Why DID God bless the seventh-day and make it holy?

[SputnikBoy]

We've discussed the Sabbath issue on this forum inside and out, backwards and forwards ...yet I don't recall the question being asked as to WHY God chose to bless the seventh-day and make it holy at Creation.

Genesis 2 tells us: 2) By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3) And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Why did God do this at Creation and how is this act of God significant for us today?

 

[kwag_myers]

I believe that God was establishing the principle of His Sabbath Rest according to Hebrews 4:1-11.

 

[SputnikBoy]

I believe that God was establishing a principle of His Sabbath Rest according to Hebrews 4 1-11.

Sputnik: But, isn't that particular scripture talking less about the Sabbath as such and more about 'Today' as being the day for accepting salvation?

You know, the average Christian would have great difficulty in correctly deciphering Hebrews 4:1-11. So, based on that fact, I don't really feel that God's having blessed the 7th-day and made it holy at Creation could be 'explained' by such a text. Thanks for your contribution, though. Any more takers?

 

[Merry Menagerie]

To seal his creation! which was the shadow of things to come....Christ! Having come obeyed and 'carried out'/fulfilled the law once!! And for ALL then SEALING us with his Rest (which is His Holy Spirit). Which is discussed in Hebrews 4. But you won't except Hebrews 4 because it goes against your teaching! So pray tell, if Hebrews isn't talking about entering the rest through 'belief' then what in the world is it talking about. It all seems pretty plain to me!

 

[kwag_myers]

Well, maybe I should break it down a little. Hebrews 8:5 tells us that the old covenant serves as a physical representation of spiritual principles. So, we're not talking about the actual day, be it Saturday or Sunday. But what does it mean in a spiritual sense?

Seven represents perfection. God is telling us that we can rest being brought into perfection through Jesus.

Day represents a designated period of time, such as the day of the Lord.

Sabbath means day of atonement, so again we are pointed toward Jesus.

For God to rest and bless the seventh day is His example to us that we are blessed when we rest in Jesus instead of laboring to earn our salvation.

 

[SputnikBoy]

Well, maybe I should break it down a little. Hebrews 8:5 tells us that the old covenant serves as a physical representation of spiritual principles. So, we're not talking about the actual day, be it Saturday or Sunday. But what does it mean in a spiritual sense?

Seven represents perfection. God is telling us that we can rest being brought into perfection through Jesus.

Sputnik: Sabbath=7=Jesus? Okay.

Kwag: Day represents a designated period of time, such as the day of the Lord.

Sabbath means day of atonement, so again we are pointed toward Jesus.

Sputnik: Isn't the 'day of atonement' Yom Kippur?

Kwag: For God to rest and bless the seventh day is His example to us that we are blessed when we rest in Jesus instead of laboring to earn our salvation.

Sputnik: Problem. God blessed the Sabbath Day at Creation and made it holy. Are you saying that, when God did so, He anticipated in advance that a) man would 'fall', and that, b) man would have a need for Jesus Christ? What kind of 'new' theology can we apply to this notion?

Thanks for the response; however, I still have to ask the question ...WHY did God bless and hallow the 7th-day?

 

[jorel7am]

As "The Master of the Universe", God was once again happy with His just finished new creation! Naturally, He wanted this new born couple and their descendents, to remember this special event so, He gave them the seventh day as a special day, or a memorial day for ever. He made it also Holy, because He wanted people to stop doing their everyday things, and concentrate on this day as a "Rest" day. Making it a "Holy Day", made it also the right day for a special worship day, where human beings could share God joy for the creation of this planet. - Jorel d'Aguilar - http://www.thelandaftertime.com

 

[kwag_myers]

Kwag: Day represents a designated period of time, such as the day of the Lord.

Sabbath means day of atonement, so again we are pointed toward Jesus.

Sputnik: Isn't the 'day of atonement' Yom Kippur?

Yeap.

Kwag: For God to rest and bless the seventh day is His example to us that we are blessed when we rest in Jesus instead of laboring to earn our salvation.

Sputnik: Problem. God blessed the Sabbath Day at Creation and made it holy. Are you saying that, when God did so, He anticipated in advance that a) man would 'fall', and that, b) man would have a need for Jesus Christ? What kind of 'new' theology can we apply to this notion?

Correction: The word Sabbath does not appear until Exodus 16:23 when God instituted the Law. And yes, He knew at that time that no one could keep the Law, it was to show us that we cannot do it in our own strength (but we still to this day try). God blessed the seventh day (sheb - ee - ee') at Creation (Genesis 2:3).

