To say that you can't prepare and cook food on a Sabbath,
but you can on an annual Holy Day,
categorizes God's Sabbath Feasts as two different types.
Can we find any Scriptures that will back this up?

Indeed, we can.

To begin, it will be helpful to resolve a primary point of confusion. This confusion has surrounded a Biblical reference to the Sabbath and Holy Days -- "These are the appointed times [moed] of the LORD, holy convocations" (Leviticus 23:4).

Several translations render the Hebrew term moed in Leviticus 23, verses 2, 4 and 44, as "feasts." This contributes to the common idea that the weekly Sabbath and each of the annual Holy Days are "feasts." However, this is a misnomer. "Moed" does not actually denote a festival or party; but rather, an appointed time, place, or meeting.

This error of translation is most vivid in regard to the Day of Atonements -- the annual fast. In no sense is this day associated with festivity. To the contrary, it is prescribed as a day of austerity. God specifically commands the Day of Atonements as a humble observance and a cleansing from sin:

Although the weekly Sabbath is quite different in character, Scripture also does not anywhere suggest that the Sabbath is a "festive" occasion. This is not to imply that God's Sabbath should be dreary or without abundance. God admonishes us to desist from our own pleasures to observe His Sabbath, and to call it a "delight" (Isaiah 58:13).

Conversely, the Hebrew chag, which Scripture uses of the annual Passover/ Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles/(and by association) the Eighth Day does denote festivity or a festival (Exodus 12:14; 23:15-16; Leviticus 23:6, 34, 39, 41). Additionally, the annual Feast of Trumpets is highlighted in the book of Nehemiah, as being a day for rejoicing and festivity (Nehemiah 8:2, 9-12).

Thus, Scripture directly connects all of God's consecrated days with festivity, with the exception of the weekly Sabbath and the annual Day of Atonements . Having established this initial differentiation, what other differences might we find?

In Scripture, we find an absolute prohibition against work only on the weekly Sabbath, and on the annual Day of Atonements:

The weekly Sabbath:

The Day of Atonements:

Thus we see that Scripture does not allow any "work" on the weekly Sabbath or on the annual Day of Atonements.

For ease of identification, the phrases in the verses above, which represent the Hebrew phrase shabbat shabbaton -- "Sabbath of Sabbath observance"-- are rendered in bold. Although the word shabbaton, by itself, is used of the other fall Holy Days, the phrase using these two Hebrew words together is used only of the weekly Sabbath (3 instances), of the Day of Atonements (2 instances), and in one instance (Leviticus 25:4) pertaining to the Sabbath year, a period when farm lands are commanded to be not at all worked.

Of course, apart from other evidence, the use of this Hebrew phrase is interesting, but proves nothing. However, we also find that in addition to the distinction of shabbat shabbaton, there is a second distinction in Scripture which differentiates the weekly Sabbath and the Day of Atonements from God's other Holy Days. It is the use of the Hebrew phrase abodah melakah, translated "laborious work" (NASB) or "servile work" (KJV).

The phrase "laborious work" is used in Scripture only of the other annual Holy Days, never of the weekly Sabbath or the Day of Atonements:

1st Day of Unleavened Bread:

Last Day of Unleavened Bread:

Pentecost (Feast of First Fruits/Weeks):

Feast of Trumpets:

Feast of Tabernacles:

Eighth Day:

Thus in regard to the weekly Sabbath and the annual Holy Days:

Only the weekly Sabbath and the annual Day of Atonements are "Sabbaths of Sabbath observance."

Only the weekly Sabbath and the annual Day of Atonements uniformly stipulate "no work."

Only the annual Holy Days (other than Atonements) are designated as festive occasions.

Only the annual Holy Days (other than Atonements) have the slightly different stipulation: "no laborious work."

It is important also to quantify the fact that all of the annual Holy Days, except the Day of Atonements, are festive occasions, and are governed by this slightly different stipulation, "no laborious work."

Then what is the meaning of "no laborious work"? What allowance does God intend to suggest for these annual Holy Days? Scripture gives us only one indication. However, in the context of that indication, we need to address the one instance of general admonition against work on a festive Holy Day:

Despite all that we have read earlier, is this instruction specifying "not do any work," "no work at all" -- the same as God requires for the Sabbath and the Day of Atonements? Or is this "no work" admonition intended to be understood as a generalization?

