Blessings and Warnings regarding the Sabbath
Blessings from God for Honoring the Sabbath
Isaiah 58:13–14
“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath,
From doing your pleasure on My holy day,
And call the 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,
14 Then 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.”
Warnings & Consequences for Neglecting the Sabbath
Ezekiel 22:26–31
“26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.”
Exodus 31:14–15 (NIV)
“Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it is to be put to death; those who do any work on that day must be cut off from their people. For six days work is to be done, but the seventh day is a day of Sabbath rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day is to be put to death.”
Leviticus 26:34–35 (NIV)
“Then the land will enjoy its Sabbath years all the time that it lies desolate and you are in the country of your enemies; then the land will rest and enjoy its Sabbaths. All the time that it lies desolate, the land will have the rest it did not have during the Sabbaths you lived in it.”
Nehemiah 13:17–18 (NIV)
“I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, ‘What is this wicked thing you are doing— desecrating the Sabbath day? Didn’t your ancestors do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity on us and on this city? Now you are stirring up more wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath.’”
Jeremiah 17:27 (NIV)
“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.”