Genesis 2:1-3 | Rest

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.” (ESV)

God’s rest is meant for your good, and it is yours in Christ.

I have been really encouraged as of late by a new Instagram profile that has been highlighting one family’s adventures in nature. Vamanos Malachi, has been tracking the Bernals’ hiking using their Huckleberry Cascade Hiker. An amazing contraption. Gets the whole family on the trails.

I love hiking, and some of my favorite moments of awe have come from hiking. Usually with a nice vista. Looking far and wide, seeing the beauty of creation, The expanse, feeling my smallness against it all. And catching a breeze, the sounds of the birds, the sway of threes… and it feels right. Significant.

I think these are liminal spaces. Thin places. Closer to God. Make the steps worth it, invigorating, recharging.

Honestly, we need moments like this. We are exhausted!

Being tired is the mantra of our day, and it’s real. Parents awake with screaming babies, work never ends thanks to the smart devices ruling our lives, responsibilities pile up. Feels like we never get a break.

There is a rhythm of work and rest established here. That is healthy and good. Even atheists agree this rhythm is best!

So I don’t need to convince you of that, or give you permission to take a nap today! Do it!

Deeper, more significant than physical rest though is spiritual rest. The end of striving for perfection, for belonging, for identity, for worth.

Tied to that, I want to convince you that you were meant to live in what is inaugurated here at the completion of creation.

And if we see it rightly it will shape everything about us.

This text hints at what we were meant for, and where we are headed in Christ.

Three movements, Reality of Rest, Rejection of Rest, and Restoration of Rest.

Reality of Rest

Sbt. We come away from Genesis 1 with an enormous view of God, rightfully. Unfurling the universe with the power of his word. All that we see and know exists from his design and decree.

All that is seen as good…

This is the God who is sovereign; as he has created realms and rulers of realms he is over them all.

And under his care then humanity was blessed to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (1:28)

This is God all-powerful, Elohim.

Psalm 33:6 “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” (ESV)

“Since He has at His command all the power in the universe, the Lord God omnipotent can do anything as easily as anything else. All His acts are done without effort. He expends no energy that must be replenished. His self-sufficiency makes it unnecessary for Him to look outside of Himself for a renewal of strength. All the power required to do all that He wills to do lies in undiminished fullness in His own infinite being.” (A.W. Tozer)

And then our verses, what is essentially the end of chapter 1, comes to a close. The work of creation is finished. And he rested on the seventh day.

The day he blessed and made holy, set apart.

Notice how it is different from the description of the other days.

1) There was no creation formula — “And God said” —because his creative word was not required.

2) The seventh day did not have the usual closing refrain — “and there was evening and there was morning” — to indicate the day’s end.

3) The seventh day was the only day to be “blessed” and “made . . . holy” by God.

4) The seventh day stood outside the paired days of creation because there was no corresponding day to it in the preceding six.

5) unlike the six creative days, the number of the day (the seventh day) is repeated three times.

“The absence of the phrase and there was evening, and there was morning—the —— day after the seventh day indicates that God is not resting because he is exhausted but is desisting from his work of creation. It is not so much a date as it is an atmosphere. The seventh day, like man and woman (1:28), is blessed. If “blesses” in 1:28 is meant to confer the power to beget new life, might “blessed” in 2:3 mean the same?” Victor P. Hamilton, “Genesis,” in Evangelical Commentary on the Bible

God creates all that is good, finishes, then reflects and beholds all that he has made. Blesses it, makes it holy. Enjoys what he has made. The heights, the depths, the creatures, the fields, the waves.

And he will breathe life into humanity to enjoy it with him. To share in his rest, the blessed power to “beget new life.” This seventh day rolls on as an environment for just that.

“The rest that the Scriptures offer is the rest that God entered when he finished creating the universe. The fact that in Genesis 2:2 there is no morning or evening means that the seventh day continues even now. God’s rest began with the completion of the cosmos and continues on and on — and therefore is available to all his children.”

The seventh day is supposed to be our continual existence.

What kind of existence would it be?

Living the mandate to be fruitful, work without toil. Mountaintop moments are the norm not the exception. It would be all that comes next.

Life with God in the garden. Peace. Abundance. Enjoying, beholding all that was very good.

Think of your best moments of life. The hugs of loved ones. The laughter with friends. The joy of your greatest day. That savor of that one meal that was above all the rest. That room with a view that left you in awe. The tearful joy of hearing your baby’s first cry at birth. The moment of peace that didn’t make sense in worship. When the answer came and you were sure it was God.

That feeling, those feelings. Always.

Perfect communion with your creator.

Trusting his provision, his care, his presence, his purpose. Obedient to his way.

This is the reality of rest. It’s supposed to be life’s reality. What your heart longs for.

But we so often confuse the longing and reach for the wrong things…

Rejection of Rest

This rest isn’t too good to be true, it is in fact the deepest truth. But humanity has a penchant for resisting what is true and stumbling after lesser things…

We could call this a rejection of rest.

We forget all that God has and is doing before us and we find death instead.

This is what happens… not that we would have made a different choice; in the garden the accuser asks “did God actually say?”

