"God Blessed the Seventh Day”
The fourth in a series: “I Will be Your God and You Will Be My People.”
Texts: Genesis 2:1-2:3; Hebrews 3:7-4:11
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Virtually all of the world’s religions are centered in the notion of doing those things which will supposedly lead us to God or enable us to find inner peace. But Christianity, on the other hand, is centered in the notion of ceasing from our works and resting in Christ. The religions of the world teach us, “do this,” “do that,” while Christianity says, “stop doing this,” “stop doing that,” “rest in Christ!” Therefore, whenever we speak of the notion of resting from our labors, we must turn to the biblical notion of the seventh day of creation, which is the Sabbath.
As we continue our series on the unfolding drama of redemption entitled, “I will be your God and you will be my people,” we will see that the Sabbath–the seventh day of creation–becomes a very important part of understanding just what it means, exactly, for God to deliver his people from the guilt and power of their sin. For when God finished his creative work after the six days of creation and declared what he had made to be good, then, he ceased from his labor on the seventh day. So too, we as God’s people, are repeatedly exhorted to rest from our labors by trusting in the goodness and mercies of God in Jesus Christ.
Thus the drama of redemption will not only be played out in creation–the very theater of redemption–but the drama of redemption will also played out against the backdrop of God’s Sabbath rest. In fact, as we will see this morning, the eternal Sabbath rest is the very goal of redemption.
The notion of the Sabbath–which occupies important roles in both creation and redemption–flows directly out of what has gone before. We have already spoken of God who was in the beginning, who was before all things, and in whom all of creation holds together. Nothing that now exists, exists apart from the creative word and absolute power of God. Indeed, such a God is unknowable apart from the revelation of himself both in creation and especially in the Bible and in the revelation of Jesus Christ.
We have spoken previously of the inter-Trinitarian and eternal covenant of redemption which underlies God’s decree to create all things, and in which Jesus Christ is himself chosen to be the mediator of the covenant of grace. We have seen that all those whom God chooses to save, are chosen in Jesus Christ from before the foundation of the world. In fact, those chosen in Christ are not chosen because of anything good in them, but they are chosen because of God’s love for the elect in the person of his son.
Last time we took up the subject of the days of creation and the execution of God’s eternal decree in time and in space. As I suggested then, there is strong evidence in the text of Genesis 1 itself which suggests that Moses may have arranged the days of creation in a topical rather than a sequential manner. Days one through three serve as days in which particular realms are formed–light and dark, the sea and sky, and the land. While on days four through six, the realms which were created on days one through three, are subsequently filled with their divinely-appointed rulers. On day one, God separates light from dark, while on day four God creates the luminaries–the sun, moon and stars–to fill the realm created on day one. On day two, God divides the sea and sky and then, on day five, fills them with fish and birds. And on day three, God separates land from water, while on day six, God creates the wild creatures and humanity to fill the earth which had been separated from the waters on day three.
If true, this means that the days of the creation account are not literal 24 hour solar days–an argument supported by a number of facts in addition to the obvious parallelism in the days. For one thing, on the literal 24 hr day interpretation, how can there be a morning and evening before the fourth day, when God creates the sun and moon? Indeed, how can there be plants on day three, when the sun is not created until day four? And though the ordinary meaning of the Hebrew word “Yom,” [day] is a solar day, in Genesis 2:4 [NASB], Moses speaks of “the day” in which God created the heavens and the earth, a day which many believe is comprehensive of all six days of creation described earlier in the narrative. These are just some of the reasons which may be set forth to argue for a topical, rather than a sequential interpretation of the six days of creation.
This means that in the creation account Moses is not speaking to the question of origins, nor is he giving us in any sense a scientific explanation for the date or the manner in which God created the heavens and the earth. In the creation account, Moses doesn’t address the “how,” but the “that.” In fact, it can be argued that creation account is intended to tell us more about God the creator than the creation! Indeed, Moses tells us that God created all things from nothing, ex nihilo, therefore, we are to worship God the creator, rather than created things. To worship created things is the height of idolatry and sin.
