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.
2. on the seventh day ] Some misunderstanding arose in very early times in consequence of these words. Jealous for the sanctity of the Sabbath, men said, “No, not on the seventh day, but on the sixth day, God finished the work of creation.” So we find “on the sixth day” is the reading of the Samaritan, the LXX, and the Syriac Peshitto. The mistake was not unnatural: it was not perceived that the conclusion of work was identical with the cessation from work. God wrought no work on the seventh day; therefore, it is said, He brought His work to an end on the seventh day. The reading, “on the sixth day,” may be dismissed as an erroneous correction made in the interests of keeping the Sabbath. All reference to the sixth day was concluded in ch. Gen 1:31.
his work ] LXX , “his works.” The same Hebrew word as in the Fourth Commandment, Exo 20:9, “all thy work”; it denotes not so much the “result” of labour, as its “process,” or “occupation.” Driver renders by “business.”
rested ] LXX = “ceased,” Lat. requierit. Heb. shbath has strictly the sense of “ceasing,” or “desisting.” It is this thought rather than that of “resting” after labour, which is here prominent. Elsewhere, the idea that God rested on the seventh day, is more directly expressed, e.g. Exo 31:17, “And on the seventh day he (the Lord) rested ( shbath, ‘desisted’) and was refreshed.” The idea of “cessation” from the employment of the six days suggested the conception of “rest,” which is mentioned, both in Exo 20:11; Exo 31:17, as the sanction for the observance of the Sabbath. Rest in the best sense is not idleness, but alteration in the direction of activity.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Gen 2:2-3
He rested on the seventh day
The Divine Sabbath:
I.
THE DIVINE COMPLETION OF HIS CREATIVE WORK. No further creations.
II. THE DIVINE CONTEMPLATION OF HIS CREATIVE WORK. Everything complete. Everything in subordination. Everything ready for the higher and more glorious exercise of the Divine activity in providence and grace. All prepared for the kingdom of probation, by which the last created of the world was to be tried, disciplined, and perfected. We may learn here–
1. Evil has no natural place in the universe.
2. Matter is not necessarily hostile to God. The Bible, in this picture of Divine contemplation, cuts away the ground from certain forms of false religion and philosophy. Divine life is not the destruction of matter, nor the rising out of the region of the sensuous; but so restoring the harmony, that God may again look upon the world, and say it is very good.
3. The present condition of things, so changed from that which God first looked upon, must be the result of some catastrophe.
III. THE DIVINE REST AFTER HIS CREATIVE WORK. The rest began when the work was done. The contemplation was a part of the Sabbatic blessedness. The Sabbath:
1. It was a season of rest. It does not imply that there was weariness, but cessation from creative activity.
2. The rest was blessed by God. As He saw His work good, so He saw His rest good.
3. There was an appointment of a similar blessed rest for His creatures. He sanctified the seventh day. It is not for us to discuss the relations of God to labour and repose. The fact may be beyond our comprehension. It has lessons for us:
1. There is a place and time for rest.
2. The condition on which rest may be claimed is that men work.
3. This rest should be happy. Much of the modern idea of a Sabbath is not that which God would say was blessed. The Sabbath is not a time of gloom.
4. This rest should be religious.
5. This rest is unlimited to any particular portion of the race. (Homilist.)
Sabbath rest
An allegory lies in this history. Every week has its Sabbath, and every Sabbath is to be a parenthesis between two weeks work. From the beginning of the world, a seventh of time was set apart for rest. The rest of the Sabbath must be
(1) real,
(2) worthy,
(3) complete.
It must be refreshment to body, mind, and soul; and it must not infringe upon the rest of others. The rest of a holy peace must be combined with the loving energies of an active body and an earnest mind. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The original Sabbath
I. THAT THE WORK OF CREATION WAS COMPLETED ON THE SIXTH DAY. God could have done His creative work in a moment. Why, then, did He take six days?
(1) To show that His work is the result of a deliberate purpose.
(2) That His work might be instructive to others.
II. THAT THE SEVENTH DAY WAS THE FIRST SABBATH.
(1) Divine rest.
(2) Divine benediction.
(3) Divine hallowing. (A. McAuslane, D. D.)
The Sabbath
1. A memorial of past labour.
2. A pillar of testimony to God as Creator.
3. A proclamation of rest.
4. A type of coming rest. (H. Bonar.)
The Sabbath sanctified
I. THE FACT STATED. God blessed, etc.
II. THE REASON ASSIGNED. He rested, etc.
III. THE END IN VIEW. (W. Burrows, M. A.)
The Christian Sabbath
Paradise, with its calm, its purity, and its beauty, is gone; but the Sabbath has not with Paradise passed away. It has accompanied man in his sorrows, as it accompanied him in his joys.
