The Goal of Creation – Genesis chapter 2, verses 1 to 3
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 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 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Genesis 2:1-3 New International Version – UK (NIVUK) Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
‘Work life balance’: Heineken’s “go home on time day” – a campaign against working late alone in the office. Smartphones and laptops are blurring work and home, work and rest.
A very different day: The 7th day stands alone.
- The pattern of forming and filling the Earth in days 1 to 6 stops here.
- There is no “and God said..”
- There is no “evening and morning” at the end.
- There is no more creating.
- This is the only day that God blesses.
- This day is the first thing hallowed in the Bible, set apart by God and for God.
- There is no signal of an end of this day.
- The 7th day is mentioned 3 times, the others only once.
Here is the goal of creation (following the pinnacle of creation in day 6). The goal is REST. To cease from, to pause, something that was being done before.
It is in this way that God rests!
Humanity’s Rest:
- We give so much value to work in our culture. The second question we ask someone, after “what’s your name”, is “what do you do?” Yet we then say “there’s more to life than work!” So often we behave as if we didn’t believe it!
- A gift of rest from God to humanity, in contrast to slavery.
- Taking a day off is a reminder that God is God and I am not. I’m not indispensable.
- A rest is to be enjoyed.
Lost:
Psalm 95:7-11 – quarreling with God brought the loss of this rest.
Restored:
Hebrews 3 & 4 refers to both Genesis 2 and Psalm 95. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God, and the Gospel is that rest, when it is embraced. “3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said” v3,
“Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You” – Augustine
