The Rest of Creation
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2018 · 30 September 2018
Let's now read Genesis 2:1-3, “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.”
Now the initial creation account closes. That account that unfolds in Genesis 1, more elements of that creation, namely the creation of man, are expanded in Genesis 2. But the primary account of creation itself ends with those words, a reference to the seventh day. The seventh day is mentioned three times in those verses. It has real significance, because this is the first time the word "holy" is used in Scripture.
And holiness, is elevation, or exaltation, above the usual level. It is a day separated from the other days and more important. It is a day exalted. The Hebrew use of it means God made this day holy. And there are three reasons why it is unique, by three verbs in this passage. The verb "finished," you see it there in verse 1, you see it again in verse 2; the verb "rested," you see that in verse 2 and again in verse 3; and the verb "blessed."
It became a holy day, because God completed, God rested and God blessed. Also, each of those three verbs is associated with the work of God. In verse 2, "God completed His work which He had done." Verse 2 again, "He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done." Verse 3, "God blessed the seventh day and because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."
Now look at the first verb, "completed." It is clear that the entire work of creation was completed, that's what the Hebrew term means. That is again to reiterate that creation was finished at the end of day six, finished in six 24-hour days. Since that time, there has been no other creation. The heavens were completed, the earth was completed and "all their hosts" simply means everything in the heavens and everything in the earth.
Now how important it is to consider your options when you consider the completion of creation. Option one, is materialistic evolution that is the option that believes there is no such thing as creation and there is no God who is creator. Materialistic evolution believes that the entire universe as it now exists came into existence out of nothing through billions of years, mutated into the intricate, complex and vast universe of today.
The second option is theistic evolution which believes that God does exist as the original mind and the original power who launched and punctuated with creative acts the process of evolution. So the process of evolution is going on with some divine assistance. The third possibility is divine creation which affirms that the eternal God made the universe completely as it is now in six days, after which all creation was completed.
And we learned that the first option can't be true because evolution is impossible. Random chance cannot result in anything. Nobody times nothing cannot equal everything. The system of life, DNA, the information encoded in genetic structure in every living cell prevents evolution because DNA only allows a living entity to be what it is and nothing more and when change does occur it is inferior rather than superior.
The second option is also impossible since evolution is impossible, theistic evolution is also impossible. We're left with only the third option that is the universe is created by God and it is the only reasonable belief. More than that, it is the testimony of Scripture. How the universe came into existence is clearly told to us in Genesis 1 and 2. There is no part of the Scripture that indicates that any evolutionary process existed.
When God wrote the Bible, He initiated revelation with the historical record of creation. That is foundational to the gospel. It's foundational to all theology and all history. Creation is the foundation of all truth and all true religion because the issue of origins is critical to any understanding of the role God plays in the universe. Christianity does not begin with accepting Jesus Christ as Savior, it begins with accepting God as creator.
When the church demands that people recognize God as creator and sustainer, they will know God is acting in this world and that they are accountable to God. When they understand that they are accountable to the creator and the Bible is true when it speaks of creation just as it is true when it speaks of the gospel, they then become aware that they are under God's sovereign authority, then they view Scripture completely different.
So we have come to this point in Genesis where we affirm what it says, that the heavens and the earth were completed in six 24-hour days, about six or seven thousand years ago. So when you come to day seven in that original week, all creation has ceased. If you believe in evolution, you have to believe that things are still evolving and that is in direct contradiction to the statement that the heavens and the earth were completed.
Now we remember for six days God created in each case in a 24-hour day as indicated by the phrase, "There was evening and there was morning." And at the end of the six days the heaven and the earth were completed. Look at Genesis 1:31, "God saw all that He had made. Behold, it was very good." That is God's final stamp of approval on His completed creation. It was finished and it was very good which was to say it lacked nothing.
Now that takes us to the second verb here, “rested”. “And since by the seventh day God had completed His work which He had done, He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done." Three times it is said that God was finished, creating everything that has existence. It is not that God was worn out after a tough work week. Isaiah 40:28 says, "He does not faint or grow weary."
When God works whether He's working in creation or whether He's upholding the creation by the Word of His power as we saw in Hebrews 1, or whether He's doing any particular task, there is no dissipation of energy, there is no breaking down of matter, there is no disintegration of the pure, holy power of God. Psalm 121:4 says He doesn't slumber or sleep. He needs no refreshing because He never gets tired.
The Hebrew word rest simply means "not to do work." And what it is saying is since He had completed the creation, there was nothing for Him to do with regard to the creation. He ceased to do the work of creation, that's what it means. And the word is used in those negative ways even in the Mosaic Sabbath Law texts. God was done with His work and so He didn't do any further creation work.
But there's something more than that. There is also a positive effect in that word. Exodus 31:17 says, "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth," and again reiterating exactly the same time as Genesis, "six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day”, it says literally in the Hebrew, “He ceased creating and was refreshed.” Now that's an addition, that's the positive side of it.
