Let’s open our Bibles to the second chapter of Genesis tonight. Let me read the opening three verses, Genesis 2. “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 His work which He had done. “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
The creation account thus closes, that initial account that unfolds in Chapter 1, more details of that — of elements of that creation, namely, the creation of man are expanded in Chapter 2. But the creation itself, the primary account itself, ends with those words; a reference to the seventh day. The seventh day is mentioned three times in those Verses I just read to you. It is mentioned because it is important. It is mentioned three times because it is important.
The seventh day is unique. It has incomparable significance, indicated also by the fact that this is the first time the word “holy” is used in scripture. The Hebrew word “kedesh,” translated “sanctified” in Verse 3, is the word “holy.” The root meaning of “kedesh,” holy in the form of “kedesh,” the root, is thought to mean to be cut off or to separate. And holiness, “kedosha,” is elevation or exaltation above the usual level.
So the seventh day is a special day. It is a day set apart. It is a day cut off from the other days and elevated. It is a day lifted up. It is a day exalted. The Hebrew use — I will get a little technical here for those of you that care — the Hebrew use of the stem called “pl,” which is a title used for some Hebrew stems, indicates causation. That is to say; He made this day holy. The verb form is also what we call declarative in the Hebrew, which indicates He then declared it to be holy. He made it specially to be holy, and then He declared it to be holy. So it is doubly set apart by His making or design and by His declaration.
It is then a very, very unique day. None of the other six days is so identified and set apart as holy or sanctified, as exalted and lifted up above the others; a very unique day. Now, there are three reasons why it is unique, and those three reasons are indicated by three verbs in this passage. The verb “completed,” you see it there in Verse 1, you see it again in Verse 2; the verb “rested,” you see that in Verse 2 and again in Verse 3; and the verb “blessed.”
It became a sanctified day. It became a holy day. It became an exalted day. It became an elevated day for the three reasons; that it signified that God completed, God rested and God blessed. Each of those three verbs, by the way, is associated with the seventh day explicitly. Verse 2, the seventh day, God “completed.” Verse 2 again, He “rested” on the seventh day. Verse 3, He “blessed” the seventh day. So in each case the verb is tied explicitly to that seventh day, which is mentioned three times.
Also, each of those three verbs is associated with the work of God. Verse 2, “God completed His work which He had done.” Verse 2 again, “He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” Verse 3, “God blessed the seventh day,” because in it “He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
So the pattern of the structure here is very simple. This is a sanctified day. This is a holy day. This is a set apart day. This is a unique day, for the reasons that it marks out God had completed His work, rested from His work and blessed this unique day.
Now, let’s just take those three for a moment and look at them. The first one is “completed.” Verses 1 and 2 indicate the uniqueness of this day is connected to the fact that God completed creation. Verse 1: “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts.” “By the seventh day, God completed His work which He had done.” It is clear by the language here that the entire work of creation was completed — that’s what the Hebrew term means. The entire work of God was completed. So that on the seventh day, it had been already completed and God rested. That is again to reiterate that creation was finished at the end of day six; finished in six 24-hour days. Since that time, there has been no other creation; no creation after that. It was completed. The heavens were completed. The earth was completed. And “all their hosts” simply means everything in the heavens and everything in the earth.
Now, a couple of weeks ago I mentioned to you how important it is to consider your options when you consider the completion of creation.
Option number one, you will remember, is materialistic evolution. That is the option that believes that there is no such thing as creation and there is no God who is creator. In fact, materialistic evolution believes that the entire universe as it now exists came into existence out of nothing. Somehow, there appeared out of nothing, something; in a primordial slime through billions of years mutated into the intricate, complex and vast universe of today.
The second option is what’s called theistic evolution, which believes that God does exist as the original mind and the original power who launched and punctuated with creative acts the process of evolution, process of evolution going on with some divine assistance.
The third possibility is divine creation, which affirms that the eternal God — all wise, all powerful, without the aid of any evolution — made the universe completely as it is now in six days, after which all creation was completed.
Nothing new has been created since then in the time-space world. There are no other options. And we have been learning in our series that the first option can’t be true because evolution is impossible. It cannot happen. It is an impossibility. Random chance cannot result in anything. Nobody times nothing cannot equal everything. The system of life, DNA, the information encoded in genetic structure in every living cell, prevents evolution, because DNA only allows a living entity to be what it is and nothing more. And when change does occur, it is inferior rather than superior, because something has gone wrong in that system. Random chance evolution is an utter impossibility.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”