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The Seven Days
of The Week
A Picture of Seven Stages of Spiritual Growth
Dr. Daniel Botkin
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"Thus saith God the Lord, He that created the heavens,
and stretched them out; He that spread forth the earth, and that
which cometh out of it; He that giveth breath unto the people
upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein ... Behold, the
former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before
they spring forth I tell you of them." -Isaiah 42:5, 9
The above verses suggest that the methods God uses to impart
spiritual life to people are patterned after the methods by which
He created the heavens and the earth. By looking at how God brought
about "the former things" (the physical creation), we can see how
God brings about "new things" (the spiritual creation) in the life
of a maturing disciple.The first week of creation can be seen as
a miniature picture or a skeleton outline of seven stages of spiritual
growth that God takes us through as we become the "new creation"
of 2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is
a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are
become new."
DAY #1: SEPARATION OF LIGHT FROM
DARKNESS
Repentance Unto Salvation
At the beginning of the creation week, the entire earth
was in darkness and "without form, and void." This de scribes the
spiritual condition of a lost sinner. The sinner is in spiritual
darkness and is blind to spiritual truth. His life is with out form,
and void. Form a spiritual standpoint, his life has no order, no
direction, no purpose, because he is spirituall dead. He can do
nothing to bring himself out of the spiritual darkness in which
he dwells, unless the Spirit of God moves to initiate his salvation.
This initial pre pa ra to ry moving of the Spirit in a sinner's
life can be seen in Genesis 1:2: "And the Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters." Even before the earth received any light,
God's Spirit was brooding over the darkened waters; even before
the sinner receives any spiritual light, God's Spirit broods over
the darkened waters of the sinner's soul, bringing the sinner to
repentance and preparing him to receive spiritual light.
"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."
When a sinner repents, God speaks to the sinner's heart and says,
"Let there be light." The penitent sinner then receives his first
glimpse of the true knowledge of God's glory. The Apostle Paul expressed
it this way: "For God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness,
hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Yeshua the Messiah" (2 Cor. 4:6).
In this obvious reference to Genesis 1:3, Paul is telling us that
just as God spoke light into the physical creation, so He speaks
spiritual light into our hearts through the knowledge of the Messiah.
Peter also made reference to this analogy when he wrote that God
"hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light" (1 Pet.
2:9).
Genesis 1:4 says that "God saw the light, that it was good."
This is what God sees when He looks at a sinner who has repented.
It is not written that "God saw the darkness." God does not look
at the darkness of the penitent sinner's past. He sees only "the
light"; He sees only the goodness of His Son who now dwells in the
heart of the penitent sinner. Job 38:7 tells us that the angels
shouted for joy when God laid the foundations of the earth. When
God lays the foundation of the spiritual creation in a penitent
sinner's heart, the same thing happens: "I say unto you, that likewise
joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth" (Lk. 15:7).
God divided the light from the darkness and called the light
"Day," and the darkness "Night." He does the same thing with people.
He separates all of humanity into two categories, which the New
Testament calls "children of the light, and of the day" and "children
of darkness, and of the night" (1 Thes. 5:5). The apocryphal Book
of Enoch also notes this distinction in a reference to God as "the
Lord of spirits, who created a division between light and darkness,
and separated the spirits of men" (En. 41:6).
It is the sovereign moving of God's Spirit that leads us
to repentance, and it is God who speaks light into our sin-darkened
soul. We cannot congratulate ourselves for becoming children of
the light and of the day, because we did not spiritually beget ourselves
of our own will. "Of His own will He begat us with
the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His
creatures" (James 1:18).
The first stage of our spiritual growth, "the first day,"
begins when we are born from above, born anew as children of light
and of the day.
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DAY#2: SEPARATION OF WATERS ABOVE
& BELOW
Baptism and Sanctification
On the second day of creation, God made a firmament to separate
the waters below from the waters above. Separation speaks of holiness,
of being set apart. Waters speak of baptism, cleansing, and sanctification.
