God's Sabbath

O UR N EED FOR THE S ABBATH

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Six days were allotted for work activity. During that period, our first parents were to experience the sheer joy of accomplish ment. They were to see the fruit of their labors, and to rejoice in what the Creator had empowered them to do. Life was designed to be a continual, joyous co-working with the Father; an ever lasting ascent from one level of achievement to another. There would be no time for idleness with every moment being profitably filled through useful and interesting activity. The whole being would be totally absorbed in these wonderful occupa tions. So complete might this concentration of interest become, that there was danger that our Source would be forgotten, we would come to view ourselves as the originator of all that we were accomplishing, and fearful consequences would come upon us. The loving Creator saw that some provision had to be made to safeguard His creatures from the development of these evils which would separate them from Him. Whatever measures were chosen had to be the means of maintaining and strengthening our knowledge of God’s role as the Source and the human agent’s as the receiver. The way the Lord chose to do this was very simple. His solu tion, if followed faithfully, would guarantee everlasting protec tion from apostasy, as well as access to increasingly higher lev els of fellowship with the Divine. Having given us six days in which to carry forward the works appointed to us, God set aside the seventh day for a different purpose. During the six working days of the week, the Lord relates Himself to His people differently, in certain respects, from the way He does on the seventh day. During the week He fellowships with them as a co-worker in all their busy activities, but on the seventh day He rests from that kind of work and communes with them in a way which is designed to refresh and enlarge their concepts of His might and power. If we understand the different work God does on the Sabbath day and relate ourselves to it accordingly, we find in the Sabbath blessings of extraordinary value. We discover that a truly bal anced view of God and humanity will develop, and we will re turn from these refreshing hours of special education better fit ted to hold our proper place in the divine order and accomplish the tasks God sets us.