Moses is also very clear that God creates according to his eternal and divine purpose and that the distinct realms formed on days one through three are subsequently filled on days four through six. God creates all things, and he creates all things with a definite order and purpose. And all that he creates is “very good.” Thus the main point of the creation narrative is two-fold; not only to contrast YHWH–the true and living God–with the so-called “gods” of the Canaanites–`gods’ which were nothing but created things, but also to remind God’s people that God alone is to be worshiped, not his creation nor created things.
Yet there are two important elements of the creation account which we did not address last time and to which me must now turn, because both of these things serve as vital aspects of the great drama of redemption. As you undoubtedly noticed, the creation account includes seven days, not just six! Indeed the literary and theological capstone of the creation account is the seventh day–a day which God blesses and sanctifies when he had ceased from his creative work on the six days prior.
The seventh day, or the Sabbath–from “shabat,” the Hebrew word meaning to “cease”–is our subject this morning. And then, Lord willing, the creation of the man and the woman will be our subject next time.
After God had created the heavens and the earth and pronounced his divine benediction “it is very good” upon all that he had made, we are told that God rested from his work in creation. And so we turn now to our Old Testament lesson, Genesis 2:1-3.
The creation account in Genesis 1 ends with these words in Genesis 2– “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”
There are a number of very important things found here of which we should take note this morning. First, it is utter folly to read this account as though Moses were somehow saying that after six days of creating, God was tired, and so he took the seventh day off to rest. The God who said “let there be,” and immediately “it was so,” does not get tired or weary. The God who created all things from nothing, knows no such creaturely limitations such as fatigue. What Moses does say here is that God “rested” after he had finished the work of creation–literally he “ceased” from his creative work–not because he was tired, but because he was finished doing all those things he had intended to do by virtue of his divine decree!
The pattern of the six days of creation, the formation of particular realms on days one through three and then the filling of these realms on days four through six is now complete. God has finished his creative work, and it is from this particular work that God rests.
As one commentator points out, “[rest as used here] is the rest of achievement, not inactivity, for He nurtures what He creates; we may compare the symbolism of Jesus `seated’ after his finished redemption (Hebrews 8:1; 10:12) to dispense his benefits” (Kidner, Genesis, 53). In other words, God ceased from creation because he had achieved what he had decreed from all eternity to do, and once God pronounced his work to be “very good,” his work of creation is finished, and he ceases his creative activity.
The divine theater is now complete. The drama of redemption is about to begin. This is what it means when the Scriptures tell us that God is both first and last, for the one who was before all things and who will be after them, has now completed his work, and is ready to begin his Sabbath enthronement to rule over that which he has made (Kline, Kingdom Prologue, 22). More on this idea of Sabbath enthronement in a moment.
A caution is certainly in order at this point. We must be extremely careful not to think that once God ceased from the work of creation, God now becomes inactive–i.e., a kind of practical deism. This way of thinking to be avoided at all costs. Indeed, we must interpret this notion of rest in the sense of completion, and self-consciously reject the idea that once God had created everything, he then steps back and watches everything he created and planned play itself out according to the fixed laws with which he created it. To adopt such a view would be to embrace the impersonal God of Deism.
The Scriptures clearly teach otherwise. As we read in chapter 5:17 of John’s gospel, Jesus himself declares, “My Father is always at work to this very day, and I too am working.” Thus whatever we understand by God’s rest on the seventh day, it cannot mean divine inactivity. It means that God was finished with his creative work described in the six preceding days, and is now enthroned in the heavens where he continues to rule providentially over all creation and in ordering the events of redemptive history.
Even though God has finished his work of creation, he remains very active and ever-working in providence, which is his sovereign control and preservation of the world that he has made. As Jesus says so plainly, his Father is still working and has been from the beginning. But God has finished the kind of work described in the first six days, and having done so, he rested on the seventh day.
