You should probably re-examine Exodus 20:11 when making a case for young earth creation.
I don't mind if I do -- and thanks for the suggestion..
"in legal code" God says it this way
Ex 20
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9
Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ...11
For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that
is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."
The same time frame for "
SIX days YOU shall labor.. but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD" is given for "
For in SIX days the LORD made..."
Another great reason for James Barr and all of his atheist peers in world-class Universities to argue that "the text" is proclaiming a literal 7 day week.
Including Exodus 20:11
For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that
is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."
When we examine Ex 20:11 in context is that it is not the only explanation for the Sabbath.
When we examine Ex 20:11 we SEE that it points directly to Genesis 2:1-3 AND that it equates the literal 7 day week of vs 8-10... to the literal 7 day week of Genesis 2:1-3.
You asked for a focus on Exodus 20:11
Notice also that the INTRO to the TEN commandments in Exodus 20 (where we find Exodus 20:11 that you want us to focus on) - God INTRODUCES commandments like "Do not take God's name in vain" with the preface "2
I AM the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."
That is the "intro" to the commandments such as "
Do not take God's name in vain" Ex 20:7 and that intro provides context for all the TEN - including the Sabbath commandment.
Of course "IF" you wanted to totally IGNORE Exodus 20 and go to an event 40 years later... you could choose to look "instead" at Deut 5.
Deuteronomy 5 also gives an aetiology for the Sabbath, and it makes zero mention of creation
Deuteronomy 5 starts off reminding us that it is NOT the Sinai event that happened 40 years earlier - rather it is demanding that we REMEMBER the Sinai event and obey it's teachings.
Deut 5
2 The Lord our God
made a covenant with us in Horeb.
3 The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.
4 The
Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire,
5 (I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to shew you the word of the Lord: for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount
Notice that Deut 5 does NOT say
-- DELETE everything you heard 40 years ago when God spoke to you in the mount out of the midst of the fire -- and INSTEAD take my words today as REPLACEMENT.
No we find no such text there in Deut 5.
Rather Moses said in Deut 5 - that the words that had been written IN STONE 40 years ago are to be obeyed.
22 These words the
Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice:
and he added no more. And
he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.
Moses "reminds" them that God not only spoke the words - 40 years earlier - but also God WROTE the Words on tablets of stone -- "
And added no more".
Instead of "and we hereby delete all that was written on stone and we hereby replace them" we have "
and He added no more".
In Deut 5, Moses makes no reference to the Sabbath being commissioned to commemorate creation in six literal days.
But he does remind them that the Sabbath command is already "in stone" as given 40 years earlier and that God "added no more".
Passover was given as a reminder of deliverance from slavery in Egypt - but the Sabbath commandment was given as a memorial of the 7 day week at creation. (There is no seven day week in Egyptian deliverance). For the Sabbath AND for ALL TEN of the TEN commandments we see the context and motivation for Israel to obey things like "do not take God's name in vain" and the Sabbath - being "God delivered you from Egypt".
Given the existence of the SAME commandments "IN STONE" with added reason for the commemoration of the Sabbath ALREADY given as preface to ALL TEN of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:2 it is more than probable that the
compilers of the Pentateuch were more concerned with reminding Israel of their special obligation by emphasising the importance of obedience in context of their deliverance.
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
11 “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
All of these reflect the original words of God and as Moses reminds us in Deut 5 are not only spoken by God but also written in stone - by God. "And He added no more".
It is surely worth noting that if God really wanted to declare that the physical creation took place in six literal days 6000 years ago, the text would connect "
SIX days YOU shall labor" with "
for in SIX days the LORD made" -- just as it does.
In Exodus 34:1-7 we see God refer to Himself in the third person just as Christ does when speaking of the "Son of man" -- Shall I go on?
Not exactly. In Gen 1:1 we read that God "created" (barah) the heavens and earth.
In Exodus 20:11 we read that in six days God "made" (asah) the heavens and earth.
A distinction without a difference in that case - because He is said to have done both.
Genesis 2:1-3
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God ended
his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from
all his work which God created and made.
The point remains.
Actually, a point does remain. To create, from Gen 1:1 means to create out of nothing.
I am glad we can agree
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from
all his work which God created and made.
