Genesis 2:1-3

 

“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.  And by the seventh day, God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all the work which He had done.”  Gen 2:1-2

“Then God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because in it, He rested from all his work which God had created and made.”  Gen 2:3

 

 

From the creation, God blessed and sanctified HIS seventh day, because that’s the day when God “rested” or “ceased” from His work of creating.  It’s interesting to note that God made no mention of man in this context.  God did not claim that He was sanctifying a day of rest for man.  As a matter of fact, man wasn’t even created until God’s sixth day!   No, this was God’s “rest” as it’s commonly called.  Actually, the word more properly means..  “to cease form work”.  And that’s exactly what God did on His seventh day.  

 

Many people are confused about this statement in  Gen 2:3,  that God blessed and sanctified the seventh day.  Many people think that God made Saturday the Sabbath day, from that time forward.  But the account given in Genesis makes no mention of that idea.  But still people have gotten that idea, and so when God did give the Sabbath to the nation of Israel, in  Exodus 16,  people think that this was I simply a continuation of the sabbath which had always existed for man.  But again, no such thing is ever said in the scriptures.

God command for Israel to “keep the sabbath” was incorporated into the ten commandments which God gave to Israel as recorded for us in Exodus chapter 20.   But that command, along with all the other commandments, that God gave to Moses on Mount Sinai in the wilderness, to give to the sons of Israel, were for the nation of Israel, ONLY!

 

God speaks about a new covenant that He will make with His people, and how it will be different from the old covenant, that he gave through Moses.  Listen to  Jeremiah 31:31-32..

“Behold days are coming, declares the Lord;  When I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.  (Christians today are “spiritual Israel” and “spiritual Judah”, and so the new covenant applies to all people, after Christ died, urging them all to become Christians)  Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.  My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them; declares the Lord.” 

 

There is only one nation that God “took by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt”; and that nation was Israel.  Israel is the only nation that the old covenant was given to.  It never applied to any other nation of people, anywhere on earth.  And likewise, the command to “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy”, never applied to any other people, except for the people of the nation of Israel.

 

So why then, does the scripture say in  Genesis 2:3,  “Then God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because in it, He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” 

It used to bother me, how God said in Genesis that He had blessed and sanctified the seventh day, but then never spoke any more about it, until the law of Moses was given to Israel.  If God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, then why didn’t He tell ALL men to remember that day?

And since that bothered me, I studied it quite a bit, to find out why no one else was ever told to remember the day that God had blessed and sanctified.

 

 

The Fact Of The Matter

 

Here’s the fact of the matter.  God wasn’t talking about the day that man calls Saturday, when God blessed HIS seventh day.  Man was created on God’s sixth day.  Therefore, when God entered His rest, on His seventh day, man was only entering the second day of his existence!  It really had nothing to do with man.

 

God blessed a day, even from creation, but that day wasn’t Saturday.  God hadn’t appointed names for the days of creation.  God simply referred to them as the fist day, and the second day, and so on.

God’s seventh day, was not man’s seventh day.  God’s seventh day, is not Saturday.

God’s seventh day, is not a 24 hour day, it’s a very long day.  It’s the longest day ever.

 

 

 

Listen again to  Genesis 2:1-3..

“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.”

“And by the seventh day, God completed His work which He had done, and He rested (He “ceased”) on the seventh day, from all the work that He had done.”

“Then God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because in it, He rested from all His work, which God created and made.”   

God sanctified His seventh day unto Himself, not unto man.

Let’s summarize this..  God isn’t speaking here, about blessing and sanctifying Saturday.  God didn’t rest from His work, on a day called Saturday.  God is not speaking here, about man’s, seventh day of the week, the one WE call Saturday.   God is speaking about HIS seventh day.  There’s a big difference.  The bible doesn’t say that the creation took place from Sunday through Friday, with a “rest” occurring on Saturday.   The bible simply numbers God’s days, as one through seven.

 

How long was God’s seventh day, the day in which God rested?   Was it 24 hours, and then he went right back to work?   No, God’s work was done, wasn’t it?  Creation was finished.  You never read about an eighth day, do you?  That’s because there IS no eighth day.  There are only seven days for God.  God worked for six days, creating all of creation, and then He rested.  God ceased from His creating on His seventh day.  We could say that it was God’s “Sabbath rest”.   Do you know what “Sabbath” means?  It means..  “rest, intermission, interruption, cessation, and.. to sit still”.  And on God’s seventh day,  He entered, and began His rest.  He ceased from the work of creation.

 

How long is this day?  How long did God’s “rest” from His work of creation?

