What does the Hebrew verb mean? “Rested” is a word that we could misunderstand. That’s why I am taking a minute or two to explain it. The Hebrew word simply means not to do work. It is a negative connotation primarily; not to do work. And what it is saying is since He had completed the creation, there was nothing for Him to do with regard to the creation. He ceased to work. He ceased to do the work of creation. That’s what it means. And the word is used in those negative ways, even in the Mosaic Sabbath law texts, giving us the idea that the indication, first of all here, is that God was done with His work, and so He didn’t do any further work.
Listen to Exodus 20, Ten Commandments. “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” This is under the Mosaic Law. We will get to that later. “Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it, you shall not do any work.” Verse 11: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them.” And “didn’t work” is literally what it means; did no work on the seventh day. So that the seventh day was rest; not in the sense of replenishing lost energy, but in the sense of not doing any work.
That same idea is also in Exodus 23:12. But there’s something more than that. I don’t want to just leave it at that. There is also a positive effect in that word. It can be used in a positive way. And I want to draw that from Exodus 31 and Verse 17. It says: “In six days the Lord made heaven and earth.” Again, reiterating exactly the same time as Genesis. “Six days the Lord made heaven and earth.” But “on the seventh day,” it says literally in the Hebrew, “He ceased.” He stopped. He stopped creating. He stopped making, “and was refreshed.” Now, that’s an addition. That’s the positive side of it. Now you say well, what do you mean He was refreshed? That sounds, again, like He needed to sort of regain his dissipated energy. Not at all. The idea of that Hebrew word “refreshed” is the idea of satisfaction or delight. It is not to say that the result of God not working was some necessary replenishing of lost energy or strength, not some level of rehabilitation, but the idea of being refreshed or to find delight because of satisfaction. It’s really the response of God to what is stated in Verse 31 that: “He saw everything He made; it was very good.” And as a result of that, he was satisfied. He found joy. He found delight. He found a certain fulfillment, satisfaction of accomplishment; not unlike a master painter when he finishes his masterpiece and steps back to delight in what he has accomplished; not unlike a sculptor who molds the perfect image of a man and steps back, having concluded his work, to enjoy the finished product.
It’s noteworthy, I think — and you need to follow along with this thought — it’s noteworthy that there is no mention of the word “Sabbath” here. Doesn’t occur in Genesis, Chapters 1 and 2, the creation account. No mention of “Sabbath.” That word is not here. And furthermore — I want you to file this — there is nothing said about man resting here. It is not appropriate to inaugurate here in Genesis some rest for man. That is to miss the point here. In fact, man isn’t even mentioned here in connection with this seventh day rest; only God is mentioned. No rest for man is inaugurated here; no Sabbath for man is inaugurated here. That doesn’t come until the Mosaic law.
And I want to take you further into understanding this. When you read this, there is a startling omission here. And sometimes, half the fun in interpreting the Bible is finding what isn’t there. But if you were to read through the six days and read to day seven, what component of the first six days that was there in every single day is not in this discussion of day seven? The little phrase that says what? There was morning and there was evening. It’s not there. It’s not there. It was in every other day; Verse 5, Verse 8, Verse 13, Verse 19, Verse 23, Verse 31. But when you look at the seventh day, you find no such formula. And we might expect and on the Seventh day was evening and morning. But it isn’t there. And you know in any kind of examination of the creation account, you can go into the minutest detail and you find careful, careful accuracy. Great care taken by the Spirit of God in inspiring Moses to write down this description, this historic description of creation. It is a very, very careful account, carefully constructed. And when you see something that is there all the time and is all of a sudden omitted, there must be a reason. There must be a design. This can’t be accidental, because everything in this account is so well thought out and well planned.
What was God endeavoring to say by not saying that? Well, I think it should be obvious, but let me help you with it a little bit. What are we talking about when we talk about God’s rest? That he was tired mentally, tired physically? No. Simply, that He ceased. He ceased creating. And then was, as it were, sitting back and just being satisfied with what he had created. He was enjoying it. He was delighting in it. I mean it was the delight of God to see the work of His hands that had never existed before this time. How refreshing must it have been, how delightful, how well pleased God must have been when he saw the created universe free from sin, free from decay, free from the curse. No death; no decay.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
