Series: Chaos to Covenant

Title: “Why did God rest on Day 7?"

Scripture: Genesis 2:1-3 NIV

Hebrews 3:7-4:11

Exodus 20:8-11

Phil 2:12-13

Romans 8:28

Bottom line: God rested on day 7 to establish for us a rhythm and posture of rest that comes by grace through faith in Christ alone.

1. INTRODUCTION

2. CONTEXT

3. SERMON OUTLINE

4. CONCLUSION

5. NOTES

6. QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

7. OUTLINES

8. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

9. MAIN REFERENCES USED

INTRODUCTION

Why did God rest on day 7?

I may not know why but I do know this: He didn't rest because he was tired. God is omnipotent or all powerful. He never needs to sleep or rest. He has infinite energy and power. He has no needs including rest.

Graham's newsletter

When I was very young, I thought I was adopted. 

I was very insecure at that age and jealous of my younger brother's attention from parents and strangers. He had red hair with a freckles and was "so cute" (unlike the skinny kid with glasses and buck teeth). I was convinced I looked nothing like my parents (which was true at the time).But, I was definitely treated like a son. I was treated as a member of the family like everyone else. I had privileges and responsibilities. I got to eat and sleep in doors while doing my part with the chores.

Ultimately, I got over my adoption fears because, even if I had been adopted, I was convinced that I was part of the family. You didn't have to convince me because I was dearly loved, protected and provided for. I was disciplined and educated. I was lavished with gifts and encouragement. I was blessed simply because I was a son in the family.

Said another way, when I realized I was a son in the family, I never tried to earn that position or role. I was a son. I learned (eventually) to rest in who I was. A son of Roe and Ruth. Brother to Kent. A Gabriel through and through. 

In a word, I learned to REST in my identity.

Just typing that out fills my eyes with tears of gratitude to God. Rest.

Let's look at Genesis and ask ourselves 2 questions as we do:

1. God, what are you saying to me today?

2. God, what do you want me to do about what you're saying to me today?

CONTEXT

Remember our analogy comparing Genesis 1 and 2? Place-mat map Vs. Rand-McNalley Atlas

SERMON

I. Primeval history (1-11)--God and the world

A. God finished creating (forming and filling) the heavens and the earth. It was very good.

B. God rested or ceased/stopped his creative work on day 7

1. Not because he was tired

2. Because he was finished

1. Very good--no evil, suffering, or death

2. Complete not lacking anything

3. To give us an example of how to rest

1. Through a rhythm

2. Through a posture

C.  God established the sabbath rest as law for the new nation of Israel. This established rest as a rhythm to be observed.

D. God points to the ultimate sabbath rest by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

1. Hebrews 3:7-4:11 we see the connection to salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. This established rest as a posture.

1. From Willmington:

1. "3:7-19 "Don't let this happen to you." Though God led Israel out of Egypt, their constant rebellion caused him to swear that they "will never enter my place of rest," meaning that the generation that began the journey would not see Canaan (see exposition on Num. 14:10-38 and on Josh. 1:12-18).

2. We should be careful, and remind each other daily, not to harden our hearts and miss God's eternal Sabbath rest (see exposition on 4:1-11).

3. 4:1-11 Enter his rest today! God's offer of rest began far before the days of Moses (4:4), and the offer is still good today (4:1, 9-11; see Matt. 11:28). We need only accept it through faith (4:2-3, 9-10). Even the rest achieved by those who entered Canaan under Joshua was only temporary, as seen by the psalmist's reference, years later, to God's rest as something yet to come (see 3:15; 4:3, 8; Ps. 95:6-11). The word rest occurs repeatedly throughout 3:11-4:11:

1. Lack of faith kept Israel from God's rest (3:11, 18; 4:11).

2. Lack of faith will keep Christians from God's rest (4:1).

3. Faith will give us God's rest, which involves our "finding rest" from our "labors," by which we may have tried to earn salvation (4:9-10).

II. Patriarchal history (12-50)--God and Abraham's family

CONCLUSION

Graham's newsletter (missionaries to East Asia we've been supporting for many years)

"Prayer & Update for our family:

In our last newsletter, I mentioned being in the clinical training portion of my counseling degree program. I have been working as a student/intern counselor in a clinical practice since January and will continue through August.