What does it mean He was refreshed? The idea of that Hebrew word "refreshed" is the idea of satisfaction or delight. It is to say that God finding delight because of satisfaction. It's really the response of God to what is stated in verse 31 that He saw everything He made, was very good and because of that He was satisfied. He found a certain fulfillment, satisfaction of accomplishment.
When you read this, there is a startling omission here. What component of the first six days was there in every single day but not on day seven? The little phrase that says, "There was morning and there was evening," it's not there. In any kind of examination of the creation account, you find great care taken by the Spirit of God in inspiring Moses to write down this historic description of creation.
What was God telling us by not saying that? The reason it doesn't say “evening and morning” is because that didn't end in 24 hours. In fact, God's delight wouldn't end until sin came. That one day, that seventh day inaugurated some period of time in which God delighted in a world that sparkled with pure life and a world which enjoyed the presence of God and a man and his wife in open fellowship with their creator.
The conditions and characteristics then of that seventh day were designed by God to continue and they would have continued had it not been for the sin of Adam and Eve. It was not God's design that they would eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that brought the curse. It wasn't God who prompted them to do that and destroy their paradise. They chose to sin. The entrance of sin devastated Eden's perfection.
Isaiah 59:2 says, "Your sins, your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God." The seventh day had an evening and a morning because the cycle of days began in creation, but the seventh day 24-hour period inaugurated that period of time after God's having created in which He delighted. We don't know how long that was because we don't know how long it was until man sinned.
Let us summarize God's rest then. He enjoyed perfect fellowship with Adam and Eve. There's no command for man to rest on the seventh day; that is not in Genesis. There is no Sabbath rule given in the Abrahamic Covenant. In Genesis 12 and the following chapters you have the rehearsal of the Abrahamic Covenant, God's first great covenant with Israel, and there is no discussion of any Sabbath.
The third verb connected with the seventh day is in verse 3 says, "God blessed that day." In other words, God identified it with some unique holy character. What does that mean? God set it aside as a remembrance. All of creation occurred in six days. And then on a seventh day God took that day and said that He was going to bless that day to be a day in which you will acknowledge the creation was done.
There is no rational reason and no scientific reason for weeks. Why seven days? You cannot divide 365 days into sevens, it doesn't work. That's why some months have 30 days, some months have 31 days and February has alternate days, depending on whether it's Leap Year. Why is everything counted in weeks? Weeks don't even fit well into months. Why do we use seven days?
The only reason is because God established that order in creation. And every week of our lives we go through a cycle that is intended by God to remind us that He created the world in six days and then rested. Every time a seventh day passes we should be acknowledging God as our creator. To reject God as creator and to reject a six-day creation is to deny God His true identity as creator.
If we believe what the Bible says, then every seventh day that passes is a reminder that God created the entire universe in six days and was finished. And for that glorious accomplishment He deserves our praise. Saturday is the day that we should enjoy the creation of God. And what God did was indeed very good to the degree that He completely delighted in it. Saturday gives testimony to God as creator.
And Sunday gives us testimony that God is our Redeemer because of the resurrection. On that first day Christ arose because He had finished redemption. God knew that when He gave us Saturday and Sunday. One day for the creator, and the next day for the Savior. Sunday is a perpetual witness that God finished redemption and is the God of salvation. Sadly in our society most people don't care about what God did for them.
But for those of us who believe in the one true and living God, we believe in creation and no week goes by without a memorial and no week goes by without a witness, and no week goes by without a testimony. No week goes by without a holy day, that's where we get the word holiday. No week of our lives ever goes by without one day that points to God as creator. Every seventh day is that.
Do some practical things on the seventh day. Go out and rejoice in the beauty of God's creation. Go play with your grandchildren and the wonder of human life. No week goes by without a reminder that God is creator. That is what's on the heart of God as He blesses the seventh day. God has established a universal pattern for man. Man isn't even discussed here.
God was in a permanent condition of delight over the completion of His creation until sin came. The text says that this day is simply God's design for human life. And isn't it amazing that the whole world operates on seven-day weeks? Remember in America when they tried to change everything over to centimeters from inches, and feet to meters and nobody would buy into it because housewives didn't want to get rid of their utensils.
That was really what stopped the whole thing. Husbands would complain because all the recipes would be wrong if they started cooking with liters and all those other things. So we are stuck with our own system as over against the whole world who has a different system. But in the case of calendars, the whole civilized world operates on weeks and there's no reason for that except that's the way God designed it.
So that everyone often in the routine of life would face the fact that a great creator created it all in six days and every seventh day He gave us that reminder that His creation was done. Isn't it sad that people won't give Him the glory and honor He deserves? Now all of that opens up the teaching on the Sabbath law based on the Mosaic economy. How is that connected to this?
Well, I'm not going to tell you tonight. Next Sunday I'm going to take you into the Sabbath law of the Mosaic economy and show you if and how that connects and if at all it establishes a precedent for what we do now on the Lord's Day. That's going to be a fascinating study. But we will leave it at that. Let us pray.