Genesis 2

Introduction

Rest

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. 2 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

So God has already finished all of the creation. But there is still one more day to go. Could God have chosen to let just be the six days right? I mean, God didn’t need to rest. He was all-powerful; it’s not like He ran out of energy after doing all of that creating, but he insisted on sanctifying a seventh day of rest. It’s a little interesting, though, that God thought that this was necessary. But God never does things without a reason.

Question:

What are the reasons that we take rest days or breaks?

Answer:

We’re worn out from activities, or overwhelmed, have had too much on our plate for too long, or are just sleepy.

There is nothing wrong with resting. In the modern world, we have a type of hustle culture, don’t we? I have to do this this this this, and that, and I have to get it done by this time so that I can work on more on this, and it just goes on and on. It makes life feel like a whirlwind. Now, life is going to feel super busy because sometimes it just really is, but we can’t allow rest to feel like a sin to us. Resting as long as we aren’t letting it turn into slothfulness is a good thing. God rested here; he provided an example for us that it is okay to take a break, of course, by also keeping a focus on Him.

Now, a question you might have then is, well, then why do we not still live with a Sabbath rest day? Shouldn’t we observe it if God really designed a specific day for us to do so?

Turn to Hebrews 10:1. For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. So while they were a shadow of the good things to come, they were not the very thing. We could work all we want and try to justify ourselves with good works for a long time, but we would never be able to truly be justified. But because we have Jesus who came to pay the cost for us and let His righteousness be attributed onto us, we are able to be saved. There is no more work to be done. There is no earning that we can do, and there never will be. Jesus came so that we can rest in God.

. Hebrews 10:1 tells us that the law "can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship." But these sacrifices were offered in anticipation of the ultimate sacrifice of Christ on the cross, who "after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right of God" (Hebrews 10:12). Just as He rested after performing the ultimate sacrifice, He sat down and rested—ceased from His labor of atonement because there was nothing more to be done, ever. Because of what He did, we no longer have to "labor" in law-keeping in order to be justified in the sight of God. Jesus was sent so that we might rest in God and in what He has provided.