01-11 The Seventh Day Rest
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Genesis 2:1-3
Genesis 2:1-3
***Explain why not Mother’s Day Message***
My Favorite Illustrations Even Machines Need Rest
Years ago, I read about a railroad that conducted an experiment. It purchased two new locomotives. One was kept in constant service, regardless of Sunday. In the use of the other, late each Saturday they pulled its fire and released the steam. On Sunday it was allowed to cool down, thus re-tempering its metal. Then it was fired up again on Monday. Over the years they found that they had less maintenance and trouble with the latter than with the former. If rest one day each week so benefited a piece of machinery, how much more does the fragile, delicate human body and spirit need it!
That experiment illustrates the truth regarding the provision that God would make for the entirety of the human race—a provision that would be necessary from the result of Adam’s sin in Gen 3. Everything breaks down. Scientists know very well the 2 universal laws of thermodynamics that explain what Morris calls the present processes of the universe: conservation and disintegration. Disintegration is why things wear out—break down.
The pattern that emerges in Gen 2 has been recognized by all of humanity—recognizing the passing of time in 7 day units. This is by God’s design and example and reveals to us the rest God has purposed for His people.
Now, Gen 2 begins with an unfortunate chapter break. Back in 1448 a Jewish Rabbi named Nathan divided the Hebrew OT into chapters and verses. In 1555 a French scholar Robertus Stephanus divided up the Gk NT in a similar fashion and the Geneva Bible printed what began the modern chapter and verse divisions used by most translations today.
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.
This is called an inclusio—the bookends which explain what is in between.
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
It belongs with ch 1—but don’t get all bent out of shape. The chapter division may have been intentional b/c of the 7th day’s uniqueness—to set it apart from the previous 6 days of creation.
The 7th day is different:
No intro formula (Then God said…)
No closing refrain (evening/morning)
Only day blessed/sanctified
“Seventh” repeated 3x
Seventh does not correspond to the pairings of days 1-3 & 4-6
So the 7th day is different. It is different b/c of the purpose, design and activity of God during the entire creation week. But there is clearly something special about this 7th day. This is seen in 3 emphases that are made by Moses in this account:
Completion
Completion
The work of creation had been completed after 6 days. There was nothing left for God to bring into existence—confirmed by the use of “all” (3x). There was nothing that God needed to re-create, nothing that was out of place, nothing that was not precisely all that God intended for it to be. Even God’s own verdict on the matter of the quality of creation:
31 God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
The idea of “completed” (vs 1) means “to bring to completion” and has in view the cause of that completion—for it is God and God alone who creates and at the end of the 6th day—God judged His work--”very good.” One consequence is that the universe is no longer in a process of being created (though procreation and self-perpetuation is built into that).
Rest
Rest
The verb “rest” (used 2x) carries a few different nuances:
To be absent
14 Elders are gone from the gate, Young men from their music.
To come to an end—to perish, die
To cease, to stop
22 “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night Shall not cease.”
12 The manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the yield of the land of Canaan during that year.
This is the idea in Gen 2—God didn’t rest b/c He need to be rejuvenated, regain strength after expending great energy in creating. God wasn’t weak and weary. He ceased His creative activity (b/c it was finished).
Now, when people read that they might get the idea that God took a vacation, that He also rested from His sustaining activity on the 7th day. Jesus clearly refutes that idea when confronting the accusations that Jesus was violating the Sabbath by healing the man by pool of Bethesda.
17 But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”
In their commentary on the OT Keil & Delitzsch write “This rest of the Creator was indeed “the consequence of His self-satisfaction in the now united and harmonious, though manifold whole;” but this self-satisfaction of God in His creation, which we call His pleasure in His work, was also a spiritual power, which streamed forth as a blessing upon the creation itself, bringing it into the blessedness of the rest of God and filling it with His peace.
Keil, C. F., & Delitzsch, F. (1996). Commentary on the Old Testament (Vol. 1, p. 42). Hendrickson.
This rest, was designed by God to last forever but it was interrupted by the entrance of sin into His creation. As a result, God interrupted His rest to carry out the work of redemption for mankind and restoring that rest thru salvation and its final consummation.
Blessed & Sanctified
Blessed & Sanctified
The 3rd emphasis is on God hallowing the 7th day. He blessed it—which means He made the 7th day to be fruitful. This follows the blessing bestowed on living creatures and then on Adam & Eve that they “be fruitful and multiply.” It is the same idea here but in the spiritual context—Claus Westermann:
Genesis—Beginning and Blessing God Rests
“God’s blessing bestows on this special, holy, solemn day a power which makes it fruitful for human existence. The blessing gives the day, which is a day of rest, the power to stimulate, animate, enrich and give fullness to life.”
