2026
Six days; so are counted the days, in the beginning, when God did His work of creating. And on the seventh day, He rested from all the work that He had done. (cf. Genesis 2:2) Notice that Moses never says that God stopped working; as the creator of the universe, He is also the One who maintains and sustains it. He, most simply put, took six days to create everything, and on the seventh, He stopped His creative work. All that ever was was created in those first six days. Everything that exists now had a kind that was created in those first six days, but on the seventh day, God rested from creating.
He hasn’t picked up the creative mantle since. Again, that doesn’t mean that God stopped working, but that He is no longer creating. Everything that exists had a kind that was created in those first six days, and in that creative work, God gave those kinds the means to change—to adapt and expand and contract, etc., not to evolve into something new, lest I be misunderstood. A cow is still a cow, but it’s possible that the cow that Adam first called cow looked different, if familiar, than the animal that is today called a cow—but they are both cows!
His creative work finished, God called it very good, and rested. He blessed the seventh day as a day to rest, a day to marvel at His work and rejoice over what He had done, more for you as His ultimate creation than for Him as your Creator. The Sabbath was created for you, not the other way around, that you may enjoy the rest of God and His work of caring for and sustaining you.
What began as a day of rest—and don’t be fooled, you are created to take a day off from your work once a week—is also now the Day of Rest, the day set apart to be given to by God for your Redemption.
Luther taught,
- Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.
How is the Sabbath kept holy? By remembering that it is the day that God set apart to rest in His care and providence. How do you rest in His providence? By holding His Word sacred and gladly hearing and learning it. This happens wherever His word is proclaimed, as the Holy Spirit works by that Word to give you exactly what it says: forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
It bears mentioning that in so doing, you also make proper use of the name of God. This is not simply the case because these two commandments are being treated together tonight, but because much of what God does is tied up in His name and flows from that. Therefore, in highly prizing the preaching of God’s Word, holding it sacred, and gladly hearing and learning it, you also properly use the name of God.
Luther also taught,
- You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive by His name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.
Cursing, swearing, lying, deceiving by God’s name, and especially using satanic arts are all contrary to the name of God. On the other hand, calling upon God’s name in every trouble, praying, praising, and giving Him thanks are exactly how He wants you to use His name, and are done as the Sabbath is remembered.
First, what is the name of God? There are many by which He is known, and I don’t mean this to say that there are many religions who all call upon the true God by different names, but that God has revealed Himself by different names and titles in His Word: God, Father, Elohim, YHWH, among some others, but these are the ones by which He is most often addressed.
YHWH, a name which can roughly be translated as I AM. It stems from the interaction between Moses and the burning bush, where God told him that he should tell His people that “I AM has sent me to you.” (cf. Exodus 3:14) It points to the fact that God is eternal, without beginning and end. As a result, it brings to mind the fact that God is the creator of everything that exists, because only He is eternal; therefore, He is the source of all things.
Elohim, a name which is translated as gods. It is the plural form of the word in Hebrew, and is used, in context, to refer to the One who is the true God. Majestic plural or a nod to His trinitarian nature—that He is one God in three Persons—they both indicate that God is no mere person, as one would think of an individual, but is He who is to be honored, respected, and worshiped alone.
Father, a name by which the Son revealed God to mankind. It is often used to refer to the First Person of the Trinity, but also reflects that God has children. First, there is the only-begotten Son, who took on flesh and became your Brother and Redeemer. Second, you are a child of God by way of baptism into the death and resurrection of the only-begotten Son. As your Father, God cares for you as a father should: He gives you what you need to support this body and life as fathers are to supply the needs of their children, but He also gives you what you need for the life to come, namely the only-begotten Son into whose death and resurrection you have been baptized.
God, a name which indicates that God is, well, a god (and there is only one who is true). A god is anything in which you put your trust. This is not merely like trusting a friend to be a friend from time to time; this is a trust in greater things—such as righteousness—from the one in whom there is trust. Some people trust in themselves, that they are righteous in and of themselves. Some trust in money as a means by which to acquire righteousness or a measure of one’s righteousness. Some trust in God as the only giver of righteousness for Jesus’ sake.
To call upon God by any of His names in every trouble, to praise Him, to pray to Him, and to give thanks to Him is right worship. It is to acknowledge Him as your Creator and Redeemer. It is to confess what God says of Himself in His Word.
There is another name by which God reveals Himself: Lord. To call God your Lord is to acknowledge that He is the one who rules over your life, not as some despotic ruler, but as a kind and caring lord who has sought to add you to His kingdom. He has gone out of His way to graft you to Himself, so He will also go out of His way to keep you to Himself. That is what it means to call God your Lord, and remember, no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except in the Holy Spirit. (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:3)
So, it is by the Holy Spirit, and the faith that He has given you, that you say, “Jesus is Lord.” It is in the Holy Spirit that you cry out to God, and even in those times when you can’t find the words, it is the same Spirit who speaks on your behalf. And this Spirit brings you all that the Son, by His death and resurrection, won for you. For those times when you trust in yourself instead of God, the forgiveness of your sins. For those times when you misuse God’s name, the forgiveness of your sins. For those times when you would not rather rest in the care and grace and mercy of God, the forgiveness of your sins. For those times when you do not hold God’s Word sacred and gladly hear and learn it, the forgiveness of your sins.