In all sincerity, these past five months have probably been the busiest our family ever has been, with hardly any margin whatsoever.

We knew this season was going to be a tough one. The clinical experience l am gaining has been incredible and invaluable. But it feels like every minute of every day is spoken for and allocated for a specific purpose. I'm behind in almost every area of life.

Living this way has made me treasure the Sabbath each week. As best we can, we do a little straightening late Saturday afternoon to help give the house a sabbath rest. I give my computer a sabbath rest by shutting it down (all the way down) around dusk on Saturday. When I pray for the kids that evening we express thankfulness that we can rest and don't have to work or go to school on Sunday. We ourselves try to cease from the striving, performing, accomplishing (and hurrying) that characterize the other six days of the week.

Some weeks have not been pretty, but we're making it one step forward at a time... and now that June is here, this harried season will come to a close in just a few more months. It doesn't mean we're out of the woods quite yet, but hopefully we'll be through the hardest part of the journey. All this hard work means l've been able to stay on track to graduate May 2025, less than a year away!"

Bottom line: God rested on day 7 to establish for us rest as a rhythm and a posture. These both come when we trust and follow the Lord in all of life.

Applications:

1. Rest as a rhythm.

2. Rest as a posture.

Invitation

““Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.””

-Jesus in Matthew‬ ‭11‬:‭28‬-‭30‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Bottom line:

1. What is God saying to me right now?

2. What am I going to do about it? Write this down on a sheet of paper.

What I hear you saying, Lord, is ___________________.

[my name] is going to believe/do __________________________________________________ as a result.

Finally, share this with your Home or Mission group this week when you gather as a testimony about what God is doing in your life. You don’t have to get too specific to give him praise.

Pray

NOTES

From Wilmington's Bible Handbook:

"What does 1:1 Say to those who interpret reality apart from a personal, infinite God?

• To the atheist it says that Creation was the work of God.

• To the polytheist it says there is only one God.

• To the pantheist it says that God is apart from and independent of his creation.

• To the evolutionist it says that the universe was created and did not evolve.

• To the materialist it says that matter is not eternal but was itself created.

• To the existentialist it says creation has a purpose." P. 4

It's primeval history (universal world history) of the world (universe) made up of 5 stories with the same structure. (1-11)

• The Fall

• Cain

• Sons of God marrying daughters of man

• The Flood

• Tower of Babel

• They all follow this 4-fold pattern:

• Sin: the sin is described

• Speech: There is a speech by God announcing the penalty for the sin

• Grace: God brings grace to the situation to ease the misery due to sin

• Punishment: God punishes the sin

Patriarchal history (12-50) or the history of Israel's founding fathers. It continues to reveal the many graces of God based on the gracious promise God made to and through Abraham in Genesis 12:3.

"There's only one way fallen humanity can be saved--the Genesis way--by faith. There has never been another way." -Hughes

Who wrote Genesis? According the Old and New Testaments, Moses c. 15th century BC. Jesus confirms this, with the exception of Genesis. The religious leaders of Jesus' day credited Moses with writing it (Luke 20:28) and early Jewish writers viewed Moses as the author of all 5 books.

During his years in the Egyptian royal family, Moses could have become a skilled writer and historian as the Egyptians were quite advanced and he'd have had access to top tutors. He was, after all, a prince of Egypt.

Moses would have been an eye-witness and contemporary to all that happened and was recorded in Exodus-Deuteronomy. However, not so for Genesis. So how did he write this?

God gave it all to him.

Passed down orally.

Passed down in writing.

Any of these would make Moses an editor or compiler of ancient history from Adam to his day around after he led Israel out of Egypt in and through the wilderness enroute to the Promise Land.

Abraham c. 2,000 BC

End of Genesis c. 1,800 BC

Exodus c. 1,500 BC (1.440s) after 400 years in Egypt

Truths to note

• God existed and exists eternally

• God exists in plural unity as the Holy Trinity

• God was in the beginning

• God was before anything existed in our universe and the universe itself

• God created everything that exists in the universe and the universe itself

• God creates something from nothing Latin ex nihilo

• An atheist scientist came to God and said, “We’ve figured out how to make a man without you.” God said, “OK, let me see you do it.” So the atheist bent down to the ground and scooped up a handful. But God stopped him and said, “Oh, no you don’t. Get your own dirt!”

