Literal Six Day Creation Seen in the Command to Work

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God, in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, you male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in siz days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the Seventh day, therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8-11).

Fourth in the list of 10 commandments that God spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai that the people were to follow as a sign of their redeemed relationship with Him. God had brought them out of the land of Egypt and the bondage of servitude to Pharaoh, to freedom in service to Yahweh, the covenant God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. On their way to the Promise Land that Yahweh had promised Abraham so many years before, God calls Moses to the top of the mountain and dictates to him the Law. In the midst of these commands is God’s call to honor the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The Sabbath was the day that the nation of Israel was to rest from their six days of work. God attaches to the command to work six days and rest on the seventh His own practice in creation. God says they are to remember the Sabbath day and rest upon it after working six days because He himself took six days to create the universe and then rested on the Seventh day. In fact we can go back to Genesis 1 and see this very thing taking place.

Now much of today’s culture seeks to add millions of years in the creation account. Part of this exercise is to stretch the days in genesis 1 to mean longer then a literal 24 hour day period. A common idea is that they are ages or geological periods of time. If we put that into the Genesis record of creation then the first “evening and morning” would be the first age or geological period. The second “day” then would be the second geological period of time and so on, each geological period equaling a lot of days. Of course if we ignore the plan and simple reading of Genesis 1 we might be fine with that as it fits with man’s understanding of the age of the earth. But when we take that concept and apply it to Exodus 20 it seems we have a problem. We must be honest with the text. God attaches his creative work of the beginning of the universe to his command to work six days and rest on the seventh. If the Genesis 1 record of each day is stretched to millions or billions of years then what is God saying in Exodus 20.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy Six days (i.e millions of years) you shall labor and do all your work but on the seventh day (i.e millions of years) is a Sabbath of the Lord your God. For in six days (millions of years) the Lord made the heavens.”

You get the picture. God is not commanding Moses to work six million years, six geological periods, six ages, or six undefined amount of time. God is commanding the people to take six days to work and then one day, the Sabbath to rest. Six literal days they were to work and the Sabbath literal day they were to rest. The reason for this is because God worked six literal days and rested on the Seventh literal day.

Work is a part of my life. As a Christian man I am called by God to provide for my family. I am called to be the one to “put bread on the table.” This requires me to work so that through my wages I might provide for my family and be faithful to what God calls me to do. I am so glad that God does not call me to work 6 billion years or 6 geological periods. I currently work for a Christian university that has 5 work days and rest for the weekend. I could not handle it if it was 5 long geological periods and at some point I get rest.

Finally as we think about our work week and a time of rest it reminds us of two things. First, that God has set in the midst of work a time we can rest from our labors. God is not a task master cracking the whip demanding we remain in the labor pits but gives us a time of rest. This would have been a breath of fresh air for the nation of Israel that came out of Egypt. There in bondage they probably worked every day in the heat of the sun to the point of exhaustion. Praise God for the Sabbath rest. Secondly, our work week and day of rest serves to guide us on our understanding of God’s method of creation. When you read through Genesis think about how He has allowed you to work a small amount of days and then rest.It is the mercy of God that he has set this up and exampled it for us.