Times

There is a lot of argument over whether the Day of Rest is to be Saturday or Sunday. Some of it is good, some not, and we will take it up again (albeit lightly) later. However, those arguments are among Christians. Jewish men and women celebrate the Sabbath from 18 minutes before sundown on Friday Night, through Saturday night at sundown. Almost 25 hours.

Furthermore, the world recognizes the Sabbath as Saturday and acknowledges Sunday as the first day of the week. Now, I promise I am not arguing for Saturday! The first day as a celebration of the resurrection is certainly important, and the argument only overlaps with where we are going here. The point is that the world has been aware of the 7th day that god set aside at Creation for a long time.

We observe a 365 and 1/4 day cycle for each year because of the earth's orbit around the Sun. The 12 months of the year are loosely based upon the lunar cycle. And, the 24 hour day is based upon the Earth's rotation upon its axis - 24 hours equals one full spin. Well then, where did we get the week?

From the beginning of time, God ordained it - he set it amidst the fabric of Creation, he modeled it in his own action and inaction, he gifted it to his people as they were coming out of slavery to remind them whom they were dependent upon. Note here that the Sabbath is given before the Law, even as it is the 4th Commandment, it is first given as a gift and test of trusting faith. The world has since observed a 7-day week. It did not spread immediately as Craig Harline shows in his book, "Sunday: a History of the first day from Babylon to the Super Bowl", and in fact before modern times and the "weekend" taking a day off was simply lazy. Who had the resources to actually stop work for a day? Only Royalty and the very wealthy... And, those who rely upon Yahweh, and acknowledge his kingship over all things.

We ought to take the Sabbath Command seriously for many reasons, but the first reason is that it is part of the created order, recognized universally - if not accepted and practiced by many! It has been around longer than almost anything else (regardless of whether the Creation Account is metaphorical or literal), God observed it - we ought to take it seriously.