Almighty God does not spell out for us the names of the days as he goes through each day of creation, but he definitely establishes for us His interpretation of a "Day" as being from sunset to sunset as we read in GENESIS: 1: 1-5:
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. and the earth was without form, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light:" and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night, And the evening and the morning, were the ‘First day’."
Since God does not give a name to this day, or any other day, of the six days of His creation, we do not know which day He intended to be the "Sabbath" therefore it falls upon whichever day our religious belief happens to name. If we follow through the days of creation in GENESIS 1: verses 8, 13, 19, 23, and 31 show to us the six days of God’s creating and what He accomplished each day.
The Jewish Sabbath, begins at dusk or sundown Friday, and carries through to dusk or sundown Saturday, according to Hebrew tradition. The Christians or Catholics use and recognize Sunday until midnight.
One of my fellow readers suggested that as long as one sets aside one day out of seven and treats it as Holy Sabbath, then one has respected the Sabbath, and to me that makes perfect sense, since God never named the days of the week, and established which day is the seventh.
As we go on into GENESIS 2: 1-3; We read, "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God ‘Blessed’ the seventh day, and ‘Sanctified’ it: because that in it He had rested from all his work which God created and made. By God blessing and sactifying His day of total rest, the sabbath becomes to God, for God, a Holy Day, a spiritual day of adoration.
To establish the Holy Sabbath, God gives to Moses His "Ten Commandments" God does not call His laws the (ten recommendations, or suggestions), but commandments, laws.
They are His laws on how the people should live, and be governed, the Third of which is His commandment regarding the Sabbath. EXODUS: 20: 8-11; "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it Holy. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of The Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son nor daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
Again in LEVITICUS: 23: 1-3 We are again reminded; "And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, ‘Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the Lord which ye shall proclaim to be Holy convocations, even these are my feasts. Six days shall work be done: But the seventh day is a sabbath of rest and Holy convocation ye shall not work therein it is the Sabbath of The Lord in all your dwellings. Throughout the remainder of LEVITICUS 23, Almighty God spells out to the Hebrew Nation the rest of His High Sabbath Feast days, Nine in total.
Almighty God, wishing to express His seriousness about His Sabboth, spells it out in no uncertain terms to Moses and the people of Israel in EXODUS: 31: 13-15 as we read the following; "Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am The Lord, that doeth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is Holy unto you: everyone that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from amongst the people. Six days may work be done, but the seventh is the sabbath of rest holy to The Lord: whoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
It sounds rather strict and harsh, but God is stressing the seriousness and importance of honouring Holy Sabbath, and there is no room for fooling around with this law so Almighty God spells out what He means, and then says how the people will deal with anyone who breaks it.
Here is a listing of but a few things the children of Israel were prevented from doing on The Lord’s Sabbaths: There was to be No plowing, sowing, harvesting, no cooking, no sewing or knitting, or weaving, no boiling of water, no baking, no carrying outside your area of your domain, no lighting of fires, not even stove or furnace in todays world. Under God’s Law these things and others were strictly forbidden and punishment could be quite severe, upto and including death under the law.
Jesus establishes with the Pharisees and the people that the old covenant is to be altered with regards to the Sabbath as He tell them, justifying His disciples picking a few ears of corn to eat on the Sabbath as we see at MATTHEW: 12: 1-2, and 8 "At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn and his diciples were an hungered, and began to pick the ears of corn and eat.
But when the Pharisees saw it, the said unto him, Behold, thy diciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. Jesus replies to them with a story about David when He was hungry, and ends his explanation with verse 8, "For the Son of man is Lord even over the Sabbath." Jesus goes on in Matthew: 12: 11-13; to illustrate to both the Pharisees and the people how stringent the law is, and how since some would already break it for self reasons, therefore it needed to be changed, and He was changing it.
It is with this statement that Jesus replaces the Laws of the Sabbath laid down by His Father Almighty God, with His more lenient way of doing things. Yes the Sabbath still must remain a Holy day of rest, but man should permit reason to dictate whether or not it is rightful to do somethings or not.
By making the commandment concerning Holy Sabbath more flexible, it is no longer wrong for us to barbcue dinner, or restart our furnace in winter, or light up a romantic fire in the fireplace, or water the lawn and garden, but we should not be doing any strenuous physical labour or doing office work at home. If one owns their own business, no business should be transacted during Holy Sabbath, and if possible we should not be heading off to work for our employers.
It is the personal belief of this Christian that the "Sabbath" is still God’s day of rest and man’s too. I personally refuse to work on Sunday or to shop. It must be, or should be treated by Jews and Christians alike as a day of Communion with our creator, and a day of rest.
I realize that in today’s world with all of the hustle and bustle and with the way the business world is driving things, it is becoming ever more difficult to keep it pure and holy to refrain from shopping or going to work as scheduled, but we as Christians must do our level best to do so.