I. THE CONSECRATION OF THE SABBATH. Fenced off by God as His own peculiar property. Holiness to the Lord is written upon it by the finger of our Creator. And the consecration of the Sabbath must be for such purposes as these.
1. Primarily and preeminently, for the consideration of the wondrous work of creation; that man, the intelligent creature, may behold, in the glorious workmanship of God, traces of the Divine power, and wisdom, and love, and that he may render to his Creator the homage that is due to Him.
2. It was further consecrated for services fitted to increase the holiness of man while he remained in innocency, and to restore fallen man to the holiness which he had lost. It was intended, therefore, for man not less than for God.
II. THE PERPETUITY OF THE SABBATH. Instituted long before Judaism, long before Abrahams time even; therefore, of perpetual obligation. God has appointed a holy rest for His people in every age, and though the day may be changed, yet the institution remains the same.
III. THE BLESSINGS OF THE SABBATH.
1. God designed it as a blessing to man.
2. God annexed a special blessing to the day. (H. Stowell, M. A.)
The Sabbath
That the Sabbath was originally a Divine institution, nobody can doubt. It originated with God: and now God has either abrogated the Sabbath, or He has not. If God has not abrogated the Sabbath, the matter is quite clear: it comes commended to us with all that Divine authority itself can rest upon. But if God has abrogated the Sabbath, I ask, who is the man that would dare to reinstitute it?
I. THE OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH. First, I say that the fourth commandment is absolutely obligatory on Christian men. If not, one or other of these alternatives must be adopted: either the whole of the ten commandments are abrogated and abolished, or the fourth is an exception out of the ten. There is no escape from one or other of these alternatives. But now suppose for a moment, for arguments sake, you were to allow that the fourth commandment, as far as it is found in the Mosaic economy, is abrogated. What then? Is the law of the Sabbath destroyed? Now, here is the proper argument for the Sabbath. 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. What has that to do with the Mosaic economy?
Why, here is the institution of the Sabbath more than two thousand years before the Mosaic economy is introduced! Suppose you allow all the Mosaic law to be abrogated, here stands the original institution. And if any man says, But that refers to Eden, I grant it, Was it abolished when our first parents were cast out of Eden? Then I will give you a proof for once to the contrary, in the sixteenth chapter of Exodus, the twenty-third and twenty-ninth verses. Listen to these words. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; bake that which ye will bake, and so forth. Again, in the twenty-ninth verse: See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath. This is the sixteenth chapter of Exodus. How did they come to have the Sabbath day here? You know the law was not given till some considerable time after this: yet here you have the observance of the Sabbath, not based on the tea commandments at all–it is before they are uttered: here you have God recognizing the same thing. But now notice another remarkable fact. Why does the fourth commandment begin with the word, Remember? There is not another of the commandments that begins with the word Remember. They are all positive institutions at that very time. But here is the fourth commandment notably commencing with the word Remember. Why? Because it was an original institution, and the word points back to that. Another very remarkable fact in regard to the institution of the Sabbath, so far as it is connected With the Mosaic economy, is, that God institutes it in connection with the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. In the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy, at the fourteenth verse, it is said–The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, and so on. Now observe. Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore–I beseech you to notice this–therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day. You observe, that the reason why God commanded Israel to keep the Sabbath there is because they were brought out of the land of Egypt; but when God gave the fourth commandment in connection with the ten from Sinai, evidently intending it to have a general application, He makes no mention of this particular deliverance, but merely states the reason we find in the second chapter of Genesis–because God had rested Himself on the seventh day. So that if we admit, as I will do, that there was a peculiarity in the reason for the institution of the Sabbath in connection with the Israelites, yet God marks a distinction between that peculiarity and the general application in the passages I have referred to: giving as the peculiarity in their case the deliverance from Egypt, but in the other case giving as a reason that He Himself rested from His work, that the institution might be known to be applicable to all men. One further proof let us for a moment notice. The object of the Sabbath–let us see what that involves. There is a two-fold object alluded to in my text–with reference to God, and with reference to man. First, with reference to God. God rested on the seventh day, in commemoration of the finishing of His work. Now, whatever that may involve, I suppose it will be admitted that it is applicable to all men, and that it does not apply to the Jews or to one age only. If God thought fit to commemorate the fact of His resting from His labours by setting apart one day in seven, you and I are as much concerned in it as the Israelite was. But this will be still further enforced, when we come to consider the reason for which the Sabbath was instituted with reference to man. This was a two-fold reason. It was in order to his physical rest, and in order to his spiritual profit; the one subservient to the other. His physical rest: is not that equally necessary at all times? What gave rise to this reason for the institution