Like most numbers in the Bible, "six" can have various meanings depending on context, but has a couple that are primary. When used in relation to time -- six days, six hours, six years, etc. -- six generally represents a state of labor, struggle and conflict, especially the conflict involved with spiritual growth. The six days of creation, for instance, represent the stages we go through in our lives, working toward the peaceful seventh day, in which our evil desires are removed from us and we can rest. In most other references, six represents all desires for good and all the true ideas that come from those desires for good -- or in the contrary sense, all evil and all the resulting false thinking.

301. THE THIRD COMMANDMENT

Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy; for six days you are to labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath for Jehovah your God.

For this third commandment, see Exodus 20:8-10; In the natural or literal sense this means that six days are for man and his work, and the seventh is for the Lord, and for Him to give man rest. Sabbath in the language of the original means rest. Among the Children of Israel the Sabbath was the holiest of observances, because it represented the Lord. The six days represented the Lord's toils and battles against the hells, the seventh His victory over them, and so rest. Since that day represented the completion of the Lord's whole act of redemption, it was for that reason the height of holiness. When, however, the Lord came into the world, so that representations of Him ceased, that day became a day for instruction in Divine matters, and also a day of rest from work, for meditation about matters conducive to salvation and everlasting life, and a day for love towards the neighbour. Its being a day for instruction in Divine matters is plain from the fact that the Lord taught in the Temple and in synagogues on that day (Mark 6:2; Luke 4:16, 31-32; 13:10). Also from His saying to the man He had cured, 'Pick up your bed and walk', and to the Pharisees, that His disciples might pick ears of grain and eat them on the Sabbath day (Matthew 12:1-9; Mark 2:23-end; Luke 6:1-6; John 5:9-19).

All these details mean in the spiritual sense being instructed on matters of doctrine. The things the Lord did and taught show that that day also became a day for love towards the neighbour (Matthew 12:10-14; Mark 3:1-9; Luke 6:6-12; 13:10-18; 14:1-7; John 5:9-19; 7:22-23; 9:14, 16). Both of those sets of passages make it plain why the Lord said that He was also Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:5). It follows from His saying this that that day was to represent Him.