Hi Arc,
Thanks for the Kudos but; It Is All Of GOD In Jesus Christ.
What you have added brings us full circle to the first post here (Sabbath Rest).
Strange but for the last several weeks i have been listening to the audio of all
these topics that keep coming up daily. It would do well for us all to spend more
time learning and listening to the Word as this Food Is Powerful and Calming. We Cease and Rest In His Finished Work; rather than substituting our own puny workings.george.
Here are some excerpts from Ray's Teaching on The Sabbath.
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,6310.msg50887.html#msg50887December 2007 Bible study
KEEPING SABBATH
The Sabbath commandment is the longest of the ten commandments.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of Lord your God: In it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Ex. 20:8-11 Concordant).
There is a couple of things I want you to notice about this. This is a long commandment. In verse 9, “Six days shall thou labor…”
In the King James in says, verse 11 “for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth…”
And I don’t think it uses the plural for heaven - heavens. When ever you see heaven in the Old Testament and the New Testament it is almost always plural - heavens. The King James just does not do that. They usually have it singular - heaven.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1, King James).
It should be plural, heavens.
But the word “in” that is in Ex. 20:11, “for in six days” that word “in” if you look at it in your King James it’s in italics, because it is not in the Hebrew and it really shouldn’t be there. Sometimes you have to add words because it helps the understanding, but in this case it hinders. Now if it doesn’t make sense or is not proper grammar without it, then you may have to insert it. There are times you need to do that, because languages do not translate word for word or even phrase for phrase. But in this case it is not necessary and it changes the meaning.
So it’s not “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth…and all that in them is” but it should be “For six days the Lord made heaven and earth…” Now that is a giant difference.
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So “God created the heavens and the earth… all that in them is… for six day” How long were these six days? Were they 24 hour periods?
It was on the seventh day that it said God rested in the King James.
Was that a 24 hour day? If it was, why is He STILL CEASING from His work?
This Scripture says He is. Genesis 2:2 in the Concordant correctly says;
Gen 2:2 And finishing is the Elohim (God), on the sixth day, His work which He does. And ceasing is He on the seventh day from all His work which He does.
So He’s “finishing” it all up in the sixth day and He’s ceasing, that’s the indefinite tense. He was ceasing, is ceasing and will continue to cease. It’s not past tense, like most of the Scripture say. You read those that are aware of this technical difference and you’ll see that it is in the indefinite. It makes all the difference in the world.
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GOD IS YET CEASING FROM THE WORKS HE COMPLETED
Gen 2:2 And F I N I S H I N G is the Elohim, on the sixth day, His works which He does. And ceasing is He on the seventh day from ALL HIS W O R K which He does.” (Concordant Version)
The works ARE finished and God IS ceasing from all those works of physical creation of the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that in them is.
Now all this ties in with keeping the seventh day, a day of rest. If God is still ceasing from all the works that were finished, He does that on the seventh day.
This still must be the seventh day of God’s ceasing!
We don’t read of anything where God began creating some other part of the physical universe on the eighth day or the ninth day or any such thing, nowhere. We are now into God’s SPIRITUAL creation… making man in God’s very own spiritual image.
The idea behind the seventh day is it represents rest. Israel was told to rest every seventh day of a weekly cycle. But it represents something. It was a law, they had to rest, it’s the forth commandment, it’s a law.
Heb 10:1 For the law (part of the... remember the Sabbath and keep it holy) having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things…
The shadow is not the image itself. So in some ways it’s almost worthless, except it points you to something.
To add to your skillfully crafted post George:
Galations 2 : 20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the the Faith OF the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.
That little "OF" in the above verse speaks VOLUMES to me.
It is not by MY faith that I live. Who owns the Faith of Christ? Who can purchase or earn the Spirit of God or know His Mind. Non can know God or approach Christ unless it is by Christ's appointment that is forordained and forknown. This is what makes the Scripture about self judgment so vital. 1 Cor 11 ; 31 For IF we searchingly examined ourselves {detecting our shortcomings and recognizing our own condition} we should not be judged and penalty decreed {by divine judgment} But when we {fall short and } are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined and chastened, so that we many not {finally} be condemned to {punishment} with the world.
To quote from LOF 6:
"For if we would JUDGE OURSELVES, we should not be judged. But when we ARE JUDGED, we are CHASTENED [Greek: paideuo, to train, educate, discipline, punish, chastise, instruct, learn, and teach] of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world [at the great white throne judgment]" (I Cor. 11:31-32).http://bible-truths.com/lake6.html
This Scripture is like the glasses that bring sight to unseeing or dull eyes.
God is the potter and I am the clay. We are all clay! Is clay part of the foundation? (Rhetorical question. )
The purpose and fulfilment of the vessel God is making anyone to be is from clay first ~ either the vessel is being fashioned to His Honour and recognition of Him in all circumstances and events, or the vessel is being made dull and sluggish, even slothful in achieving spiritual insight Heb 5 : 11 to the dishonour of nonrecognition of God working all things to the good for those who love Him.
Those who love God, are getting to know Him and to walk in His Good Works He prepares for us.
http://bible-truths.com/lake6.html
"For by GRACE are ye saved through FAITH; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast. For we are HIS workmanship [Gk: achievement], created in Christ Jesus unto [unto what?] … unto GOOD WORKS, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). We are not saved by OUR WORKS, but we are preordained to walk in GOD’S GOOD WORKS, nonetheless.
Arc