This is the second stage of our spiritual journey. It is not enough
to just receive the light that was given to us on the first day;
we must now "walk in the light" (1 Jn. 1:7). The light was freely
given to us: "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead,
and Christ shall give thee light," Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:14.
This spiritual awakening and reception of light takes place on "the
first day," but Paul does not stop there. He immediately tells us
to walk in that light in the very next verse: "See then that ye
walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise" (Eph. 5:15). We are
fools if we have the light but do not walk in the light.
To walk in the light means to be obedient to the knowl edge
we have been given. In the New Testament, the first act of obedience
after repentance and faith was normally baptism. Baptism, like the
firmament in Genesis, is meant to separate. It separates the new
believer from the world system of this age. Just as the firmament
served as a great gulf between the waters below and the waters above,
so in the spiritual realm there is "a great gulf fixed" between
the righteous and the unrighteous. (Lk. 16:26) When the newborn
child of light undergoes baptism and begins to walk in holiness,
he knows by experience what the Scrip ture means when it says that
God "hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Messiah Yeshua" (Eph. 2:6). The new disciple becomes more
and more aware of the fact that he is no longer a part of the body
of the unrighteous, the "waters below." He is now a part of the
body of the righteous, the "waters above." He has come to "an innumerable
company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn,
which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to
the spirits of just men made perfect" (Heb. 12:22f).
Although he still lives in the world, he is no longer of
the world. He has been lifted up, like the waters above the firmament,
to see his true nature and his true dwelling place in the Messiah.
He has begun to put into practice the instructions of Colossians
3:1-3: "If ye then be risen with Messiah, seek those things which
are above, where Messiah sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your
affection on things above, not on things on the earth, for ye are
dead, and your life is hid with Messiah in God."
These two bodies of people produce two contrasting manifestations.
The wicked who are like the troubled sea cast up mire and dirt;
the righteous who thirst for God as a dry and thirsty land produce
fruit. The details of these two contrasting manifestations can be
read in Galatians 5:19-23: "Now the works of the flesh are
manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, [etc.,
etc.] ... But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."
In the previous stage of spiritual growth, "the second
day," the disciple started to become aware of his true dwelling
place in the heavenly realm. Although he has set his affection on
things above, his body is still confined to the earth and is vulnerable
to the influence of the raging waters of the wicked who surround
him. This causes him to thirst for God. As God pours out His spiritual
waters upon the thirsty disciple, this produces the fruit of the
Spirit -- love, joy, peace, etc.
The reason the disciple can bear the fruit of the Spirit
is because he has the Spirit as the Seed in himself. The fruit tree
in Genesis is described as "the fruit tree yielding fruit after
his kind, whose seed is in itself." God places the apple seed
inside the apple, the peach seed inside the peach, etc., to enable
each kind of tree to yield fruit after its kind. God places the
Spirit of Messiah, "the Seed of the Woman," inside the
disciples heart, enabling him to bear the fruit of the Spirit. The
New Testament tells us we are "born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible" (1 Pet. 1:23). John makes reference
to this incorruptible indwelling Seed as the power that enables
us to overcome temptation: "Whosoever is born of God doth not
commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because
he is born of God" (1 Jn. 3:9). The indwelling Messianic Seed
causes the disciple to bear the fruit of the Spirit instead of the
works of the flesh.
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DAY #3: DRY LAND & SEAS; PLANT
LIFE
Thirsting for God and Bearing Fruit
 
On the third day, God gathered the waters under the heaven
unto one place and called these waters the Seas. This caused the appearance
of the dry land, which God called Earth. It was out of this Earth
that God brought forth "grass, the herb yielding seed, and the
fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed was in itself."
