In previous studies we proved the existence of God and showed that He communicates to human beings through the Holy Bible. The Bible shows that God has been working on a plan for a long time.
In Titus 1:1-2 we read that God had this plan to give us eternal life before time began. Time has existed since the creation of the physical universe. We do not know how long before then time existed, and we cannot understand what it would be like without “time.”
1 Peter 1:18-21 shows that the part of God's plan in which Christ would die for our sins was planned before the world was made. Scientists estimate the age of the universe at 13 billion years. God must have been planning this for at least 13 billion years!
The Bible lesson to come explaining our potential will tell you exactly what God is accomplishing in His plan.
Let us see that God's plan is shown by the seven day week.
The Biblical week consists of six days followed by the Sabbath. In Colossians 2:16-17 we see that the Sabbath is a shadow of things to come. (These verses are often misunderstood. We will study only one aspect of these Scriptures.) What can we learn about God's plan from the Sabbath?
Read Genesis 2:2-3. God rested on the seventh day. He sanctified that day, which means that He set it apart for a holy purpose. In the ten commandments listed in Exodus 20:8-11, we read that God created in six days and rested on the seventh day, the Sabbath. Exodus 31:16-17 is similar, but also states that the Sabbath is a sign that indicates that God made everything. It identifies God as the Creator.
There is a statement in 2 Peter 3:8 that we must take literally. We might see this verse as merely a thought on how God looks at time, that since He is eternal He sees time differently than humans do. That is true. However if we take it literally, we can learn that somehow a day represents 1000 years. These verses are in the context of Christ's coming, God's promise and repentance. These are all aspects of God's plan. Could it be that the seven day week, which is so important to God, portrays His plan?
Is there a 1000 year period in the Bible that we can learn from? We find it in Revelation 20:4-6. This is often called the Millennium, which means 1000 years. This is the time after Christ returns to the earth. Those persons who were raised from the dead, or changed, at the return of Christ will rule with Him on the earth for 1000 years. They will rule under Christ in the Millennium and inherit the universe for all eternity.
What about the time before the Millennium? We are looking for a pattern of six days of the week representing 6000 years and the seventh day representing this Millennium. The 6000 years are the time before the Millennium. That is the period of time that we are in now.
In Genesis we read about how the world came to be the way it is now. If you carefully study the genealogies in the Bible, you can calculate that Adam and Eve were created about 6000 years ago.
Genesis 2:8-9, 15-17 describes two trees in the garden of Eden. Adam was invited to eat from all of the trees except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That means that he could have eaten from the tree of life. Genesis 3:1-7 is the account of how he and Eve chose the other tree. Verses 22-24 show them being driven out and cut off from the tree of life. Eating from the tree of life would have caused them to live forever. It must represent God's Holy Spirit, because elsewhere in the Bible we find that we must receive the Holy Spirit before we are given eternal life.
Since that incident of the two trees mankind has been cut off from God, except for the few that have been called by God. Humanity has spent 6000 years laboring under the bondage of sin. We are looking forward to the rest from sin during the Millennium.
At this point we have convincing proof that the first six days of the week, the work days, represent the first 6000 years of mankind laboring under sin. The seventh day, the Sabbath day of rest, represents the Millennial rest from sin under the rule of Christ.
But there is more: Turn to Hebrews 4:4. God rested on the seventh day, as we have seen. In verses 5-8 we read that the Israelites who left Egypt did not enter their rest in the promised land because of disobedience. Verse 9 refers to a rest for the people of God. The original Greek word for rest in this verse is different from the word for rest that is used elsewhere in this chapter. This word means Sabbath-rest. Verses 1 and 10-11 tell us that we must enter another rest. In these Scriptures we see a creation rest, a national rest by the Israelites that they did not receive, a Sabbath rest, and a future rest that we must be diligent to enter. The creation rest was the day after six days of creation. The Sabbath rest is the day after six days of work. The future rest is the 1000 year period after 6000 years of humanity's existence on the earth.
Next Sabbath, remember that day is to remind us of the soon-coming Millennium.