Sermon Tone Analysis

Genesis 2:1‑3

The Seventh Day

 

/Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.

/

/By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.

And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done/.

| R |

est is such a necessary part of human life that we cannot help but wonder what is meant when we read in the sacred text that God rested.

What can the Spirit mean?

Did God close His eyes and fall asleep?

Was the world unattended while He napped?

Should we think that He took a holiday in order to refresh Himself in mind and in body?

Was His new creation at the mercy of the moment?

Was the universe subject to serendipity as God rested?

Of course the foregoing suggestions are patently silly.

Whatever may be meant by the revelation that God rested, we may be confident that His rest has a profound effect on man, for God blessed that day in which He rested.

Whenever God blesses, man is the beneficiary.

T/he Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath/ [cf.

*Mark 2:27*] according to Jesus’ words.

This must mean that the Sabbath is to bless and not to burden man.

The Seventh Day is frequently referred to as the *Sabbath Day*—a term which unfortunately carries negative connotations for many of us.

Whenever I speak of the Sabbath there is no question but that some visualise a dull day of inactivity in which grandpa nods off before a family Bible whilst children sit quietly and parents cease all activity save for that which is absolutely necessary.

It was not that many years past that the Sabbath meant that anything resembling fun was off-limits.

That such was undeniably the case in far too many instances cannot be denied.

Permit me to say very clearly that *Sunday* is not the *Sabbath*, nor is it even the Christian Sabbath.

The day on which most Christians gather to worship the Risen Lord is the first day of the week, the day on which Jesus broke the bonds of death and forever freed us from the fear of the tomb [see *Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1*].

Since that glorious resurrection we have known the first day of the week as the *Lord’s Day* [cf.

*Revelation 1:10*].

This is the day on which the early church met to worship by observing the *Continuing Ordinance* [see *Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2*].

With the exception of but few professing Christians, the first day of the week is set aside as the *Lord’s Day* and we gather to worship Christ the Risen Lord of Glory.

Thus the *Sabbath* is distinct from the *Lord’s Day* and the two concepts should not be confused.

This does not change the fact that many have misunderstood the *Sabbath*.

This institution seems to have been a day particularly marked out for the people of God.

Certainly the institution of the day goes back as far as the Exodus from Egypt and the *Sabbath* marks the lives of those freed from Egyptian bondage.

Though we who are freed from the Law by the death and resurrection of Christ the Lord are no longer required to keep the Sabbath, the concept antedates the Law and is found subsequent to the Law as a Christian concept.

To understand this concept, then, we must understand the roots of the *Sabbath* and grasp the significance of God’s blessing on the seventh day.

The Seventh Day Marked a Completion — /By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing/.

God completed all His work of creating in six days and the completed work is marked by this seventh day.

You have no doubt noticed by now that the seventh day differs from all the other days in the account.

For instance, there is no introductory formula provided for this seventh day.

In the other instances you will observe the words, then God said.

God’s creative word is no longer required by this seventh day.

You will no doubt remember that the establishment of the Sabbath, as given to us in the version of the Ten Commandments found in Exodus, is related to Creation.

/Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.

Six days you shall labour 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, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.

For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day.

Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy/ [*Exodus 20:8-11*].

According to this account the Sabbath is clearly dependent upon the fact that God rested following the Creation.

The covenant purposes of God for His people are rooted in the creative purposes of God for this world.

God's creative purposes and His covenanted love belong together.

This is part of what the Sabbath tells us.

/Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy/… /in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth… he rested on the seventh day/.

These words mark a divine rhythm seen throughout the Creation account.

This is a pattern of universal significance.

This is not just a special rule for God’s people, linking what they learned back to creation.

The seventh day stands outside the paired days of creation, having no corresponding day in the foregoing creation week.

The literary pattern of six plus one is designed to highlight the seventh day.

Lastly, this day alone is blessed.

The completion of the task points to the rest which would normally be expected.

Save for the meanest of slaves, the completion of a task indicates rest from the labour which was necessitated by the task.

This day is set apart by not having the closing refrain evening and morning to indicate its termination.

It would appear that the plan of God seems to have been that His creation would enjoy a perpetual rest following this day, but that rest was interrupted by sin.

The term designating this day/ /(/seventh day/) is repeated three times and twice more by the pronoun /it/.

The author of the Hebrew letter interprets God’s Sabbath rest as an event which begins with the completion of the first six days of creation and continues to the present.

/Since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.

Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,/

/“So I declared on oath in my anger,/

/‘They shall never enter my rest.’”/

/And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world.

For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.”

And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”/

/It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience.

Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before:/

/“Today, if you hear his voice,/

/do not harden your hearts.”/

/For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.

Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience/ [*Hebrews 4:1-11*].

God’s invitation is for His people to share in His fellowship rest.

Because of disobedience, the Psalmist states that the fathers could not enjoy God’s Promised Land.

/Today, if you hear his voice, /

/do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, /

/as you did that day at Massah in /

/the desert, /

/where your fathers tested and tried me, /

/though they had seen what I did.

/

/For forty years I was angry with that generation; /

/I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, /

/and they have not known my ways.”

/

/So I declared on oath in my anger, /

/    “They shall never enter my rest.”/

[*Psalm 95:8–11*]

 

Nevertheless, the invitation to enjoy God’s rest remains—which is why readers are urged not to fail to receive it through disobedience.

Instead, with confidence we are to approach the throne of God’s mercy where we will /find grace to help us in our time of need/ [*Hebrews 4:16*].

Through the mercy and grace of God which is extended us in Christ Jesus our Lord, we enjoy fellowship with God and enter His rest.

Our Sabbath rest is the opportunity God gives us to share His delight.

Human life is meant to include more than labour, more than the struggle for the appropriate stewardship of the world, more than the reforming of society.

The six plus one alternation of work and rest is not the rhythm of work plus recovery so as to be able to go back to work.

It is a rhythm of engagement with the world in work, and then thankful enjoyment of the world in worship.