The seas and the dry land give us a picture of two bodies of
people who dwell together on this planet. "The wicked are like
the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and
dirt" (Isa. 57:20). The dry land is a picture of the righteous
who thirst after God: "My soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth
for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is" (Ps. 63:1). |
DAY #4: SUN, MOON, & STARS
Being a Light to Those in Darkness
On the fourth day, God caused the sun, moon, and
stars to shine in the firmament. After a person has been awakened
from spiritual death, enlightened and baptized, and has begun
walking in holiness and bearing the fruit of the Spirit, he begins
to shine as a light to those in darkness. People who are in darkness
begin to notice us, because the fruit of the Spirit is so different
from the works of the flesh that are manifested in the lives of
the unrighteous. Paul encourages us to be faithful "in the
midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as
lights in the world" (Ph'p 2:15). Yeshua said, "I must
work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the night
cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I
am the light of the world" (John: 9:4f). Now He tells us,
"Ye are the light of the world ... Let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your
Father which is in heaven" (Mt. 5:14, 16). The sun is the
source of light in the physical realm; Yeshua is "the Sun
of righteousness" in the spiritual realm (Mal. 4:2). At night
the moon receives and reflects the light of the unseen sun. Now
that Yeshua, the Sun of righteousness, is no longer in the world,
night has come to the spiritual realm. The Body of Messiah now
functions as the light of the world by receiving and reflecting
His light, just as the moon receives and reflects the light of
the unseen sun at night. It does not matter that the moon is smaller,
dimmer, and colder than the sun. It does not matter that it has
no light of its own apart from the sun. Its job is to "rule
the night" by receiving and reflecting the light that comes
from the unseen sun. The stars are another picture of disciples
who shine and give light to those in darkness. While the moon
is a picture of the entire Body of Messiah shining together corporately,
the stars are a picture of the innumerable disciples who shine
as individual lights: "And they that be wise shall shine
as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to
righteousness as the stars forever and ever" (Dan. 12:3).
Some stars are much brighter than others, and so it will be with
individual disciples. The New Testament says that "one star
differeth from another star in glory: so also is the resurrection
of the dead" (1 Cor. 15:41f). Some stars are exceedingly
brilliant, while other stars are very dull and dim. Some disciples
are exceedingly brilliant, while other disciples are very dull
and dim. That's okay, though. Even a dull, dim star provides a
measure of light in a dark place, and even a dull, dim-witted
disciple provides a measure of light in a dark place. Regardless
of the  measure
of light we have, we let it shine. "Let your light so shine
before men," Yeshua said. We don't need to be so concerned
with how brightly we shine compared to others. We simply let our
light shine.
DAY #5: NEW LIFE EMERGES FROM
THE WATERS Bringing the Lost to Repentance & Newness of Life
On the fifth day, God said, "Let the waters bring forth abundantly
the moving creature that hath life." The light that we give
on the fourth day will eventually result in the impartation of life
to others on the fifth day. This is because of the connection between
light and life: "In Him was life; and the life was the light
of men" (Jn. 1:4). This connection between light and life is
also seen in Philippians 2:15f: "...ye shine as lights in the
world; holding forth the word of life..." Spiritual light begets
spiritual life. The description of "the moving creature that
hath life" emerging from the waters gives us a picture of a
person coming out of the baptismal waters as "a new creature
in Christ" (2 Cor. 5:17). This new creature has life because
"he that hath the Son hath life" (1 Jn. 5:12). Genesis
also mentions the creation of "fowl that may fly above the
earth in the open firmament of heaven" on the fifth day. Here
is another picture of the new believer becoming aware of his true
dwelling place in the heavenly realm. The "moving creature
that hath life" and the "fowl that fly above the earth"
on the fifth day can be viewed as a repetition of our experiences
of the first day and the second day respectively. Those who receive
spiritual life through us go through the same stages of spiritual
growth that we went through. And like us, they are expected to bear
the fruit of the Spirit and to reproduce: "And God blessed
them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in
the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and
the morning were the fifth day."
