Let Us Rest || Deeper Creation || Week 9

Welcome back! This series is “Deeper Creation,” We’re taking a deeper look at Genesis 1 and 2 to see how the Creation story gets told throughout the Bible!

Last week, we looked deeper at the rest of the Day 6 creation story. We talked about the value of genealogies in how it shares the stories of our past, connects us to Jesus, and shows our value to God as a human. We talked about the authority God gave humanity and how we can use our gifts wisely to honor God and follow his purpose and promise for the world. We then discussed how the blessing God gives us is a huge responsibility to take care of the ecosystem that God created not only for us but for all living creatures. 

This week, we’re looking at the last day of creation. God created the concept of rest, or the Sabbath, after he looked back and everything and was satisfied. We’re going to talk about how rest is good because Jesus did, God promised it to us, and it gives us a glimpse of what eternal life looks like. Then, we’ll discuss how it happens based on the Ten Commandments and Moses’s depiction. 

Let’s get started by reading our focus scripture in Genesis 2:1 – 2:3: 

1  So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. 

2  On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. 

3  And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy because it was when he rested from all his work of creation.

Why Rest is Good

Let’s first look at rest from the perspective that Jesus did it. It says so in Luke 5:16: 

16  But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness to pray. 

It didn’t say he withdrew when he could or had time. Jesus withdrew often. Jesus was always doing something in his ministry. From preaching to the masses and healing people, everyone always wanted something from Jesus. Jesus knew it was beneficial to help people, but even Jesus could only do so much. Jesus had to find time to be by himself to recharge and connect with God. Strength comes from God, and we can only find this by spending time with him. 

How can we do this? Read our scripture and ask God to open our eyes and hearts to his ways. Listen to your favorite worship song and sing until your heart’s content. Talk to God about your day. Give thanks for the good things and ask for help with the things you’re wrestling with. Things like this are ways to connect with God and strengthen our identity with him. 

You may be asking, “Why should we do this?” Let me share with you Exodus 31:17: 

17  It is a permanent sign of my covenant with the people of Israel. For in six days the Lord made heaven and the earth, but on the seventh day, he stopped working and was refreshed.'”

God made a covenant, or a promise, with the people of Israel to remember the Sabbath and make it holy. God wanted them to connect with God at least one day a week after working for six days. It’s a way to refresh our spirits, which leads to better physical, mental, and (obviously) spiritual health. Connecting with God can give us clarity for the week ahead, seeing where we need to spend our energy and how in a way that honors and glorifies God. It allows us to give thanks for what God has done for us, big and small. It’s our time to lift our burdens to him because the Lord of the Sabbath hears our prayers and will never leave us. I know there are many more reasons why we should observe the Sabbath, but I hope this gives you an insight into what it means to observe it. 

The Book of Hebrews also explains why Christians should observe the Sabbath. It’s Hebrews 4:4:

4  We know it is ready because of the place in the Scriptures where it mentions the seventh day: “On the seventh day God rested from all his work.” 

We can read in verses 1-13 about how God’s Sabbath rest is to all believers and what happens to non-believers. The Sabbath rest is a preview of eternal life. We get a taste of what kind of joy this rest brings. It reminds us of how we’ll feel when humanity gets renewed and restored, when sin is no more, and when the world will be perfect again. How can we get to this point? By trusting God to complete the excellent and perfect in us. It involves us leaning into what God’s path is for us and following it. We may not know what that path is or how it will be. We may get uncomfortable and have to step way outside our comfort zone, but this is why we lean into our trust and faith that God knows what he’s doing and that God’s plans will come out for the good of ourselves and the world. 

How Rest Happens

Now, let’s talk about this Sabbath rest from the perspective of the Ten Commandments. Let’s read about it in Exodus 20:8-11: 

8  “Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

9  You have six days each week for your ordinary work,

10  but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work. This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you. 

11  For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath and set it apart as holy.

God wants us to spend this unhurried time resting. We live in a society that is on the go consistently. We feed off caffeine and adrenaline to get our jobs done and ensure that we survive daily. It’s exhausting. God created the Sabbath as a day of rest. We don’t need to feed off caffeine but feast on the Word of God. We don’t need the anxiety of what the day will be like to guide us, but instead, the peace of God directing our steps. This concept may sound unreasonable in our culture today, but we can follow the culture of the world without following the culture of the world. God wants us to follow the culture that God created for us. We need to refresh our spirits to fill our tanks for the week. This concept, in my opinion, is the minimum of what we should do. We shouldn’t just develop this practice on Sundays or whenever we choose to practice Sabbath time. It’s something that we should incorporate into our daily lives. We should find spaces throughout our day that remind us of the Sabbath time and allow us to soak in that time, even if it is just five minutes.

That wraps up this restful discussion. We discussed why rest is good because Jesus did it, God promised it to us, and it gives us a glimpse of eternal life. We also discussed how rest should happen via Moses discussing it with the Ten Commandments. 

Next week, we discuss the creation of Eve in the last part of this series. Until then, stay blessed!