THE SABBATH AND CREATION

By: Do Khua Khai Zuisang

Just think about that your father is the Prime Minister of Australia.
Clearly, he will be a very busy father. Because he has lots of duties
and things to keep up with. So, most of the days, he is away from
home traveling different places and you can't see him. Then one day,
he learns that how greatly he misses his kids and wanting to see
them, specially you. So, he thought I really need to spend time with
my family. I really need to build special relationships with them. As a
result of this, he passes a law that all family is permitted to spend
every Saturday doing anything they love doing with their family. Why
do you think your father did that? Because, your father loves you and
wanting to spend quality time with you. The reason that God rested
and make it holy of the Sabbath in the Creation was because He loves
us that He wants to spend time with us to have special relationship
with us.

PART – 1
THE MEANING OF THE CREATION-SABBATH

Creation-Sabbath Affirms God is the Creator

God has no beginning, but there is also no beginning without God.

The repetition of the word “and God said” in Genesis tell us that
nothing happens apart from the work of God (Genesis 1:3, 6, 9, 11,
14, 20, 24, 26).

Creation, then, is the foundational event of human existence.

Creation declares that the Sabbath is for all — God and His creation.
Creation also tells us that God is the Creator and He is the centre of
everything — His centrality in creation.

The creation-Sabbath doesn't come as a surprise but it is the

intentional work of God. The Bible clearly tells us that it begins with

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God, who is the God of the beginning. There is nothing before Him.
He is the One who creates everything else into existence.

When we take a look at the creation story, we see the seventh-day

Sabbath was treated in a very special way by the Creator. In the entire
Bible, the creation-Sabbath is the very first thing which God has
blessed and made it holy. Out of creation days, the seventh-day is
treated special by God himself because it belongs to God alone. We
see how the creation highlights the sacredness of the Sabbath.
Tonstad said, “it was the day charged with the holiness of the Creator
in a solemn, deliberate act and a signature statement of God’s
purpose."1

Creation-Sabbath Is a Sign of Personhood

Genesis 2:2 says that God finished what he had been doing. This
tells us both a beginning and a completion. Barth notes, “God does
not continue His work on the seventh day in an infinite series of
creative acts.”2 The cessation and completion are markers of who
God is and of a definite purpose.

The Bible says that on the seventh day God finished what he had
been doing. These words make the idea of finishing stands out in
bold print. It represents a picture of Creation that has no parallel.
The completion of creation on the seventh day shows that God had
a specific plan in mind. From beginning to end the events of
Creation bear the marks of important decisions, and the entire
narrative is driven by a strong sense of deliberation and purpose.

Creation-Sabbath Reveals Relational God

1
Sigve Tonstad, The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews
University Press, 2009), 28.
2
Karl Barth, G. W Bromiley, and T. F Torrance, Church Dogmatics. the Doctrine of
Creation Part 2, vol. 3 (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1958), 457.
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God is entering into a long lasting relationship with Creation when
He stops the activity of creating, and making the seventh-day holy.

Fretheim notes that “by resting on the seventh day, God is in that
way shown to have entered into the time of the created order.”3

Welker puts it beautifully, “the creating God is not only the acting
God, but also the reacting God, the God who responds to what has
been created.”4 The seventh day has an interactive character and
intent, too, incarnating God in the ongoing experience of human
beings.

To observe the creation-Sabbath is not just a command but it is a day

that reflects the intention of God in a sinless perfect world. God
created especially human beings with freedom to make choices. So,
on the Sabbath God allows them to freely choose by making
themselves available for their Creator to experience physical, mental
and spiritual renewal and enrichment. Specially, to have a wonderful
relationship with the Creator.

Creation-Sabbath Reveals Love

The love of God magnifies human worth and value in the sight of God.
So, the seventh-day become the day when God's love become the
focus of the Creation. From the very beginning God place love at the
heart of His character. So, by in making love as the heart of God's
description, the apostle John wrote, "who does not love, does not
know God." He also writes, “for God is love” (1 John 4:8). From the
creation perspective, however, “God is love” should not be seen as a
late revelation. From the beginning, God attribute is defined as love.

3
Terence E. Fretheim, God and World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology of
Creation (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005), 63.
4
Michael Welker, Creation and Reality, trans. John F. Hoffmeyer (Minneapolis: Fortress
Press, 1999), 10.
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According to the testimony of Genesis, the most important thing to
understand about God in Creation is that “God is love.” The seventh
day signifies what is most essential to know about God. Therefore,
right from its first appearance the seventh day is not a peripheral
afterthought. God rest from His work to spend time joyously with the
creation, especially with human beings that he created. The seventh-
day Sabbath suggests that God value humanity and human life very
greatly. So, the creation-Sabbath is the gift of God but not for
obligation. It is like hearing God says, “I am resting on the seventh
day not only that you may acknowledge and love me, but in order to
make it known that I recognize and love you.”