of the Sabbath? On what ground was it necessary that there should be one day in seven set apart? I tell you: the law of rest was based on the law of labour. That was true in Eden. In Eden man was to till the ground; and even in Eden, in his unfallen state, there was a day of rest appointed. If that was true in mans perfect state, before his physical ability became deteriorated and broken down through sin, as it has been, how much more is it necessary in his fallen state! Again, let me ask this: If it was needful to Israel that they should have a day of rest, on the ground of the physical system being liable to exhaustion, and on the ground of the law of labour not being remitted, will any man pretend to argue that the law of rest shall be abolished and abrogated while the law of labour still remains? Or again: look at the spiritual purpose of the Sabbath. It is instituted in order to give man an opportunity–by resting from labour and the ordinary transactions of secular concerns, to have an opportunity of cultivating a holy and heavenly taste, and becoming fit for heaven. Now, I ask this question: Do your secular avocations, the cares and anxieties with which you are conversant every day, produce the same general results that they did in Israels days, or do they not? Do you find, or do you not find, when you go about your ordinary business six days in the week, that you have immense difficulty to keep your hearts and affections separated from these things, and give them to God? Do you find that you could afford to be without one day in the week, on which to meet in Gods house, and have an opportunity of reading your Bible and meditating at home, feeling it to be so easy in your worldly vocation to separate your hearts for communion with Him? It is monstrous to suppose such a thing. But again. That the Sabbath is an eternal Sabbath is clear from this: that in the Hebrews the apostle says, There remaineth a rest. I need not tell you that the word there translated rest is Sabbath–There remaineth a rest, a Sabbath for the people of God. A Sabbath! What is the present Sabbath? What was the original Sabbath? Without controversy, a type of the coming Sabbath. There remaineth a Sabbath. And yet God gave a Sabbath from the beginning! The Sabbath God gave was of course a type of the eternal Sabbath. Now, do you conceive that Israel should enjoy the type of the heavenly Sabbath, and yet that you and I, who live so much nearer to the time of the end, and are supposed to be, by virtue of the pouring out of the Holy Ghost and a knowledge of Christ, so much more holy in heart, are not to enjoy that type? But a type is in force till it is fulfilled. When will that type be done away? Never, unquestionably, till it resolves itself into the eternal Sabbath.
II. THE MODE OF OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH. If God has given us the Sabbath, and we are to keep it on the Lords day, every right-minded man will ask, How are we to keep it? Now, it is very remarkable and important, that in the passages where God teaches us how the Sabbath day is to be kept, He deals with the subject as a general subject. It is not spoken of in the passages I will refer to in reference to any peculiarities connected with Judaism; but there are such declarations and instructions as would be applicable to all men, and all Christian men, to the end of time. There is the fourth commandment and the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. The fourth commandment we know. Here is the passage I quote from the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah: at the thirteenth verse–If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord. If you take the fourth commandment in connection with that verse, you will find that you have instruction as to the spiritual and physical obligation of the Lords day. The fourth commandment instructs us in regard to our rest from all labour; this passage instructs us in regard to the object for which that physical rest is to be enjoyed, as subservient to our spiritual advantage. (C. Molyneux, M. A.)
The blessed day
I. THE OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH.
1. The Sabbath was made for man in Paradise.
2. The Sabbath was revived in the wilderness.
3. The Sabbath was established by an express commandment.
4. The Sabbath was confirmed by the practice of our Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles. The change of day, from the seventh to the first of the week, makes no alteration in the proportion of our time which God has sanctified and blessed.
5. The Sabbath has been observed by the Church of Christ in general.
II. THE ADVANTAGES OF THE SABBATH. A blessed day.
1. Its temporal advantages.
(1) The curse of toil is for a while suspended.
(2) The mind and body are invigorated for fresh exertion.
(3) Sabbath observance has the reward of prosperity ordinarily attached to it.
2. Its spiritual advantages.
(1) Finished redemption is then celebrated.
(2) The means of grace are enjoyed.
(3) The heavenly rest is anticipated. (W. Conway, M. A.)
Institution and end of the Sabbath
I. WHO WAS IT INSTITUTED THE SABBATH? God. It sets forth the Divine complacency–how He looked back on the work He had finished, and how He was refreshed with the contemplation of it. And this gives us the true idea of the first Sabbath, when the Lord rested from His work; He set it apart, that His creatures might rest also, that they might be taken from the work to the worker, from the gift to the Giver, from the creation to the Creator.
II. THE CONTINUATION OF THE INSTITUTION (Exo 20:1-26). Though the appointing one day out of seven was a moral command, yet it was also positive: it was arranged in the garden of Eden before Satan tempted man to fall. Therefore it had its truth, not in Mount Sinai, not because Moses gave it, but from the living God Himself. And there it stands at an amazing distance from all ceremonies and all shadows. It sets forth a great truth, I allow–our rest in Jesus: but the setting apart a day of rest was no shadow; it was Gods claim on His people. Your bodies are Mine, your souls are Mine, and you shall give what you owe to Me.
