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God recounted the creation for Moses to record in what was to become the Book of Genesis, first as part of the Jewish Pentateuch and eventually the Holy Bible.  Importantly, God tells us we are made in His image and likeness.  Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”  So, when God worked for six days and then rests, it is a pattern God knows and wants for us. Of course, His work and contribution to this world is unparalleled. God’s remuneration was that His creation was very good and a delight to Him and His Son, and would multiply in glory back to Him. Genesis 1:28 “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”  Proverbs 8:31 “Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.”

The creation was God’s first word, unwritten but revealing His truth and desire for mankind to follow in His stead to work and to rest every seven days. After the downfall of mankind, through God’s chosen people this became written and included as the fourth of God’s Ten Commandments, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it Holy.” The first four commandments are about our relationship With God, which had been broken by Satan. The seventh day was now more than about rest (sabbath) and acknowledging God’s creative work, it now included the need to repair and maintain our connection with God. For the Jews it was to remember God’s redemptive touch in delivering them from slavery in Egypt. Deuteronomy 5:15 “And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day”. When in Egypt the Jews worked, and worked as slaves with no rest. God freed them of this, with one simple ask, to give one day to remembering this and keeping in touch with Him.

Sadly the fourth commandment is increasingly neglected in the world, in Jewish faith and Christian faith. Why? We would hopefully all clearly not murder or steal or lie, yet for a growing number the fourth commandment is becoming an “optional” one. The sadness is that this is denying God’s blessings to flow where he wants to give them freely. Neglecting the sabbath is serving another master, of work, of sport, of leisure, of indulgence instead of a loving master who gives so much more in return. Maybe we can manage serving two masters, a balanced compromise, after all it’s not every Sunday… but that other master will craftily draw you away from God. Mark 6:24 “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Quite simply, the sabbath is for our benefit, God wants to bless us in His way. He wants us to value our redemption. He wants us to commune with Him. He wants us to give Him the Glory for all His works. Jesus Christ also worked for this same cause and has made the largest contribution towards this world since the creation, and also rested and is now seated at the right-hand of God where all blessings come from. Jesus told the world this in Mark 2:27 “And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath”.