• God creates with words. He spoke creation into existence. His words still have power.

• God creates purposefully for his glory and our good.

• God starts with light to display his creation and provide an essential ingredient for life.

• God only creates things that are good. Together it was all very good and will be again.

• God is a God of order and moves from chaos to order.

• Elohim (gods) intensifies God's divine majesty, when used as a noun. When used as a verb, it's singular for there is only one true God.

• God created all things. "Heavens and earth"

• God created an "open" universe, not a "closed" one where he never interacts

Notes from Bible Project Videos

1-11 God and the world

12:3 Hinge verse

12-50 God and Abraham's family

Disorder --> Order

Adam = human

Humanity created to:

1. Reflect God's character (image)

2. Represent God's rule (reign)

3. Harness creation's potential and create beauty and order

"Blessing" is a key word here

Choice: Tree of knowledge of good and evil

1. Trust God's definition of good and evil, or

2. Seize autonomy and define good and evil for themselves?

Serpent (against God) tells a different story. He lies when he tells them that if they eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they will be like God. Because they already are like God (made in his image).

Heavens and earth aka skies and land

Formless and empty aka wild and waste

Deep abyss = dark, chaotic ocean

Days 1-3 God splits apart and forms this disordered waste into 3 ordered realms:

1. Realm: Time. God splits darkness and light on Day 1.

2. Realm: Sky & Seas. God splits the waters into water canopy or clouds (or both) and sea on Day 2.

3. Realm: Land. God brings land out of water and includes vegetation on it on Day 3.

Days 4-6 God

1. Day 4 brings lights--sun, moon and stars to reflect his light in space.

2. Day 5 brings creations to fill the sky and sea

3. Day 6 brings land animals and humanity to fill the land.

First poem in the Bible (1:27) celebrates God's creation where he completed the skies, land and inhabitants. God completes and rests and dwells in this sacred space he treats as a temple. The world or at least the garden of Eden is his temple.

Notes from Bethencourt

Outline for Genesis 1-2:3

Main idea: "God establishes his kingdom by speaking the universe into existence. He designs creation to reflect his glory and goodness as humanity takes leadership over it."

Some of his introductory thoughts...

• Main character of Genesis and the Bible is God himself.

• It reveals his goodness and his glorious purpose and person.

• The goodness of God includes both the physical and the spiritual.

• Genesis demonstrates God's authority over creation.

• Genesis demonstrates God's creativity in creation too.

• Age of the earth approaches can be diverse without Christians breaking fellowship over. That said, 3 non-negotiables are central to Christian doctrine of creation:

• 1- "Sound doctrine must recognize the VIRGIN BIRTH of creation, acknowledging that God creates ex nihilism. Before he speaks the universe into being, there is nothing in existence other than God."

• 2- "Such a doctrine must affirm the VIRTUOUS BIRTH of creation, that is, the goodness of all creation before the fall. Genesis 1 repeatedly declares that what God makes is 'good.'"

• 3- "Sound doctrine must affirm the VERIFIED 'BIRTH' of a historical, literal Adam. As Jesus affirms in the Gospels, there is one man, created by God, from whom the entire human race descends (see Acts 17:26 where Paul makes this statement to the Athenians)."

• Moses is the writer and editor while God is the author.

• Moses gives us a summary overview of how it all came to being.

• "Most 'creation' narratives from the ancient Near East assumed the universe itself had always existed." In fact, until relatively recently, our own scientists believed this until they discovered the "Big Bang" based on infrared light readings and such.

Outline for Genesis 1-2:3 (Bethancourt)

Main idea: "God establishes his kingdom by speaking the universe into existence. He designs creation to reflect his glory and goodness as humanity takes leadership over it."

