@OMC this is also for your consideration, if you would like to respond.
Yes….order is what we see in God’s commads given to his people as Laws. They were not just recommendations. They were enforceable laws, with penalties for breaking them. So enforcing a rest day, once a week, was good for them, physically, mentally and spiritually….but why did God “rest”? As the source of all dynamic energy, he does not get tired….so from what activity did he take a break?
When you analyze the situation, you can see from the Bible, clues that fill in details of the story.
Please consider….
If the creative days were not 24 hour periods (and science knows that the earth itself is not young) then there was a purpose to his “rest day” that is not obvious to those who have not studied the Bible as a whole.
The Bible is one story from start to finish. In simple language, what we lost at the start, is restored in the end, and God’s purpose for us here on this planet is fulfilled and will be successfully completed. (Isa 55:11; Rev 21:2-4)
Everything in between is about God’s dealings with the human race and more specifically, the ones he chose out of that mass of humanity to serve his purpose, and to provide his means to rescue the children of Adam and his wife, born in sin through no fault on their part.
God’s rest “day” was also a very long period of time, ongoing when the NT Scriptures were written, and even now, that “day” of his rest is still ongoing. Why did God set this time aside? And what purpose does it serve? Can we then ‘enter into his rest day’?
When we step back and see the bigger picture, things begin to make more sense. From God’s perspective, in giving his intelligent creation free will, a period of testing was required. How do we know this?
Consider the actions of the one who originally started down the road of rebellion, and by his own free willed choices, he hijacked God’s purpose and the humans, whose free will he could manipulate.
He did this in order to gain what he had come to covet…..worship. He was the one who wanted to “be like God”. (Remember that he even tried to get Jesus to worship him?)
So at the base of it all was the value of free will, and whether or not it was a good choice on God’s part to give it to his children in the first place? It had the potential for abuse….and God knew this. But being “created in God’s image” demanded it. Could it be controlled?
Why was satan even there in the garden? In the book of Job, we see a dirge written to the wicked king of Tyre, but whose description doesn’t fit any earthly human.
Read Ezekiel 28:11-17….(NASB)
“Again the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “You had the seal of perfection, Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. “You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering. . . On the day that you were created They were prepared. “You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. “You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created Until unrighteousness was found in you. “By the abundance of your trade You were internally filled with violence, And you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane From the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, From the midst of the stones of fire. “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, That they may see you.”
This is a veiled description of the one who derailed God’s original purpose in the garden of Eden, (“created”, not born…and described as a “covering cherub”, which was a position of oversight, he was placed there in the garden, by God in a position of responsibility) and he set the human race on a course that would take a very long time to undo….but it would also set precedents for any other free willed son of God from ever pursuing such a course again in the future.
Have we never wondered why everything from our human perspective has taken so long to accomplish? Thousands of years elapsed between major actions by God in providing his Son as our Savior and then thousands more years, while we await his return…..The issues were to be settled in Universal time, not in earth years. This is why Peter could say that ‘a thousand years to God is just like one day’. (2 Pet 3:8)
The angels were watching as God created our earth in a vast material Universe, (Job 38: 4-7) and must have been fascinated by these other creatures who were intelligent, like they were.
However, one of them saw an opportunity to be more than he was. He abused his free will and deceived the humans into doing his bidding, thereby separating them from their Creator, and setting himself up to replace Him as “God” in their lives.
In his foresight and wisdom, God chose to hand rulership of this world over to the one they chose to obey, (Luke 4:5-7) thereby enslaving themselves to the devil. (Rom 6:14-18) They would prove to themselves the folly of disobedience….of trying to rule themselves without God…..and no form of human rulership influenced by the devil would ever succeed….and no form of worship introduced by him would ever lead to anything but division and hatred…..all the dramas created in such a hopelessly divided world, would become a life lesson none of us will ever forget.
The only ones who had God’s laws and direction, failed to uphold them and remain to this day as proof that disobedience to God never works out for the best in the long run….and we have had a very long run.
This is the whole reason for God’s “rest day”…he set aside that time for all possibilities to play out during this period…instead of getting rid of the rebels which would have solved the problem instantly, there was no guarantee that any other free willed angel would not repeat the process at some time in the future….
The devil did not challenge God’s power…he challenged his Sovereign right to set limits to the free will that he gave them.
We are approaching the end of Stan’s rulership and the implementation of God’s rulership by means of his Kingdom with Jesus as Commander in chief, accompanied by his elect, which will last a thousand years…(Rev 20:6) the time it will take to bring the human race back into reconciliation with its loving Creator.
After he has accomplished the purpose of his role, Paul tells us that Jesus will hand the reins back to his Father, to continue whatever he has planned for us on, this lovingly prepared planet. (1 Cor 15:22-28)
This is why Jesus is called “Lord of the Sabbath”….he has been overseeing God’s purpose and operating as our mediator all along…he is the one interceding for us and conveying our prayers to God.
That is the big picture as I see it, and have devoted many years to Bible study….it’s the whole story and it makes perfect sense to me, as it does to other fellow believers.
Have others here contemplated this bigger picture…?
