Exodus 20:11

11. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth Here is a direct reference to what is recorded in Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:3, where see notes, and also pages 63 and 64 of the Introduction . Those writers who maintain that the Sabbath was a purely Mosaic institution find no little embarrassment in explaining away the obvious import of this verse . Both here and in Genesis 2:1-3, God’s rest at the close of the creative week is made a reason for the sanctifying of the seventh day . Other reasons are also given, as in Deuteronomy 5:15, where the deliverance from Egyptian bondage is mentioned as an additional ground for its observance. That a seventh-day rest is necessary to the highest good of man may be argued from the following considerations: (1.) From this explicit commandment of the decalogue. Its position among other moral laws of universal obligation shows that it is something more than a mere temporary Mosaic institution. (2.) The typical example of God’s resting from his work, here given as a reason for this law, implies that the seventh-day rest is an ordinance old as the creation of man. (3.) This is confirmed by traces of it in the weekly divisions of time among several ancient nations, (see on Exodus 16:23,) and especially among the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians, who had their “day of rest for the heart . ” (4 . ) Because of its association with Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage, (Deuteronomy 5:15,) and the severity with which its violation was punished . Numbers 15:35; 2 Chronicles 36:21. (5 . ) Christ’s words in Mark 2:27, confirm all the above, and show it to be a law of the highest good for man, grounded in the needs of his physical and moral nature . (6 . ) The remarkable fact has been often proven and illustrated by fair trial, that both man and beast will do more and better work by observing one rest day in seven than by continuous labour in violation of the sabbath law . (7 . ) The sabbath rest, properly utilized, is admirably adapted to promote the culture of all that is highest and best in the spiritual nature of man .