July 30, 2021
Our Creator! Our Redeemer!
The LORD God has many names and titles applied to Him in the Scriptures. Each one brings to mind a facet of His glorious character. We can learn something of Him while contemplating His various names; His mighty and unlimited power, His tender care in the smallest details… The two mentioned above, if kept in my central focus, will serve to guide me correctly through the barrage of challenges I face in this fallen world.
Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. Genesis 1:31-2:3
Notice the word finished. Something very important was finished on the sixth day: Creation! The following day was included in the creation week for rest: a special time for the Lord and His people to spend time together, face to face. This all happened before sin came into the world....
So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit. John 19:30
That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near. And the women who had come with Him from Galilee followed after and they observed the tomb and how His body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment. Luke 23:54-56
Redemption was also finished on the sixth day. Then Jesus rested in the tomb on the seventh day. He had paid the wages of sin — in full — for us! His followers, even in their grief, honored the example of Jesus by resting on the Sabbath.
Our Creator has shown His love by giving us life! Man was created on the sixth day of creation. Our Redeemer again showed His love by laying down His own life for us! That day was also the sixth day of the week, known as the Preparation day. Creation: finished. Redemption: finished. In both of these magnificent, momentous, majestic, & mysteriously wonderful events, the LORD rested on the Sabbath day. This special day was made for all men (Mark 2:27) and is given to all who will receive the blessing (Isaiah 56:2,6,7). Sabbath-keeping is one of the Ten Commandments. God knew that Satan would do all he can to obscure the Lord’s Day (Isaiah 58:13, Revelation 1:10) and cause people to forget its significance, so it is the only Commandment that begins with the word Remember… (Exodus 20:8).
Creation and redemption are intertwined, ongoing processes in that only the Lord can create in me a clean heart (Psalm 51:10) and only He has sanctifying power!
“Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.” Ezekiel 20:12