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| Volume 25 Number 6 June 2023 |
Page 9 |
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| Volume 25 Number 6 June 2023 |
Page 9 |
Is Your Time Set Apart for God?
Brian R. Kenyon
God created all things that were created within one literal week (Genesis 1:1-31). Moses elsewhere confirmed that God actually took six days to create everything, “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them…” (Exodus 20:11 NKJV). The creation account ends with a seventh day, “Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done” (Genesis 2:1-2). The term translated “were finished” means God brought to completion His work. “Rest” does not mean God was tired but that He ceased creative activity (Hebrews 4:4). The universe is no longer in a process of being created. Genesis 1 does not allow for additional creation, but it permits procreation and self-perpetuation. “Host” is a collective term that refers to an organized and disciplined body (cf., Genesis 21:22; Deuteronomy 4:19; 1 Kings 22:19). It designates the total, made up of the various component parts in the planned design of creation.
God called the previous days either “good” or “very good,” but it is the seventh day alone that God sanctified. “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” (Genesis 2:3). “Sanctified” means to make “holy” or to set apart. Nothing in the creation context connected with space is called “holy.” By virtue of being sanctified, one day of rest was set apart from six days of activity. By sanctifying the seventh day, God instituted a polarity between the “everyday” and the “holy.”
As with everything created, though something may have been created on a particular day, its existence was (and is) not limited to that day only. For example, although light was created on the first day (Genesis 1:3-5), light was not limited to the first day. Rather, light has been part of this world from the first day of creation forward! So, time was made holy or set apart on the seventh day. However, the sanctified nature of time is not limited to the seventh day (despite Sabbatarian doctrine). The holy God wants us to sanctify all our time to be like Him. “But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy’” (1 Peter 1:15-16). God has not chosen any single day to be dedicated to holiness, but every day is to be holy! Is your time set apart for God and His will each day?
[Editor’s Note: Time is a limited commodity, for each of us, beginning at birth and concluding when we die or when the Second Coming of Jesus Christ occurs. Consequently, we need to use our time so efficiently as though we are trying to compensate for time ill spent previously as well as with the knowledge that time allotted us is an unknown variable, which at best will run out eventually (Ephesians 5:16; Colossians 4:5). ~ Louis Rushmore, Editor]
