7thDay
The Seventh Day, God Rests – Read Genesis 2:1-25
(The complete passage at the end of this article.)
Genesis 2:1-2 –ESV
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 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. 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.
V. 1-3 – God rested from “His Work” of creating a home for mankind.
V.2 “…and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.”
“…He rested (H7673) on the seventh day…
H7673. שָׁבַתshâbath, shaw-bath´; a prim. root; to repose, i.e. desist from exertion; used in many impl. relations (caus., fig. or spec.):—(cause to, let, make to) cease, celebrate, cause (make) to fail, keep (sabbath), suffer to be lacking, leave, put away (down), (make to) rest, rid, still, take away.
“…from all his work (H4399) that he had done….
H4399. מְלָאכָהmelâʾkâh, mel-aw-kaw´; from the same as 4397; prop. deputyship, i.e. ministry; gen. employment (never servile) or work (abstr. or concr.); also property (as the result of labor):—business, + cattle, + industrious, occupation, (+ -pied), + officer, thing (made), use, (manner of) work ([-man], -manship).
V.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.
All the other days God declared them ‘beautiful” or “very beautiful” – however this day he ‘sanctified’, HOLY.
The Seventh – The Sabbath – climactic – remarkably different from the six prior!
1 – There is no introductory formula (“then God said”) because his creative word is not required.
2 – This days does not have the usual closing refrain “evening” and “morning”
It would indicate that a perpetual rest was intended and provided, however disrupted by human sin.
3 – The only day of the week blessed and consecrated by God.
4 – Unlike the creation days, the number of the “seventh” day is repeated three times & twice more by the pronoun “it”.
· Gen. 2:2-3 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 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.
5 – This day stands alone outside the ‘paired days of creation’. It has no corresponding day in the creation time period.
· This is a (6 + 1) literary pattern to highlight the 7th – in the nation of Israel their Sabbath (7th) was 6 days of working and 1 day to rest and reflect on what God had done for them. Thus the extensive theological reflection on Sabbath rest found in Israel and the church.
The 7th day was a day of ‘consecration’ as it was called ‘a holy Sabbath unto the Lord’ Exodus 31:15; 35:2
Exodus 31:15(ESV)
15Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death.
Exodus 35:2(ESV)
2Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.
“Consecration” in the O.T. was a setting aside persons, places, and things to be regarded as sacred by virtue of their relationship to or possession by a holy Lord (e.g. firstborn, tabernacle, priests).
The Sabbath is not tied to any solar or lunar cycles or movements. God is wholly outside of nature. The ‘Sabbath’ was set aside for a people whose worship was that toward serving a single, all powerful God. (Monotheism) God’s people are enjoined to enter into the rhythm of work and joyful rest. It means experiencing the sense of completeness and well-being God had accomplished at creation in behalf of the human family.
The 4th commandment combines the ‘creation’ and the ‘word’ of the religious order for the newly created Israel. It was a sanctified day for Israel to worship and celebrate the created work of God.
The 4th commandment: Exodus 20:8(ESV)
8“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
The “Word” would be significant of the truth of God and His plans. It could be referencing John 1:1-4
John 1:1-4(ESV)
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2He was in the beginning with God.
3All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4In him was life,£ and the life was the light of men.
Moses tied the Sabbath day to the redemptive purposes of God for Israel. It was a day for them to read the law and to look forward to the day that Israel was to be released from slavery. It was to point to the ‘land of promise’ that lay before Israel in Moses day. For us it is to look forward of the deliverance from Satan’s influence and his evil world.
The Sabbath was a foreshadowing of the eternal realities of the Lord and the church, the people of the convent. The Sabbath has given way to the realities of the “Lord’s day” – the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The church (church era) sets aside the first day of the week as a special day for worship and proclamation. Though out the week we give praise to God, but especially on the “Sabbath” (7th day) we proclaim the new creation, the era of messianic redemption.
This principle of (6+1) was also demonstrated in the daily manna provided by God while in the wilderness.
In the wilderness Israel was to rise up every morning and harvest the manna for that day. However, on the 6th day they were to gather enough for two days to take them into the 7th (Sabbath) were they were to literally understand God’s plan for them to spend a day in worship to Him. Quote: “Tomorrow is to be a day of Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.”
“Six days you are to gather it..” – the pattern of working 6 days and 1 day set aside to worship God. Exodus 16:17-26
Ex. 16:17-26
7The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. 18And when they measured it by the omer, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Each one had gathered just as much as they needed.
19Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”
20However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.
21Each morning everyone gathered as much as they needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away. 22On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much—two omers for each person—and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. 23He said to them, “This is what the Lord commanded: ‘Tomorrow is to be a day of sabbath rest, a holy sabbath to the Lord. So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.’ ”
24So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. 25“Eat it today,” Moses said, “because today is a sabbath to the Lord. You will not find any of it on the ground today. 26Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any.”
A side thought about the time God sent them “quail” from the sea:
Numbers 11:31–32 (NASB95)
31 Now there went forth a wind from the LORD and it brought quail from the sea, and let them fall beside the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp and about two cubits deep on the surface of the ground.
32 The people spent all day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail (he who gathered least gathered ten homers) and they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.
Here is an illustration about the amount of Quail sent to them from God.
The quail (Coturnix coturnix) is a small migratory bird. Great flights of quail pass the area of Palestine and the Sinai on their way south about end of August, and again in mid-March on their way back north. Since the quail flies near the ground, it is easily hunted as game.
Exod 16:13; Num 11:31–32; Ps 105:40; Wisd of Sol 16:2; 19:12
In Numbers 11:31, the text says God sent the Israelites so many quail that they were measured as “2 cubits deep a day’s journey in every direction”. A day’s journey is between 15 and 25 miles. 2 cubits is about 3 feet, so we’re looking at a shallow heap of quail about waist-deep covering an area roughly the size of San Antonio, Texas.
Genesis 2:1-25 (ESV)
The Seventh Day, God Rests
2 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 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. 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.
The Creation of Man and Woman
4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. 8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.