Building on the Foundation

  Would it surprise you to know that the world has not always followed a seven-day week? That past civilizations often had no knowledge of the seven-day week we know today? Afterall, the seven-day week comes from God’s Word, and they didn’t have God’s Word. Let’s start from the beginning. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). Creation took six days. Then, in Gen. 2:1-3, we find this: “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” In the beginning, God established a seven-day week: six days for work, the seventh day for rest. He blessed and sanctified the seventh day, that is, He made it holy. As Ex. 20:11 reminds us, “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the eart...

  Why did God create the Sabbath? Was it to burden us with rest? Was it just because He wanted to see us relax each seventh day, or because He wanted to see us sit in church for a couple hours on that day? Mind you, there's nothing wrong with those things. There's nothing wrong with relaxing or going to church; God wants us to do those things! But physical rest is not the biggest purpose of the Sabbath. God wants us to keep the Sabbath both physically and spiritually. Everything that God commanded us to do in His Word has a spiritual reason for it. As we saw in a previous post on this subject, Heb. 4 shows us that the Sabbath represents God's Kingdom. Heb. 4:9 tells us, in a more literal translation, "It remains therefore for the people of God to keep the Sabbath." Heb. 4:4 reiterates that the Sabbath is the seventh day: "For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: 'And God rested on the seventh day from all His works.'"...

Among the ten commandments, the fourth commandment, the Sabbath, is the most neglected, despised, and disregarded. Most of those who claim to be Christians (followers of Christ) do not keep the seventh-day Sabbath that God ordained at Creation in Genesis 1. Not only have they substituted the first day of the week, Sunday, for the seventh-day Sabbath, they don't even keep that day holy! As for those who do recognize the seventh-day Sabbath as God's holy day, well, most of us seem more interested in seeking our own pleasure than in keeping the day holy. All too often, our attitude is not one of, "How can I keep this day holy to God and rejoice in His presence?", but one of, "What can I get away with, without technically breaking the Sabbath? Can I watch TV? Can I go to a movie? Can I go shopping or buy things? Can I do homework? Can I work a few minutes after sunset on Friday night once in awhile? Can I play sports?" Why is this? What's wrong with the Sabb...