Arthur W. Pink

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. 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 2:2-3

This passage records the institution of the Sabbath.¹ Lest any should wish to cavil² because the word sabbath is not found in Genesis 2:2-3, we call attention to the fact that in Exodus 20:11 Jehovah Himself expressly terms that first “seventh day” the “sabbath day”: “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 hallowed³ it.”

The second chapter of Genesis opens with the words, “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” And then, the very next thing we read of is the institution of the Sabbath rest. Thus, to institute the Sabbath was God’s first act after the earth had been made fit for human habitation! Let us now point out four things in connection with this first Scripture in which the Sabbath is referred to.

1. The primal⁴ Sabbath was a rest day. Emphasis is laid upon this feature by the repetition in thought that is found in the two parts of Genesis 2:2. First, on the seventh day, “God ended his work which he had made”; second, “And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.” Therefore, the prime element and basic truth connected with the Sabbath is rest. Before raising the question as to why God “rested,” let us offer a few words upon the nature of His rest.

It has been said repeatedly by a certain class of expositors⁵ that this rest of God consisted of His satisfaction in the work of His hands, that it was God looking out in complacency over His fair creation. But, we are told that this “rest” of God did not last for long: it was rudely broken by the entrance of sin; and ever since man fell [into sin,] God has been “working,” John 5:17 being appealed to in proof. That such a definition of the “rest” of God in Genesis 2:2 should have been received by a large number of the Lord’s people, only goes to show how few of them ever do much thinking or studying for themselves. It also proves how the most puerile⁶ interpretations of Scripture are likely to be accepted, providing they are made by reputable teachers, who on other matters are worthy of respect. Finally, it demonstrates what a real need there is for every one of us to humbly, prayerfully, and diligently bring everything we read and hear to a rigid examination in the light of Holy Scripture.

That God’s “rest” in Genesis 2:2 was not the complacence of the Creator prior to the entrance of sin is unequivocally⁷ evidenced by the fact that Satan had fallen before the time contemplated in that verse. How could God look abroad upon creation with divine contentment when the highest creature of all had become the basest and blackest of sinners? How could God find satisfaction in all the works of His hands when the anointed cherub had apostatized,⁸ and in his rebellion had dragged down with him “the third part” of the angels (Rev 12:4)? No, this is manifestly untenable.⁹ Some other definition of God’s “rest” must therefore be sought.

Now, we need to pay very close attention to the exact wording here (as everywhere). Genesis 2:2 does not say (nor does Exodus 20:10) that God rested from all work, for that was not true. Genesis 2:2 is careful to say, “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.” And this brings out and calls attention to the basic feature and primal element in the Sabbath: it is a resting from the activities commonly pursued during the six working days. But the Sabbath day is not appointed as a day for the cessation of all activities—to remain in bed and sleep through that day would not be spending the Sabbath as God requires it to be spent…What we now press upon the reader is the fact that, according to Genesis 2:2, the Sabbath rest consists of resting from the labors of the working week.

Genesis 2:2 does not state that on the seventh day God did no work, for, as we have said, that would not have been true. God did work on the seventh day, though His activities on the seventh day were of a different nature from the ones in which He had been engaged during the preceding days. And herein we see not only the marvelous accuracy of Scripture, but the perfect example God here set before His creatures; for as we shall yet see, there are works suited to the Sabbath. For God to have ceased all work on that first seventh day in human history would have meant the total destruction of all creation. God’s providential working could not cease, or no provision would be made for the supply of His creatures’ wants. “All things” needed to be “upheld” (Heb 1:3), or they would have passed back into nonentity.¹⁰

Let us fix it firmly in our minds that rest is not inertia.¹¹ The Lord Jesus has entered into “rest” (Heb 4:10); yet He is not inactive, for He ever liveth “to make intercession.” And when the saints shall enter their eternal rest, they shall not be inactive; for it is written, “And his servants shall serve him” (Rev 22:3). So here with God. His rest on that first day was not a rest of total inactivity. He rested from the work of creation and restoration, but He then began (and has never ceased) the work of Providence¹²—the providing of supplies for His myriad creatures.

But now the question arises, Why did God rest on the seventh day? Why did He so order it that all the works recorded in Genesis 1 were completed in six days, and that then He rested? Certainly, it was not because the Creator needed rest, for “the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary” (Isa 40:28). Why, then, did He “rest,” and why is it so recorded on the top of the second page of Holy Writ? Surely, there can be only one answer: as an example for man! Nor is this answer merely a logical or plausible inference of ours. It rests on divine authority. It is based directly upon the words of none other than the Son of God, for He expressly declared, “The sabbath was made for man” (Mar 2:27): made not for God, but for man. Nothing could be plainer, nothing simpler, nothing more unequivocal.

