“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.” (Genesis 2:2)
The Genesis narrative recalls that God “rested” (Gen. 2:2) on the seventh day after six days of active creation. Most think nothing more of this rest than God’s inactivity in the creational process; it had finished, and God’s creative work was done. Certainly this is a correct interpretation of God’s “rest,” yet much more can be said concerning the nature of God’s rest on the seventh day and its relation to His creative process as recorded in the book of Genesis.
First, it is necessary to establish the nature of God’s rest by recognizing what this rest is not. To say that God rested does not mean that God was tired, for tiredness or exhaustion are incompatible with God’s nature. God is the Almighty—omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Isaiah 40:28 states, “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.” Psalm 18:30 likewise acclaims, “This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true.”
God’s rest was not a result of exhaustion; in fact, His rest was not one of physical or mental recuperation. He could not possibly need it. Instead, God’s rest was a cessation from His creative work. The Septuagint uses the word καταπαύω (katapauō), which generally translates in the following ways:
Transitive:
to make quiet, to cause to be at rest, to grant rest
to lead to a quiet abode
to still, restrain, to cause (one striving to do something) to desist
Intransitive:
to cease
to rest, take rest
In Genesis 2:2, katapauō translates best as an intransitive verb (meaning the verb does not take a direct object; it applies solely to the subject, in this case, God), and contextually it is translated as “cease.” Thus, the verse reads, “and [God] ceased on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.” God rested from His work—God’s work had finally been completed.
God’s rest is mysterious in several ways. For one, God’s rest does not stem from exhaustion or tiredness; God cannot be tired. Rather, His rest is the cessation of His creative work. Second, the cessation of God from His work on the seventh day was not a cessation from all work, but only from the work of creation. God continued to “work” in an intrinsic sense, but the work of creation was finally completed—and it was “very good.”
Creation was rendered “very good” by the creation of the first man, Adam. The crown jewel of God’s creation is mankind, and only after the creation of man did God rest. Man, therefore, is connected to this creation not merely in a physical sense, having been formed from the dust of the ground, but in a spiritual sense, as God’s rest was predicated on the predetermined reality that man would first be created before God rested.
Creation was completed in six days, and the seventh day of Creation is God’s day of rest—the day of completion. Thus, this seventh day is a day of holiness and blessedness. It was set apart by God to be a holy day, a day of rest and remembrance. This seventh day, the day of completion, is a reminder that while we are created to work and labor, we are created primarily to know and love our Creator. Our work points us to the Giver, and we in turn give thanks and praise to Him on the day set apart to hear His Word and receive His precious gifts, to be spiritually nourished. Our work points us to our purpose, and the day of rest points us to the completion that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What could God have done on this day of rest? The Greek word for rest, katapauō, can also be translated “to make quiet, to cause to be at rest, to grant rest.” In an abstract sense, God caused all creation to be at rest. As He rested, or ceased from His labors, so also was Creation still—all, with its Creator, was at rest. And in a concrete sense, all things were still. As far as we know, man had not fallen on the seventh day. Thus, this day was still, or at rest, not only in a creative sense, but also in an essential sense. The world had not yet been tainted by sin. The seismic and cosmic fallout of the Fall had not yet infected the earth.
This rest, therefore, is symbolic of perfection. It is the state at which Creation rested in its sublimity. God rested because His work had been completed, but His work had been completed because it was “very good.” This very good Creation must have included a “high point,” or crown jewel—the thing that makes His work whole. All Creation was made to God’s glory, by God’s glory, through God’s glory, and while He does not need anything that He has created, it is the essence of God’s love to create. For love to be, there must be an object, as love is a reciprocative entity. An object receives it, and generally reciprocates.
As God rested, this perfect reciprocation of untainted love rendered Creation “very good,” according to God’s design. Creation was His to love, and he was Creation’s to serve, honor, and obey. He rested because this perfect, untainted love existed within Creation; all had been finished because all had been created according to God’s will.
God is outside of time. He cannot be confined by it. He never began to exist, and He will never cease to exist. His perfection remains even in lieu of the Fall. But God’s infiniteness and eternality do not preclude Him from being in a state of restfulness, if this restfulness implies that God is active. One must be active in order to rest. In order to rest, one must have something from which to rest.
We celebrate the Sabbath because it is the day on which God rested; it is therefore the day on which we, too, rest from our labors. We hearken back to the Garden, where God rested, and man was content. We hear in Genesis 2:3, “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” This day of rest is a sanctified day, a day set apart to recall God’s perfect Creation and the design by which all things were made.
This day, therefore, is a day to worship Him and receive His blessed gifts. Though this Creation is fallen, His perfection is still receivable by means of the holy Sacraments. He bestows faith through the Holy Spirit in Holy Baptism. His grace and forgiveness are freely offered in the Holy Eucharist. His absolution is made available to all in the sacrament of confession and absolution. The rest by which this sanctified day was instituted is offered in its fullness on the Sabbath day—indeed, anytime these means are made available to God’s people in the Church.
Thus, we may rest. We are sinful, fallen creatures, but we are simultaneously saints of God. The perfection that permeated Creation on the seventh day is offered in the Sacraments; and while we cannot become perfect until the day that we attain to the glory of everlasting life, we are sanctified through these means of grace wherein God’s perfection is found and His grace is offered.
We cannot know the specifics of God’s “rest.” How long did it last? What differentiates His “rest” from His other activities, with the prerequisite that God is eternal and is outside of time. He ceased creation, but what can be said of His sustenance of Creation on the seventh day apart from the active creation that had taken place within the first six days? To these questions no answer may be given until we stand before God’s throne in His kingdom. What can be said of God’s rest for certain is that it was God’s cessation from His active creating, and all Creation was rendered “very good.” This rest is a state of perfection—and serves as a foretaste of the glory that we will one day acquire when we inherit everlasting life in His kingdom.