Verse 1
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Verse 1 begins by telling us the heavens and the earth were finished. That phrase “heavens and earth” is an all-encompassing phrase meaning everything in the sky (stars, moon, sun and everything on the earth).
The word “host” in Scripture sometimes means stars, sometimes it means angels but used here in verse 1 it probably means “all that has been created.” This is why the New Living Translation says, “So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed.”
And so verse 1 tells us that entire creation process was finished.
This word “finished” is a significant word. Your translation may use the word “completed”. When it comes to creation, there is a point of completion. And the reason that is significant is because it directly refutes the idea of evolution and belief that we are slowly evolving. Genesis chapter 1 tells us there was a beginning point of creation on day 1 and now Genesis chapter 2 tells us there was an ending point on 6 that is acknowledged here on day 7.
Verse 2
And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.
Now when it says ‘On the seventh day, God finished..” it doesn’t mean that God was still working on the seventh day, but rather it means when we get to the seventh day or by the seventh day, all has been completed.
And so God’s work was completed and then it says he rested which is an interesting statement because Scripture tells us that God does not get tired. Isaiah 40:28 says, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary…
What does Genesis 2:2 mean when it says God rested?
The Hebrew word here for rest is the word Shabbot which literally means to cease or to stop. This idea of resting isn’t the idea of needing to be physically revived but rather it is an acknowledgement that God has stopped his work. He worked days 1,2,3,4,5,6 and then he stopped. His work was finished.
Verse 3
So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
Even though God rest on the day 7, it doesn’t mean it didn’t do anything on that final day, in fact, verse 3 says He did two things: He blessed the seventh day and He made the seventh day holy. Or your translation may say He blessed it and sanctified it meaning He set it apart. This day should now be treated differently.
If God has blessed or set apart the last day of the week, what does that mean for us? Here in verse 3, it doesn’t say how we should respond to the seventh day. It doesn’t say “because God blessed it, this is what you should do.”
In fact, the Bible doesn’t tells us how humanity initially viewed this seventh day. We don’t know if Adam and Even treated this day differently. We don’t know if Noah treated this day differently. We don’t know if He worked on the ark for 6 days and then rested on the 7th. We don’t know if Abraham, Isaac, Jacob treated this day differently.
Scripture doesn’t mention the significance of the 7th day until we come to Exodus 16. Israel had been delivered from captivity from Egypt and Moses is leading them through the wilderness to the land God had promised land. And in order to provide for Israel, God provides manna, which is a type of bread and he provided quail. God tells them to go out and gather manner each day but on the sixth day gather twice as much because God isn’t going to provide manna on the seventh day.
And the reason Moses gives is, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.” And then verse 30 says, “so the people rested on the seventh day.”
Now we have a connection to Genesis 2:3 and how humanity is living. At least how Israel is living.
And then in Exodus 20, the Sabbath day becomes a part of the Old Testament law (or Mosiac Law) that Israel lived under.
Exodus 20:8 says, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God …(He continues in verse 11): For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
This takes us back to Genesis 2:3 where God declared the seventh day holy and it is holy because it is the day God completed the work of creation. And so it is a day that Israel should cease from their work and rest.
And of course, the question is often raised today: should we continue to honor the sabbath? And the short answer is no, not in the same sense that Israel kept it to obey the law.
As Christians, we are no longer under the law and therefore bound by the law. Colossians 2:16 says “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.”
No one can saw, hey you are not keeping the Sabbath. And we can say we are not under the law, we are under grace as Romans 6:14 says.
And so when we come to Genesis 2:3, again, I ask the question: what is significant about God making the 7th day holy? Does it impact or should impact how we live? And I do believe it should impact us. And I want to offer two ways it is still significant. On this final day of the creation week, God establishes two needs of humanity: 1) our need for physical rest and 2) our need for spiritual rest.
First, God created humanity to work. Work isn’t a result of the fall. Exodus 2:15 says, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.” In a perfect world, work was a part of the responsibility and joy of humanity.
Now the work got harder because of sin. The ground became cursed leading to a painful toil.
But you and I were created to work and create. I think that is one of the aspects of being made in the image of God.
And one of the things God does with the seventh day is He establishes the relationship between work and rest. A rest that goes beyond a good nights sleep. God actually sets aside a day of the week. Not a day of the month. A day of the week.