Another thing we should notice is that the seventh day contains no reference to the morning and evening, which had so pointedly characterized the first six days of creation, “as if to imply an `infinite perspective’ of God’s Sabbath” (Kidner, Genesis, 53). Thus the Sabbath is not bound by the limitations of morning and evening typical of the six days in which God formed the world. The Sabbath is therefore, eternal.
This is significant for several reasons. For one thing, the Sabbath rest in which God delights will become a backdrop of sorts for the great drama of redemption. For another, God takes such great delight in his creation that he pronounces it to be very good and blesses creation as the theater of redemption. In Proverbs 8, vs. 30 and 31, we read that after the work of creation, wisdom–the pre-incarnate Christ–declares: “I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence–that is, in the presence of the craftsman-builder–rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.” Thus God delights in his world and in mankind, so much so, that as part of his great work of redemption, God will invite his people to enter into this glorious never-ending Sabbath rest with him.
This is what is in view in part when we read in verse 3 that “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” The seventh day is a day that not only reflects God’s delight in what he has done–the work of creation–but because the Sabbath day is sanctified, it is now built into creation itself as a perpetual reminder of what awaits for the people of God who pass through this great drama of redemption–people who go from being Adam’s fallen and rebellious children in the opening pages of the story, and who by the end of the story, become the spotless bride of Jesus Christ, and who will one day–when redemption, like creation, is completed–enter into God’s own eternal Sabbath rest.
Therefore, we should not be surprised to find that even though the Sabbath day–like the divinely commanded institutions of marriage and work–is part of creation, it will also be an essential aspect of redemption. In fact, the observance of the Sabbath rest, depicted here as a creation ordinance, is also part of God’s revealed will in the fourth commandment, when God’s people are told, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Thus the Sabbath occupies a significant role in both spheres of creation and redemption.
The reason that the Sabbath–which is part of creation–is reaffirmed in the Ten Commandments, is because the Sabbath, along with work and marriage, are mentioned almost immediately in the account that follows in Genesis chapter two, beginning in verse 5, where Moses moves from focusing exclusively on God’s role in creation, to God’s covenant relationship with the man and the woman whom he has created in his own image. The focus shifts from the creation account to the covenant God subsequently makes with Adam in the Garden (Pipa, The Lord's Day, 27-28).
As God designed marriage and work to be part of the natural order, so too, he has built the creation-rest pattern into creation, as well as redemption. As man is to have but one wife, and as the family unit is the divinely-sanctified means for the rearing of children, and as man is to sustain himself by the work of his hands, so too, man is to labor six days and rest on the seventh. This is part of creation. It is inescapable. As a matter of fact, it is only within the last generation or so in America, that Sunday became just another day in the week.
It is certainly no accident that the societal lament of too much work, too frantic a pace of life, and no rest from it all, coincides with the loss of a divinely-appointed day of rest in the sphere of creation. God has made us to work six days, just as he has made us to rest on the seventh. This is as inescapable as the fact that God has made man to work and women to bear children. Deny it all we will, we cannot change it.
But perhaps the key to understanding the Sabbath as a creation ordinance in relation to redemption, is to look closer at the notion of God’s sovereign enthronement, where the meaning of the phrase, “on the seventh day he rested from all his work” comes to the fore in God’s relationship to his covenant people.
Since we have already ruled out the notion that God rested from his labor because he was tired, we now must ask, “what does it mean when Moses says that God rested?” For one thing, it not only means that YHWH finished the work of creation, it also means that the creator now takes his place as the royal ruler over all of creation. The work of creation now becomes the work of providence, and in a sense, the creator, who made the heavens and earth to be his cosmic palace and the very theater of redemption, now occupies that place from which he will rule over all creation and order all the affairs of redemption–that place pictured throughout the Scriptures as the heavenly throne.
