Man has a need for a system by which to measure time, for the ability to measure time makes our way of life possible. Human activities involving a group of people simply cannot take place unless those very people measure or reckon time in the same way. Without a common consensus, all would be chaotic: we can’t have a meeting unless meets at 9 a.m., and everyone must first agree on when 9 a.m. is!
Man started measuring, or keeping time, when they used natural and frequently repeating events to keep track of other events that did not repeat or did so less frequently. The most obvious of the former would be the alternating of daylight and darkness, attributed to the rising and setting of the sun, which was then called one day. Another regular change would be the change in the visible shape of the moon, with each cycle taking about 29.5 days, or a month.
From these measurements, man has also developed other units of time. The observed movement of the sun in a full circle around the sky in one cycle of the four seasons takes 365.25 days, or one year. And the ancient Babylonians divided day and night each into 12 equal parts, thus giving us 24 hours. The hour was also further subdivided into 60 minutes, and a minute into 60 seconds.
But why do we group seven days together and call it a week? The concept of a week is not derived from observations of astronomical phenomena. Nor can months and years be divided into weeks. Despite our inability to explain its existence, we use it nonetheless, fashioning our lifestyles around it.
Webster’s 1828 edition of the American Dictionary of the English Language defines a week as “the space of seven days”. And the only reason why we would have grouped it thus is because it points clearly to the creation of the world as we know it today, “[f]or in six days, the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:11)
Our omnipotent, infinite God could have created everything in an instant, but He chose to do it six days, and rested from His labours on the seventh day! What a perfect example for us to follow!
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