COMING UP THIS SONDAY
Matt 11:28-30 R 'n' R Rest & Relationship
Genesis 1:26–2:3 (NIV84)
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female He created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all His work.
3And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female He created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all His work.
3And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done
When God created mankind, as we read in Genesis 1, He created mankind at the very pinnacle of all creation. Humanity did not evolve from apes and other lower life forms but rather was created by God in His own image. No other creature had this privilege of being created in the image of God bestowed upon it.
Even more so, God created mankind as the second in command over all creation - mankind was God’s vice reagent within creation. The earth was to be God’s temple and mankind was to be priests over the entire planet, bringing it into submission to God’s plan and will. As such mankind was granted rule over all creation and was given the mandate to populate the earth.
Six times we read that what was created by God was good. At the finish of the creation days we read that ’God saw everything He had made and it was very good’. Creation - the sun, moon and stars, the planet earth, the seas and the land and the plants and the animals and even mankind - was all very good!
And then without warning the writer moves to the 7th day. The usual formula ‘and there was evening and morning the nth day’ is dropped. We are told that God had finished His work of creation and rested on this day. But unlike the rest of the days of creation, this 7th day is left open. In verse 4 and following of chapter 2 we begin a new section - the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. The day is simply left open. One wonders why.
The 7th day, unlike days 1 through 6 is blessed and is made holy because God chose to rest on that day from the work of creation that He had been doing. But God didn’t rest from all His labours. To think that God simply sat around doing nothing is absolutely absurd. Hebrews 1:3, for example, tells us that God the Son sustains all things by His powerful word. If God did nothing after day 6, who kept sustaining all things? God didn’t rest from all things. God didn’t lapse into idleness or boredom or doing nothing.
Questions to Consider:
· What role did knowing about the 7th day play for the Israelites who first read Genesis?
· What role does it play for us?
· What differences can you find between days 1-6 and day 7 in Scripture?
· Why do you think God made the 7th day holy and blessed it?
· Why do you think the 7th day does not have the formula ‘and there was even and there was morning, the seventh day’ after it?
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