And rest is interrupted. Toil, pain, death enter the human story. All of creation experiences corruption, and humanity is driven out of the garden we were meant for. Left just with the longing to go back.

By birth and by our choices this is our state.

And having been made for God, made to worship, humanity keeps looking to each other, to created things, false deities, idols, devoting our attention to them rather than God. Perpetuating the rejection of the rest God destined us for.

We become convinced peace should “feel” different or come sooner. So we turn to other remedies. We need clearer answers about the decisions before us so instead of balancing circumstances on the truth of Scripture we turn to the influencer shamans of our day or the cards that spell out the way.

We believe the lies or we see the script of history and we become convinced we could do it better. So we reject God’s way, what he says is right and true, what is his rest.

That life is nothing but striving. Always trying to get back to the garden and never capable by our own means.

[men and women will remain restless regardless of what they attain or obtain in this world. ]

God doesn’t give up on us though. Not in his story of redemption.

Eventually, Sabbath would be given as a rhythm for God’s people, instituted to center their lives on what they were meant for, communion with God. Honoring him above all things.

Exodus 20:8–11 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. [9] Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, [10] but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. [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. (ESV)

“The Sabbath day was to be one of complete rest, cessation from life’s labors. Like God’s rest, it was “blessed,” and thus its observation by God’s people was essential to their spiritual health and growth.”

And point forward to a fuller, truer rest to come, more like that of the seventh day, but one that can’t be tainted by sin.

Part of the rhythm to turn rejection toward idols.

Even those given this story of God taking his rest while they were traversing the wilderness would miss out on the “rest” of the Promised Land because of their rejection of God, their disobedience… a hardening of their hearts towards God and his way.

Hebrews 3:15–19 “As it is said,

“Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

[16] For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? [17] And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? [18] And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? [19] So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.” (ESV)

It wasn’t that they had a wicked past, that they were sinners. It was their unbelief, their rejection of God’s rest… their desires for lesser things reigned and they missed the good that was before them.

“No soul can have rest until it finds created things are empty. When the soul gives up all for love, so that it can have Him that is all, then it finds true rest.” Julian of Norwich

I wonder how far down we have gone… have we realized the emptiness of created things, their inability to satisfy our soul’s deepest longing…

Hebrews 4:6–9 “Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, [7] 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.”

[8] For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. [9] So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, [10] for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.”

To get there, we need intervention.

Restoration of Rest

He that is all did come - a screaming babe that woke a weary world that it may rejoice with a thrill of hope as yonder broke a new and glorious morn.

The rhythm was just a placeholder for something better, for real rest, leading back to this ultimate seventh day rest.

Our Creator comes himself, taking on flesh to pay the penalty for rejection, for sin, and to restore our garden privileges.

Jesus invites us back into this rest.

Matthew 11:27–30 “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. [28] Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29] 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. [30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (ESV)

No matter how great or how often our rejection of God has been. No matter how hard we ran after created things for fulfillment. For those who followed the serpents enticements. For those that tried to be God themselves. For those that tried it all and found it wanting, Jesus says come.

Find rest.

A life of trust in the One over all.

Security in his finished work for your salvation. Empowerment for the life of purpose and holiness he calls you to. And anticipation for the day this rest is all we will know.

Hebrews 4:11 “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.”

Jesus calls us to find rest in him. To take on his easy yoke and to rely on him again. To be still and know that he is God.

Hebrews 4:14 “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” (ESV)

Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (ESV)

“Our hearts are restless ’til they find their rest in Thee.”

“Augustine: Heaven, too, will be the fulfillment of that sabbath rest foretold in the command: “Be still and see that I am God.” This, indeed, will be that ultimate sabbath that has no evening and that the Lord foreshadowed in the account of his creation: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. And he blessed the seventh day and sanctified it: because in it he had rested from all his work that God created and made.” And we ourselves will be a “seventh day” when we shall be filled with his blessing and remade by his sanctification. In the stillness of that rest we shall see that he is the God whose divinity we desired for ourselves when we listened to the seducer’s words, “You shall be as gods,”11 and so fell away from him, the true God who would have given us a divinity by participation that could never be gained by desertion. For where did the doing without God end but in the undoing of man through the anger of God? Only when we are remade by God and perfected by a greater grace shall we have the eternal stillness of that rest in which we shall see that he is God.” CITY OF GOD

In Christ we are headed to, as Augustine says, being a sanctified “seventh day” rest, perfected, glorified by grace as we see our great God. In a better garden.

Revelation 22:1–5 “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb [2] through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. [3] No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. [4] They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. [5] And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.” (ESV)

God’s rest is meant for your good, and it is yours in Christ.

Reject your rejection - Hear Jesus, come to him for rest. That his life, death, and resurrection was for you, to solve sin, and bring into this rest of God. That you could dwell with him again.

Rest in Christ - Trust in him. Justified. Kept. Transformed by his grace. Hold fast your confession and with confidence draw near to the throne of grace.

A God that gives rest. He is sovereign over all. Meaning everything is in his control, we can trust him. We can embrace healthy rhythms, and we should. The greater rest of life with him frees us for it and unshackles us for the adventure of life with him.

May it be so in us.