Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Exodus 20:11

Consider the Sabbath commandment:

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: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 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 (Ex. 20:8-11).

We work six days (144 hours, twelve dozen) and rest one. These are not imaginary days – they are real. Creation Week occurred in six 24 hour (approximately) days. Creation In Six Days (CISD) is an important teaching of the Bible.

For in six days GOD made Heaven, Earth, and sea, and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore GOD blessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day (Ex. 20:11, Msg).

Exodus 20:11 is the Haec Credimus (“this we believe”) of the Creation Research Society:
Exodus 31:17 is a parallel passage:

It [the Sabbath] is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.

The Hebrew of Exodus 20:11 may be found here.

John Trapp commented on Ex. 20:11, “God took six days to make the world in, to the end that we might be in a muse when we think of it; and think on his works in that order that he made them.” [1]

Robert McCabe concluded, “… both passages [Ex. 20:11, Ex. 31:17] have been clearly understood as references to man imitating the divine pattern established in the first week of temporal history by working on six consecutive, normal days and resting on a literal seventh day…” [2]
Notes:
1) Online Bible (2004)
2) “A Critique of the Framework Interpretation of the Creation Week” by Robert McCabe in Coming to Grips with Genesis ed. by Terry Mortenson and Thane Ury (Master Books, Green Forest, AR, 2008), p. 243.

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