Seventh day all day long

After God worked for six days and finished Creation, He didn’t stop because He was tired; He rested because the work was done.

“People like to argue about evolution; I tell people I’m a six-day evolutionist,” says Jordan. “When God, in Genesis 1, created in those six days, He had a plan. He did this first, and then based on that, He did that.

“He says, ‘I worked for six days so I could get to this day; this seventh day is the reason I created all this stuff—to get to right here. This is the day of my rest. I got nothing else; I don’t need to do anymore. This is what I was doing it all for—I’ve arrived!’

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“Psalm 132:13-14 will nail the board down for you, or tie the rag on the bush: ‘For the LORD hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.’

“In Job 38, God calls it ‘my decreed place; the place I’ve decreed I’m going to inhabit.’ He says, ‘This is my rest forever. Here will I dwell for I have desired it. I’ve got a plan. I’ve got a desire. I’ve got something I’m doing.’ And on that seventh day, He said, ‘I’m there!’

“So what was it that He set the seventh day apart for? For a day of rest. What does that mean? That’s the day He’s going to dwell on the earth. The purpose of Creation was so God could rest in it, and the resting in it is that He would dwell in it on a certain piece of real estate.”

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"God didn’t create the universe just as a sandbox for us to play in, or a showplace to watch and see what we decide to do—He created the universe as place for Him to live; for Him to allow us to enjoy fellowship with Him. For Him to dwell among us. That’s what that word Immanuel means: ‘God with us.’

“When Christ says He goes to prepare a place for you, He’s not saying, ‘I’m going to heaven to build a bunch of houses for you.’

“We sing that hillbilly song, ‘Just give me a cabin in the corner of glory land,’ and somebody says, ‘No, I want a mansion over the hilltop!’ which is from another hillbilly song. One of my favorite old gospel songs says, ‘And I shall go to dwell on Zion’s hill.’

“But there’s a lot of stuff in the hymn book that isn’t good doctrine. When He says, ‘I go to prepare a place for you,’ He’s not talking about going to heaven and working for 2,000 years on building you a house to live in, like another song goes. I know that’s sentimentalism, but it’s unscriptural stuff that turns into superstition.

“Think about how foolish that. The second person of the godhead could step out on the platform of nothing, speak a word and a universe is created. Why would He need two thousand years to create a home for you?! The sentimentalism is just kind of foolish. People argue, ‘Yeah but, He’s designing an intricate . . . ’

“How could He design anything more intricate than the creation you live in? Study the atom; study the science of our creation. The deeper scientists are able to dig into creation, or biologists into biology creation, the more complicated it becomes. It doesn’t get simpler. And there’s that creative complexity that’s designed in creation.”

(new article tomorrow)