Understanding Creation: The Significance of the Seventh Day

as we study the Book of Genesis in the very first chapter we encounter a difficulty that has caused an enormous amount of of controversy in the history of the church and particularly in our day and the controversy focuses on the fact that the order of creation is described for us in terms of a sequence of days all the trans poow in the work of creation takes place within the framework of a sixday period [00:00:09]

immediately as we encounter the question of the days of creation we recognize that the Hebrew word that is used here for day the word yum is capable of more than one way of being treated it does at certain times in the scriptures refer to a simple cycle of the 24-hour period but also it is used to uh be translated for eons or epochs in a certain time period without any specific reference to chronological uh dimensions of time [00:01:31]

the theory that recent Scholars have put forth uh coming out of Continental Europe that really the word day is used not as a temporal distinction but as a literary structure that is that The Narrative of creation is communicated to us in seven scenes just like a seven act play not that it is a play not that it isn't concerned with real history and real truth but the idea is that the order of creation is set forth for us in a literary fashion following seven sequential stages [00:02:38]

the thing that I want us to notice that's that's vital here is the difference between what is Ultimate and what is penultimate penultimate means that which is just short of the ultimate but not quite ultimate now if we look at the order of creation we see that the creation of man is penultimate not ultimate I I raised that because we've been seeing throughout this examination of Genesis the conflict that exists between the classical Christian view of man and that which is found in secular theories of man [00:08:06]

the seventh day is the day that God rest as that mean that then God ceases all activity Jesus corrected that uh misunderstanding by saying that my father has worked and is working it's not that God created the world in six days and then went to sleep and then stopped all Divine activity as if the work of of creation took place in six staccato beats and then there was a rest a pause and a sensation of divine care and consideration [00:10:26]

the idea found in 18th century philosophy and theology under the rubric of the word deism where deism was an attempt to produce a natural religion to strip Christianity of any kind of an idea of a God who intrudes into the space order Continuum the idea of of deism was this that the universe is like a giant clock very intricate mechanism with each part fitting closely together and that it was fashioned and designed originally by a God but that what God did was that he built the clock he put the parts together and then he wound up the clock [00:11:07]

the Hebrew word there for creation is the word bar now in the Hebrew concept of Creation in the word bar is contained the idea not only of a once forall Stato like work of creation but that the idea of Bor carries with it that God not only creates suddenly but that whatever he creates he continues to sustain to hold to maintain and to care for in fact we could use uh some illustrations here from the world of music and uh we see that in the Hebrew concept of creation is built into it the idea of Providence the idea of sustenance that what God creates he sustains [00:14:36]

the god that is revealed in Genesis is a God who is committed who ties himself to the Daily continuity of our lives and of our planet now what are the implications of that the implications of that are that the universe is not left on its own we see and study the universe and we say through the law of thermodynamics that the amount of available energy is running out and the universe is kind of slowing down and it's and it's going to run down and we can project into the far distant future the idea where the universe sort of stops and disintegrates [00:17:19]

the goal of creation is not simply the existence of man but that the goal the ultimate goal of creation is what Richardson calls Sabbath holiness that man is created for Holiness and for rest that is to say that the future of humanity the destiny of man is found in Holiness and in rest not that our future is moving towards taking a nap but rest from uncertainty rest from inner turmoil rest from The elusive uh pursuit of peace [00:21:04]

there is a Sabbath rest that awaits the people of God the destiny of the Christian is Sabbath Holiness the end of human anxiety the end of human conflict the end of warfare as we enter ultimately into the peace and permanence and stability for which we have been created but that can't happen until all remnants of sin are removed that's why we look to heaven to our future sanctification and glorification whereby we will in fact have the mirror restored and we will live in harmony and in Beauty and in Holiness in the presence of God in our future Sabbath [00:25:10]

the very first question in the catechism is this what is man's Chief end that's the question as we look at the beginning of man we want to know right away all right here's the beginning but for what purpose is Man created what is the end of man what is the design for man why did God create man what is man's Chief end and when I was a little boy and I had to memorize the answer to the question I was a little bit befuddled by it because the question that we recited was this or the answer that we gave was this man's Chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever [00:26:30]

man's ultimate Joy his ultimate fulfillment is found in the seventh day in the pursuit of Holiness in the pursuit of the glory of God to glorify God to manifest his greatness to mirror and to reflect his character that is the reason for our existence that's man's razon that that's the reason why God placed us here so that we see that the world was not created just for man it doesn't end on the sixth day but it's the seventh day that God blesses and Hallows it's that day he sanctifies to to tell us that our origin and our destiny is in holiness [00:27:38]