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DAY #6: MAN IN THE IMAGE OF
GOD, SUBDUING THE EARTH & EXCERCISING DOMINION
Bearing the Image of the Last Adam and Subduing Our Passions & Excercising
Dominion
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the sixth day, God created man in His own image and likeness, and
told man to subdue the earth and have dominion over it. The goal of
our spiritual growth and development is to transform us into the likeness
and image of the Last Adam, the Lord Yeshua: "For whom He did
foreknow, He did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of
His Son" (Rom. 8:29). This is a gradual transformation from glory
to glory, and it takes place as we continue to focus on the glory
of the Lord: "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass
the glory of the Lord, are changed [Gk., metamorphe, 'transformed']
into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of
the Lord" (2 Cor. 3:18).
"And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living
soul; the last Adam was made a quickening [life-giving] spirit ...
The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord
from heaven ... And as we have borne the iiples who shine as individumage
of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly"
(1 Cor. 15:45-49). As we grow and mature in the faith, we bear more
and more of the image of Yeshua, the Last Adam, the new man, and less
and less of the image of the first Adam, the old man. As John the
Baptist said, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (Jn.
3:30). Even though we have "Christ in us" from the moment
we accept Him, the Messianic Seed that is planted in our hearts must
grow and develop if there is to be a mature manifestation of Christ.
Paul wrote to the Galatians, "I travail in birth again until
Christ be formed in you" (Gal. 4:19). As we grow more and more
into His image and likeness, we learn to "subdue" and "have
dominion" over things in the spiritual realm. We learn to subdue
our lusts and passions; we learn to excercise dominion over demonic
powers that harass and tempt people. A babe or an immature
son is easily tempted. Even the photos of scantily-clad women on magazine
covers at a supermarket can cause an immature son to stumble. A mature
son can subdue his lust and take dominion over the temptation by simply
turning his eyes away. He can even do it if he works in a factory
or garage where co-workers hang pornography on the walls of the work
area. A mature son can walk through the filthiest, sleaziest places
imaginable if need be, and Satan cannot touch him, because he has
learned to intercept temptation and resist it. He sees the snares
Satan has laid for him and he knows how to avoid them. Satan's plans
for him are aborted.
"When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin,"
James wrote (James 1:15). Lust must be conceived in the mind, and
it is very difficult for lust to find fertile soil in the mind and
heart of a mature son, because the mature son has overcome "the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life"
(1 Jn. 2:16). The mature son may still have some blind spots and some
flaws, but he has overcome. He still faces temptations, but the on-going,
agonizing battle between his flesh and his spirit is, for all practical
intents and purposes, over. The mature son has learned to subdue his
passions and excercise dominion. He does this not by sheer human will
power, but by drawing strength from the Messiah who indwells him.
Because he has learned to draw on the life and power of Christ in
him, resisting temptation is no longer the struggle it formerly was.
The mature son has learned to enter into that spiritual rest which
is pictured by the Sabbath, which brings us to the seventh day.
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DAY #7: THE SABBATH
Ceasing From Our Own Works & Entering Into His Rest
When the Bible says God "rested" on the seventh day, it
does not mean He rested because of weariness. The Hebrew word used
here, shavat, is the verb form of shabbat (Sabbath), and means cessation
-- God ceased creating not because He was tired, but because "the
heavens and the earth were finished."
The Sabbath is a picture of the inward rest that Yeshua offers:
"Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I
am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light" (Mt. 11:28f).
Hebrews chapter 4 teaches us that the Sabbath serves as a prophetic
picture of this inward "rest unto the soul" that Yeshua's
disciples can enter into: "There remaineth therefore a rest [Gk.
sabbatismos, 'a Sabbath rest' (NIV, NASB, et. al.)] to the people
of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased
from his own works, as God did from His. Let us labour therefore to
enter into that rest...." (Heb. 4:9-11).