III. THE GREAT END AND OBJECT OF THE SABBATH (Heb 4:11). Just as the Creator did rest from His work, and did command His creatures to rest as He rested, giving themselves up to the contemplation of Himself: so in the Christian Sabbath we are led by Eternal Spirit to seek our rest, and to find our rest, in the Lord Jesus Christ.
IV. WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THAT OBEDIENCE WHICH OUGHT TO BE GIVEN TO IT BY CHRISTIANS? Let him beware of Jewish legality, of the spirit of bondage–of that principle which, while it seemeth as if it honoured God in strictness, strains at a gnat and swallows a camel. You and I, to obey one single principle aright, must have a right principle. It is in vain the command comes to us: it can work on us by authority and by terror: but we must have a higher principle to influence the inner man. The nature of the obedience is at once unfolded in the nature of the institution. Whatever has a tendency to promote my entering into that rest, to promote my spiritual acquaintance with that rest, enters of necessity into the consideration of the Christian Sabbath. Whatever has a tendency to hinder it, whatever has a tendency to prevent it, whatever has a tendency to chain me down to this earth, is to be avoided by a Christian man. (J. H.Evans, M. A.)
Genesis of the Sabbath
I. EXPLANATION OF THE PASSAGE.
1. Cessation of the creative process.
2. The Creators resting.
3. Sanctification of the Sabbath day.
(1) Seven the Scriptural number (Gen 7:2-4; Gen 3:3-12; Gen 19:18-28; Gen 41:1-57; Num 23:1-2; Lev 23:1-44; Jos 6:1-27; 2Ki 5:9; Dan 4:1-37; Isa 30:26; Mat 18:22; Act 6:1-15.
(2) The seventh day sanctified. Seventh day of the creative week still continues. Although thousands of years have swept by since God ended His work of creation, it is still His Sabbath, or rest day. Works of necessity–i.e., works of providence and mercy–He still carries on: My Father worketh hitherto, and I work (Joh 5:17). But creation is not a work of necessity. That work He ended at the close of the far-off sixth day, and ever since has rested.
II. CHRISTS DOCTRINE OF THE SABBATH.
1. Man himself is the basis of the Sabbath.
(1) Man needs the Sabbath for his secular nature.
(2) Man needs the Sabbath for his religious nature.
A day of conscious, formal, stately acknowledgment of the Divine supremacy. A day on which to dismiss worldly cares, and look through unobstructed vistas into the opening heavens. An English gentleman was once inspecting a house in Newcastle, with a view of buying it. The landlord, after having shown him the premises, took him to an upper window, and remarked: You can see Durham Cathedral from this window on Sundays. How is this? asked the visitor. Because on Sundays there is no smoke from the factory chimneys. Ah, man must have a day in which he can retire to some solitude, where his spirit–
With her best nurse, Contemplation,
May plume her feathers, and let grow her wings,
That in the various bustle of resort
Were all too ruffled, and sometimes impaired.
2. Man greater than the Sabbath. Man, as Gods son and image and representative, is the end, and the Sabbath, like every other ordinance, is a means. An immortal being, outliving institutions, economies, aeons–capable of carrying a heaven within him–Gods own image and son: man is more sacred than ordinances. Jesus Christ did not die for ordinances: Jesus Christ died for man. The Sabbath is sacred, not in itself, but because man is sacred. Hence the Sabbath is his servant–not his master. He is the Lord of the Sabbath. And in accordance with this principle Jesus Christ Himself ever acted.
3. The true method of keeping the Sabbath. Being made for man, the Sabbath must be used religiously: for the capacity for religion is mans chief definition. The Sabbath must be kept in homage of God, in the study of His Word and character and will, in the spirit of worship, private and public. But full unfolding of mans spiritual nature is possible only in the sphere of edification, or society building. The Sabbath summons man to conjugate life in a new mood and tense; but still in the active voice. And here the Son of Man is our Teacher and blessed Model. How many of His healings and works of mercy were wrought on the Sabbath day! And what is mans office in this fallen, sorrowful world, but a ministry of healing? And healing, or edification, is the highest form of worship. Nothing can take the place of it.
