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Keep in mind that the holidays (Holy Days) came in a variety of forms and all were requirements, not optional. And has been established, the penalties of the OT were very stiff. So as to the Death Penalty as a stiff punishment, that is a whole nuther ball of wax and I think it is addressed somewhere around here, if not I'll take the time to hit that one up. So to say: "huge penalty = not made for us" isn't true.
I don't follow that. The purpose of the Sabbath was for devotions to God. God's the one that benefits from it. That's why the penalty for not participating was so strict.

If it was for our benefit, would we have to worry about being stoned to death for not resting properly?

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The Feast holidays were also mandatory and had stiff penalties
Which has what to do with the purpose of the Sabbath?

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For some people, eating leftovers and studying/meditating all day would be a horrible day, even if you didn't have to do your daily chores.
Considering the standard of living at the time, a day without work means that you're going to be a day behind on your chores the next day. Once a week, you have to work extra hard to get chorse done before Sabbath, hopefully enough so that a day's slide wouldn't ruin something, then work extra hard the day after to catch up on what was needed.
Growing up in an agricultural district, i know that there is always something that needs doing on a farm, every day. The scurrying to pile two days worth of food for the animals before sundown, the scurrying to clean up two days worth of manure on the day after... creating this extra work on two days for one day of rest does not make sense if the day of rest was for our benefit. It does make sense if God demands it, for Himself, and doesn't really care how much toil it causes for the workers.

Same as a high ranking visitor to a military command. It wasn't for the enlisted's benefit, even though we didn't do any work during the tour. We did extra cleaning before, and grooming, and a lot of catching up after. But it was for someone else's benefit.