In Exodus 12, also speaking of the Days of Unleavened Bread, God clarifies for us that the admonition in Deuteronomy 16:8 indeed is a generalization -- a generalization for which there is a notable exception:

It is helpful here that the Hebrew word melakah, translated "work," is a term which Scripture uses in regard to the weekly Sabbath and to all of the annual Holy Days. The Bible instructs that we are to "not do any work" -- "not do any melakah"-- on the weekly Sabbath or on the Day of Atonements. On the other Holy Days, those which are festive, we are to "do no laborious work" -- "do no laborious melakah." Doing "no laborious work," Scripture equates with: "no work [melakah] at all shall be done [asah] on them, except what must be eaten by every person, that alone may be prepared [asah] by you."

Worth mentioning, is that the above allowance for food preparation is recorded specifically, only in connection with the Holy Days of Unleavened Bread. However, given the fact that all of these annual Holy Days share this same designation: "no laborious work," it is most logical to conclude that this same allowance: food preparation, is the allowance which is meant to be understood for all of the festive annual Holy Days.

What are the implications of these instructions? On these Holy Days, we are to do no work at all, except food preparation sufficient for the day itself -- "what must be eaten by every person." Significantly, both by grammatical structure and by logic, the language of these instructions define food preparation as "work" -- that which God adamantly forbids on His weekly Sabbath and on the Day of Atonements!

To summarize what God equates here: No laborious work = no work at all, except the preparation of food. Therefore, logic demands that no work at all includes no preparation of food.

Additional light is shed on this point by the example of Christ with His apostles, who as they were passing through the fields on the Sabbath, picked and ate grain because they were hungry (Matthew 12; Mark 2; Luke 6). It is instructive in this instance, that to pick heads of grain and eat the kernels was only slightly more physical effort than picking up food out of a bowl. It was the method least intrusive of the Sabbath for resolving their unanticipated compassionate need. The disciples were already passing through the field. They did not travel out of their way. There was no cooking involved.

Yet despite these mitigating factors, the Gospel accounts record that Christ did not defend the disciples' actions as being any acceptable norm for general Sabbath observance; but rather, only as a defensible exception. (Clearly, from the context of the account, Christ did not intend to annul the ongoing sanctity of the showbread by His defense of David's extraordinary situation. Further, the Sabbath exception mentioned by Christ for the priests would not be taken to suggest that the laity could now routinely slaughter large animals on God's Sabbath. Narrowing this exception even more, on most Sabbaths during the year, only 1/12 of the priests were on duty in the temple, and even then, all possible preparatory work was done ahead of the Sabbath, such as the cutting and carrying of the wood for the sacrifices, etc.)

We should note, too, that Christ's approach here is in *stark contrast* to His defense of healing on the Sabbath. Christ defended healing as being intrinsically lawful Sabbath activity.

Equipped with all that we have seen in the various passages of Scripture, we now come to Exodus 16:

"Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning." It is clear that God intends for all of the two omers of manna to be baked and/or boiled on the sixth day, and He miraculously preserves the cooked leftovers as provision for the holy Sabbath.

With this knowledge, it is accurate to say that the designation of the sixth day as a "preparation day" is much more than a tradition; it is the command and intent of Almighty God -- He who commands that we work on six days; He who goes so far as to perform miracles to provide for doubled productivity on the sixth day; He who miraculously preserves the fruits of those efforts.

In the preparation day, God has given us a profound temporal model of a spiritual concept, for our own individual lives and for the Work of the Church. Jesus reminds us:

If we neglect preparations for the temporal weekly Sabbath, how can we possibly expect to comprehend or to perform the requisite spiritual preparations for the Kingdom Sabbath which is yet to come?

Moreover, for God's Church collectively, proper preparations for the temporal weekly Sabbath are crucial. Our collective preparation for the weekly Sabbath is prerequisite, both for the spiritual understanding and for the means to deliver the Gospel message to the world -- to carry out that Work of preparing the way for the millennial Sabbath and for the imminent return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.