My Journey to Life, Step 12—God’s Creation

3. What’s the biblical relationship between Creation and the Sabbath?

The Ten Commandments offer another evidence that the Genesis Creation account involves literal days. In the fourth commandment, God says, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work; … for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11). JTL12 3.4

After His six-day workweek of Creation, God rested on the seventh day. He ceased from all His creative activity. He did not physically need rest but His divine rest serves as an example for us. The seventh-day Sabbath is therefore a weekly memorial of Creation, a reminder of the power of our omnipotent God and His dominion over His creation. God blessed, made holy, and set apart the Sabbath for the benefit of human beings. JTL12 3.5

The sanctification of the Sabbath at Creation shows that the blessings of the Sabbath were for the entire human race, and not just for the Jewish people who were descendants of Jacob (Israel). The Sabbath is a gift of grace, speaking not of what we did, but of what God has done. He especially blessed this day and sanctified it so we would never forget that, besides work, life should include communion with our Creator, rest, and celebration of God’s creative works. JTL12 3.6