Introduction

Of late we have been dealing with the purpose of history and our place in it. Why is there a world in the first place? What is it all about? What is the chief end of man? Of course, the chief end of man is to glorify God.

We have also stressed that one way we glorify God is by the law. Today I want to begin a discussion of a particular law as a case in point. I refer to the fourth law in the Ten Commandments, the law that gives a six and one pattern.

This is a weekly cycle composed of work and rest but it is not the typical workweek or the typical calendar week. The typical workweek is Monday to Friday, which is a five and two pattern. This is a six and one pattern. And the familiar calendar week goes from Sunday to Saturday, which is from the first to the seventh days. But the biblical six and one has

the seventh day, the day of rest, on Sunday.

How can the first day of the week be the seventh day of the biblical six and one? One way to think of it is to note that Sunday is the 7^th day if you begin your workweek on Monday. Sunday is the 7^th day in relation to the six days that preceded it.

Thus, if you think about it a little, it will become evident that this is a matter of faith. This is not the typical calendar week or the typical workweek. Instead, this is a distinct, unique, special, important, and religious 6-1.

So the topic for today can be posed as a question, "Why is the Biblical Six and One Pattern Special?"

1A. It is special because of God's proclamation

We are told that God blessed the 7^th day and made it holy because He rested on it (2:3). It is something that He blessed (praised, sanctified, set apart). He proclaimed the distinctiveness and special-ness of the 7^th day. And making the 7^th special marked off the distinctiveness of the six days (you couldn't know them without it). He thus gave the weekly cycle of human/earth history a distinctiveness and special-ness.

What came from the other days was set forth as good (cf. the things that God saw as good, light, dry ground, vegetation, sun, moon, sea creatures, birds, land animals, and "all that he had made," Gen. 1:31). How God sees, perceives, and understands something tells us the truth about that thing. By telling us that He saw that all He created was very good the text informs us in a powerful way that all that God created was in fact very good. We learn what is the case from what God sees.

But nothing comes forth from the 7^th day. There is no work done, no product to evaluate. Still, there is something very good. It is the day itself. This is a different way of saying very good. It translates to very, very, very good!

The 7^th day in this 6-1 pattern is very, very, very good and this fact in turn gives a special-ness to the weekly cycle.

2A. It is special because of God's love

Consider what transpired in this first unfolding of six days in the history of the world. It is truly breath taking. We cannot find enough superlatives to describe it.

God begins on day one by bringing the material universe into existence without the use of pre-existing substances. The earth emerges from His hands formless and void, bland and plain. It is entirely submerged in water and covered with darkness. This is like an incubation stage and the Holy Spirit hovered like an eagle in protective care over its young (Gen. 1:1-2). As a divine sculptor, God then began to fashion and shape the earth by depressing an ocean here and extending a mountain there. He then called the dry land, vegetation, and animal life into existence, and by the sixth day He created man (Gen. 1:26-31).

In summary then, what did God do in the six days? He worked. He worked in order to give man a habitable, plentiful, and wonderful place to live. Just note a couple of things in this regard. Why are there stars in the first place? The stars are there in the sky for us (Gen. 1:14). Why all the living things, plant and animal? All living creatures are given to man to rule over (Gen. 1:27-28). Notice the "I give you" phase in Genesis 1:29.

The days began with a watery and empty darkness. They end with land filled with living things and ruled by God's image bearers (Gen. 1:24-26). These days are special because of the creative majesty, power and wisdom that are displayed. And this special-ness is magnified all the more when we recognize that the works of majestic power and wisdom are divine works of love by which God served man.

The works of love that mark the first six days of the 6-1 pattern support the special nature of this weekly pattern.

3A. It is special because of God's Sovereignty

The six and one pattern for life on earth is special, unique, distinct because it is rooted in the sovereignty of God. This is shown in the day of rest (Gen. 2:2-3). The special-ness of this day set the cycle in motion; it is the reason for the proclamation of uniqueness and sanctity regarding the 7^th day.

So looking back to the reason, we ask, "Why is the day of God's resting especially special?"

Why was it such a special day? Our answer is found in Isaiah 66:1-2a, which gives a great picture of what transpired on the 7th day. Imagine a person sitting on a throne with his feet propped on a footstool. On this day God sat down on the throne of the heavens and propped His feet on the footstool of the earth and thus began His rule as King of the universe now completed. It tells us that it was the day that inaugurated His sovereign Kingship over all that He created and made.

The 7^th day will always be a special day. How can it be otherwise? It will always stand as a testimony to the wisdom, power, love, and majesty of God, the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. It was a unique inaugural day. So every 7^th day is like an anniversary day in which we give pause and reflect on the day that set a marriage in motion; we remember our vows and the One before whom we gave them. Likewise, every 7^th day we remember the Lord who began to reign as Sabbath King; we remember our vows and commitments to Him.

4A. The 6-1 is also special because of God's promise

From the very beginning God's purpose for man, His image bearer, was that he work in reflection of God's glory with the promise that one day his labors on earth will end and he will rest from his works as God did from His works. This rest will be a rest with the Lord in an eternal Sabbath.

Consider how this comes out in Genesis. It surfaces in the holiness and sanctity of the seventh day. God worked and then rested in sovereign rulership over the heavens and the earth. He then set one day in seven apart. Thus, history is to unfold in a rhythmic pattern that moves weekly from work to rest, work to rest, work to rest. This stretches across time telling us that the whole of human history, the whole of earth and universe history, moves from work to rest. This is the case even before the fall.