4. Objections.
(1) This view of the Sabbath allows too much liberty. My answer is two fold. First: there are two ways of treating men, either as infants, incapable of guiding themselves, or as men, capable of reasoning, and so of self-guidance. The first was the Mosaic way, the Church being a minor, under tutors and governors, and the law being a letter, graven on tablets of stone: the second is the Christly way, the Church having come into the possession of the privileges of majority, and the law being a spirit, graven on tablets of Gal 4:1-7; 2Co 3:3). But, secondly: Liberty is itself responsibility. The slave cannot understand, in any thorough, just sense, the meaning of the august word Responsibility; none but the freeman can understand it. And just because the New Testament gives me liberty in the matter of the Sabbath, I am bound to be more conscientious about it than was the Old Testament Jew. It is easier to be a Hebrew than a Christian.
(2) But I hear a second objection: Your view of the Sabbath is dangerous: men will pervert it, perhaps to their own perdition. Of course they may. It is one of the prerogatives of truth to be perverted.
III. THE CHANCE FROM SATURDAY TO SUNDAY. Here is a venerable, sacred institution–hallowed by the Creators own example in Eden, solemnly enjoined amid the thunders of Sinai, distinctly set apart as one of the chief signs that Israel was Gods chosen, covenanted people, majestically buttressed by loftiest promises in case of observance, and by direst threats in case of non-observance, freighted with the solemn weight of fifteen centuries of sacred associations and scrupulous observance–suddenly falling into disuse, and presently supplanted by another day, which to this year of grace has held its own amid the throes of eighteen centuries. How, then, will you account for this stupendous revolution? It is a fair question for the philosophical historian to ask. And the philosophical historian knows the answer. Jesus the Nazarene had been crucified. All through the seventh day or Hebrew Sabbath He had lain in Josephs tomb. In that tomb, amid solitude and darkness and grave-clothes, He had grappled in mortal duel with the king of death, and had thrown him, and shivered his sceptre. At the close of that awful Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week (Mat 28:1), He had risen triumphant from the dead. And by and in the very fact of that triumphant rising, He had henceforth and for evermore emblazoned the first day of the week as His own royal, supernal day, even times first, true Sabbath.
IV. JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF IS OUR SABBATH, alike its origin, its meaning, and its end. In fact the final cause of the Sabbath is to sabbatize each day and make all life sacramental. And Jesus Christ being our true Sabbath, Jesus Christ is also our true rest–even the spirits everlasting Eden. (G. D.Boardman.)
Need of the Sabbath
Man needs the Sabbath–i.e., one day of rest after six days of toil–for his secular nature, alike bodily and mental. The testimony of physicians, physiologists, political economists, managers of industrial establishments, etc., is emphatic on this point. Let me cite some instances. Dr. John William Draper, the eminent physicist and author, writes as follows: Out of the numberless blessings conferred on our race by the Church, the physiologist may be permitted to select one for remark, which, in an eminent manner, has conduced to our physical and moral well-being. It is the institution of the Sabbath. No man can for any length of time pursue one avocation or one train of thought without mental, and therefore bodily, injury–nay, without insanity. The constitution of the brain is such that it must have its time of repose. Periodicity is stamped upon it. Nor is it enough that it is awake and in action by day, and in the silence of night obtains rest and repair; that same periodicity, which belongs to it as a whole, belongs to all its constituent parts. One portion of it cannot be called into incessant activity without the risk of injury. Its different regions, devoted to different functions, must have their separate times of rest. The excitement of one part must be coincident with a pause in the action of another. It is not possible for mental equilibrium to be maintained with one idea, or one monotonous mode of life . . . Thus a kind providence so overrules events that it matters not in what station we may be, wealthy or poor, intellectual or lowly, a refuge is always at hand; and the mind, worn out with one thing, turns to another, and its physical excitement is followed by physical repose. Lord Macaulay, in his speech before the House of Commons on the Ten Hours Bill, spoke thus: The natural difference between Campania and Spitzbergen is trifling when compared with the difference between a country inhabited by men full of mental and bodily vigour, and a country inhabited by men sunk in bodily and mental decrepitude. Therefore it is we are not poorer, but richer, because we have, through many ages, rested from our labours one day in seven. That day is not lost. While industry is suspended, while the plough lies in the furrow, while the Exchange is silent, while no smoke ascends from the factory, a process is going on quite as important to the wealth of nations as any process which is performed on more busy days. Man, the machine of machines the machine compared with which all the contrivances of the Watts and the Arkwrights are worthless–is repairing and winding up, so that he returns to his labours on the Monday with clearer intellect, with livelier spirits, with renewed corporeal vigour. (G. D. Boardman.)
The Sabbath
I. THE PRIMAL SABBATH. Gods Sabbath. The end of the mysterious periods of Gods creative operations, is the beginning of a new age in which all creation is intended to glorify God and be happy.
II. THE PERIODICAL SABBATH. Made for man. A sign of Gods care for man; and a memorial of the holy rest which man should seek to obtain.
III. THE PERFECT SABBATH. The future rest in heaven. Unending joy and refreshment. Perfectly holy, perfectly happy; all things very good. (W. S. Smith, B. D.)
