Day Seven: It Is Finished

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.”

Genesis 2:1

“finished” How many times do we begin a project and never finish it—or at least take a very long time to finish it? When God finished His creation, it was done. There was nothing He had forgotten, no final adjustments to be made. When God does His work of redemption in my life, creating in me a new heart—new thoughts and feelings, He doesn’t do a half-way job. “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Phil. 1:6, NKJV. “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: Thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of Thine own hands.” Psalm 138:8. He “is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” Jude 24.

“And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.”

 Genesis 2:2

“on the seventh day God ended his work” This is the first allusion of many in Scripture that associates the number seven with completeness and perfection. This association can be a helpful key for deeper Bible study throughout Scripture.

“he rested on the seventh day” “The Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary” (Isa. 40:28), so this was not the reason He rested after His week of work. He rested because there was no more work to do! It was finished, and He rested in the same way spoken of in Zephaniah 3:17. “The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing.” His rest was a time to savor, to enjoy, the works of His hands. And thus He intends us to keep the day of rest—not to keep it as a work by which we may win His approval, but as a day to savor the wonder of His perfect work—in Creation and in redemption, a day to memorialize His perfect work as opposed to the inherently imperfect works of man.

The Sabbath (Hebrew word for rest) took on an even deeper significance after sin entered the world. For just as God did not rest until He had finished His creation, so He has promised, “For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.” Isa. 62:1. Just as He did a perfect work in Creation, so His work of redemption is perfect and complete. The word of the Lord to Jacob is precious to all the spiritual children of Israel today. “I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” Gen. 28:15.

Truly, on that fateful weekend 4000 years later, when the Creator Incarnate hung upon the cross, the hands that had tenderly formed the delicate features of man now pierced with cruel nails, He had again done a perfect work. He had drunk to the dregs the bitter cup, taken upon Him the full weight of the sins of the world, endured the most awful sense of separation from His Father. But He turned not aside from the heroic work that was necessary to save humanity from the hopelessness of sin. When He had drunk the cup to the last bitter drop, that voice which had pronounced Creation complete uttered the triumphant cry at the completion of Redemption, “It is finished!” The way of salvation was made sure, the plan of salvation complete, “that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.

And just as He did after Creation, our Redeemer rested after His work of redemption was complete—on the same day of the week, the Sabbath. “At last Jesus was at rest. The long day of shame and torture was ended. As the last rays of the setting sun ushered in the Sabbath, the Son of God lay in quietude in Joseph’s tomb. His work completed, His hands folded in peace, He rested through the sacred hours of the Sabbath day.

“In the beginning the Father and the Son had rested upon the Sabbath after Their work of creation. When ‘the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them’ (Genesis 2:1), the Creator and all heavenly beings rejoiced in contemplation of the glorious scene. ‘The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.’ Job 38:7. Now Jesus rested from the work of redemption; and though there was grief among those who loved Him on earth, yet there was joy in heaven. Glorious to the eyes of heavenly beings was the promise of the future. A restored creation, a redeemed race, that having conquered sin could never fall,—this, the result to flow from Christ’s completed work, God and angels saw. With this scene the day upon which Jesus rested is forever linked. For ‘His work is perfect;’ and ‘whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever.’ Deuteronomy 32:4; Ecclesiastes 3:14. When there shall be a ‘restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began’ (Acts 3:21), the creation Sabbath, the day on which Jesus lay at rest in Joseph’s tomb, will still be a day of rest and rejoicing. Heaven and earth will unite in praise, as ‘from one Sabbath to another’ (Isaiah 66:23) the nations of the saved shall bow in joyful worship to God and the Lamb.” Desire of Ages, pg. 769.

“And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”

Genesis 2:3

“And God blessed” When David asked God’s blessing on his posterity, he recognized that the blessing of God is unchanging. “Now therefore let it please Thee to bless the house of Thy servant, that it may be before Thee for ever: for Thou blessest, O Lord, and it shall be blessed for ever.” 1 Chr. 17:27. Balaam, the unwilling spokesman for God, said, “Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and He hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.” Num. 23:20. Though mortal man claim to change the blessing to a different day, God’s blessing on the seventh day remains to this day unchanged; no man can reverse it. From Genesis to Revelation, no change is ever recorded to the blessing God pronounced on the seventh day of Creation week.

“the seventh day” Dictionaries confirm that Sunday is the first day and Saturday is the seventh day of the week, as does the Jews’ continuance to observe Saturday to this day from antiquity. In a vast array of languages, a form of the word sabbath is used for the day we call “Saturday” in English. (See www.sabbathtruth.com for a list of languages.) It was Saturday that God blessed and sanctified (set apart as holy).