Then God sanctified it the 7th day. The term means “to set apart, to remove from common use.” The 7th day became something special, elevated above the other 6 days. This is the same word for “holy”. God set aside the 7th day—making it holy and He did it so that it would become a memorial for all mankind—to serve as a reminder of the glory of creation and even more the surpassing glory of the Creator.
The blessing and sanctifying of the 7th day brings to mind the Sabbath Day. The term Sabbath doesn’t appear in Genesis (Ex 16:23). There is no Sabbath regulation until after the Exodus (gathering of manna—then 4th commandment).
Then the 7th day was given preeminence in Israel in God’s Commandment:
8 “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 of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the 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.
The Lord God takes Israel back to creation to explain why the Sabbath is to have such importance to the nation. It was to be a day of complete rest, ceasing from labor and it was patterned from God’s rest (ceasing from creative activity). Even though the term Sabbath is not in Genesis the root of that word is the same for “rest” in Gen 2. That’s what the Sabbath was—day of rest.
It was beneficial (not just for the nation—but for all humanity) to have a 6-1 workday/rest ratio. Since God made us in His image, this is where we thrive and become most productive (6 days you labor and do all your work). There are physical benefits to this pattern.
Above this, it was essential for the spiritual health of the nation as that day provided Israel to enter into worship, rejoicing over God’s creative work.
Jewish theologian Abraham Heschel writes:
“It is a day on which we are called upon to show what is eternal in time, to turn from the results of creation to the mystery of creation; from the world of creation to the creation of the world.”
God, having set apart the 7th day and commanding His people to observe it faithfully, would speak of the spiritual dynamics of this day—called a holy Sabbath unto the Lord.
15 ‘For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death.
2 “For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day, a sabbath of complete rest to the Lord; whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.
The prophets spoke of the Lord’s Sabbath as “My holy day”
13 “If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot From doing your own pleasure on My holy day, And call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, And honor it, desisting from your own ways, From seeking your own pleasure And speaking your own word, 14 Then you will take delight in the Lord, And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; And I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
8 “You have despised My holy things and profaned My sabbaths.
Israelites were thus commanded:
29 “See, the Lord has given you the sabbath; therefore He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.”
3 “You shall not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the sabbath day.”
23 then he said to them, “This is what the Lord meant: Tomorrow is a sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.”
31 As for the peoples of the land who bring wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the sabbath or a holy day; and we will forego the crops the seventh year and the exaction of every debt.
27 “But if you do not listen to Me to keep the sabbath day holy by not carrying a load and coming in through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem and not be quenched.” ’ ”
Now, this day which was to be observed for the Lord (unto the Lord) was quickly perverted by legalism which said “this is how I become acceptable to God.”
So Israel’s religious leaders came up with regulations which they thought would keep them from violating the Sabbath.
The Preacher’s Notebook: The Collected Quotes, Illustrations, and Prayers of John Stott The Rabbis on Sabbath Regulations
Rabbi Johanan and Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish worked out the number of regulations imposed by the law of Sabbath observance, and arrived at a grand total of 1,521
Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and scribes for
8 “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” 9 He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition.
Now, the Sabbath commandment was established and explained by God
Exodus 31;
The command was for Israel. No other nation had the Sabbath—it was hers, given as a covenant sign b/t God & Israel—that He had redeemed His people (bringing them out of Egypt).
15 ‘You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.
What a remarkable day that God had given His people. B/c of the hardness of the heart, it turned into something rote, something performed b/c of tradition but not out of faithful obedience.
The question regarding the Sabbath comes up often. Some of you may have bene raised in strict, conservative homes where nothing was to be done (on Sunday—which is not the Sabbath BTW). Some of you have told me—it bothers your conscience to do a load of laundry, mow the lawn, go out to eat, etc...
27 Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
This was to be a blessing to the nation but it was turned into a burden and actually kept them from devotion to the Lord.
Now, there is a Sabbath rest that is for Xns (the believer). It is a rest that is joyous, satisfying—one that even includes work—not a work of salvation but doing the work of God.
Hebrews 4:1-11;
Context: Heb 3— Ps 95;
Heb 3-4 is what many have called a “warning passage” It begins with the superiority of Jesus over Moses—both were faithful (Son vs servant).
