It is easy to read the scriptures from the perspective that God means every verse to be personally applied. But some verses were meant to be exclusively applied to the one receiving the revelation. To extend such revelations to ourselves may lead to unintended results. One such revelation given to a limited audience that has been taken for universal application is found in D&C 59:Thou shalt offer a sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in righteousness, even that of a broken heart and a contrite spirit.
And that thou mayest more fully keep thyself unspotted from the world, thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day;
For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High;
Nevertheless thy vows shall be offered up in righteousness on all days and at all times;
But remember that on this, the Lord’s day, thou shalt offer thine oblations and thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins unto thy brethren, and before the Lord.
And on this day thou shalt do none other thing, only let thy food be prepared with singleness of heart that thy fasting may be perfect, or, in other words, that thy joy may be full.
Verily, this is fasting and prayer, or in other words, rejoicing and prayer. (D&C 59:8-14).
The introduction to this revelation states that "early members characterized this revelation as instructing the Saints how to keep the Sabbath and how to fast and pray." Certainly, that seems plain enough and suggests that these verses possess the capacity to be universally applied. However, several elements of these verses stand out as rather peculiar.
FIRST, this day is characterized by going to the house of prayer. Although temple worship is often extended to our weekly houses of worship [such as in the case of administering the Sacrament (see Exodus 29:31-33)], the temple is most definitively the house of prayer. Concerning strangers "that join themselves to the Lord . . . and every one that . . . taketh hold of my covenant", the LORD declared:Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people. (Isaiah 56:7)
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The temple is termed "the house of prayer" because of the golden altar situated within the Holy Place thereof. Before it, the High Priest stood daily to burn incense (see (Exodus 30:1-10). According to the Bible Dictionary, "the attitude of prayer ordinarily was standing (1 Samuel 1:26; Nehemiah 9:2, 4; Matthew 6:5; Luke 18:11, 13)" and the smoke of the incense that ascended up before God was in token of the prayers of the saints that likewise ascended up to God (see Revelation 8:3-4). It was this smoke of the incense that formed the cloud in which the Lord appeared to Aaron upon the mercy seat, or footstool of God (see 1 Chronicles 28:2, Psalms 132:7), on the Day of Atonement (see Leviticus 16:2). 
For us, all of this activity lends important definition as to what it means to "stand in holy places" (see 2 Chronicles 35:5, 10, Psalms 24:3-6, Joseph Smith-Matthew 1:12, D&C 45:32, D&C 87:8, D&C 101:22) and for the Lord to appear "in a cloud" (D&C 34:7, Luke 21:27, D&C 45:44-45, JST Revelation 1:7, Joseph Smith-Matthew 1:36) upon his footstool (see D&C 38:17). Importantly, verse 14 of the revelation given to Joseph Smith references the prayer that was to be offered in the house of prayer on this, the Lord's day.
SECOND, verse 10 of the revelation gives me the greatest reason to pause. Although it is ordinarily thought that "resting from our labors" is a scriptural injunction to set aside our daily labors in deference to the labors of a better world, the context of this revelation provides a rather stark definition of this phrase. The preface to this revelation notes that "[p]receding this revelation, the land was consecrated, as the Lord had directed, and the site for the future temple was dedicated. On the day this revelation was received, Polly Knight, the wife of Joseph Knight Sr., died, the first Church member to die in Zion." With this backdrop, the Lord established the context of what it means to rest from your labors--
Behold, blessed, saith the Lord, are they who have come up unto this land with an eye single to my glory, according to my commandments.
For those that live shall inherit the earth, and those that die shall rest from all their labors, and their works shall follow them; and they shall receive a crown in the mansions of my Father, which I have prepared for them.
Yea, blessed are they whose feet stand upon the land of Zion, who have obeyed my gospel; for they shall receive for their reward the good things of the earth, and it shall bring forth in its strength. (D&C 59:1-3)
The past and present-tense nature of the verbs used in each of these verses limits the application of this revelation to those individuals:
Of this group who thereafter lived, the Lord promised that they would inherit the earth. Of those who died, the Lord declared that they would "rest from all their labors." Inasmuch as dying was made synonymous with "resting from labors", the injunction given that the Lord's Day of D&C 59 was "a day appointed unto you to rest from all your labors" carried important definition for the prophet Joseph Smith if the pronouns used in that verse were directed at him. If so, this revelation contains one of the earliest foretelling of his martyrdom.
A THIRD and unique element of this revelation is that it pertains to a Sabbath on which its participants are presumed to be fasting. "Let thy food be prepared with singleness of heart that thy fasting may be perfect", was the admonition given to those who were to go to the house of prayer and who were appointed to rest from all their labors.
There are other elements to this revelation that are intriguing to discuss. However, I have intentionally limited my comments to these three with the hopes that what I have left out will pique your interest sufficient to cause you to study more deeply this revelation on your own.
Because of the 1) in-revelation definition of what it means to "rest from all your labors", 2) fact that this revelation was directed to all those who had come up to the land of Zion, and 3) presumption that the participants in this day were to be fasting, I believe it deserves more scrutiny and study than it has heretofore been given. We have generally thought that this section can be universally applied; I do not believe this is the case. Notwithstanding, the universal application of its principles may be appropriate and often has merit.
- who had, as of August 7, 1831, come up to the land of Jackson County, Missouri;
- whose feet presently stood upon that land of Zion; and
- who have obeyed the Lord's gospel.
A THIRD and unique element of this revelation is that it pertains to a Sabbath on which its participants are presumed to be fasting. "Let thy food be prepared with singleness of heart that thy fasting may be perfect", was the admonition given to those who were to go to the house of prayer and who were appointed to rest from all their labors.
There are other elements to this revelation that are intriguing to discuss. However, I have intentionally limited my comments to these three with the hopes that what I have left out will pique your interest sufficient to cause you to study more deeply this revelation on your own.
Because of the 1) in-revelation definition of what it means to "rest from all your labors", 2) fact that this revelation was directed to all those who had come up to the land of Zion, and 3) presumption that the participants in this day were to be fasting, I believe it deserves more scrutiny and study than it has heretofore been given. We have generally thought that this section can be universally applied; I do not believe this is the case. Notwithstanding, the universal application of its principles may be appropriate and often has merit.
