Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Exodus 20:11
Wednesday, August 03, 2016 |
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day.
For further study -Exodus 20:1-26
The passage of Scripture for our reading today is the account of the giving of the “law” to the Jewish people. The “torah”, Hebrew for “law”, does include the “ten commands” that God gave to Moses at Mount Sinai, but it also includes the additional commands found in the rest of the first five books of the Old Testament, the Torah.
The Ten Commands are the standard that God has set in place for all of humankind to match their life with as they take their journey through their short period here on Earth. The truth be known, there is not one person that has lived, or will live on this Earth that can keep even the ten, much less all the other commandments found in God’s Word.
This standard helps each of us to realize that we have “fallen short” of God’s standard and we must come to Him through His Son, Jesus Christ. The “law” is a “mirror” that shows each of us who we really are, a needy people that needs a Saviour, Jesus Christ.
I also want you to notice the statement made by God to Moses in the giving of the Law, verses 10-11. This is the commandment to the Jews that they must honor the seventh day, the “Sabbath”, as a day of rest. The Lord told the Jews that He created the “heavens and the earth” in six days and then rested the seventh.
God wants the Jews to work six days and then rest the seventh. By the way, He was not asking the Jews to rest for thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of years. The Lord wanted the Jews to rest the seventh, 24-hour day, of the seven-day week. All the days are 24-hour days.
My point is that when the Lord spoke of days He was talking about 24-hour days. Therefore, the Lord, by His own statement said He “created the heavens and earth” in six twenty-four hour days. We must take the account of the “Creation” in Genesis 1 as literal in our interpretation of the scriptures.
The truth in God’s prophetic Word is to be taken “literal” as we interpret the end of times scenario that God has set forth to be fulfilled, seemingly in the near future. If we do not approach these passages of scripture literally then there can be too many opinions as to how everything will end.
We must not be “subjective” in our interpretation of the text, but “objective” so that we understand exactly what the Lord is telling us about the last days. Our understanding of the times is key to our daily living before the Lord.
An “objective, literal” understanding of the scriptures will reveal that the next thing to happen on God’s calendar of activities is the Rapture, when Jesus calls us to join Him in the heavens, forever. That Rapture could happen at any moment, are you ready?
PRAYER THOUGHT: Thank you Lord for the promise that you are coming and please help me to live daily so as to be ready for that “any moment” event.