First of all we need to know what is pleasing to God, pertaining to the Sabbath.

Isaiah 58:13-14, "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, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: 14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

• "Turn away thy foot from the sabbath" - I believe this means NOT to walk (or go) away from God and the Sabbath in the direction of worldly things. This could also, possibly mean that we are not to do any unnecessary travel on the Sabbath. Considering Acts 1:12 refers to a Sabbath day's journey, I would assume there to be a limit to how much travel we do on the Sabbath.
• "Doing thy pleasure." - "To keep the Sabbath in an idle manner is the sabbath of oxen and asses; to pass it in a jovial manner is the sabbath of the golden calf, when the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose again to play; to keep it in surfeiting and wantonness is the sabbath of Satan, the devil's holiday" [BISHOP ANDREWES]. Taken from Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary.
• "Call the Sabbath a delight" -
  • "Performing the duties of it with cheerfulness, delighting in the ordinances of it." (John Wesley)
  • And call the Sabbath a delight - This appropriately expresses the feelings of all who have any just views of the Sabbath. To them it is not wearisome, nor are its hours heavy. They love the day of sweet and holy rest. They esteem it a privilege, not a task, to be permitted once a week to disburden their minds of the cares, and toils, and anxieties of life. It is a ‘delight’ to them to recall the memory of the institution of the Sabbath, when God rested from his labors; to recall the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, to the memory of which the Christian Sabbath is consecrated; to be permitted to devote a whole day to prayer and praise, to the public and private worship of God, to services that expand the intellect and purify the heart. To the father of a family it is the source of unspeakable delight that he may conduct his children to the house of God, and that he may instruct them in the ways of religion. To the Christian man of business, the farmer, and the professional man, it is a pleasure that he may suspend his cares, and may uninterruptedly think of God and of heaven. To all who have any just feeling, the Sabbath is a ‘delight;’ and for them to be compelled to forego its sacred rest would be an unspeakable calamity. (Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible)
• "The holy of the LORD" - Genesis 2:3 "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."
• "Honourable" - The Sabbath is holy and we should regard it as honorable.
• "Shalt honour him" - If we keep the Sabbath as God intended us to, we would be honouring Him.
• "Not doing thine own ways" - We should not be doing the things of this world, but those things which are pleasing to God.
• "Nor finding thine own pleasure" - We should not be seeking to do what is pleasurable according to the world, but the things that are pleasurable in God's eyes.
• "Nor speaking thine own words" - Our conversations should not be about worldly things but instead those things of God.
• "Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD" - We should take advantage of the Sabbath time, drawing close to God and our brethren, learning more of God's truth and way, keeping the Sabbath as God has told us to. AND we should be delighted to be able to do this.

What else can we know about the Sabbath that would make it pleasing (or not pleasing) to God?

1 John 5:3, "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous."

God tells us that the love of God is to keep His commandments and not to consider them burdensome.

And what is the 4th commandment?

Exodus 20:8-11, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 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 thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 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."

We are told in the above scripture that we, our children, our servants and animals are not to work on the Sabbath. Would it be pleasing to God if we worked or caused anyone else to work on the Sabbath?

In fact God tells us what the consequences would be if we did work on the Sabbath.

Exodus 31:14-15, "Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death."

God was very serious about not working on the Sabbath. He said that we could be cut off from among His people and put to death for working on the Sabbath.

We need to understand what work is if we are not to do it on the Sabbath.

I personally believe that we should not be doing anything (work) that can be done prior to or after the Sabbath. I will leave the definition of "work" up to each individual. But when I am deciding how to best obey God and I am not sure what to do, I would want to error on the side of God's law. Call me a leagalist or accuse me of being Pharisaical, it doesn't matter as long as I believe I am pleasing God. It is all about the choices we make.

I can tell you the difference between the 7th day Sabbath and the annual Sabbaths in reference to work. The scriptures tell us "thou shalt not do any work" on a weekly Sabbath. The scriptures tell us "ye shall do no servile work" on the annual Sabbaths, with the exception of the "Day of Atonement" which scripture tells us "Ye shall do no manner of work".

There is a good paper discussing the difference between the "rests" (weekly or annual) which can be found on the web at: Distinguishing Between the "Rests" of the Various Appointed Times

Another item that I would like to discuss is whether it is pleasing to God to be buying or selling on the Sabbath.

Nehemiah 10:31, "And if the people of the land should bring goods or any food to sell on the Sabbath, we would not take from them on the Sabbath, or on the holy day. . ." (LIT)

Nehemiah 13:15-18, "In those days I saw in Judah ones treading wine presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves and loading asses; and also wine, grapes, and figs, and all burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I testified against them on the day they sold food.16 There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. 17 Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the sabbath day? 18 Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath.

I believe these scriptures tell us not to buy or sell on the Sabbath. That it would be profaning the Sabbath, weekly or annual.

Remember the lesson of the "manna".

Exodus 16:26-30, "Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. 27 And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. 28 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?"

This is the way I envision Exodus 16:26 could be interpreted.

Six days ye may work, go shopping and frequent restaurants; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, you shall not work, buy or sell.

If He does not want anyone to work on the Sabbath, how could these places be open for business? If He is not going to allow it then, should we be frequenting these places of businesses NOW?

ALSO, when you think about going to the store or a restaurant on the Sabbath, ask yourself if it is something you have to buy now or can it wait until after the Sabbath. And when planning for the Sabbath, let us use our preparation day wisely. We can do things, including buying what we need, prior to the Sabbath in most cases.

Here is a good paper, Should "We" Frequent Restaurants On The Sabbath?

Then there are those who tell me about all the different scenarios in which they believe it would be okay to buy or sell on the Sabbath. Is this looking for an excuse to buy or do their will on the Sabbath?

If there is an emergency, we have the scripture referring to the "ox in the ditch".

Luke 14:5, "And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the Sabbath day?"

BUT, should we open the gate and chase the ox into the ditch?

I have also been told about the Sabbath being created for man and not man for the Sabbath.

Mark 2:27, "And he said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath:"

In this scripture God tells us that the Sabbath was made for man. God knew that man would need this day of rest.

Peoples New Testament Notes -

"The sabbath was made for man. The Sabbath rest; that is, a rest of one day in seven was made for man, not for Jews only. This implies that it is to be a universal institution; that the good of man requires it, and that it is not an arbitrary enactment, but a wise and benevolent provision for the welfare of the race. Experience shows that men are happiest, most moral, most prosperous and healthiest where it is devoutly observed."

I must include something about "Convocation" (Strong's #04744, miqra) on the weekly and annual Sabbaths.

There are many scriptures that tell us to have a "convocation" on the weekly Sabbath and each of the annual appointed times. We need to ask ourselves if we are obeying this part of God's law. I can think of only 3 reasons to not come together at these times.

Please examine your heart and make sure you are not just making excuses not to come together with brethren.

You can read a paper on the subject of "convocation" here: "Convocation" - Strong's #04744, miqra

How long are we to keep the Sabbath?

Exodus 31:16-17, "Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. 17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed."

We each need to exercise good judgement in deciding what we should or should not do on the Sabbath.

It all comes down to whether we want to do our will or God's will.

We need to remember that God took His people out of Egypt and taught them about the Sabbath, which they had forgotten.

What is He telling us?

Revelation 18:4 "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."

He is now telling us to come out of this world and do things according to His way. Are we going to listen and do our best to obey and please Him? Are we going to do our best to keep the Sabbath day holy as God made it?