Remember the Sabbath Day
And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.
Genesis 2:3
Read Genesis 2:1-3
During the time of the French Revolution there were certain men who tried
to get rid of the old fashioned seven-day-week. Why would anyone try to
honour an institution just because it is written in the Bible? However, after
a short period of time the ten-day-week they tried to institute in the place
of the creation week was done away with. Society was not able to function
properly at all.
Genesis 2 reveals the origin of a seventh day Sabbath in which everyone is
called to rest from his daily work. God Himself also rested after the six days
of creation. This was not because the Almighty had become weary. To understand
the real reason, we must tie the opening verses of Genesis 2 to the
final verse of Chapter 1. The Lord used the seventh day to review all that He
had made, and He saw that everything was most excellent. In this way, He
delighted in His own created work.
Do you realize that this is the supreme purpose of the weekly day of rest
given to us? How tragic when Sunday becomes nothing more than a day in
which we must do this and may not do that, when in reality the purpose
of this day is for us to rejoice with gladness in God’s work, especially His
work of redemption revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ, and applied by the
Holy Spirit. How beautiful when this is our focus at the very beginning of
every week.
Not only may we rest at the beginning of the week as a fruit of the rest that
Christ has earned, but we are also privileged that we may do our daily work.
Then we are no longer simply in a rat race, but we may fulfill our labour as a
fruit of His finished work. Thanks be to God for the Lord’s Day.
Question: Is the Lord’s Day a delight or a burden to you?
Psalter 435:1, 5: The Ten Commandments
My soul, with holy awe remember, The Lord, in brightest majesty,
At Horeb’s mount, gave there His statutes, And spake these words to hear and see.
The sabbath-day shalt thou keep holy, Remember, sanctify and rest;
For God, has hallowed to His glory, The sabbath worship, which He blest.
