The Sabbath signified many things for Jews in Jesus day. Observing the Sabbath was a way to honor the holiness of Yahweh (Exodus 20:8 11; Deuteronomy 5:12 15); a sign of Israel s sanctification among all the nations and therefore a national identity marker and safeguard against absorption by pagan cultures; and a joyful entry into sacred time, the time of the beginning before human work. David Garland
Jewish tradition stated that there were thirty-nine acts that were strictly forbidden on the Sabbath. Moses had prohibited work on the Sabbath, but he did not give many specifics (Exodus 20:10). It was wrong to kindle a fire for cooking (Exodus 35:3), gather fuel (Numbers 15:32), carry burdens (Jeremiah 17:21), or transact business (Nehemiah 10:31; 13:15, 19). But Jewish tradition went into great detail and even informed the people how far they could travel on the Sabbath (two hundred cubits [100 yards], based on Joshua 3:4). In short, the Sabbath day had become a crushing burden, a symbol of the galling religious bondage that had captured the nation. Warren Wiersbe
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. - Exodus 20:8-11
Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. - Deut. 6:4-9
Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. Deut. 6:4-7
Now it happened that He was passing through some grainfields on a Sabbath; and His disciples were picking the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands, and eating the grain. But some of the Pharisees said, Why do you do what is not lawful on the Sabbath? Luke 6:1-2 When you enter your neighbor s standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor s standing grain. Deut. 23:25
You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest. Ex. 34:21
Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest; and Ahimelech came trembling to meet David and said to him, Why are you alone and no one with you? David said to Ahimelech the priest, The king has commissioned me with a matter and has said to me, Let no one know anything about the matter on which I am sending you and with which I have commissioned you; and I have directed the young men to a certain place. Now therefore, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever can be found. The priest answered David and said, There is no ordinary bread on hand, but there is consecrated bread... So the priest gave him consecrated bread; for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence which was removed from before the Lord, in order to put hot bread in its place when it was taken away. - 1 Samuel 21:1 6
The holy bread was the bread of the Presence of Ex. 25:30; Lev. 24:5 9; etc. Ahimelech was bending the rules, since only priests were allowed to eat the bread, and only in a holy place. However, Jesus endorsed Ahimelech s judgment in putting mercy before ceremonial law. ESV Study Bible
Man was created before ever the elaborate Sabbath law came into existence. Man was not created to be the victim and the slave of Sabbath rules and regulations which were in the beginning created to make life fuller and better for man. Man is not to be enslaved by the Sabbath; the Sabbath exists to make his life better. William Barclay