Both Adam and Eve were not called into existence and then
left with nothing to do. They were assigned ‘jobs’ or the
work of tending to their garden home.
Given that this task existed before there were seasons in our world, and
that plants never died, this task may well have been daunting. All the wildlife in the original Garden of
Eden were vegetarian. They ate the same
fruits, nuts, berries, grains, etc.. our first parents ate. The animals were both tame and unafraid of
man. Think of it, this garden existed
before we embraced evil. The carnage
that comes when eating the flesh of another creature, would only have started
‘after’ sin entered our world. Flesh
foods were not missed at all in our original diet. Imagine every conceivable fruit growing in
constant bloom, never decaying or growing unfit to eat. And as we have already witnessed our creator
God really enjoys variety, so I imagine there was no lack of ‘new’ things to
eat, or any shortages that would not have addressed the needs of the animal,
bird, and fish life there.
This first assignment of our ancestors would not be
something that ever lost its need for attention. For this and many other reasons, God also
created for our benefit a sense of time.
Putting our earth in rotation around a central star, the sun – gave us
sunlight for half the day. Giving us a
moon to rotate our own planet, gave us the reflection of light at night, as
well as a sky filled with an infinite number of other stars, solar systems,
nebulae and galaxies to wonder at, or dream of while we slept. This dividing of the day from the night, was
an optional construct of
God. He could have just as easily
created 2 suns for us, keeping our world constantly lit. But apparently we were not created to work
every hour of the day, we would need time each day, to relax. Note that God walked with Adam and Eve in the
evenings, probably around sunset in the ‘cool’ of the day, and talked with
them. But man would require setting even
more time aside from his ‘work’ in order to achieve a balance in his life, than
just the nightly time in which he slept.
So in honor of the day in which God rested from His work of
creation, God decided to institutionalize
the seventh day of the week as a permanent day-off. It was a day of rest, to honor His rest from
His work of creation. A day of communion
entirely devoted to man enjoying time-off with His God. Keep in mind, the garden work was still
there. It had not diminished while man
took this time off. But God through this
lesson, told us, we need to prioritize time for ourselves to commune with Him,
undistracted by our normal work laden routines.
Also, keep in mind, that Adam & Eve did not give-up the daily
evening walks with God, because they had this entire day to be with Him. They continued daily building their relationships. This special day was simply an additional
blessing, or gift, of time they could devote as well to really focusing on
their talks with God. Note that there
was nothing inherently special about this day, until God made it so. God was the one who “blessed the seventh day,
and hallowed it”. He did not set it up
for Himself, as He does not need to rest.
He set it up for man, because knowing our needs; He knew we would need a
break from our ‘normal’ routines.
Without this time off, we would go nuts.
We would work ourselves to death or worry ourselves to death. We needed something to break up the ‘daily
grind’ and cause us to think, commune, and build our relationships with God
even stronger.
This time-off concept was to
help us achieve balance in our lives.
And it was started before evil corrupted our world. If we needed time away from our routines even
in Paradise, how much more do we need it now?
But the setting aside of this day, would also accomplish another goal,
it would forever memorialize the act of creation itself. By doing this, God was declaring that “He”
made us in six days, and we belonged to Him – we are in fact His
creations. The word ascribed to setting
aside this day to honor our God, and get closer to Him, became known as the
“Sabbath Day”. (In New Testament times
this would also be called ‘the Lord’s day’ as it was the day which belonged to
the ‘Lord’. Jesus was in fact ‘the Lord
of the Sabbath’.)
This becomes a very important lesson for us to learn. Our God KNOWS we need time off. He does not intend for us to ‘work’ ALL the
time. We NEED time with Him to grow our
relationship with Him, not just weekly or daily, but both. And what a blessing ‘the Sabbath’ has become
in this day in age. Demanding bosses,
relentless marketers, everyone seemingly wants to occupy our every second of
time. And what a break from all this
junk, is the Sabbath - a time to get
away from the mall, and the relentless attempts by merchandisers to relieve us
of our money. The Sabbath can be a time
when we simply choose not work, but past that, not to even think about work –
not to let the constant demands of our jobs and career advancements so take us
over as people, that we forget even who we really are, what is really important
in life.
I have met my share of career obsessed executives who crave
power, and success. These devout folks
are willing to place on the altar of success, their families, their
relationships, their time, their energy, sometimes even their health. And upon having achieved the success they
chased, they are alone, empty, rich and emotionally destitute - far from any
simple pleasure of life, and completely devoid of individual meaning. The Sabbath can correct all this. Observing the Sabbath allows one to keep
their own priorities straight. This life on earth is not about acquiring
things, it is about a much deeper purpose.
Our time is an asset, which we must choose to manage and is as important
as any other. Observing the Sabbath
allows one to say, even if my work place burned down today, I would not go in –
there is something even MORE important than any job or career – in short, it is
my own happiness, my joy, my fulfillment which I can ONLY acquire through time
with my God. Every death-bed-regret ever
uttered had to do with how people spent what time they were given; no one ever
bemoans their lack of time at work. They
regret missing family events, not spending enough time with the ones they
love. They miss their kids growing
up. They miss the spouse they lost
through lack of time and attention. All
these regrets because we allow ourselves to be consumed with our quest for
survival and success, rather than with what is truly important. The Sabbath can correct this behavior, by
helping us reprioritize our time, and avoid all these regrets.
But does it really matter
what day you choose as your ‘Sabbath’?
Given our inability to exactly calculate when Creation occurred, and
exactly how many days have passed since then, we rely on the best information
we have at hand. Our calendar was
derived from the old Roman calendar, similar to the Egyptian one. It is as good a guess as any, and outlines in
it a seven day week - Saturday being the seventh-day. God asks us to hold this particular day aside
for our time-off with Him, so I believe we should honor His request. Could we be off from the original calculations
of time since Eden? Yes, but it is the
best information we have at present. The
Muslims who trace the ancestry of their religion to be in common with Abraham,
worship on Friday’s, based on their own calendar. I imagine if they are honoring the
‘seventh-day’ as God instructed and simply came to a different calculation on
which day that is, this should be fine with God. If however, they have chosen to change the
day of worship from day 7 to day 6, that would be a problem. Keep in mind that one of the reasons this day
was important to God was that it commemorated our creation. God rested on the seventh day, not the
sixth. He was busy making man on the
sixth.
In addition there are a good number of Christians who
believe the day commemorating creation, was changed to the first day of the
week to honor the resurrection of Christ.
Therefore they choose to honor Sunday instead of Saturday as their day
of worship. This idea became so popular
over the years, we arrived at a ‘weekend’ off idea in our society (the old day
off for worship, and the new day off for worship). But there are a few problems with idea that
Christ changed the day. 1.) Nowhere in
scripture does it ever explicitly state the day was changed, by Christ, or
anyone else. 2.) Christ was our God of
Creation in the first place, this was something He setup – and throughout His
entire life on earth – He observed His own day. 3.) The prophet Isaiah refers to Sabbaths as
being observed in Heaven long after the destruction of evil – meaning it was
not ‘nailed to the cross’ as some have offered.
What God did creating this earth will always be relevant throughout time
and space. 4.) Early Christians
worshipped on the Saturday Sabbath, until 300 A.D. when Constantine the first
real Pope decided to change the day to Sunday to avoid getting Christians and
Jews mixed up. 5.) There have always
been those who did not accept a change in this doctrine and resisted it, even
to the point of giving up their lives over it – including in today’s age. So it does make a bit of difference, but then
listening to what God
asks us to do, has always been important.
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