The Sabbath is for rest
A week filled up with selfishness, and the Sabbath stuffed full of religious exercises, will make a good Pharisee but a poor Christian. There are many persons who think Sunday is a sponge with which to wipe out the sins of the week. Now, Gods altar stands from Sunday to Sunday, and the seventh day is no more for religion than any other. It is for rest. The whole seven are for religion, and one of them for rest. (H. W. Beecher.)
The excellency of the Sabbath
What the fire is amongst the elements, the eagle among the fowls, the whale among the fishes, the lion amongst the beasts, gold among the metals, and wheat amongst other grain, the same is the Lords day above other days of the week, differing as much from the rest as doth that wax to which a kings great seal is put from ordinary wax, or that silver upon which the kings arms and image are stamped from silver unrefined, or in bullion; it is a day, the most holy festival in relation to the initiation of the world and mans regeneration, the queen and princess of days, a royal day, a day that shines amongst other days as doth the dominical letter, clad in scarlet, among the other letters in the calendar; or, as the sun imparts light to all the other stars, so doth this day, bearing the name of Sunday, afford both light and life to all the other days of the week. (J. Spencer.)
The first Sabbath
I. SABBATH REST. Sabbath rest is not merely a rest from sin, though it includes that: we are not merely required to lay aside things that are sinful to keep this Sabbath, for God rested, and He could do only good. It is not only a rest from labour, though it includes it: for God rested, and He knew no labour–commanding, and it was done. It is a rest from work. God rested from all His work. Even then those things which are lawful and pleasant work on weekdays, causing no labour and involving no sin, are to be put aside on the Sabbath, that we may rest unto God. This rest is a rest from care. You well know, that with all your desire to let the morrow take thought for the things of itself, the necessity of providing for the creatures wants will give a care and anxiety to your mind. Well, on the Sabbath you are privileged to put this all away, and to let everything remain in abeyance, leaving all in Christs hands, while you enjoy present rest in Him. This rest is, or ought to be, a rest of body and mind, as well as of soul. Lastly, above all, this rest is a rest in the Lord. It is an everlasting satisfaction in what He has done for you; and what He means to do with you. It is to go in with David to sit before the Lord; it is to lie down in green pastures, by the waters of comfort; it is to hide in the secret places of the stairs; it is to enter that chariot whose pillars are of silver, and whose bottom is of gold, and whose curtains are of purple, and which is paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem; it is to drink that new wine which goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.
II. SABBATH OCCUPATION. It may seem a strange transition to pass from the thought of Sabbath rest to that of Sabbath occupation; but the rest of saints is not an idle rest, it is not a rest which excludes the idea of employment or of service. Even in the description of the eternal and heavenly Jerusalem we have the words, His servants shall serve Him, as well as, They shall see His face; and how much more then shall the Sabbath of earth be spent in doing the will of God! Sabbath rest is found in beholding the face of God. Sabbath occupation is found in serving Him. All Sabbath occupation is lawful which does not break in upon and disturb Sabbath rest. If the employment in which we engage does not hinder, but rather promotes our enjoyment of that spirit rest which I have already spoken of, then may we be sure we are right in pursuing it.
1. First, then, as a lawful Sabbath occupation I would put self-study, for there is something in the quiet and leisure of the day of rest which seems peculiarly to favour it. God hath said, Commune with your own heart, and in your chamber, and be still; and he who is in the Spirit on the Lords day will find it good and right so to do.
2. Next in order as a Sabbath occupation I would mention Bible study. I do not by that expression mean Bible reading, but that earnest, patient investigation of the Divine Word which requires time, and thought, and prayer.
3. As another Sabbath occupation I would name creation study. God has in so wonderful a manner linked together the visible and the invisible, the tangible with the things that cannot be touched, that we cannot go forth in our glorious world without seeing traced on almost every object the hieroglyphics which tell of the higher mysteries of an inner life. Those who are instructed in the emblematic glory of the things which are can walk with Christ amidst creations beauties, and understand His parables. To them He speaketh still of the sower and the seed; the tares and the wheat; the lilies of the field, in their more than royal glory: and many a precious lesson is taught them, as they study the manner in which God is daily bringing about those results which preserve the frame of nature in its order and beauty.
4. I would next suggest as a fitting occupation for the Lords day the ministration of good.
5. As another Sabbath occupation, I would mention, writing on sacred subjects: it may be original composition or otherwise.
