3231.—The Beginning and End of the Sabbath
When does the Sabbath begin? Are we to understand from the expression, “God finished His work on the seventh day,” that He worked part of that day? A. First, the day is composed of two parts, morning and evening. “And the evening and the morning were the first day,” second day, third day, and so on. See Gen. 1:5, 8, etc. The Sabbath, like all other days, began at evening. “From even unto even, shall ye celebrate your Sabbath.” Lev. 23:32. The evening began at the going down of the sun. This is clearly shown in Mark 1:32, “And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto Him [Jesus] all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.” They would not bring them upon the Sabbath. They waited until the sun set and then the next day had begun. See also Luke 4:40; and Matt. 8:16. All these passages show that the Sabbath closed at the setting of the sun. Neh. 13:19 is just as conclusive in showing that it began with the setting of the sun. “And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the Sabbath.” As the sun declined, the heavy shadows of the walls of Jerusalem began to bring darkness and obscurity. Then the gates were to be closed, so that when the sun set no more merchants could enter within the city walls. Secondly, when the Lord instituted the first week of time in connection with this earth, He had in mind the whole week, just such a week as man himself would have from that time forward; and the Lord in His wisdom wrought such a work as would fix that week for man’s observance forever. In that week for man there were to be six days for work, one day for rest; and God did what He did in order that man might have such a week as that. On six days of that week the Lord made the heavens and the earth. That is emphatically told all through the Scriptures. “In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.” On the seventh day the Lord made the Sabbath, which was a part of His work for that week; so that it could be said that on the seventh day God finished His work; that is, not the work of forming the world, but the work of making the Sabbath a rest. The finishing pertains not to the physical labor alone, if we may so term the speaking into existence the works of nature, but to the worship part also, the institution of the worship day, the Sabbath. If there are any who contend that it should refer to the work of arrangement for the material world, it may be said that the word “finish” has the effect of “ended;” that on the seventh day God’s work was ended. Some of the early versions have “sixth day” for “seventh day,” “And on the sixth day God ended His work,” but to us it seems very clear that the finishing of God’s work included the Sabbath as a Sabbath. Consequently, man in following his Maker would work six days and would rest and enjoy the seventh, beginning the day with the evening where it begins, and closing it with the evening.