You can’t attach time, to God’s seventh day rest, because God’s seventh day, is still going on, and it will continue to go on eternally.  God’s seventh day is “His eternal rest”, and His rest is blessed and sanctified.  To be sanctified means to be purified, and to be set apart.  There is indeed a very pure place of rest, which is “set apart” from all else.  It’s where God is abides and will always abide, and it is the place that God has set aside for His children.

 

Listen closely to  Hebrews 4, verses 9-10..  “There remains therefore, a Sabbath rest for the people of God.  For the one who has entered his rest, has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.”   Genesis 2, verse 3 tells us when God entered His “rest”.

The one who enters his Sabbath rest, has himself, rested from his OWN works, just as God rested from HIS own works.  We as human beings and as children of God, will work our works until the day we die, and then at the resurrection on the judgment day, we will be able to enter into the eternal rest of God, to dwell with Him eternally. 

 

When did God rest from His own works?  On the seventh day.  Exodus 20:11  says,  “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.”    God blessed HIS day of rest, and He set it apart. 

 

When God gave His laws to the nation of Israel, He created for them, a “Sabbath”, a day of physical rest from their work.   So then God was LIKENING Israel’s seventh day, to His OWN seventh day.  But God didn’t make man’s seventh day “holy”, from the beginning of time.  He only made it “holy” when He called His people (Israel) out from the world.  “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, says the Lord.”   Isaiah 52:11  and  2 Cor 6:17

 

And God has called us out today, to be  “spiritual Israel”, (that’s you and I, IF we’re obedient to His laws) And for those people, God has also set aside a Sabbath rest.

 

That’s what  Hebrews 4:9  says,   “There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”   And that Sabbath rest, is the very SAME rest, that God has already entered into, back on HIS seventh day, when He entered HIS Sabbath rest.

 

How long is God’s seventh day?  How long is eternity?  God’s seventh day is eternal.  Man’s seventh day is 24 hours, just like all the other days.  But God’s seventh day is eternal.

And God’s “seventh day”, is designed to be the Christian’s  “Sabbath day”, after the resurrection.

“There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.  For the one who has entered his rest (his sabbath rest), has himself also rested from his works, just as God did from His.  (you work during your physical life, so that you can rest in your spirit, eternally.

“Let us therefore be diligent, to enter that rest, lest anyone fall, through the same example of disobedience.”  (that’s the disobedience of Israel, who failed to enter their rest)

 

“For the Word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit..”   Hebrews 4:12.

Do you know, that the Word of God can separate your life from your spirit.

What’s going to judge us at the last day?  Jesus said  “The WORD that I spoke will judge him at the last day”.  John 12:48.    His Word will judge us all.

Do you know, that your soul is your very life!  The Greek word for “soul”, is translated “souls, or souls”, 47 times;  And it’s translated “life, or lives”, 43 times.  Your soul is your life!  And if you’re not obedient to the WORD that Jesus spoke, the Word that’s written in the bible, then that very Word, will separate your life from your spirit, at the judgment, and your spirit will spend eternity, separated from God.  You will “lose your soul” so to speak, meaning that your spirit will lose it’s “life”.  Your spirit will still exist, but it won’t have any life in it.  That’s spiritual death!  The eternal separation, of your spirit, from God.

 

Don’t let the Word, separate your spirit from it’s life.  Instead, let the Word, GIVE life to your spirit.  John 6:63  says,  “It is the Spirit that gives life.  The Words that I have spoken to you, ARE spirit, and are life!”

 

PLEASE, hear the Word, and receive the Word in your heart.  Do you know what it means to receive the word?  It means to believe it, and obey it.  It means to repent of your sins.  It means to confess your faith in Christ.  It means to be buried in baptism for the forgiveness of your sins.  And it means to remain faithful unto death.

 

Verses like  Romans 10:17, John 8:24, Luke 13:3, Rom 10:10, Acts 17:30, Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16, Mathew 24:13, Rev 2:10;  they all teach us those things that I just listed.

Hear the word, believe the word, repent of your sins, confess the name of Christ, be buried in baptism for the forgiveness of your sins, and remain faithful unto death.

 

And if you DO those things, THEN, God’s seventh day of rest, will be your Sabbath day of rest, eternally!

 

Jesus said,  “Come unto Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you..  rest.”   Mathew 11:28.   Not rest from your responsibilities and duties in this life, but rest for your soul in eternity when all physical life has ended.  

 

My God bless you in the study of His word, and may you be blessed with eternal rest for your soul. 

 

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