IV. God FINISHES the Created Kingdom (2:1-3)

A. God finishes with his own rest.

B. The climax of the creation story is rest.

C. Creation is completed and lacks nothing. God accomplishes what he sets out to do.

D. Rest

1. God celebrates his completion of creation by resting in it, blessing it, and declaring it holy. It is his temple.

2. After the Fall, Jesus rebuilds the temple through his death, burial and resurrection ultimately restoring all things in the new heavens and the new earth.

3. Genesis 2 beings by declaring creation completed. In other words, God looks at his creation and says, "It is finished."

4. Jesus echoes these words on the cross just before he dies.

E. The Sabbath (though the word doesn't appear in Genesis 1 or 2) establishes a pattern

1. The sabbath (meaning cease or stop) is CREATED as God rests on the 7th day

2. CORRUPTED by sin in our human rebellion

3. COMMANDED for Israel as part of the law to observe weekly

4. CONFIRMED in Jesus' life as he honors it as the Lord of the sabbath

5. COMPLETED in Jesus' resurrection as he, per Heb 4, becomes our sabbath rest

6. CONVERTED in the early church as Christians move it to Sunday as a nod to the resurrection and to distinguish themselves from Judaism

7. CULMINATED in the new creation as we experience eternal sabbath rest in Jesus Christ

See D. J. A. Clines, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, No. 38 (1976), pp. 487, 488. Clines explains that Gerhard Von Rad initially observed a pattern of sin, mitigation, and punishment. Then Claus Westermann discerned another element, that of divine speech. Though he did not include it in the pattern, Clines does. Thus the following chart:

I.

II.

III.

IV.

SIN

SPEECH

GRACE

PUNISHMENT

1. FALL

3:6

3:14-19

3:21

3:22-24

1. CAIN

4:8

4:10-12

4:15

4:16

1. SONS OF GOD

6:2

6:3

6:8, 18ff

7:6-24

1. FLOOD

6:5, 11f

6:7, 13-21

6:8, 18ff

11:8

1. BABEL

11:4

11:6f

10:1-32

11:8

Preach the Word, Genesis, Kent Hughes, chapter 1, note 3, p. 625

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

1. Who is God?

2. What has he done/is he doing/is he going to do?

3. Who am I? (In light of 1 & 2)

4. What do I get to do? (In light of who I am)

5. How do I do it?

Let’s ask some summary sermon questions:

Q. What do I want them to know?

A.

Q. Why do I want them to know it?

A.

Q. What do I want them to do about it?

A.

Q. Why do I want them to do it?

A.

Q. How can they begin to do this?

A.

OUTLINES

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Discovery Bible Study process: https://www.dbsguide.org/

1. Read the passage together.

2. Retell the story in your own words.

3. Discovery the story

1. What does this story tell me about God?

2. What does this story tell me about people?

3. If this is really true, what should I do?

4. What is God saying to you right now? (Write this down)

5. What are you going to do about it? (Write this down)

6. Who am I going to tell about this?

Find our sermons, podcasts, discussion questions and notes at https://www.gracetoday.net/podcast

Alternate Discussion Questions (by Jeff Vanderstelt): Based on this passage:

1. Who is God?

2. What has he done/is he doing/is he going to do?

3. Who am I? (In light of 1 & 2)

4. What do I do? (In light of who I am)

5. How do I do it?

Final Questions (Write this down)

• What is God saying to you right now?

• What are you going to do about it?

MAIN REFERENCES USED

“Genesis,” by R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word Commentary, Edited by Kent Hughes

Exalting Jesus in Genesis, by Bethancourt

The Genesis Record, by Henry Morris

The Genesis Factor, by David Helms & Jon Dennis

“Look at the Book” by John Piper (LATB)

“The Bible Knowledge Commentary” by Walvoord, Zuck (BKC)

“The Bible Exposition Commentary” by Warren Wiersbe (BEC)

Outline Bible, D Willmington (OB)

Willmington’s Bible Handbook, D Willmington (WBH)

NIV Study Bible (NIVSB) https://www.biblica.com/resources/scholar-notes/niv-study-bible/

Chronological Life Application Study Bible (NLT)

ESV Study Bible (ESVSB) https://www.esv.org

The Bible Project https://bibleproject.com

“The Bible in One Year 2023 with Nicky Gumbel” bible reading plan on YouVersion app (BIOY)

Claude.ai