Thanks for the response; however, I still have to ask the question ...WHY did God bless and hallow the 7th-day?

It's explained in Hebrews 4:1-12. Try reading it in the Amplified,

"THEREFORE, WHILE the promise of entering His rest still holds and is offered [today], let us be afraid [to distrust it], lest any of you should think he has come too late and has come short of [reaching] it. For indeed we have had the glad tidings [Gospel of God] proclaimed to us just as truly as they [the Israelites of old did when the good news of deliverance from bondage came to them]; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because it was not mixed with faith (with the leaning of the entire personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) by those who heard it; neither were they united in faith with the ones [Joshua and Caleb] who heard (did believe). For we who have believed (adhered to and trusted in and relied on God) do enter that rest, in accordance with His declaration that those [who did not believe] should not enter when He said, As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest; and this He said although [His] works had been completed and prepared [and waiting for all who would believe] from the foundation of the world. [Ps. 95:11.] For in a certain place He has said this about the seventh day: And God rested on the seventh day from all His works. [Gen. 2:2.] And [they forfeited their part in it, for] in this [passage] He said, They shall not enter My rest. [Ps. 95:11.] Seeing then that the promise remains over [from past times] for some to enter that rest, and that those who formerly were given the good news about it and the opportunity, failed to appropriate it and did not enter because of disobedience, Again He sets a definite day, [a new] Today, [and gives another opportunity of securing that rest] saying through David after so long a time in the words already quoted, Today, if you would hear His voice and when you hear it, do not harden your hearts. [Ps. 95:7, 8.] [This mention of a rest was not a reference to their entering into Canaan.] For if Joshua had given them rest, He [God] would not speak afterward about another day. So then, there is still awaiting a full and complete Sabbath-rest reserved for the [true] people of God; For he who has once entered [God's] rest also has ceased from [the weariness and pain] of human labors, just as God rested from those labors peculiarly His own. [Gen. 2:2.] Let us therefore be zealous and exert ourselves and strive diligently to enter that rest [of God, to know and experience it for ourselves], that no one may fall or perish by the same kind of unbelief and disobedience [into which those in the wilderness fell].

 

[guibox]

Well, maybe I should break it down a little. Hebrews 8:5 tells us that the old covenant serves as a physical representation of spiritual principles. So, we're not talking about the actual day, be it Saturday or Sunday. But what does it mean in a spiritual sense?

Seven represents perfection. God is telling us that we can rest being brought into perfection through Jesus.

Day represents a designated period of time, such as the day of the Lord.

Sabbath means day of atonement, so again we are pointed toward Jesus.

For God to rest and bless the seventh day is His example to us that we are blessed when we rest in Jesus instead of laboring to earn our salvation.

Your attempt to link the 'rest in Jesus' by the direct action of God blessing, sanctifying and making holy the literal seventh day is more creative then biblically sound, kwaq.

The simple fact that God blessed the Seventh Day, sanctified it by divine example and not mere words and then links this thought DIRECTLY back to Eden within the forth commandment shows that the term 'Sabbath' is linked to the seventh day as God established it long before there were any Jews. It is also poor assumption to say the law never existed before Exodus.

Now we look at Hebrews 4. The link between God and us is again established as we are called to 'rest from our labors as God did from His'. this again establishes the rest of the seventh day right back at Creation. It is ludicrous to think that God rested in Himself or from 'sinful works'. Resting in the Sabbath entails a belief and not mere outward appearance. This rest is the rest that David and Joshua didn't enter. Now with Christ, the Sabbath is clarified and we are called to enter that rest. Our salvation rest in Christ in no way negates the necessity to enter a physical rest as we are human and God knew we would need time off. Hebrews 4 isn't about substituting a Sabbath rest with a spiritual rest.

The 'Sabbath that remains behind' is 'sabbatizmo' which has always been used in literature to denote literal seventh day Sabbath keeping.

What most people fail to realize is that such an important event as an elimination of the Sabbath day into a spiritual principle was never espoused or promoted by Christ. Rather we see that Christ came to magnify the Sabbath in its meaning and stripped away the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who missed the point of the Sabbath.

The fact that most of the miracles recorded in the scriptures happened on Sabbath shows that Christ came to heal the sick and set the captives free from sin and used the Sabbath as His vehicle to do so.

That's how important and meaningful the Sabbath is. Now most people want to ignore Christ's clear teaching and example to substitute it with a misinterpretation of Paul and ONLY Paul as their authority.

 

[kwag_myers]

Why do you think that the priests were clothed in linen (Exodus 28), and in Ezekiel 44:17 they are forbidden to wear wool?