In the beginning...
"God created all things
by Jesus Christ." Eph 3:9



      That’s what Paul told the Ephesians. He said pretty much the same thing to the Colossians. Speaking of God’s “dear Son” he wrote, “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” 1:16,17. John agreed. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God… All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” John 1:1,3. And in Hebrews 1:2 we read that God appointed His Son “heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.”
      God and Jesus Christ worked as a Father-Son team in creating everything, “all things,” in heaven and earth. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul makes this very point. “There is one God, the Father, of whom are all things…and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things.” 1Cor 8:6. The Father supplies all the materials, all the power; the Son does all the work and executes his Father’s plans. As Jesus told his disciples, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work” John 4:34.
      Even in the time of Solomon this was known. In Proverbs 30:4 the question is asked, “Who has laid the foundations of the earth? What is His name? And what is His Son’s name?” His Son is called “The Word of God” because he speaks for his Father. Jesus said, “I speak that which I have seen with my Father” John 8:38. “I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak” John 12:50. “the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” John 14:10. And when the Son speaks, his Word “does not return unto him void” Isaiah 55:11. “For by the word of the Lord were the heavens made” Psalm 33:6. And “the worlds were framed by the word of God” Heb 11:3.
      Jesus said, “the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak” John 12:49. So, in the beginning, the Son of God “spoke and it was done; he commanded and it stood fast” Psalm 33:9. He said, “Let there be light, and there was light” Genesis 1:3. He said, “Let there be a firmament” and the waters above were divided from the waters below. He said, “Let the dry land appear” and it was so. He said, “Let the earth bring forth grass and plants and trees” and it was so.

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Light Atmosphere Land & Plants Sun, Moon, Stars Birds & Fish Animals & Man Rest
      In just “six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is” Exodus 20:11. The sun, moon, stars, planets, and on this planet all the plants and animals. Apples and oranges, berries and cherries with lions and dandelions, bear and deer, moose and goose, cats and bats, whales and snails—you name it, He made it. But none of those six days were the Jesus Day. At the end of day six, Jesus “formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” Gen 2:7 and Adam became a living, thinking, moving, breathing human soul. And then Jesus gave Adam work to do. As Jesus brought “out their host by number: he calls them all by names” Isaiah 40:26, so he told Adam to name all the birds and animals. And Adam named them all.
      “But for Adam there was not found an help meet for him” Gen 2:20. All the animals were paired, but Adam was alone. And the Lord said, “It is not good that man should be alone, I will make a help meet for him.” That’s an old fashioned English way of saying, “someone appropriate for him.”


      So, Adam was put to sleep, an incision was made in his side, a rib was removed, and from a piece of Adam himself, his very own “help meet” was fashioned just for him. And when Adam saw her, he named her, too! “She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man” Gen 2:23.
      As the sun set that sixth day, the Father and Son looked over their work and said, “It is very good.” Now it was time for the day Jesus made, “the day that the Lord has made” Psalm 118:24. A gift to Adam and Eve, a honeymoon made in Paradise, their wedding gift from the Creator and his Father.
      “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. 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.” Genesis 2:2,3. It was a day to celebrate what God had done together with His Son. It was a perfect day, a perfect time, to remember the mighty power of the Creator, to “worship and bow down” and “kneel before the Lord our Maker” Psalm 95:6. It was the day of worship when Jesus and his Father should “receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things” Revelation 4:11.
      Four thousand years later the Son of God came into the world, this time sent by his Father to rescue the human race from the grip of Satan. Though he was “in the form of God” and “equal with God” Philippians 2:6, Jesus “emptied himself” and became the Son of man, “learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” Heb 5:8, to manifest the love of God 1John 4:9, to “taste death for every man” and “destroy him which had power over death” Heb 2:9, 14. He healed the sick and restored the blind, opened the ears of the deaf and often on his Day.
      On one Sabbath day he healed a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years. His miracle of healing was condemned by the religious leaders as worthy of death. Jesus explained. “Until now my Father has worked, and I work” John 5:17. He referred to the work of creating all things that he and his Father did together “in the beginning.” But the Jews were even more angry. Now he was blaspheming! “For he makes God his Father.”
      It is not blasphemy to call God your Father when that’s what He is. Jesus is the divine eternal Son of God. He is the brightness of his Father’s glory, the express image of his Father’s person, and upholds all things by his Father’s power (Heb 1:3). The Sabbath is the Day he and his Father made together as they created all things together and rested together on the seventh day.
      The Jesus Day appears in many prophetic settings throughout scripture.
The seventh day becomes the Creator’s day, a memorial of the Father’s power spoken by His Son in the six days of creation. After the fall of man, the loyal followers of Jehovah were eventually reduced to a single man: Noah, a preacher of righteousness. He was instructed by God to build an ark to save a remnant of life. When the door to this boat was closed, seven days later the “windows of heaven were opened” and “the world that then was perished” in the flood. Genesis 7:10; 2Peter 3:6.
      Jacob worked 7 years for Rachael his first love, but because he had deceived his father, he was deceived into working an additional 7 years for Rachael’s sister Leah who was fruitful, but Rachael was barren. Joseph, Jacob’s favorite son became governor of Egypt after interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams involving seven cows and seven ears of corn representing 7 years of plenty followed by 7 years of famine a rep-etition of Rachael and Leah’s seven years.
      When the children of Israel left Egypt they arrived in Elam on the seventh day to an oasis of 70 palms where they rested with the added blessing of 12 wells. Before they reached Mt. Sinai, they were given manna every day for five days and then a double amount on the sixth day but none on the seventh. This occurred without interruption for 40 years during their wandering in the wilderness.
      Fifty days (7 weeks + 1 day) after their exodus from Egypt, God and His Holy One descended on Mt Sinai. The Son of God, “thine anointed,” spoke his Father’s law in flame and smoke. Habbakuk 3:3,13. On the Sabbath week God and His Son visited His people as He desires to do every seventh day. The seventh day, the seventh week were special times for worship and fellowship with the Creator. The seventh year is also significant.
      Jezebel’s daughter, Athaliah, murdered all her grandsons except one that was hidden in the temple for six years. 2Kings 11:1-3. For six years Athaliah ruled as queen. But in the seventh year, Joash was brought forth out of the temple, anointed and crowned king of Judah. Athaliah cried “Treason!” but she was herself then executed. Joash was a type of Jesus who will leave the temple after 6000 years as we’ll soon see.
      Every seven years the Hebrew slaves were to be set free and the land was to rest. Exodus 21:1; Leviticus 25:4. But Israel failed to obey the command of God. They were given one final chance in Jeremiah 34:8,9 to which they agreed. But then, like Pharaoh, they changed their mind and brought their servants back into bondage. It was this that brought destruction to Jerusalem and the temple in 586 BC and their own exile to Babylon where they would stay for 70 years one year for each sabbatical and jubilee year that they ignored for the 430 years of the divided kingdom.