6. Another precious Sabbath occupation will be found in Christian converse.
7. Christian correspondence.
8. Sacred music. Blessed, beautiful gift! which God has preserved to this disordered and disruptured world–the harmony of sound. David, in Scripture times, and Luther in more modern days, are instances of those who have appreciated its powers. There is something peculiarly soothing and healing (if I may use the latter word) in the effect of the higher cast of music upon the mind; it will sometimes bring tears to eyes whose fount has long been dried. And on the Sabbath day I know no more blessed relief to the mind, when it has been kept in a high state of tension for, many hours engaged in earnest thought and study, than that which is afforded by, the strains of sacred song.
III. SABBATH WORSHIP. In spirit and in truth we must worship that God, who is a Spirit, with our whole understanding, and soul, and strength; with our lamps burning and our armour bright, as a peculiar people, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood we must do Him service. (The Protoplast.)
A world without a Sabbath
A world without a Sabbath would be like a man without a smile, like a summer without flowers, and like a homestead without a garden. It is the joyous day of the whole week. (H. W. Beecher.)
The Sabbath not to be effaced
The original distinction, made by God Himself, and founded both upon His nature and ours, between working and resting, must be kept in mind; and we must not attempt to confound these, or suppose that, provided we try to glorify God in everything, it matters little whether we set the two different things distinctly before us; viz., the glory which we are to give Him in working and the glory which we are to give Him in resting. In trying to make every day a Sabbath we are doing what we can to efface this Divine distinction. And can it be effaced without sin, without injury to the soul, without harm both to the Church and to the world, both to Jew and Gentile? It cannot; for thus God does not get the glory which He desires. He does not get the separate glories of which we have been speaking, but a mere human compound of both–vague, indefinite, diluted–something that neither glorifies Him nor benefits His saints, nor bears witness to the world. Those who deny the authority of the Sabbath now must undertake to prove the following things:–
1. That the Decalogue or Law is no longer binding; or at least that one out of the ten commandments is no longer binding.
2. That Christ came to diminish our store of blessings during the present dispensation; that He has narrowed instead of enlarged our privileges.
3. If they shrink from this, then they must maintain that the Sabbath is not a blessing; that it is an unwholesome, unnatural, intolerable restraint; a weariness, a bondage, a curse.
4. That the Sabbath was a Jewish institution exclusively, and therefore fell when Judaism fell. (H. Bonar, D. D.)
The Divine rest
There are some who can see in this description nothing higher than the ignoble image of a weary Creator reposing after His fatigues; as if the God of this chapter were like the Olympian deities, or the Baal whose slumbers provoked the mockery of the Tishbite. Nor is the rest of God intended to suggest that the Creator has ceased to create; that He has constructed the world as a self-acting machine, and now commits it to its course. A far nobler thought, a religious and not a scientific conception underlies the image.
1. It marks a stage in the process of creation. The earth is rendered habitable. Every portion of the creation has been pronounced good in itself; now the whole is regarded by God with satisfaction. God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. God rested from all His work which He had made.
2. The image of Gods rest emphasizes the relation of man to the terrestrial creation. We rest when our purpose is complete. The plan of God was wrought out when man was formed.
3. There is a rest for the affections as well as for the purposes; a repose of the heart as well as of the planning intellect and the active will. A father who expects his children home, and prepares for their reception, does not rest until he sees them; in his welcome of them there is repose. It is not that he wilt have nothing more to do, that he abates his labour for them or relaxes his care. His heart is full of tranquillity; the excitement of preparation has given way to peace.
4. And yet once more–consider to what a history this creation legend is the introduction. The narrative only pauses a moment; and then begins a story of sin and chastisement, of strife and shame and struggle. It is the prologue of a long drama of passion, weariness, and woe. (A. Mackennal, D. D.)
Institution of Sabbath
I. THE DIRECT REASONS why we believe the Sabbath to have been instituted at the time when the sacred narrative begins. The transactions of the seventh day immediately follow those of the sixth, precisely as those of the sixth follow the fifth–the history is chronological, unbroken, complete. This is the reason each days work comes in order. These were the transactions of the seventh day, which come as directly in succession after the preceding as any of the other days. The plain literal common sense interpretation of the history of the Scripture is indispensable to faith. But in the present case we have yet further reasons. The distribution of the work of creation into its parts would be deprived of its object and end, if the institution of the Sabbath were expunged. For why this distribution but to mark to man the proportion of time allotted him for his usual labour, and the proportion to be assigned to religious exercises? Again, where is the example in Scripture of any instituted commemoration not beginning from the time of its appointment? One is ashamed to urge more arguments in such a case–but what meaning, I ask, had Moses in his reference to six days labour and a seventh days Sabbath, as matters familiarly known, at the time of the miraculous fall of manna before the giving of the law, if there had not been a preceding institution? Or what is intended by the citation of the very language of my text in the fourth commandment, if the reason there assigned had not really reposed on facts–For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth.
