“Grow” Series articles are not expositions. They are efforts to take one aspect of the passage and expound on its application for us today. Join the study for a more in-depth conversation!
Genesis 1-2:3
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The first verse in Genesis chapter 1 tells us exactly where the author intends to go with his story, a story of origin––how did we get here and why are we here?
Throughout the chapter God is the main character––making, speaking, positioning, seeing, blessing, and resting. Every piece of the story contributes to the reality that God is a purposeful, sovereign, and sole creator.
These details alone would have been astounding to the original audience who had recently spent generations under slavery and pagan worship in Egypt and at the time Moses was writing Genesis, wandering in the wilderness. A people lost, broken, weary, and longing. Moses swoops in with a penetrating story––the one, true, sovereign God created everything and everyone, and had a purpose for them.
A Place for Rest
As you read Genesis 1, it’s clear that the pinnacle of creation is humanity. Days one, two, and three parallel the fourth, fifth, and sixth. God prepared a place–the land, the sea, day, night, and vegetation––so that his living creatures had everything they needed to live well and abundantly.
As God forms man, something changes in the plot. A unique, special blessing is bestowed on humanity––the image of God (vv. 26-27). We are made to mirror God’s character, to be his vicegerents on earth, having dominion over the earth and beasts of the field, and reflecting God’s trinitarian community, love, rule, kindness, goodness, patience, intellect, etc. It was “very good.”
Though humanity is the pinnacle of creation, it is not the climax of the story.
The story pivots in 2:2, “God finished his work that he had done, and he rested.”
Until this point, God had been creating/making/forming/setting, and now, he rested. A drastic change in the account and therefore the climax. This “rest” is what creation leads up to.
God resting is not an afterthought of creation, it’s a part of God’s ordering (the 7th day). It’s as if God steps back and says, “it is finished. All that I have made is sufficient, and now, it will be enjoyed.”
Rest, in other words, is dwelling with God––at peace with him and living according to his design.
A Chase for Rest
This rest becomes an important motif for redemption. As we turn the pages in our origin story, Genesis 3 shows a disruption and destruction of the world God designed. And so, we begin a chase to return to this place of rest.
After hearing the blueprint for rest in Genesis, Israel receives the Sabbath commandment in Exodus 20: “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work.”
The practice of intentionally remembering who God is and what he has done for them was available, although true rest wasn’t. Amidst the command for Sabbath were 9 other commands. All ten were considered the “law of Moses” that Israel was given to keep: “if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (19:5-6).”
So, although Israel would “rest” on the 7th day in remembrance of their Lord God, they were still in a very real sense “laboring” to rest with God. They were not yet at peace with God, but instead, laboring via the law to receive justification.
An Accomplishment of Rest
How, then, does humanity and creation achieve this long awaited return? By nothing of our own accord.
Hebrews 10:12 tells us “when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.”
Like God in the beginning, “sitting down” on day 7 because his work was finished, so too the Son of God, our Messiah, sits down because his work of atonement was complete.
Jesus accomplished our return to sabbath rest through his death and resurrection because our atonement, justification, and salvation were all purchased on the cross.
A passage earlier in Hebrews draws this out, “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his (v. 9-10).”
Through Jesus, we can enjoy peace with God again––today in part, and one day in full:
“Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21:3-5)
