Genesis 2:1-3

The seventh day…
(Genesis 2:1-3)

TGIF, “thank God it’s Friday,” is a common expression capturing the virtually universal joy and anticipation that comes at the end of a week of work. The anticipation of taking a break, of resting, makes sense in a utilitarian way, and yet the Bible presents us more than the mere utility of a day off. It presents something more profound: it points to the promise of salvation; it points to the person of Christ.

God “sabbathed” on the seventh day. Sabbath is a loaded word, but at its most fundamental level it means “to rest.” The precise practice of this “rest” has become a contentious topic over the generations. The apostle Paul made room for different convictions on the matter (Rom 14:1-23) and so should we. Yet, there is a point when different convictions can become different gospels, especially when our practice of rest is seen to be a necessary element of our righteous standing before God (Gal 4:9-11). When that happens, the truth of the Gospel is at stake. In Paul’s case, he “did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the Gospel would be preserved” (Gal 2:5). It may seem like a small thing to argue about rituals and days, but in some circumstances, the argument is about something bigger. In some cases, it is an argument about Christ. Paul said it this way in his letter to the Colossians:

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. (Col 2:16–17)

Before understanding what the Sabbath points to, however, it is important to understand what the Sabbath really is. In other words, before you can appreciate how the Sabbath relates to Christ, it is important to understand how the Sabbath relates to you.

God finished
(Genesis 2:1)

The word “thus” points back to chapter 1 where God spoke the world into existence (Gen 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26, 29). The seventh day is not a day of creation, for the “heavens and the earth were finished” on the previous six. The word “finished” is in an intensive form in the original Hebrew, pointing to the fact that it was totally finished. God left nothing undone in His work. He completed what He set out to do. When God says something…it is so. This truth is very comforting as it speaks to the settled reality of God’s work in our own lives. The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is both the “founder and perfecter of our faith” (Heb 12:2) and the apostle Paul reminds us that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6). These notions of completion do not stand alone, but come from the very nature of God’s creative work originating in Genesis.

God rested
(Genesis 2:2)

In verse two, we are told that God did two things on the seventh day: He finished, and He rested. The word “finished” is again in an intensive form, speaking of His perfect work. Pointing toward the proper corollary of a job well done is the word “rested,” or “sabbathed” in the original Hebrew. This is not to say that God rested because He was tired, for God does not grow faint or weary (Isa 40:28). In fact, an impressive aspect of God’s creation is not that He did it so quickly, but that He did it so slowly. Why did He take six 24-hour days rather than one instant to create? He certainly did not do it to catch His breath or gather His resources. Something seems important about the idea of the days themselves.

In the original Hebrew, verses 2-3 contain four poetic lines—the first three of which are parallel, each possessing seven words with the midpoint of each line having the same phrase, “the seventh day.” Something is important, it seems, about the concept of each day culminating in the seventh day depicted here. If God rested on the seventh day, but not from fatigue, what was He doing and why should it be important to us?

The word “rested” is also used later in the same book in a way that helps with this question: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Gen 8:22). The word “cease” does not speak of resting as if from fatigue, but of stopping, in our case from necessity, for there was nothing left to do. God’s creative work was finished on the first six days of creation, and so God ceased on the seventh. This does not mean, however, that God wound up the universe and left it to run on its own. God is still the sustainer of His creation. He ceased His creative work, but He did not cease His sustaining work. This is an important distinction that becomes relevant later when Jesus encounters the Pharisees.

The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. (John 5:15–18)

Jesus appealed to His work on the Sabbath as likened to the sustaining work of God. The Jews rightly recognized this as a claim to deity, and because of this they accused Him of blasphemy and sought to kill Him.

The idea that God ceased His creative work after six days is understandable, but what exactly is significant about the seventh day besides what wasn’t happening? Exodus is helpful here, for God reveals to Moses that on the seventh day “He rested and was refreshed” (Ex 31:17). The word “refreshed” again does not mean He replenished His resources or gathered His strength, but suggests instead that He was delighted in His work. The next verse reveals that He wants us to share in this delight.

It matters
(Genesis 2:3)

The reason “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy” is because “on it God rested from all His work that he had done in creation.” In the original Hebrew, the word “blessed” and the word “made it holy” are intensive. This points to the fact that God’s blessing was not a thing done in passing, but a purposeful act that mattered to God, and so it should matter to us. To bless something is to consecrate it or to set it apart as special, to actually kneel before it. Likewise, to make something holy is to set it apart as special and like no other thing. This is a double emphasis placed on the concept of the seventh day.

Jesus told the Pharisees that “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). God did not create in six days and cease on the seventh, then as an afterthought tell us to do the same. He did His work precisely for our benefit. To acknowledge this special work from God is to recognize God Himself. It is to be set apart in a world that doesn’t acknowledge Him (Rom 1:18-32). This is why God made the formal practice of the Sabbath part of His Law to the nation of Israel, stirring them to “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy” (Ex 20:8-11). The Sabbath was a reminder that the same God who finished His work, and who delighted in its goodness, was the same God who was working on their behalf for their good (Ex 31:12-15). He formally called their practice of this day “a covenant forever” (Ex 31:16) and “a sign forever” between Him and the people of Israel (Ex 3:17).

The story could have stopped there, but it didn’t. God had more in mind for us. One day, God showed Israel what the Sabbath had been pointing to, or better yet, who the Sabbath had been pointing to. Jesus is our Sabbath rest. When Jesus had completed His work on our behalf, he cried out “it is finished” (John 19:30). The Sabbath reminds us that to trust in His completed work is to rest in His completed work (Heb 4:10). It is to live out of the alien righteousness of Christ, not our own (Phil 3:8-9). Further, this offer of rest and delight is not merely for one set day a week, but for today.

For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.” Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. (Heb 4:4–10)

Today, right now, and every day hereafter, His rest is offered to you. The Sabbath Himself said it best:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matt 11:28–30)