     

At the end of their 70 years in Babylon, Daniel was given a 70 week prophecy that foretold the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, the anointed one, the Christ at the beginning of the 70th week. 69 weeks (483 years) after the third and last decree of the king of Persia, Jesus was baptized in 27 AD. Three and a half years later in the midst of the 70th week, he was crucified on Passover as the Lamb of God, today observed as Good Friday, the sixth day of the week.


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The Last Week of Christ's Life Before His Death on the Cross
Jesus was the Bread of Life come down from heaven
Crucified
Double Manna
Rest in Tomb
No Manna


      As the sun was setting he was placed in Joseph of Arimethea’s tomb where once again Jesus rested on the Sabbath, this time from his work of redemption. Like the manna in the wilderness, his flesh did not “see corruption” Acts 2:27. The manna was preserved over the Sabbath; it did not “stink and breed worms” Exodus 16:20,24. Every day the manna fell in the wilderness. Then on the sixth day there was a double portion, enough for two days. But on the seventh day no manna fell. It was the Sabbath. Jesus was the living bread come down from heaven. And because he was the Lord of creation, he was also Lord of the Sabbath (Matt 12:8). The seventh day was Jesus’ Day.
      Seven weeks and one day later, Jesus received the promise of his Father (Acts 2:32). He who spoke the words of God on Mt Sinai now received back the Spirit from his Father without measure (John 3:34). Now he was glorified with his Father’s own self (John 17:5) and his Spirit flowed as rivers of water (John 7:39) as he breathed on the 120 in the upper room when the day of Pentecost had fully come (John 20:23; Acts 2:1). God sent forth the Spirit of His Son (Gal 4:6). The Spirit of Christ which was in the prophets (1Pet 1:10, 11) was now in his disciples as he had promised them the night before he died: “I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you” “and be in you” John 14:18,20. They were now supplied with the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil 1:19).
      Every year in the seventh month the high priest would enter into the most holy place of the sanctuary to “cleanse” the temple, the priests and the people from all the sins that had been accumulated there throughout the year. (Leviticus 16:20,21,30). Each day sacrifices could be made to forgive the sinner (Lev 4:20,26). Then the blood of the sacrifice was taken into the holy place and sprinkled seven times before the veil and the ark (Lev 4:6,17). But in the seventh month everything and everyone was clean. All this was a preview of the work of Jesus as our High Priest in the temple of heaven (Hebrews 8:1). And if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1John 1:9).
      That special day of final atonement in the seventh month was a solemn time to “afflict your souls” Lev 16:29,31. So, today, soon Jesus will come out of the temple. His work of intercession, forgiveness and cleansing will be finished. And he will rest with us.
      He will make a terrible announcement: “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still” Revelation 22:11. It will be time for the last Great Day of the seventh month.
      “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night” Psalm 90:4. Yes, “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come” 2Peter 3:8-10. After 6000 years of sin, the final millennium, 1000 years of rest will begin. The great harvest ingathering of all who now sleep in Jesus (1Thes 4:14) will take place. For the harvest is the end of the world (Matt 13:39) and Jesus will send his angels to gather his children who sleep in the dust (Daniel 12:2) and those who yet remain alive to meet him in the air (1Thes 4:16; 1Cor 15:51,52).
      And from one Sabbath to another and from one new moon to another shall all flesh gather before Him to worship and praise and honor (Isaiah 66:23) the Creator and His Son, the Lamb. And we shall stand on Mount Zion with our Father’s name written in our forehead (Revelation 14:1).


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Antichrist        The Jesus Prophecy        The Jesus Day        Death of the Cross        Our High Priest