Celebrating Creation

Genesis 2:1-3

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” (Genesis 2:1)

It took God just a week to complete the universe. Clearly he had had a carefully thought out plan. Otherwise, the sun would have been too close or too far from earth at some point, so life as we know it could not exist, or the other stars would have been close enough to affect the earth‘s orbit around the sun. Perhaps the speed of the earth‘s rotation would have flung off the atmosphere or chunks of the planet.

In southern Arizona there is a yucca like plant which produces a flower which can only be pollinated by a particular moth which eats the flower. The moth’s digestive system is designed so that the moth can eat nothing but the flowers of that particular plant. The plant had to be created first for the moth to survive, but if the moth evolved too much later or in a different area, he would not pollinate the plant and they would have ceased to exist. God placed everything in the right place at the right time. Many biologists now say that micro evolution could never work as the changes would not be enough to support one another. Changes would have to be major changes to produce the diversity we see today. God created it all in a very short period to function as a unit.

“And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” (Genesis 2:2-3)

When God examined what he had made, he found it “very good.” Anyone who has made some challenging project successfully knows the sense of satisfaction completing it gives. God apparently shares that sense of pleasure in his accomplishments. He set aside a day to celebrate what he had done.

The Sabbath or seventh day as a day of rest is not mentioned again in scripture until God gave the command to Israel, about twenty five hundred years later, in Moses’ day. Exodus 31:16-17 explains why. “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.” It was particularly for Israel as a reminder that God had provided everything for them, and keeping the Sabbath was a condition of receiving God’s blessings as a nation.

Deuteronomy 5:14 tells how the Sabbath was to be celebrated. “But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.”

Jesus explained that the Sabbath was for man’s sake in Matthew 2:27-28. “And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.” Humans need to take time to thank God for what he has done and to rest for a while. Because Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, we are not obligated to keep it like the Jews, as a condition of salvation. As a result, in Colossians 2:16-17, Paul says, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”

Because they were celebrating Jesus’ completion of salvation, and his resurrection, New Testament Christians assembled on the first day of the week rather than the seventh. Those who were Jews also celebrated the Sabbath as part of their Jewish heritage. There was no command for non Jews to keep the Sabbath, and no record of anyone keeping it until after the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt.