Requirements for Sabbath Keeping

The law of Moses attached many regulations and requirements to the Sabbath day. If we place ourselves under the restrictions of the seventh-day Sabbath by the Julian calendar, then we should observe the rules attendant to that day.

  1. A person not keeping the Sabbath was put to death (Exodus 12-18; 35:2). A man was stoned to death for picking up sticks on the Sabbath (Numbers 15:32-36).
  2. Israel was commanded not to kindle a fire on the Sabbath (Exodus 35:3).
  3. Every seventh year was to be a sabbatical year when Israel did not plant any crops; it was the Sabbath of the land (Exodus 23:10-11; Leviticus 25:1-55). Israel was to observe the year of jubilee. No crops were to be planted on the forty-ninth or fiftieth year in the land of Israel.

These rules pertained exclusively to the Sabbath of Israel. If we observe a Sabbath, do all or any of these rules apply to us?