God would not present the death sentence for a disregard of the Sabbath unless He had presented before men a clear understanding of the Sabbath. After He had created our world and man, He looked upon the work that He had done, and pronounced it very good. And when the foundation of the earth was laid, the foundation of the Sabbath was laid also. “When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy,”(Job 38:7) God saw that a Sabbath was essential for man, even in Paradise. In giving the Sabbath, God considered man’s spiritual and physical health.
(TM 136.1)
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God made the world in six literal days, and on the seventh literal day He rested from all His work which He had done, and was refreshed. So He has given man six days in which to labor. But He sanctified the day of His rest, and gave it to man to be kept, free from all secular labor. By thus setting apart the Sabbath, God gave the world a memorial. He did not set apart one day and any day in seven, but one particular day, the seventh day. And by observing the Sabbath, we show that we recognize God as the living God, the Creator of heaven and earth.
(TM 136.2)
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There is nothing in the Sabbath that restricts it to any particular class of people. It was given for all mankind. It is to be employed, not in indolence, but in the contemplation of the works of God. This men are to do that they may “know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.”Exodus 31:13.
(TM 136.3)
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