A good rule of thumb in interpreting the Bible is that we should take everything it says to be literal unless it is obvious we should not.  Let’s read Genesis 2:1-3, “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 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.”

The Lord’s task of creation had been completed.  Genesis, chapter one, gives us the order of the six days of creation, with man being the last and the pinnacle of God’s creation.  So, we read in the portion before us that “the heavens and the earth were finished…”  Certainly it didn’t tire the Lord to create the world.  We read in Psalm 33:6, “BY THE WORD OF THE LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.”  God could just speak the words and all things with all the complexities and perfection came into being.  David put it this way in Psalm 8:3, “When I consider thy heavens, THE WORK OF THY FINGERS, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained.”  With these verses we get the thought of God saying such things as, “Let there be…”, and with a wave of his fingers, they were created. 

To say the Lord “rested” on the seventh day, means simply that He ceased from His labor.  It does not indicate that the Lord was tired and needed to rest.  Psalm 121:4 tells us, “Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall NEITHER SLUMBER NOR SLEEP.”  We read of the Lord Jesus, who IS God, in Colossians 1:16-17, “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”  The Lord created “all things” and it is by His constant presence and power that He causes all things to consist.  He NEVER TIRES, yet we are told He rested on the seventh day.  Why? 

God rested on the seventh day of creation because he had finished his work and was satisfied with it. He did not rest because he was tired or exhausted, but in all likelihood, He wanted to reflect on his perfect creation and observe all those things He had declared to be “good.”  He also blessed the seventh day as holy. He established a weekly Sabbath for His earthly people to follow his example of resting on the seventh day.  We first read of the Sabbath day in Exodus 16:23, “And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the HOLY SABBATH unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.”  We know this Sabbath day is the seventh day.  Exodus 16:26 says, “Six days ye shall gather it; but on THE SEVENTH DAY, WHICH IS THE SABBATH, in it there shall be none.”  We go on to read in Exodus 16:30, “So the people rested on the seventh day.” 

When the Lord Jesus was confronted by the legalists of His time (the Pharisees) because of His activities on the Sabbath, He had this to say, “…The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath.” (Mark 2:27).  God, by resting on the seventh day, was giving us an example that after a week of hard labor, we need a day of rest.  It was a kind provision for us that we might refresh and rest our bodies by relaxing from our labors. 

In the Church Age in which we live today, we are not under the Law, and it is not required of us that we observe the Sabbath or seventh day, which is Saturday.  However, it is a simple fact in medical science, that the human frame was not made to bear up under constant labor without rest.  We are wise to follow God’s perfect example and find a day to rest each week.  (CC)  (614.6)