This gives you an idea about what profaning the Sabbath is.
It's about commerce, buying, selling, trading..
If you think about the verse.. you cannot serve God and mammon.. mammon being money or riches,
You put your livelihood, your own ability to sustain yourself, instead of trusting God to provide for you.
In the wilderness during 40 years, God provided manna 6 days. Everyday they would go out and gather it.
On the 6th day God would send them double, so on the seventh day they would not need to work.
This is before there was commerce. It was the first step in a training process to learn to trust God for their needs.
But here:
Neh 13:15 In those days saw I in Judah
some treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs,
and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day: and I testified
against them in the day wherein
they sold victuals.
Neh 13:16 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.
Neh 13:17 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?
Neh 13:18 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.
Neh 13:19 And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and
some of my servants set I at the gates,
that there should
no burden be brought in on the sabbath day.
Neh 13:20 So
the merchants and sellers of all kind of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice.
Neh 13:21 Then I testified against them, and said unto them, Why lodge ye about the wall? if ye do
so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no
more on the sabbath.
This is that Sabbath Rest:
Mat 11:28 Come unto me, all
ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
There was a day when a man was out picking up sticks, and a couple guys saw him and accused him of breaking the Sabbath.
And so they judged him guilty and stoned him according to the law.
The same law that stated "thou shalt not kill" .
So while they thought they was keeping the law by killing someone, they was actually breaking the law themselves by killing.
God called them stubborn and stiff-necked because they could not understand the spiritual meaning of the commandments.
They became their own judges, accusing or else excusing others...
which reminds me of the verse Paul wrote:
Rom 2:14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
Rom 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and
their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another; )
But they didn't have a conscience. They were hard hearted. No mercy, no compassion.
When Jesus came he taught the people what the Sabbath was meant for and how we should keep it.
By taking care of eachothers needs instead of our own. Giving rest to those that are weary. Giving comfort to those that mourn.
Even if it was a beast needed watering.
Luk 13:15 The Lord then answered him, and said,
Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or
his ass from the stall, and lead
him away to watering?
Luk 13:16 And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?
Luk 13:17 And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.
This is the true Sabbath meaning. And if you keep it, you will never forget it. And what it was meant for.
Rest from your labours, and to give rest to others.
That's how I understand it.
Hugs