3:7ff—This is Psalm 95 (why Scripture reading). The exhortation is do not harden your hearts as Israel did when God led them thru the wilderness for 40 years. He delivered them form Egyptians, provided water, food, provisions or clothing, even sandals that would not wear out (Dt 29:5). But Israel continued to test the Lord and provoke His anger and wrath. God told them:
11 As I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
This term for rest is different from Gen 2—manoah (Noah’s name gives the connotation of rest & security thru ark).
3 types of rest are identified in Scripture:
Temporary rest God provisioned for the nation as they departed Mt. Sinai. As they would camp in the wilderness they would come to “resting places”.
33 Thus they set out from the mount of the Lord three days’ journey, with the ark of the covenant of the Lord journeying in front of them for the three days, to seek out a resting place for them.
2. The more permanent resting place of Canaan.
9 for you have not as yet come to the resting place and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you.
56 “Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised; not one word has failed of all His good promise, which He promised through Moses His servant.
3. Eternal rest that is salvific in nature—Christ’s rest.
This is what Heb 4 addresses.
A. The Availability of Rest
A. The Availability of Rest
“the promise remains of enter His rest” (vs 1)
“it remains for some to enter” (vs 6)
“there remains a Sabbath rest” (vs 9)
“remains” is a term that means something has been left in place. The promise of rest remains open, not been rescinded. This promise of rest is found and encountered in JC thru salvation made available by His substitutionary atonement.
B. The Requirements for Rest
B. The Requirements for Rest
(vv 2-3)
Hearing
lit. “we are the evangelized ones” speaking of those in the church who have heard the good news. Israel too heard good news—Numbers 13-14;
The good news for them is when the 12 spies came back to the camp—the report of the spies said the land was flowing with milk and honey. But 10 also said “it is a land that devours its inhabitants.”
Joshua and Caleb refuted that evil report
7 and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. 8 “If the Lord is pleased with us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us—a land which flows with milk and honey. 9 “Only do not rebel against the Lord; and do not fear the people of the land, for they will be our prey. Their protection has been removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”
This was good news indeed but it was not “united by faith in those who heard.”
Faith
“united” means to blend together/mix. Hearing and faith must come together. Leon Morris “faith is the attitude of trusting God wholeheartedly.”
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
Heb 4:3;
C. The Dimensions of Rest
C. The Dimensions of Rest
Several dimensions in addition to “ceasing from labor; peace of mind or spirit”
It is God’s rest
This is the rest that He Himself partakes of and enjoys. This was manifest on the 7th day of creation—God didn’t stop working but ceased His creative activity.
This rest can be experienced
“we are entering that rest” vs 3—process of entering as the people of God. There results an immediate joy as every believer begins that process.
1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Rest involves the cessation of work (as far as salvation is concerned). Salvation is God’s free gift (not earned)…to enter His rest is to rest in His grace. We also enjoy that rest realizing what it is to trust Him as He never fails. Whatever you are presently enduring—you discover aspects of God’s rest and it brings peace to your hearts today.
Future eternal rest
This was the rest first promised to Israel. God’s rest was never just and earthly rest but primarily a spiritual rest that will find fulfillment to Israel during Mil. Kingdom—when LJC establishes His throne and Israel will be gathered together to serve the Messiah.
That rest is captured by John
13 And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”
How do you enter/find that rest?
Experienced by faith (vv6-8). God is still in the business of saving souls. Though the way is narrow that leads to life (Mt 7:13-14) there are some who still find it. But what keeps a person from entering that rest is “disobedience.”
disobedience is the opposite of belief.
1 In Iconium they entered the synagogue of the Jews together, and spoke in such a manner that a large number of people believed, both of Jews and of Greeks. 2 But the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren.
Disbelief in the gospel is opposition to God—making one disobedient. Israel’s disobedience (not believing the good news report) kept them from entering God’s rest. It didn’t negate the promise of God (since they entered under Joshua).
Years later David would speak about “today” and how the rest is available to the people of God—those who believe.
The journey into rest is also marked by diligence (plus faith).
11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.
“conscientious of discharging an obligation”
3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
10 Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you; for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble;
14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,
This doesn’t mean to work for your salvation but to make every effort to enter God’s rest so that we do not fall into disobedience as Israel did.
Do you believe on the LJC? That belief always translates into obedience—obedience to what the Lord commands. Those who believe are on this journey into rest and we don’t live for ourselves...
14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.