sign of the Creator’s power. And when Eden shall bloom on earth again, God’s holy rest day will be honored by all beneath the sun. “From on Sabbath to another” the inhabitants of the glorified new earth shall go up “to worship before Me, saith the Lord” (Matthew 5:18; Isaiah 66:23). DA 283

Set aside week-day pleasures and pursuits. – Isaiah 58:13 &14 – ¹³“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call my Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, ¹⁴then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Keeping the Sabbath God’s Way
God has given men six days wherein to labor, and He requires that their work be done in the six working days. Acts of necessity and mercy are permitted on the Sabbath, the sick and suffering are at all times to be cared for; but unnecessary labor is to be strictly avoided. “Turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and… honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure” (Isaiah 58:13). Nor does the prohibition end here. “Nor speaking thine own words,” says the prophet. Those who discuss business matters or lay plans on the Sabbath are regarded by God as though engaged in the actual transaction of business. To keep the Sabbath holy, we should not even allow our minds to dwell upon things of a worldly character. And the commandment includes all within our gates. The inmates of the house are to lay aside their worldly business during the sacred hours. All should unite to honor God by willing service upon His holy day. PP 307, 308

Focus on doing good for others. – Matthew 12:11-13 – ¹¹Then He said to them, “What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? ¹²Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” ¹³Then He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as whole as the other.

God made Sabbath for man, not man for the Sabbath. – Mark 2:27 & 28 – ²⁷And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. ²⁸Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”

Christ Sets Aside False Teaching
Christ, during His earthly ministry, emphasized the binding claims of the Sabbath; in all His teaching He showed reverence for the institution He Himself had given. In His days the Sabbath had become so perverted that its observance reflected the character of selfish and arbitrary men rather than the character of God. Christ set aside the false teaching by which those who claimed to know God had misrepresented Him. PK 183

What Jesus taught about Sabbath-keeping. – Luke 14:1-5 – ¹Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely. ²And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy. ³And Jesus, answering, spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” ⁴But they kept silent. And He took him and healed him and let him go. ⁵Then He answered them, saying, “Which of you, having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?”

Sabbath celebrated from “evening to evening”. – Leviticus 23:32 – It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.

Friday is the “day of preparation” just before the Sabbath. – John 19:31 – Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.