The Sabbath then, in a sense, is a new enthronement of the creator as king over all his creation (Kline, Kingdom Prologue, 22-23). We might think of this as a great king, entering his newly completed regal palace, taking his place upon the royal throne, ready to begin his reign.
This idea is found in a number of Old Testament images. Take for example, the idea that God’s enthronement is depicted as a Sabbath rest when God is portrayed as being enthroned above the ark in earthly replicas of his heavenly dwelling (Kine, Kingdom Prologue, 23). For example, in Isaiah 66:1, the Lord declares, “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool,” and then God asks, Israel, “where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?” God cannot be contained in a building, even one as magnificent as the temple. Heaven is his throne, not an earthly building! But the architecture of earthly temple is certainly designed to point God’s people to the heavenly throne. This becomes even clearer in Psalm 132, when God’s people are exhorted, “let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool–arise, O Lord and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your might!” Indeed YHWH goes on to say in verse 13, “This is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it.” Thus God’s Sabbath rest is directly equated with his sovereign rule.
In these images, God’s people rest by entering into God’s presence, the rest by coming to his royal throne, that place where YHWH himself is said to rest. The heavenly throne comes to earth in the temple.
Yet another way in which God’s royal rule is connected to his Sabbath rest can be seen in the fact that when God’s people enter the promised land in Canaan after their captivity in Egypt, they are described as having obtained a Sabbath rest of sorts. In Deuteronomy 12:9, the promised land is spoken of as “a resting place.” Centuries later, in 1 Kings 8:56, when looking back at Israel’s history at the dedication of Solomon’s temple, all Israel declares in response, “Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he has promised.” Israel rested when the people entered the promise land, and Israel will rest in God’s presence before his throne, a throne now present on earth in the magnificent new temple.
But these provisional instances of Sabbath rest from Israel’s history were designed to point ahead to the true Sabbath rest. And this is exactly the way in which the author of Hebrews directs us to understand these images. For even though the generation who wandered for forty years in the wilderness of the Sinai, did not enter into the promised land because of the hardness in their hearts, nevertheless, when Joshua finally led the people of Israel into the promised land, a “provisional” Sabbath rest was indeed achieved. And yet, the conquest of the land was not the true Sabbath rest, even though the conquest and possession of the promised land serve to point God’s people ahead to the true Joshua–Jesus Christ–and the one who is our Sabbath rest.
This is why we read in our New Testament lesson that the reality of the Sabbath rest for the people of God is found in Jesus Christ. Says the author of Hebrews beginning in verse 3 of chapter 4–“Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, `So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.' And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: `And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.’ And again in the passage above he says, `They shall never enter my rest.’ It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: `Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.’ For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.”
Therefore, is it is by faith in Jesus Christ we receive the very thing that Moses and the Jews who fled from Egypt longed to see but did not, because they had hardened their hearts. They died in the desert, never finding rest. They never did enter into the land flowing with milk and honey even though their children did when the covenant was later renewed. But even when Israel entered Canaan–says the author to the Hebrews–though they had the promise of a Sabbath rest, they did not yet have the reality of what was promised when God himself ceased from his labors on the seventh day. For when God rested on the seventh day, he made the heavens his throne, and the earth his footstool and pronounced that glorious day of enthronement as “holy.”
Under the old covenant Israel entered into this rest, in part, by entering the land, and in part by worshiping YHWH in his temple, which was a microcosm of God’s throne in heaven. But under the terms of the New Covenant, Jesus Christ is the Sabbath rest, and to enter the rest that he offers to us, we simply cease from trying to please God with our works, and acknowledge Jesus as God’s true temple, and that place where God meets his with people, granting us entrance into his Sabbath rest. Thus it is only through faith in Jesus Christ that what was pictured when God rested on the seventh day, becomes a reality for God’s people–rest from our labors because God is sovereignly enthroned over his creation.
What, then, should we say in response to all of this? For there are a number of practical ramifications to be drawn from God’s seventh day rest.
