On day seven God rested from all the work He had made.
Did God rest because He needed to? Was He worn out from all the strain of making everything that exists? Why did He rest? Was it for religious purpose? Is it a demand for us to rest?
God does not need the things that we do. He does not tire. The work of creation for Him was no big deal at all, He simply spoke all into existence. The rest was not a religious thing for Him, He is God.
Many things have been made out of God resting on the seventh day! There are those who have concluded that to do anything on the Sabbath is a sin worthy of death. There are those who have concluded that the seventh day is no different from any other day. I would point out at this moment that God did not tell Adam and Eve that the seventh day was any different from any other. The only instructions that God had given to them were:
- Have lots of children. (Gen 1:28)
- Rule the earth and all it’s moving inhabitants. (Gen 1:28)
- Eat and enjoy all the wonderful things that God had made for them. (Gen 1:28-30)
- Do not eat this one fruit at the centre of the garden.(Gen 2:17)
I see no mention to them to rest on the seventh day. Is it important then? If it weren’t important then God would not have mentioned it. I think though it is more for our benefit than for Adam and Eve at the time. Their whole life was to be involved with God, they would meet and talk with him all the time, face to face. They had no heavy work load. They were to enjoy God and all He had made for them. That is what God created mankind for.
Later on when God would deliver the Law to Moses, he required that His people rest on the seventh day. This was implemented to give them time to put down their work that consumed them and focus on, and Praise God for the things He had done, for the things He had given them, for the delivery from bondage that He did. Of course in true human fashion we have taken this privilege, to rest, and made it a burden. We set hard fast rules of what we can and can’t do on the seventh day, and then struggle to keep those rules, and struggle to justify why we break them. We get so focused on the rules that we forget to praise God on that day of rest. In fact the head of the Jewish religion in the time of Christ were most offended by the miracles that Jesus did on the seventh day. He broke their rules of the Sabbath, doing things that only God can do.
God rested from the work that He had done. Yes we should too. But rest, don’t make it a burden. God is a liberal God. He gives us all things liberally and He’d like us to rest one day of the week to reflect on His liberality toward us. No more than that. Happy resting!