When He saw pristine blue skies sparkling with diamond stars; the brilliant, blazing sun; when he saw crystal clear waters without any kind of pollution; when He saw a world with no death; when He saw shining white sands and magnificent, colorful flowers; stately trees; forming the stage, as it were, for birds and fish and animals cavorting all over his created earth without fear. And how much God must have delighted when He walked through the garden in fellowship with man, with Adam and the wife he made for him named Eve. What a delight it must have been! And God must have delighted in the fact that everything that man needed had been provided for him. Everything necessary was there for the happiness of Adam and Eve. And this was the seventh day. But the reason it doesn’t say “evening” and “morning” is because that didn’t end in 24 hours, did it? It didn’t end. In fact, God’s delight wouldn’t end until when? Sin came.
That one day, that seventh day, inaugurated some period of time in which God delighted in a world that sparkled with pure life; in a world which enjoyed the presence of God and a man and his wife in open fellowship with their creator; sin and its resulting curse still unknown. There was no more creation work to do. There was no work of preserving all of this, because it wasn’t prone to decay. And so we could say that on day seven, God entered into a permanent state of rest, at least, permanent until sin.
The conditions and characteristics then of that seventh day were designed by God to continue. And they would have continued, had it not been for the sin of Adam and Eve. It was not God’s design that they would eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and bring a curse. It wasn’t God who prompted them to do that and destroy their paradise. The entrance of sin devastated Eden’s perfection. As the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 59:2: “Your sins, your inequities have made a separation between you and your God.”
The seventh day — listen — had an evening and a morning because the cycle of days began in creation. But the seventh day, 24-hour period, only inaugurated that period of time after God’s having created, in which he delighted. We don’t know how long that was, because we don’t know how long it was until man sinned.
Summarizing God’s rest then, it was an ongoing rest. He was delighting in the satisfaction of the goodness of what He had made in all its pristine perfection. It was characterized by His delight and His satisfaction. He enjoyed perfect fellowship with Adam and Eve. And I remind you again: The seventh day of rest in Genesis had nothing to do with man. God didn’t say to Adam and Eve now you folks, every time the seventh day rolls around, do this. There is no command for man to rest on the seventh day. There is no command for Adam to do that after the fall. God doesn’t say okay, now that you’re fallen, you can only work six days and take one off. That is not in Genesis. There is no Sabbath rule given here. There is no Sabbath rule given in the Abrahamic covenant. You come into Chapter 12 and the following chapters and you have the rehearsal of the Abrahamic covenant, God’s first, great covenant with Israel. And there is no discussion of any Sabbath; there’s no discussion of any single day. And that, by the way, was a covenant of promise, a covenant of blessing. So when you look at the seventh day here, what you are seeing is a day related to God. He ceased from his work, and He delighted in what He had made.
The third verb that I would draw to your attention connected with the seventh day and with the cessation of God’s work is in Verse 3. And it says “God blessed that day” or “God hallowed” the day. In other words, God identified it with some — some unique, holy character. Now the question is immediately asked: What does that mean? What does it mean He “hallowed” it?
Well, let me tell you what I believe that means. I believe God set it aside as a memorial. That’s right. I believe he set it aside as a memorial, as a remembrance. All of creation occurred in one six-day period, not billions and billions and billions of years. All of creation occurred in six days. And then on the seventh day, God took that day and said I am going to bless this day; I’m going to pull this day apart; I’m going to lift it up; I’m going to elevate it, and set it apart as a reminder that in six days I created the universe. It didn’t evolve; it isn’t evolving. It is not randomly creating itself. God said the creation was done, and I set apart the seventh day to be a day in which you will acknowledge that creation was done.
I really believe that what God was inaugurating as far as we’re concerned when it says He blessed it, what God was inaugurating as far as we’re concerned is the blessing of the seventh day was to establish that day as a reminder of God as creator. I don’t think it has anything to do with Mosaic Sabbath law. You can’t find that here. You can’t read that in here, legitimately. You know, I have done a lot of reading on the subject of time and all of that. And there is no rational reason, no philosophical reason, no mathematical reason, no scientific reason, for weeks. Why in the world do we occupy our lives in weeks? Why seven days? Nobody in their right mind would purposely divide 365 days into sevens. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. That’s why some months have 30 days, some months have 31 days, and February has alternate days, depending on whether it’s leap year. Why all that? Because you can’t divide 365 by seven.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