First and foremost, the Sabbath ordinance and its role in both creation and redemption is based upon God’s rest and enthronement on the seventh day. As the author of the Hebrews interprets this, the Sabbath rest is all about resting from our own works even as God rested from his, and this rest comes to us as we place our trust in Jesus Christ who is our Sabbath. As we will see as we get further along in our series on the history of redemption, we will repeatedly address the subject of the Sabbath because the imagery of God’s completion of the work of creation and his divine Sabbath enthronement becomes an important part of the backdrop against which the drama of redemption will take place. Indeed the drama of redemption gloriously ends when God’s people at long last enter that eternal Sabbath rest described in Revelation 21:3–4: “now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” This is what it means to enter God’s Sabbath rest. And one day, all of us who know Jesus as our Sabbath rest, will indeed rest forever in God’s presence. As God was in the beginning, so too, he will be in the end, and we will be with him!
Second, there will be a major redemptive-historical shift regarding the Sabbath day when Jesus rises from the dead, an event which marks the dawn of the new creation. For once Jesus rises again from the dead on Sunday–the first day week–Sunday, now becomes the Lord’s day, or the Christian Sabbath. Since Sunday is the day of resurrection, that divinely-appointed day in which the new creation begins, no longer is Saturday–the seventh day–the typological day of rest. As Christians, our day of worship and rest is now the Lord’s day, or Sunday.
Third, as we consider the seventh day as a creation ordinance, we must consider it from the perspective of the creation account and God ceasing from his work of creation and the time of divine enthronement. The Sabbath is, therefore, part of both creation and redemption. Observing the Sabbath is not only a creation ordinance, it will become a part of redemption. Indeed, by observing the Christian Sabbath–setting aside the Lord’s day as a festive day both of worship and of rest–we, as God’s people, are actually acknowledging before the watching world that YHWH, the creator of all things, is not only our Lord, but that he alone is the Lord of all lords (Kline, Kingdom Prologue, 26)!
As the six days will be set apart by God for man to work and to rule and subdue the earth, so too, we are commanded by God to set apart the seventh day as a day consecrated to him. For as we read in Isaiah 58:13-14, “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD.”
Therefore, let us not regard the Lord’s day as we would any other day. For by acknowledging Sunday as the Lord’s day, and by consecrating it unto our creator-God as a day of both worship and rest, we confess Jesus Christ to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and the one in whom we find the gifts of a perfect righteousness and the forgiveness of sins, and in whom we rest from our labors.
Last, this is also why we do not observe the Lord’s day–the Christian Sabbath–by checking off a list of things we don’t do on the Lord’s Day! This is why Paul so sternly rebuked the Galatians for making the observance of the Jewish Sabbath a ‘badge” or “token” of justification, and why Paul so strenuously tells the Colossians “therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality is found in Christ” (Colossians 2:16, 17).
No, we do not rest by checking off a list of things we don’t do, and we certainly do not rest by checking our list against the actions of others, to make sure they are not doing on the Lord’s day the things we have written down on our list.
No, we hallow this day by resting from our works and trusting in Christ, who is our Sabbath rest! So it is with grateful hearts that we, in turn, hallow the Lord’s day by setting it apart as the divinely-appointed day of worship and of rest, that day when we cease from our labors and delight in the God who gives us rest. For in hallowing this day, and by setting it apart as the divinely appointed day of worship and rest, we confess YHWH’s Sabbath enthronement as ruler of all creation, the king of kings and Lord of Lords. Thus observing the Lord’s day as our Christian Sabbath, has nothing whatsoever to do with our not doing particular things! It has everything to do with delighting in God’s work of creation and redemption, and with receiving from him this great gift of a day set apart for worship and rest–a day which points to that glorious and eternal Sabbath, which God himself sanctified and blessed, when he ceased the work of creation. This is why, beloved, we are to make the Lord’s day our delight!
Amen!
To read the next sermon in this series, Click here: Riddleblog - God Formed Man from the Dust of the Earth