In regards to the motives behind the seventh-day and Creation, Karl

Barth writes perceptively that “the characteristic of God that is
revealed in the rest of the seventh day is His love.” 5 The reason
why God avoided more activity on the seventh day is that “He has
found the object of His love and has no need for any further works.” 6

Creation-Sabbath Affirms God’s Presence

In setting the seventh day apart, we do not see God standing at a

distance from Creation, winding up the clock and then leaving things
to take their own course. The God who blessed and make the
Sabbath holy is “a near and present God.” In Genesis, especially the
seventh-day affirmed the presence of God in the seventh-day. We
see that the human history starts with the presence of God.

The universal question—Who are we? —often gets this answer: We

are the result of chance, and there is no one there to whom we can
turn or to whom we may attribute our existence. Yet the seventh day
answers: We are created by the Creator in His own image. We are

5
Ibid.
6
Ibid.
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not the product of accident, and we are not “orphans in a world of no
tomorrows,” as Joan Baez once sang.

Creation-Sabbath Is a Day of Blessing

The word "blessed" and "hollowing" shows the intention of God for
the humanity to have on-going benefits. It is senseless for God to
blessed and sanctify the day for Himself. It is God intention for the
benefit of humanity. Skinner once wrote, “the Sabbath is a constant
source of well-being to the man who recognises its true nature and
purpose.”7

Blessing, therefore, stands in the foreground, closely intertwined

with God’s love and God’s presence that are part and parcel of the
seventh day. Moreover, “foreground” is meant literally because the
seventh day—bringing the full measure of God’s presence, love,
and blessing—marks the beginning of human existence in Genesis.
The seventh day does not come at the end of a week of toil and
labor for human beings as though its primary purpose is to offer a
measure of respite after days of toil. Rather, since “God’s seventh
day was man’s first, the seventh day sets life’s priority for human
beings in the most tangible way.”8 Better yet—and much closer to
the point—the seventh day brings to view God’s priorities. Seeing
that human time “begins with a day of rest and not a day of work,
the spiritual pursuit, living life in a relationship with the Creator that
is mutually meaningful, stands out as the primary meaning in life.” 9

7
John Skinner, Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis (Charleston, South
Carolina: Nabu Press, 2010), 38.
8
Barth, Bromiley, and Torrance, Church Dogmatics. the Doctrine of Creation Part 1,
3:457.
9
Ibid., 3:458.
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 PART – 2

Is Sabbath Began at Creation or at Mt. Sinai and Is Sabbath for

Israel Only?

There are many times in the Bible, the creation origin of the Sabbath
is repeatedly recorded (Genesis 2:1-2; Exodus 20:11; Exodus 31:17;
Mark 2:27; Hebrews 4:4). The Bible clearly tells us that the seventh-
day Sabbath begins at the creation when God completed the creation
work. God does three things on the seventh-day Sabbath: God
“rested”, “blessed,” and “set aside” it. (Genesis 2:2-3).

Yet, many people, who claim to be Christians, still rejecting the idea
of the Sabbath that was originated in the creation. They deny it by the
fact that the Sabbath began only from the time of Moses and it is
specially for the Jews. They also argue that since the Sabbath is an
Old Covenant ordinance it has been removed by Christ. So, Sabbath
keeping is no longer needed for the “New Covenant” Christians. For
some, they argue that there is no Bible verse that says Sabbath is a
day of rest for human beings not until the time of Moses and so it
applies to Israelites only. They go even further and said, the Sabbath
in the Ten Commandments is no longer apply to Christians today
because it was given to the people of Israel only.

Have you ever thought about why is it the creation-Sabbath under

constant attack by people including Christians who profess to be the
believers of Jesus?

Before God gave the Ten Commandments at Sinai, He commanded

to the people of Israel to collect manna two times more on the sixth
day. Here God wants to tell his people that: 1) the Sabbath is already
existed well before the time of Mt. Sinai and Sabbath has been
continued since the time of God’s creation, 2) God wanted the people
of Israel know the importance and significance of the Sabbath, and

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3) God tells the people of Israel that he is the provider and who
sustains them, and most of all, He is God, the Creator.

Interestingly, in the Ten Commandments, God does not instruct them

to simply “know the Sabbath”. But God rather instruct them to
“REMEMBER the Sabbath day.” It tells us that the Sabbath was
already known and the Sabbath has its root in the creation.

Again, if the Sabbath really began at Sinai, I think Moses would be

guilty of twisting truth. Because Moses would have known the
creation story which he was written and the creation-Sabbath. If the
above argument is true, the integrity and reliability of what Moses has
written in the Bible be seriously doubtful.

The function of the creation-Sabbath did not stop when Adam and
Eve fallen into sin. The same principle of creation-Sabbath is
continued and carried out in the form of a commandment.

Conclusion:

The Bible consistently and unanimously testify that Sabbath is

originated in the creation activity. It also signifies the opening of the
origin of mankind. This tells us that keeping the Sabbath isn’t just a
momentary Jewish law, but a creation ordinance for the good of
mankind. Finally, it specially means to us that “we have our roots in
the Sabbath; we belong in it from Genesis on into Eternity in God’s
plan.”10

10
Elizabeth E. Platt, “The Lord Rested, The Lord Blessed the Sabbath Day” (Sunday 66,
1979), 4.
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Creation Crosswords

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Crosswords Solution

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