Well, why didn’t we do it some other way? There’s no real reason for that. Why do we have these weeks? Why is everything counted in weeks? Weeks don’t even fit well into months. Do they? Four weeks don’t make a month. Five weeks don’t make a month. Nobody would purposely do this. No committee would do this. Why in the world do we operate in sevens? I’ll tell you: There’s only one reason, and that’s because God established that order, because of creation. And every week of our lives we go through a cycle that is intended by God to remind us that He created the world in six days and rested. Every time a seventh day passes, we should be acknowledging God as our creator. That’s a memorial to a completed creation.
To reject God as creator and to reject a six day creation is to unbless the seventh day. It’s therefore to deny God His true identity as creator. It’s to rob Him of glory due His name. Any kind of evolution, any kind, totally confounds the blessing of the seventh day, doesn’t it? Of course, it does. If we’re evolving out of billions of years, there is no seventh day. But on the other hand, if we believe what the Bible says, then every seventh day that passes is a memorial and a reminder that God created the entire universe in six days and was finished. And for that glorious accomplishment, He deserves our praise.
So what does that have to do with me? Well, I think you ought to remember that. I think Saturday should be identified in our minds with the completion of creation. You know, somewhere in the background of our western civilization, somebody knew that. Because when they began to develop work patterns, they gave us Saturday and Sunday off. Saturday is the seventh day. And I mean typically, the ideal scenario, I know when I was growing up it was very common, on Saturday we as a family had a picnic. We got in the car and drove out to the creek and went fishing, or we got together. And it was always seemingly outside. It was a day that maybe somebody down the road knew needed to be enjoyed in the creation of God. It was a day when we remembered that He had created everything, and we could enjoy His creation. We didn’t work that seventh day. That was a day to enjoy the creation. That was a day to delight. That was the day to set the labor aside and just delight in what God had done. I used to look forward to Saturdays more than Sundays as a kid, because they used to put me in this little Lord Fauntleroy suit with — with knee length stockings and knickers, and make me sit the whole day, even after church until church at night. You couldn’t do anything except eat. You could have — gluttony was the one sin that dominated Sunday. And that was on Sunday. But Saturday, we went down to the park; we ran into the woods; we chased down to the creek. And maybe somebody somewhere along the line knew that that was the day that we should enjoy the creation of God.
When I look at the blessing of the Sabbath in Genesis, I don’t see any Mosaic proscription here. I don’t see anything about the Mosaic Law here. I don’t see anything designed for man to do, except to remember that God did it all in six days and He was finished. And what He did was very good, to the degree that He completely delighted in it. That memorializes that day for me, and I hope it does for you. I mean we can live our lives, I think, appropriately like that. Saturday gives testimony to God as creator. Sunday gives testimony to God as redeemer because of the resurrection, right? On the seventh day, God rested because He had finished creation. From the first day Christ arose, because He’d finished redemption. Maybe somebody knew that when they gave us Saturday and Sunday. One day for the creator; another day for the Savior. Saturday is a perpetual witness that God finished creation and is the glorious God of creation. Sunday is a perpetual witness that God finished redemption and is the God of salvation. Sadly in our society, most people don’t care about either of them. But I do, and I know you do. I guess in some ways men are like monkeys, because monkeys don’t worship God either, and monkeys don’t care about his creation, and monkeys don’t care about his redemption. But we do. Evolutionists are anti-God; they are anti-Bible. And they do what Romans 1 says is so deadly: They refuse to honor God. They refuse to give Him glory. And so they bring on themselves, Romans 1 says, a “reprobate mind.” And they engage in unspeakable forms of foolishness, sexual perversion, homosexuality, and they delight in their wretchedness, rather than delighting in the God of creation and the God of salvation. That’s evolutionists. But for us, for those of us who believe in the one true and living God, we believe in creation. And no week goes by without a memorial; and no week goes by without a witness; no week goes by without a testimony; no week goes by without a holy day. That’s where we get the word “holiday.” No week of our lives ever goes by without one day that points to God as creator. Every seventh day is that.
Do some practical things on the seventh day. Go out and rejoice in the beauty of God’s creation. Go play with your grandchildren in the wonder of human life. No week goes by without a reminder that God is creator. And isn’t it wonderful? No week goes by without a witness, a testimony, a memorial to salvation, right? That’s today, isn’t it? The first day of the week was the day in which Jesus rose from the dead for our justification. I think that’s what’s on the heart of God as He blesses the seventh day. And I think we need to leave it at that.
Can’t tell you how many books I have read in the last few weeks that say here God established a universal pattern for man. Doesn’t say that. Doesn’t say that at all. Man isn’t even discussed here. God didn’t instruct Adam to do anything on the seventh day. It isn’t even limited to a day. God engaged in some permanent condition of delight over the completion of His creation until sin came. And I think that all we need to take is what the text says, and see this day as simply God’s design for human life.
And isn’t it amazing that the whole world operates on seven day weeks? I remember in America when they tried to change everything over to — from inches, do you remember, to meters, and all of that? And nobody would buy into it finally, because the housewives didn’t want to get rid of all their utensils. That was really what stymied the whole thing. Husbands would be made ill because all the recipes would be wrong if they started cooking with liters and all of those things. So we are stuck with our own system as over against the whole world that has a different system.
But in the case of calendars, the whole civilized world operates on weeks. And there’s no reason for that, except that’s the way God designed it, so that everyone, every so often in the routine of life, would face the fact that a great creator created it all in six days. And every seventh day, He gave us that reminder that His creation was done. Isn’t it sad that people won’t give Him the glory He’s due, the honor He’s due?
Now all of that opens up the subsequent teaching on the Sabbath law in the Mosaic economy. How is that connected to this? Well, I am not going to tell you tonight. I will just leave Genesis where it is. And next time we meet, I am going to take you into the Sabbath law of the Mosaic economy, and show you if and how that connects, and if at all it establishes any precedent for what we do now on the Lord’s day. That’s going to be a fascinating study. But you have been very patient, and we will leave it at that for tonight.
Let’s pray.
Father, it’s such a joy to just see the word of God come to life. We bless You, we honor, we thank You for doing it in a week. We thank You for doing it in six days, and then giving us a day to remember that. We thank You that you have told us that you are to be honored and worshipped as the creator. You are to be remembered every seventh day, as like a living time memorial affirming the wonder of your six day creation. We glorify You as our creator. We adore You as our redeemer. We realize, God, that it is beyond our comprehension that you could create in six days. Your power and your wisdom is way beyond us. It is equally beyond our understanding that you would redeem us. But Lord, you have filled us with such riches, for we know You and we love You and thus, we can remember You as the creator each week, and remember you each week as the redeemer as well. May we never forget; never forget. And may we glorify You for all that you have done. And by virtue of the work of Jesus Christ, we offer you our prayers and our lives in Christ’s name. Amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