Some say that the seventh-day Sabbath was a Jewish ordinance, a “shadow of things to come” (Col. 2:17), that was done away at the cross. (Note: In the Mosaic system, there were other days than the seventh day of the week also designated as “sabbaths” or rest days, which did point to future fulfillment.) However, there are several reasons the Scriptures do not support this idea. First, the Sabbath was originally set apart at the creation week, many hundreds of years before Abraham, the father of the Jewish race. Also, it is evident that the Sabbath was originally set apart as a memorial of something past, not a “shadow of things to come.”

The Sabbath’s context in the moral law as one of the ten commandments is a compelling reason to take a serious look at why it is not being as widely kept today. Most Christians will affirm that the other nine commandments are still binding today.

Many believe that Sunday is now the Sabbath day. However, nowhere does the Bible state that the seventh-day Sabbath, which God instituted at creation, has been changed to a different day of the week. See www.sabbathtruth.com for a historical look at how Sunday keeping replaced Sabbath-keeping. 

“because” Why did God set the seventh day aside as holy? We find two main reasons in Scripture that God gives for why we should keep it. The first is found here in Gen. 3:3 as well as in the fourth commandment in Exo. 20:8, 11. “Because in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.” “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy…. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” It was to be a memorial of Creation—His work, which was so perfect that He could rest and enjoy it (Deu. 32:4).

In Scripture, worship is inseparably linked with Creation. The very fact that God made us obligates us to worship Him. “…worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Rev. 14:7. (See also Psalm 86:8-10.) Any other object of worship (or supreme thought and affection) is an insult to His infinite greatness—especially when that object is our own work! (See Isa. 2:8.) “The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He hath made the earth by his power, He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion.” Jer. 10:11, 12. Consider this thought provoking commentary. “The Sabbath, as a memorial of God’s creative power, points to Him as the maker of the heavens and the earth. Hence it is a constant witness to His existence and a reminder of His greatness, His wisdom, and His love. Had the Sabbath always been sacredly observed, there could never have been an atheist or an idolater.” Patriarchs and Prophets, pg. 336. (See also Ps 78:11, 106:13.)

God gives a second reason to keep the Sabbath, in Exo. 31:13. “Verily My sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” The Sabbath is a reminder that God is the one who sanctifies us (makes us holy). It is therefore a memorial of Redemption as well as of Creation. For He who created us in the beginning has the power to “create in me a clean heart … and renew a right spirit within me.” It is through the Word that spoke at Creation that we are born again and become new creatures. (1 Pet. 1:23, John 17:17. See also Eze. 36:26, 2 Cor. 5:17, Eph. 4:24, Col. 3:10.) As we recall God’s almighty power in nature, especially during the sacred hours of the Sabbath day, let us take courage that He has all power to subdue our natural hearts and transform us anew into His likeness. His work is perfect! (Deu. 32:4, Heb. 13:20, 21.)

Christ summarized the reason God made the Sabbath. “The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.” Mark 2:27. A memorial of Creation and Redemption, the Sabbath was created to preserve a knowledge of God that would be a supreme blessing to mankind.

“and sanctified it” To sanctify means to make holy. Among the Ten Commandments, which God wrote with His own finger in stone, He gives a reminder, as if mankind would forget. “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Exo. 20:8. At Creation God made the seventh day holy, and He instructs us to keep it holy—a memorial of His perfect work. 

“in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made” We have already seen that God did not rest because He was weary (Isa. 40:28), but in order to enjoy the works of His hands. (See Zeph. 3:17.) The Apostle Paul, speaking of the spiritual rest of which the Sabbath is a reminder, says, “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.” Heb. 4:10. Here is a deeper vein of thought into the purpose of the Sabbath. To keep the Sabbath as a work by which we may gain God’s approval is in reality to break the purpose of the Sabbath (Hebrew, “rest”). The purpose of our diligence to cease from labor on that day is to remind us that we cannot depend on our own works, but that God’s work alone is perfect. It is a special opportunity to observe, contemplate, and share together as believers about God’s perfect work in His Creation, as well as His perfect work in Redemption, in which Christ offers to give us His perfect righteousness (right-doing, right works) in place of our own “righteousness,” which is really only as filthy rags. (See Isa. 64:6; Rev. 3:18; 19:8; Phil. 3:9.)

As Paul said, “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief,” speaking of the children of Israel who “could not enter” the Promised Land (a type of “rest”) “because of unbelief.” Heb. 3:19. It seems a conundrum to work to enter into rest. But consider Christ’s words, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” He invites us who labor in our own strength to come to Him and take up His yoke—a symbol of work, yes, but His work, not our own—and thus we shall find rest.

“There remaineth therefore a rest [keeping of a sabbath, margin] to the people of God.” Heb. 4:9.

Extra reading: See www.sabbathtruth.com for biblical answers to common questions about the Sabbath. Also Three Sabbaths by E.J. Waggoner and The Seventh-day Sabbath: A Perpetual Sign by Joseph Bates.

This is an excerpt from my document Personal Observations on the Book of Genesis.