Creation Week: Day Seven

Have you ever wondered why we have a seven-day week? Why not a five-day week or a ten-day week? Well, the Bible tells us why.

God created everything in six days (Genesis 1; Exodus 20:11). At the end of the sixth day, God looked at everything He had made and said it was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). The next day, Day Seven, God rested from His work of creating because it was all finished (Genesis 2:2). God then blessed this day because it was the day that He chose to rest from His work (Genesis 2:3).

Now why did God rest? Was He tired from all the work of creating? Not at all! The Bible tells us that God does not get tired or sleep (Psalm 121:3–4). He rested to establish a pattern for us to follow.

In Exodus 20, when God was giving the Ten Commandments to Moses, He said that we should work for six days and rest on the seventh day. Why? Because “in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day”(Exodus 20:11). God rested on that seventh day and blessed it, so that we would have a pattern to follow for our workweek.

Some people say that God did not create in six actual days. They say that the days could be long periods of time. But this does not make sense with Exodus 20:11. It teaches us about our workweek based on God’s week of creating. If these were not normal 24-hour days, then how can it make sense for us to work for six days and rest for one, just as God did? The days were not millions of years long. They were ordinary days.