We were created to have times in our week to cease from our work and not just our vocational work but anything that we are striving at and laboring in. We are to stop and be renewed, refreshed and restored. In fact, the day of rest is to be a blessing to us. That is why verse 3 says He blessed it because it is to be blessing to us.
When Jesus was accused of working on the Sabbath, he responded with these words, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
Jesus is saying to the religious leaders who had made the Sabbath a burden for people, “you are missing the point of the Sabbath. It is for your benefit to rest, it is a blessing to you to able to have a day to be restored and renewed.” The idea of resting is built into God’s design for humanity.
Rest isn’t something we naturally do in our culture and particularly in our Western culture.
We are driven to go. We are driven to push and push and push. I’ll get some rest here, I’ll sneak in some rest there. And while that mindset may fuel something in us, it actually causes us to act contrary to the how we were created. God says there is a relationship between work and true rest and they cannot be separated.
We are created and designed to have a set aside time that our body, our mind and our soul rests. This is so significant that God modeled for us this day of rest in the very creation week. And he commanded it for Israel.
I think so much of the burnout that we see in our culture today is because we have neglected to rest. I think marriages that have become strained, families that have grown apart, spiritual lives that have become dry and distant from God could be traced back to a culture that has forgotten that we were designed to both work and rest.
When we see that hearts that have been become bitter and discontent and frustrated and even angry, I think part it is that we have forgotten we were created to rest.
And while we are no longer required to observe a Sabbath day from Friday evening to Saturday evening, there is still blessing that comes from rest. Scripture still calls us to be still and know he is God.
And we may look at our schedule and say “how does that work?” My week days are busy and my week ends are busy. How do I find this set aside time to rest?
I can’t answer that for you. You have to bring your schedule before God and wrestle with that. But we were designed to have moments that we cease from our work and allow God our shepherd to lead us to green pastures and beside quiet waters and let him refresh your body, your mind and your soul.
Genesis 2:3 reminds us we were created for intentional, weekly rests that goes beyond a nights sleep.
The thing that is significant about what God establishes on day 7 is we were created for our soul to know eternal rest. God introduces a theme of rest here that would become a major theme in God’s work of redemption and salvation.
Think about the Sabbath that Israel observed. It wasn’t a permanent rest. They worked and then they rested but then guess what, the next day, they had to work again. Yes, rest comes after work, but work also comes after rest.
And not only was Israel physically working but they were working to obey the law. Trying to be right with God through their obedience. And so under the law they had become not only physically weary, they had become spiritually weary.
This is why Jesus’ invitation to them was an invitation to rest. He says in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
There will come a time Jesus says (in fact that time has now come) that you will no longer have to “work” to try to earn righteousness under the law, a day of rest is coming. And you will find that rest and righteous in me.
Hebrews 10:1 tells us that under the law, the work of the priest was never done. They had to continually offer sacrifices to atone for the sins of the people. But then Hebrews 10:12 says, “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.
What did Christ do after completed his work? He rested.
And his completed work now makes it possible for us to have eternal spiritual rest. When Jesus was on the cross, shortly before his last breathe he said: “it is finished”. Not only was his work on the cross finished and our sins had been paid for, but the work under the law was finished. There is now rest available to everyone.
2 Corinthians 5:21, says “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” We no longer have to try to become righteous under the law (which is impossible) we can become righteous through Christ and allow our souls to be at rest.
Hebrews 4 calls us into this rest. Hebrews 4:9-11 says, “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.” Isn’t interesting that Hebrews is now referencing back to Genesis 2:2.
The rest God demonstrated on day 7 points us to the spiritual rest that we can all have in Christ.
And then Hebrews 4:11 says, “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest.”
When God created the world, He gave us a glimpse of true rest. He established a theme on day 7 that would become incredibly important to humanity – a need to know rest. A need to know physical rest but more importantly a need for our soul to know rest. Which is why this rest is connected with the holiness of God.
That rest on day 7 would be fully realized through Jesus, the one who would describe himself as the Lord of the Sabbath—the Lord of Holy rest.
We were created to know that kind of holy rest that is found in Christ and Christ alone. Do you know that kind of rest?