When I was in middle school and high school, our youth group participated in what was called the Bible Bowl. It was a team trivia contest for youth groups throughout the state of Minnesota. Each year, different books were the basis of the quiz questions. Teams of four faced off. My teams never made it very far, but there is one question and its answers I cannot forget.
The question was something like - In how many days did God create the world.
I buzzed in first, answered - 7.
Correct.
In the format we used, the opposing team could challenge with a more correct answer. They did - 6 days they said.
More correct.
At the time I remember feeling stupid. Cheated a bit.
When I was much older, I was upset by being overruled. I looked at this line, “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done” (Genesis 2:2). God finishes on the seventh day.
I became persuaded that I was right from a simple trivial perspective. My answer was technically more correct.
I was reading a book yesterday about Sabbath practices. It’s called Embracing Rhythms of Work and Rest by Ruth Haley Barton. (This book is excellent so far. Highly recommend.) The author persuaded me even further that my answer of 7 days was correct, not from a textual argument, but from a theological one.
On the seventh day, God creates the Sabbath. By ceasing His normal work of creation, God creates a new thing: solemn rest. God works this into the fabric of the perfect creation.
To say God created the world in six days is incomplete, unfinished. Such a world is a world outside the rhythms of God. And in a culture that insists on a hectic pace and side hustles, a culture that finds virtue in being exhausted, we desperately need the rhythm God gave us for the world. We desperately need to cease from our normal work on a regular basis and rest.
So, to that trivia judge at the Bible Bowl 20-some years ago, I want my ten points back.
Stay Curious. Ask Questions.
Andy