The God Who Rests

Text: Genesis 2:1–3 ESV

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.—Genesis 2:1-3 ESV

Introduction

A short text, but two very sharp points about our God.

1. Our God finished creation.

2. Our God created rest.

Think about it. If Genesis 2:1-3 is all we know about the Christian God, we know He is a God who finishes. He finishes what he starts. What he says he will do, He does.  The Christian God finishes and finishes perfectly. If you were to line up all the gods of the world and think about it like you might when voting for a politician, you most likely will vote for that God who can finish faithfully and flawlessly what he started (i.e. his platform). He completes what he begins. He ends what he plans.  We all want a God who can finish; not one who is undone, half done, but one who can say, “Done.”  

Not only do we want a God who has the character and ability to finish flawlessly and faithfully, but how about a God who differentiates Himself from all the other religions of the world by actually modeling and creating rest for his creatures. There are no parallels on the planet for this. As Ryan pointed out, the other world religions want man to work for the gods, but in Christianity we have a God who wants to work for man. Do you realize you have a God who both created rest for you currently and died so you could enjoy it eternally? Again, if you line our God up against every other deity, they either aren’t powerful enough to finish for you or not loving enough to serve you. Every other deity is impotent and self-serving compared to the Lord our God. Let’s pray for our time together and ask God to reveal the implications of these two points, God finishes and God rests.  

Our God finished.

From the skies above to the seas below He created it all, and it was all good! Nothing was left undone, and nothing was left imperfect. Nothing could be improved upon and nothing was halfway or incomplete. Our God started with a watery void of moisture, darkness, and space and spoke it into a gorgeous galaxy and garden.  

In day 1 he gave light amidst darkness and created day and night, the first day. From the very beginning I want you to see that God brought LIGHT. There are many uses of God being light for His people (i.e. leading them in the wilderness through a pillar of fire, forecasting Jesus in Isaiah as, “we have seen a great light”, which probably referred to the star that shone over Bethlehem, and the gospel shining in our hearts through the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.) Why is this the first thing he did you ask? Maybe because He knew the importance of us seeing and living in what He has made. And though he created light, it was a light that was on a dimmer. This light would shine brightly during the day, but it would dim to darkness at night. Why? We did not know it then, but God was establishing a rhythm of silence and rest. Especially for those made in his image. It is important that we observe that God has created a rhythm of daily rest in Genesis 1:3 and weekly rest in Genesis 2:3. It’s from beginning to end in this section.  

But let’s go back and see what Our God finished.  Not only did God finish light and night. But He finished the sky in day two that separated the heavens above and seas below. And in these first two days God finished taking a watery pit of a place and established air and oxygen. He took a blanket of darkness and illuminated it. Big changes from our God who finishes, but he’s not finished yet. 

So, we got light and night in day 1. Sky and seas in day 2. And in day 3 he pulls the seas back (like he will do for his people when the Egyptians have their backs up against the Red Sea). It is clear that this God controls the seas.  He will let them go in Genesis 5 to flood the earth in judgement and of Jesus, as He calms storms and seas, it will be said, 

“Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mark 4:41 ESV)  

Therefore, we have light and night, sky and seas, and land and plants—these are the realms of days 1, 2, and 3. But God gives each realm an inhabitant if you will. Think of it like a ruler for each of the realms. He gives the light and night a sun and a moon. He gives the skies and seas fowl and fish. He gives the ground its animals and then HUMANITY. 

God finished us

Now, why do I say all this? Why repeat the days once again? Because I want you to see that our God finished creation. So, hear me loud and clear. Our God is a finisher. He closes the deal. He is not halfway, or half backed, but he is a doer until its done.  He did not forget something, He did not NOT take something into account, nothing could be pointed at and calculated as needing more time or fine tuning.  God has not version 1.0, 2.0, no bugs, no fixes or patches to fix the improper coding. To use a track analogy, God isn’t a strong miler who completed three laps in stunning fashion and then gases out for the last quarter mile. NO, he ran three stunning laps and then when no one thought it could be improved upon, He pushed down the throttle and came up with an unheard of last lap. It blew away the competition, and it will never be topped. He finishes strong with the creation of us. We are the pinnacle of His creation. He did not merely speak your ancient grandparents into existence. He spoke everything else into existence, but oh no, not this. He created and crafted you with his hands. With his bare hands he built, birthed, and beautified you!

God finished and is finishing his plan too.

But God did not only create the planets and people, but He created a plan. A plan that would not be stopped by sin in the garden, a plan that would not end because of the flood.  God faithfully brought His people out of Egypt, faced with an unrelenting Pharoah, a Red Sea that faced them until He parted it.  A barren wilderness until He fed them in it, a strong people that prevented His people’s crossing over into the Land of Promise and God shewed them away. Through Judges and good and twisted Kings, even through captivities and exiles (through messed up political situations), God was delivering and faithful to finish His plan. Even a 400 year silence that separates the last book of the Old Testament and the first book of the New Testament was not enough to prevent God’s finish of delivering this Messiah. And when you thought Jesus may have been finished at birth through a genocide, or in the wilderness at the hand of the temptations of Satan, or in the garden of Gethsemane, or the cross at the hands of men, or even at the tomb…God was faithful to finish.

What we know is that when God sets out to do something, it is as good as done. You can count on it.  You can believe him, trust in him, put your chips on him. And as God has most beautifully finished  creation, He has started something in you. And what He begins, He finishes. The Bible is replete with a call that you are in his hands and will not be hung out to dry. (Philippians 1:6). You will be finished one day. As sure as he converted you, He will change you, and he will crown you!! Don’t give up!!