History moves from God's work in which we share as His image bearers. The weekly rest is a type or sign. It is a foretaste of the rest that will be ours at the end of history. Each week we have the privilege of resting with God. We rest from our labors in fellowship with God and in anticipation of the promise yet to come. The fact that weekly history unfolds from work to rest informs us that history, from beginning to end, unfolds from work to rest. We experience now in part what we shall one day experience in full realization.

The writer of Hebrews picks up on this theme (Heb. 4:1, 3b-4, 9). The promise of entering his rest still stands (v. 1). This is the case because He rested on the 7^th day (3b-4). Thus a Sabbath-rest remains (v.9, both the type and anti-type remain since the type does not pass away until fulfillment) and we still have much work to do (vs. 10-11).

But sin has intervened. We are created in God's image to reflect His glory and one way is through the six and one pattern. But we have fallen from the image and stand in need of restoration in the image and likeness of God. Adam did not complete or finish His work like God did His. But God will still see to it that His goal for His image bearer is reached. Where Adam failed, Christ, the second Adam succeeded (Rom. 5). He came on a mission of doing the will of the Father and finishing His work in the accomplishment of the cross and resurrection. In Him we have restoration from the fall and the sure hope of heavenly rest (Matt. 11:28-30; Jn. 11:25-26). History moves from God's work in which we share as His image bearers, though fallen, to God's rest that we share as restored image bearers.

The 6-1 pattern continues as a divinely given guideline for us to follow. But the day is changed from the Jewish wineskin to the wineskin of fulfillment. This is due to the fact that you cannot put new wine into old wineskins. Why not? What will happen? The wine will ferment and expansion will take place. The wineskins that have been already stretched to their maximum will burst and the wine will be spilled. Jesus has brought in the new wine of fulfillment and accomplishment. He has secured the salvation of His people. His work has been completed and He has given the gift of the Holy Spirit to the church to apply the work He accomplished. Thus the Jewish Sabbath is a shadow of the reality that is found in Christ (Col. 2:17). It is an old wineskin and must be set aside and replaced by a new wineskin.

So we still keep this six and one pattern on earth. The promise is still out in front of us. But now the day that belonged to the Lord God (Ex. 20:10), the day called "the Lord's holy day" (Isa. 58:13) is become Jesus' day, the Lord's day of New Testament worship (1 Cor. 16:1-2; Acts 20:7; Rev. 1:10).

We still keep the Sabbath day holy. We still enjoy fellowship and friendship with God in a special way on the Lord's day. It reminds us to look back to the creation, to the wise and loving Creator in all His majesty. It reminds us to look back to the resurrection of Christ. And it reminds us to look ahead to the end of our journey on earth. The day is coming when we shall cease from all our labors on earth and enter into the rest and joy of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of Him the end of our journey is sure. It is heaven. It is eternal Sabbath rest that has been there for us since the first week of creation.

5A. Finally, it is special because of God's example

The biblical 6-1 is unique and special because it is rooted in God's own action. The first 6-1 within the history of the universe, the world, and the earth was a divine 6-1. God was the first one to adopt this pattern (Gen. 1:1-2:3). It is summarized in 2:1-3. This point leaps off the page. These verses end the prologue or introduction to the book of Genesis. They summarize the creation of the heavens and the earth and all their host in the space of six days (1-2a). Then God rested on the 7^th day from all his work (2b).

Why did God work in this particular time frame? He could have created the world in six minutes or six seconds. But He did not do it this way. Why? He in effect stretched His work out to six days in order to give man an example to follow (cf. Ex. 20:8-11).

Conclusion

What gives special special-ness to the biblical six and one pattern are the following facts. 1) God made a proclamation that set the 7^th day apart and that set the 6-1 pattern in motion. 2) He inaugurated His sovereign rule. 3) He displayed His wise, powerful, and majestic love. 4) He promised Sabbath rest. And 5) He gave us an example to follow.

Hence our duty is first a matter of being like our Father by following His example of working six days and resting one day. This means honoring what He honors (the six and one pattern of work and rest with special honor given to the 7^th day). It means that we take up work in this light. Our work will then truly be service, loving service to others.

Second, our duty involves honoring Him as sovereign God, Sabbath king, and loving Father.

Third, our duty is a matter of embracing His promise and fixing our hope on Him weekly looking ahead from work to rest. We also fix our hope on Him for the end of the weekly cycle as we look for the city that has foundations whose builder and maker is God. We look ahead with hope and expectation of the coming 7^th day of 7^th days, the coming of eternal Sabbath rest with Him in His rest.

Our hope is rooted in gratitude for the work of the Lord Jesus who secured this goal for us by His death and resurrection. The OT Sabbath rest of God's image bearer with his Creator has become the NT Lord's Day Sabbath rest of God's restored image bearers with their redeemer, Jesus Christ the risen Lord.

This instills a distinct consciousness regarding life on earth in the unfolding cycles of centuries, decades, years, months, weeks, and years. It is a biblical way to be temporally aware. All the efforts expended during the week are set in place according to and toward the goal of rest with God at the end of the week. We enter into fellowship with God in a special and unique way on the Lord's Day. We remember Him and His promise. We are thus encouraged by the long look forward to the very end of history when the moon shall wax old like a garment and fade away. For then we shall enter eternal Sabbath rest with God in His rest.

I have grown weary at points on the way as I am sure you have too. But here is a perspective that gives a spring in our step. We are not at a dead end. We do not travel in vain. We journey as pilgrims bound for home. The end of our journey is sure. We journey toward a cloudless, matchless, and awesome 7^th day. We must affirm boldly that the six and one have an unparalleled sanctity and special-ness.