Series: Broken
Message: Purpose
Preacher: David Smith
Daily Walk: David Smith
Refresh: Open with prayer. Read or listen to Psalm 77:5-9.
Read: Genesis 1-2 (ESV). As you re-read the text for the final time this week in the English Standard Version, what new insights did you discover about God’s character?
Reflect:
Often times when going through Bible studies with students I have them reflect on how we divide time. First I’ll ask where the measure of a day comes from. Of course they’ll answer that it’s the time it takes the earth to make a complete rotation. Next I ask where we came up with the concept of a year. Again, most will explain that it’s the time it takes the earth to rotate around the sun. Sometimes they’ll get stuck when I ask about months but usually there is at least one student who knows it has something to do with the moon. But then I’ll finish with the week. This is where everyone gets stuck because there is no astronomical connection to why we measure time by weeks.
From the creation story perspective, the reason we keep track of time using the week is because we have the Sabbath. If you take Genesis 2 at it’s word, God completes creation by introducing the Sabbath…a day set apart to memorialize creation week, after week, after week.
There is much that could be said about the Sabbath but one thing it clearly does is show us need to reflect on the creation week. When the Sabbath is included in God’s commandments, we’re instructed to keep it “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them”.
The week was never meant to be something that goes by unnoticed. Rather at the conclusion of each week we are instructed to think about where we came from, who made us, and where we are headed.
Recalibrate:
Respond: Pray for God to speak meaning and purpose into your life through Sabbath
Research: How many times does the Bible make a direction connection between creation and Sabbath?