“God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day” (Genesis 1:5 ESV).
My usual morning devotional routine is anything but consistent, no plan, just random starts and stops with little direction. So this week I decided to sign up for a Bible reading plan through Biblegateway.com. It is free and each day I receive an email with a set daily reading from both the Old and New Testaments (I thought variety would be nice). It started out in Genesis 1 of course. I was going to just fly through it. Yeah, yeah, I’ve read all this many times before. Then I remembered that this is the Word of God. Even if I have read it before, there is no need for me to dismiss it like an orange already squeezed dry. So I started over again, more slowly, thinking about each word and verse. And you know what happened? God gave me something to think about that I hadn’t considered before (He’s good at doing that!).
“And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.” We’ve all read that scripture probably hundreds or thousands of times. This is one reason we know that the Sabbath starts Friday evening and runs through Saturday evening, sunset to sunset because a Biblical day starts with the evening. There are probably several reasons that God chose to do this but what I newly considered was the availability of the evening. Some people do get up before sunrise, however I would think more people, maybe even most people, would be awake to see the sunset. Especially back in ancient times, when your only light at night would be a big fire or at best a lamp or candle, fewer people would be preoccupied with their jobs or what lay ahead for the day at that time. In the morning, we might miss the beginning of the Sabbath! We are getting ready for the day, or still in bed, or too groggy to concentrate. In the evening, when everything, hopefully, is said and done, we are fully awake and can welcome the Sabbath in with open arms! I admit, I do not always make a point to celebrate the beginning of Sabbath as grandly as I would like however that is something I hope to change. I think making it a special time, something to look forward to, is very important. God has set this time aside for us, and I want to take advantage of His even greater attention and presence.
God has already promised to bless the Sabbath day and therefore it will be a blessing to those who treasure it. Dear Lord, help me to prepare for the arrival of your Sabbath day that I might obtain the biggest possible blessing from the gift You have given to us and share that blessing with others. The juice is definitely worth the squeeze on this one!