Is the word ‘rested’ the best translation? What about ‘ceased’? Whatever the meaning there is a break from the previous six days. What we see is God has prepared his creation like a temple to be inhabited. Now he takes time to ascend the throne and take his place. The lights in the heavens are like the lights of lampstands. The earth is his footstool. We are to take a day, one day out of seven, where we cease going about the business of life. We are to sit with like-minded people in God’s creation and we are to look on in awe and worship. Do you see the universe as God’s temple? Do you walk in it appropriately?
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
- What has happened before the seventh day? Give a summary.
- What does God do on the seventh day?
- Why would God rest on the seventh day?
- Is one day of the week more holy than another?
- What is the principle to be applied because of this passage?
Going Deeper
- Take time to rest: 15 minutes and a cup of tea will suffice to get started.
- Use rest time to think about what is or should be important to you.
- See if you can enable someone else to rest.
Plymothian 