What Is The Sabbath / Does It Matter? - Part 4

Why God Waited to Bless the Sabbath?

This question is the next natural question to come into to your mind, at least it did in my mind when I studied this. Why would God wait to bless and sanctify the Sabbath until it was finished? The answer is because it is the presence of God that makes something holy. Each minute of the Sabbath that passed, God was making that minute holy. Each second, minute, and hour that passed, God was making holy by His very presence. And it wasn’t until the last second, the last minute, and the last hour had passed that they were actually holy. Because it was the presence of God in those minutes and seconds and hours holy….and it could only happen after God had been present during those time periods, at the end of the Sabbath. Again Genesis 2:3 is so clear with this. Genesis 2:3 says, “ Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made”. Notice the word because. It says that God blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work. 

Also notice in Exodus 20:11, which is the last verse of the 4^th commandment of God’s holy law. It says, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore (that is, because He rested on the seventh day) the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” So is it a biblical teaching then, that God rested on the seventh day and then He made it holy? Yes it is very biblical from the verses we just read. It should also be clear that the very first week was God’s week, since it was God who worked six days and God who rested on the seventh day. Would you not say it was God’s week? The week was not man’s at all, at least not at this point, and not this first week that God made during Creation. God did give the week to man, but this first week belonged to God. And He worked six, then rested on the seventh day as Sabbath. So now we know the reason why the seventh day had no evening and morning. God has been resting from His work of creation since creation week. Remember what Paul said, “And yet His work has been finished since the creation of the world” – Hebrews 4:3. Paul wrote this more then four thousand years after creation. So what was Paul saying here? Since creation week, what has God been doing with regard to this world? He has been resting from His works of creation of course, has He not? Although God ceased creating after creation week, He still upholds and sustains that which He created during creation week. So God is still resting from His work of creation in this world, because God has created no more. For God, so to speak, the seventh day did not come to an end, because He is still resting from His work of creation. Understand what the Bible is saying here? It’s awesome!!