2. The next thing that we would carefully note in this initial reference to the Sabbath is that Genesis 2:3 tells us this day was blessed by God: “And God blessed the seventh day.” The reason God why God blessed the seventh day was not because it was the seventh, but because “in it he had rested.” Hence, when the Sabbath law was written upon the tables of stone, God did not say, “Remember the seventh day to keep it holy,” but, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” And again, He did not say, “He blessed the seventh day and hallowed it,” but “the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”

But why should He? Why single out the seventh day thus? Young’s Concordance defines the Hebrew word for blessed here as “to declare blessed.” But why should God have “declared” the seventh day blessed, for there is no hint that He pronounced any of the other days blessed. Surely, it was not for the mere day’s sake. Only one other alternative remains: God declared the seventh day blessed because it was the Sabbath day; and because He would have every reader of His Word know, right at the beginning, that special divine blessing marks its observance. This at once refutes a modern heresy and removes an aspersion¹³ that many cast upon God. The Sabbath was not appointed to bring man into bondage. It was not designed to be a burden, but a blessing! And if history demonstrates anything, it demonstrates beyond a peradventure that the family or nation that has kept the Sabbath day holy has been markedly blest of God; and contrariwise, that the family or nation that has desecrated the Sabbath has been cursed of God. Explain it as we may, the fact remains.

3. Genesis 2:3 teaches us that the Sabbath was a day set apart for sacred use. This comes out plainly in the words, “And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it”…The prime meaning (according to its scriptural usage) of the Hebrew word rendered “sanctified” and “hallowed” is “to set apart for sacred use.” This shows that here in Genesis 2:3 we have something more than a historical reference to the resting of God on the seventh day, and something more, even, than God setting an example before His creatures. The fact that we are told God “sanctified” it proves conclusively that here we have the original institution of the Sabbath, the divine appointment of it for man’s use and observance. As exemplified by the Creator Himself, the Sabbath day is separated from the six preceding days of manual labor.

4. Let us call attention to a notable omission in Genesis 2:3. If the reader will turn to Genesis 1, he will find that at the close of each of the six working days, the Holy Spirit says, “And the evening and the morning were…” (see Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31). But here in Genesis 2:2-3 we do not read, “And the evening and the morning were the seventh day”; nor are we told what took place in the eighth day. In other words, the Holy Spirit has not mentioned the ending of the “seventh day.” Why is this? There is a reason for every omission in Scripture, a divine reason, and there is a reason why the Holy Spirit omitted the usual formula at the close of the seventh day. We suggest that this omission is a silent but most significant intimation that the observance of the Sabbath never would end—it was to be perpetuated as long as time should last.

Before we proceed further, let it be said that Genesis 2 contains nothing whatever that enables us to determine which day of our week this primal “seventh day” was. We have absolutely no means of knowing whether that original seventh day fell on a Saturday, a Sunday, or any other day of the week, for the simple reason that we are quite unable to ascertain on which day that first week began. All we do know —and it is all that is necessary for us to know—is that the seventh day was the day that followed six days of manual work…

Ere passing from Genesis 2, let us duly weigh the fact that this notice of the divine institution of the Sabbath is placed almost at the very beginning of Holy Writ. Nothing takes precedence save the brief announcement in the first two verses of Genesis 1 and the description of the six days’ work of creation…This at once impresses us with the great importance that God Himself places upon the Sabbath and its observance. Before a single page of human history is chronicled, before a single act of Adam is described, the Holy Spirit places before us the institution of the Sabbath! Does not this signify, plainly, that the observance of the Sabbath—the sanctifying of a seventh day—is a primary duty! Moreover, are we not thereby plainly warned that failure to keep the Sabbath day holy is a sin of the first magnitude!

Notes:

1 The Sabbath [did not] originate with Moses or with any sinner. It was an ordinance in Eden. So that the first whole day that man ever spent on earth was in the observance of this holy day. “The Sabbath is but one day younger than man; ordained for him, in the state of his uprightness and innocence that, his faculties being then holy and excellent, he might employ them, especially on that day, in the singular and most spiritual worship of God his Creator” (Ezekiel Hopkins). When, for his sins, man was driven out of Paradise, God permitted him to carry with him two institutions, established for his good before his fall. Which of these institutions is the greatest mercy to our world, or which is the dearest to the heart of a good man, I will not undertake to say. One of them is marriage, the other the Sabbath day. (William Plumer, The Law of God, 294-295)
2 cavil – find fault without good reason.
3 hallowed – set apart as sacred; made or declared holy.
4 primal – belonging to the earliest stage; original.
5 expositors – persons that explain the meaning or intent of a text.
6 puerile – childish; immature.
7 unequivocally – plainly.
8 apostatized – abandoned the faith one had believed in.
9 untenable – not able to be defended against objection.
10 nonentity – non-existence.
11 inertia – inactivity; unwillingness to move.
12 Providence – What are God’s works of providence? A: God’s works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions (Spurgeon’s Catechism, Q. 11).
13 aspersion – damaging, abusive speech regarding someone’s character.

Courtesy of Chapel Library.