Greeting Brethren!

In the creation account in Genesis, we are given insight into how God set in motion all that we now see. Within the creation, God put in place the heavenly bodies and declared that part of their purpose was "to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years" (Genesis 1:14). Mankind has observed these things and we can see patterns in the time it takes for the moon to revolve around the earth and the earth to make a trip around the sun. These form the basis of how we reckon time periods of months and years. Even the rising and the setting of the sun gives us the transition from day to day, just as God intended.

There is however, one unit of time that we regularly use that does not match the time sequence of the rotations of the earth, sun, or moon. That measure of time is the week. As a society, we are tied very closely to the week, and yet if we think about it the length may seem arbitrary. Why is a week made of seven days? Why not 5, 10, or even 15? The answer comes from God in His Word.

Just as God established time as we know it in Genesis, He also instituted the seven-day week. After dividing day from night, God tells us that "the evening and the morning were the first day" (Genesis 1:5). "Evening" is mentioned first, followed by "morning" showing the start of each day at sunset. God describes each day's creation in similar terms (Genesis 1:8, Genesis 1:13, Genesis 1:19, Genesis 1:23, Genesis 1:31). This God does for six days, but the seventh day He made special by not only resting on that day but blessing it and sanctifying it (Genesis 2:2-3). This special seventh day ends the weekly cycle and a new day and new week begins as the Sabbath ends.

This seven-day cycle was created by God to emphasize His Sabbath and the meaning He attaches to that day. That weekly rotation remains intact for us today. Even though mankind has used many calendars over the centuries, with varying lengths of months and years, the God ordained seven-day week has remained constant. Most of the world does not understand or even think about why we have seven days in a week, and yet the Sabbath remains fixed within this cycle as the culmination of each week.

God has revealed His Sabbath, to those He calls, as Holy time in which we should cease from our own pleasure and even speaking our own words, and instead spend this blessed and sanctified time focusing on God (Isaiah 58:13-14). Tonight, at sunset, our week will see its apex with the start of the Sabbath. Let's always remember the blessing of the Sabbath day and put our whole effort into keeping it Holy.

Pray this is a spiritually edifying Sabbath for us all!

Devin Schulz