God Rested on the 7th Day and Made it Holy
“By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.”
“For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
The first thing I want you to do before continuing with this article is imagine the infinite vastness of God to the best of your finite abilities. God is all-powerful, omnipotent, omniscient, and perfect in every way. He requires no food, no water, and no sleep. He created the universe from the smallest particle in an atom to the largest, star-filled galaxy. He designed every living thing from the eight-legged tardigrade to the redwood tree to the barn swallow to the woolly mammoth to the moss and lichen that grow on rocks.
Take a moment to think about all of this. Think of the hugeness of the universe and all that is in it, then think of how large and how powerful the entity (God) who created it is.
Now think about the fact that God — who is all knowing, all powerful, and inexhaustible — rested. After He created the universe, which in comparison to Him is adorable and infinitesimally small, He took a break. He expended so little energy in this creation, it would be like us measuring the amount of energy it takes a single cell to wiggle and then infinitely smaller than that.
And God still rested.
“By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested…then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy…” Genesis 2:2-3.
Why did God rest? The Bible isn’t overtly clear about this, but it does fit in with something that God does do an awful lot: give us an example to follow.
God may not have needed to rest after creating the earth and all the living things, but He did, making the seventh day holy, for our benefit.
We are finite! We have to expend significant amounts of our time and energy in creation. We are the ones who need to rest, so that we can recharge, refocus our attention on the Lord, and relax. If we don’t rest, we face burn out, exhaustion, discontentment, and even resentment for the purpose that God has called us to.
Do not underestimate the power — or necessity — of rest!
Putting it into Action: when was the last time you had a dedicated rest day? A day where you set aside all of your work and spent time with the Lord? Are you in the habit of taking rest days, or do you skip them in favor of getting more and more work done? If it’s been longer than a week since you took a rest day, take one soon! Rearrange your schedule, coordinate your projects, and do not fret about not working a day. This is a commandment from God since the foundation of the Earth! You are allowed to rest!
