READ: Heb. 4:1-13
… Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. – Gen. 2:1-3
God concludes the sixth day with an evaluation of everything He has made: it is very good. Then He gives a special purpose to the seventh day. That day is still part of God’s Creation, because it is not on the sixth day but on the seventh day that God completes His work (vs. 2). That day is, so to speak, the crown of God’s creation. He rests from all His work that He has done. He blesses and sanctifies that day. He sets it apart and imparts sanctifying and blessing powers to it.
God makes this day a true feast in which the created man may partake, a feast of enjoyment and delight. Its purpose is the glorification of the almighty Creator who designed everything in such a way that it was very good.
God’s rest on the seventh day is also intended as rest for the man created by Him as His child (Mark 2:27). That Sabbath rest is mentioned in Heb. 4:9. Through the fall into sin, that rest has been disturbed. The fourth commandment later brings us back to God’s original intent in creation. This commandment also points to the ultimate fulfillment that comes in Christ on the last day (see HC, LD 38). The word Sabbath means “to cease or to rest,” taking a break from work with the purpose of enjoying it.
Heb. 4:9 uses the word “sabbatismos,” which refers to the complete, eternal Sabbath rest, the perfect Sabbath feast in which all the creative and redemptive acts of the Lord God are celebrated. Then, for us, there will be eternal life in glory with and for God, where God will be all in all. Let us remember all of this whenever we rest from our work on Sunday to honor Him.
Does your Sunday occupation align with Genesis 2?
Singing: Ps. 92:1,2