When God chose to set the time clock of the earth going he did so in an amazing way,
simple but profound and through this way he communicates with his creation. He gave us a seven day week, I told you it was simple. Yet within that simple week we have everything revealed to us about God's greatness, his trinity, man's limitations and eventual fall. Yet within the same framework God marvelously introduces another week and salvation from that fall. Each of the days in that first week started with an evening which ran its 12 hour course before the 12 hour morning arrived. In our western world we are programmed to think that the day has not begun until dawn has broken out in our skies. The first thing we do is get up and work, spending the day with our activities and then having the evening to rest and recover. In those first days that God gave the rest period was given first, before the activity period took place. There was that first day when light was introduced, God spoke the word and it happened, there was light. There was no sun at this point in time just light, provided by Almighty God. There was the second day separation of the waters below and above with a living space provided in between. There was the third day appearance of the land rising up out of the lower waters that were gathered into one big sea. The earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed and fruit trees yielding fruit whose seed was in itself. There was the fourth day and lights were made to populate the heavens. The sun to rule the day, and the moon to rule the night with the stars as well. To divide the daytime from the nighttime, being for signs, seasons and days/years. There was the fifth day when the heavens and the waters below were populated. The great whales and living creatures of the waters and the winged fowl for the skies. There was the sixth day when the earth was populated by the cattle, the creeping things and the beasts of the field. It was on this day that God created man in his own image and gave them dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air and the living things of the earth. God provided herbs and fruit for them to eat, while the birds and living creatures shared the herbs. The seventh day God rested from creation and sanctified it as a day of worship, a day for God to commune with his creation. But by the evening it is possible that man had rebelled, The serpent had challenged Gods word and authority. He had offered knowledge and pleasure to the men, and they had both listened, man and woman, and fallen. When God came to commune with his creation in the cool of the day, he found them in rebellion, hiding and shamed due to disobedience. The serpent was cast to the ground to eat dust and the promise of defeat proclaimed upon it. The woman was given the promise of a Saviour deliverer who would be sent to gain the victory through suffering over the serpent. Then she is punished in having great pain to suffer at childbirth, and the rule of her husband to be over her. The man then received judgement and the ground was cursed for his disobedience, with thorns and thistles sent to hinder his labour in the land. The death penalty was also pronounced upon the both! The seventh day is not concluded in the opening chapters, there had to be another seventh day of the week of sin. That day that points to the centre of man's history and the death of the Saviour deliverer on the tree of Golgotha, to bear away the sin, guilt and shame of those chosen by God before the foundation of the world. Hence the importance of that seventh day Sabbath throughout the entirety of the Old Testament period. But even in the Old Testament there is a clear message which looks forward to the eighth day. That day when the Saviour deliverer would rise to new life from the dead in triumph over the death penalty pronounced on that first seventh day. This is the beginning of eternity with God for those chosen and everlasting judgement on those who aren't. This is why since the Sunday of the firstfruits offering during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, the church gathers and remembers the first day of the week, rather than the last. Pentecost was always on Sunday throughout the Old Testament age, there was the eighth day of the Feast of Tabernacles all pointing forward to resurrection day. Gods calendar is very simple. Instituted at the beginning of time it demonstrates the need of each man, woman and child to find salvation by seeking the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who reigns today over the world and is bringing it to that great judgement day promised throughout the bible. I trust any who read this and do not know him will seek him today.
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AuthorA servant of the Lord Jesus Christ who endeavours to faithfully follow what God teaches in the bible. ArchivesCategories |