This spiritual "rest" is not a cessation of spiritual
activity. It is a ceasing from "our own works" -- i.e.,
trying to serve God by our own human will power -- and learning to
let His power do the work in us and through us. We are still involved
in activities of a spiritual nature, but it is now the Messiah in
us who empowers us to walk in the Spirit and serve God. This is something
we grow into as a result of spiritual excercise, which is why we are
urged to "labour therefore to enter into that rest." Yeshua
said, "I will give you rest," but He also said that "ye
shall find rest unto your souls." The rest is freely given, but
we will find it only by bearing His yoke and laboring to enter into
that rest. His yoke is easy and His burden is light, but He did not
say that the yoke and the burden are nonexistent. There is a yoke
to bear and a burden to carry if we want to find the rest that He
gives. God blessed and sanctified the seventh day, and He blesses
and sanctifies mature sons who labor to enter that place of spiritual
rest that the Sabbath points us to. Many Christians want to throw
away the keeping of the weekly seventh-day Sabbath because it is a
prophetic picture of the inward "rest unto the soul" that
Jesus gives. "Jesus is our Sabbath-rest now," they say.
"The Sabbath was just a symbol or type of the spiritual rest
we have in Christ. We don't need the symbol anymore, now that we know
the deeper meaning of the Sabbath. We don't need to keep the Fourth
Commandment in a literal way anymore."
That makes as much sense as saying, "Jesus is our Bridegroom
now. The husband-wife relationship was just a symbol or type of Christ
and the Church. We don't need the symbol anymore, now that we know
the deeper meaning of the marriage relationship. We don't need to
keep the Seventh Commandment, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery,' in
a literal way anymore."
Ridiculous, of course, but if "the deeper meaning of the
Sabbath" gives us the right to throw away the literal keeping
of the Fourth Commandment, then "the deeper meaning of the marriage
relationship" gives us the right to throw away the literal keeping
of the Seventh Commandment. The fact of the matter is that the deeper
meaning of marriage gives us all the more reason to obey the Seventh
Commandment. Just as the deeper meaning of marriage gives us all the
more reason to keep our marriages holy, so the deeper meaning of the
Sabbath should give us all the more reason to keep the Sabbath holy.
In the Peshitta text (ancient Aramaic version), Hebrews 4:9 says:
"It is therefore the duty of the people of God to keep the Sabbath."
Why? Because of what the Sabbath represents.
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CLOSING REMARKS
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POSTSCRIPT
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Although the seven days of the week in Genesis provide an
outline of seven stages of spiritual growth, the reader should not
assume that going through these seven stages is a one-time experience
in the life of a disciple. Rather, the progression of the seven
stages functions in a repetitive cyclical fashion, similar to the
four seasons. We grow and mature in different areas at different
times. When the Lord deals with us in each particular area of our
lives, He seems to follow this pattern. He starts by the moving
of His Spirit, then He enlightens us (day #1), separates us (day
#2), makes us fruitful (day #3), makes us shining examples (day
#4), uses us to impart life to others (day #5), brings us to maturity
in that area (day #6), and then we find rest unto our souls when
we finally have victory in that area of our life (day #7).
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If any readers are familiar with
the writings of St. Augustine, they might be asking themselves, "Did
Daniel read The Confessions of St. Augustine, and did he plagiarize
this study from Augustine's work?"
The answer to the first part of that question is yes; the answer
to the second part of the question is no. I originally put most of
this study together sometime in the mid-1970s, when I had been saved
for around two or three years. It came about as a result of my meditation
and prayerful study of Genesis chapter 1. It was some years later
when I happened to read Augustine's Confessions. I was pleasantly
surprised (yea, sore amazed) to see that Augustine related the seven
days in Genesis to stages of spiritual growth and experience in a
way that was remarkably similar to the study I had put together. (I
must admit that a couple of Augustine's comments did throw a little
more light on a couple minor points in my study.) "Thou hast
formed us for Thyself, And our hearts are restless Til they find rest
in Thee." -Augustine |
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