This day was a Sabbath day. But nowhere is there any indication that this was the first Sabbath that the Israelites or mankind in general were bound to keep. Moses was here telling the Israelites that it was quite safe for them to eat the manna collected on the previous day. He was also reminding them that, because this was God's special day and He wanted them to rest rather than to work at manna collection, there would be no manna in the fields that day. Note that, as in Exodus 16:23, this verse states that the Sabbath was "to the Lord." This means that, although the Sabbath was made for man, it is still God's day—"the Lord's Day"—and man is to keep it in recognition, acceptance, honor, and obedience to Him.
God finds it necessary to repeat Himself yet again on this point which He considered to be so important:
God had given the Sabbath Day of rest as a blessing for His children.
God gave them twice as much manna on the sixth day.
They were not to go out to attempt to collect manna on the seventh day.
Some have misconstrued the latter part of this verse as meaning that Sabbath-keepers should not even leave their homes on the Sabbath Day. This is not what is being said at all. God is chastising the disobedient Israelites who had just blatantly broken His Sabbath instructions! He was telling them not to go out of their homes on the Sabbath for the purpose of collecting manna. To extrapolate this concept for New Testament Sabbath-keepers: We should not venture from our homes on the Sabbath for the purpose of doing any kind of work.
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