Don’t give up—you’re not finished

This “don’t give up” theme is as true for you as it was for Moses’ original audience.  You are meant to know what God had done/created originally and realize Egypt/earth is not what God had originally designed and created, and it is to motivate us to the Promised Land or the New Creation that is coming.  This is where we could steal the book title, “Look Back to Get Ahead” and use it for our purposes! We take these two promises…Philippians 3 and Hebrews 12:1-3 to launch us forward.  

But how about a non-Christian friend or family member? Can God finish that? We are shown in creation He starts with nothing (no light, no land, no stars or moon), and he pulls the planets out of his hat. Oh, we can start with no faith, no church background, no Bible reading and make the hardest heart sing the most trusting tune. 

But how about a tough marriage, work that won’t’ let up, bills that pile up, friends that feel like foes, your sin that feels unsurmountable….If we take our lead from the Psalmist, then we ought to look to the founder and finisher of our world. Psalm 121:1-2 says, 

“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, wo made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1–2 ESV)

Remember, you are only the creature, the created, and HE IS The CREATOR! (Our eyes are meant to look upward, not inward.)

And so, as we end this section, let us remember, God finishes. Our history is in finished creation. Our identity is in the finished work of Christ. Our destiny is in his finished work of a consummate, crowning, and coming kingdom.

God’s unfinished business.

And so, as we move on, our God did not finish in 6 days. There was still something unfinished. He had unfinished business.  You see, there are not 6 days, but seven orchestrated and created by God. He made the sun to rise and set on another day. Why? Because even though He was done, He was not done. He created rest! God rested! An entire day dedicated to His created order was spent with God resting. 1 in 7.  

Our God rested.  

Now, lets’ start with why we rest?

1. We are made in the image of God; therefore, we are to image Him. You are to look like God, and when you do rest, you show God. When you don’t have regular patterns of rest, you don’t show God.  What do you show when you don’t rest? You show a God of worry, of anxiety, of one who’s constantly under threat of deadlines He cannot meet, of a world He cannot control.  We show a God who has no peace and is at the beck and call of the hustle and bustle of this busy and crazy culture. Therefore, we do not decide to rest or not based upon busyness but rather on the fact that God himself is embodied in us. There is a reason why the Proverbs 31 woman “looks at the future and laughs…” Rest is blessed and made holy or set apart because it models and mimics Him but it is also blessed and made holy because it is FOR US.   

2. We rest, not to just mimic and model God, but because God designed our needs to be met in this rest. We are not self-sufficient; we are needy and dependent creatures. God neither sleeps nor slumbers, but I need to close my eyes for 6-9 hours every night or and I will show you one of two frailties. One, I will get very tired-angry. Two, I will shut down. I cannot function. This shows us how necessary this is for me as God’s creation and clearly shows I am not the Creator.  

We should rest in what God has created for us

Whether you think it’s a hard line, single day Sabbath every week OR that Christians live in a perpetual Sabbath rest because of the finished work of Christ on the cross…regardless of where you are theologically, practically speaking you should set aside time to be at rest BECAUSE you have been BLESSED TO REST!

Blessed to Rest

You see, when we are blessed it’s because we follow through with what God said. So, when you rest, you will be blessed. You will be blessed in your tank being filled. You will be blessed with times spent knowing, worshipping, and adoring God. Important relationships in your life will get time around you.  Your faith, body, heart, and mind will be recharged and ready to pour out on the forthcoming 6 days.  But if you don’t rest, it’s not as though you just miss out. Actually, the inverse happens. Because unreceived blessing results in received curse. God’s blessings are not just neutral if you fail to take them; you actually pay the price if you don’t.

The Curse of Restlessness

If you are anything like my family, why is it that the gas gauge light always comes on right between Twin Falls and Boise? There are no stations it seems for miles. And it always seems to be the case that Sara has identified stations up until this point, and I haven’t taken advantage of them. I have passed on the blessings of gas stations with the excuse, “We can go further than that, the reading must be wrong, there will be another shortly….” I don’t just negate the opportunity of living a filled life, I actually receive the curse of running on empty. And when we run low on fuel and oil, we damage our engines. And when you run low on rest your

1. Devotional life will suffer.

2. Family and friendships will suffer.

3. Your holiness will suffer. 

4. You will be more susceptible to sin.

5. You will begin to just respond to life and lose the ability to initiate.

6. You will grow in pride and superiority.

7. Your output will decrease in quantity and quality. 

8. And you will not model, but rather will mock, your God.  

So, how are these two points connected? You can rest precisely because God has finished and is finishing His plan through the person of His Son.  We live in the “done for us” / not “do for Him” universe.  

How can we rest?

And so lastly, how do we rest? I would propose we rest as God did. (Sit back…and admire.)

• Enjoy His creation.

• Enjoy His creatures.  

• Enjoy the Creator.

And to be able to do this, you probably fall in 1 of two categories…

Either you need to start checking off your list and work harder in the six days you have. God finished in 6; you need to work hard to finish in 6. Or others of you have too long a list. Your problem is not checking them off, it’s that your list is so long. Your list cannot get done in 6 days. You need to work hard on fewer things. (Put it this way: procrastination, prioritization, inefficiency.)

Be comforted in a Christ who was cursed for you

But let me say this…

• whether you don’t rest because you overwork in doing too many things, or 

• because you overwork into days of rest because you do too few things via procrastination, or

• you flat out just rest poorly because you think rest is couching out in front of video games or TV, or pigging out on food…

whichever one it is, God’s body and blood are here for you in the Lord’ supper. It’s a reminder that you can repent from your restlessness and restless heart and receive the blessing of God’s body and blood that absolve you of any eternal curse—as we have said there will be temporal and earthly hardships for all those who refuse blessing. But those who don’t refuse God’s Son will know nothing of eternal curse or consequence. When you receive the blessings of Jesus, you receive the blessings of Romans 8:1, 

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1 ESV)