II. THE JUST INFERENCES to be drawn from them as to the glory and dignity of the Sabbath.
1. We learn from them, first, its essential necessity to man as man.
2. Consider, further, that it was the first command given by God to Adam, as soon as ever the work of creation was finished. Man never was without a Sabbath.
3. Observe, further, that this command was not merely made known to man, in some of those ways in which his Maker afterwards communicated His will, but it was placed, as it were, on the footing of creation itself. By the Almighty Hand all nature might have been called into being in an instant. The distribution of the work over six days, followed by the repose on the seventh, was to infix this grand principle in the mind of every human being, that after six days labour one day of religious rest should follow.
4. We learn also from this order of creation that man was made, not for constant and unrelieved employment or for earthly pursuits chiefly, but for labour with intervals of repose, and in subordination to the glory of his God; man was formed not for seven days toil, but for six–man was formed not for secular and terrestrial pursuits merely, but for the high purpose of honouring God, meditating on His works, and preparing for the enjoyment of Him forever.
III. Let us next show that THERE ARE TRACES OF THE OBSERVATION OF A WEEKLY REST DURING THE PATRIARCHAL AGES. The very first act of Divine worship after the Fall affords indications of a day of religion. Cain and Abel brought their offerings in process of time, as the common reading has it, but literally, and as it is in the margin, at the end of the days. Thus we have in the sacred narrative, the priest, altar, matter of sacrifice, motive, atonement made and accented, and appointed time–indications these entirely consistent with the supposition of a previous sabbatical institution, and indeed proceeding upon it–for that is the meaning of the expression, at the end of the days. But one division of days had been yet mentioned, and that was of the days of the week, the Sabbath being the last or seventh day–we may, therefore, reasonably suppose that holy season to be here termed the end of the days. Again, we read that men, in the days of Seth (two hundred years, perhaps, after Abels sacrifice), began to call upon the name of the Lord, or, to call themselves by the name of the Lord; and four hundred years later, that Enoch walked with God,–terms of large import, and which, when illustrated by the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews, where the faith of the patriarchs in the Divine order of creation is so extolled, are, to say the least, entirely consistent with the observation of a day of religious worship. We come to the flood. Sixteen centuries have elapsed since the institution of the weekly rest. And now we find the reckoning by weeks familiarly referred to as the ordinary division of time. The Lord said unto Noah, Yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth. And again, It came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the food were upon the earth. These passages occur in the seventh chapter. Nothing can be more certain than that the return of seven days brought something peculiar with it; and we judge it probable, from the institution of the Sabbath, that that peculiarity was the day of sacred rest. Accordingly after the flood, the tradition of that division of time spread over all the eastern world–Assyrians, Egyptians, Indians, Arabians, Persians, unite with the Israelites in retaining vestiges of it. In the earliest remains of the heathen writers, Hesiod, Homer, Callimachus–the sanctity of the seventh day is referred to as a matter of notoriety. Philo, the Jew, declares that there was no nation under heaven where the opinion had not reached. But we come to the history of Abraham. Here it is deserving notice, as we pass, that the rite of circumcision was to be performed after the lapse of seven days from the birth; but the commendation of Abrahams example, That he commanded his children and his household after him, to keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, implies that there was a way prescribed by the Almighty, and certain observances in which consisted justice and judgment, amongst which the Sabbath was probably the chief. But in the more fall declaration afterwards made concerning him to Isaac; That Abraham obeyed His voice, and kept His charge, His commandments, His statutes, and His laws; the terms employed are so various as to be by no means naturally interpreted of the ordinances of circumcision and sacrifice only, but to include, as much as if it were named, the charge and law of the Sabbath. We come to Jacob; and few, I think, can doubt that when he uttered the devout exclamation, This is none other than the house of God, this is the gate of heaven; and then vowed that the stone should be Gods house–he alluded to what was customary with the pious patriarchs, the worship of God in a stated place, and on a stated time–the Sabbath; without which a house of God would be a term of little meaning; but with which it would indeed be the pledge and anticipation of heaven. Even Laban seems to have had the notion of a weekly division of time, Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also. But I will not dwell on more particulars. The numerous, the almost perpetual notices of places, of altars, of sacrifices, of the worship of God, of solemn titles given to particular spots, all confirm the supposition, which is the only reasonable one, that the sabbatical institution was not unknown to the patriarchs. We may notice the case of holy Job, as confirming this, who, remote as was the place of his abode, more than once reminds us of a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord.
IV. THE MANNER IN WHICH THE SABBATH WAS REVIVED AND RE-ESTABLISHED BEFORE THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE MOSAICAL ECONOMY, proves that it was a previous institution, which had never been entirely lost; and therefore confirms all we stated of its origin in Paradise and its continuance during the patriarchal ages.
1. Let us, then, first, in applying this part of our subject, observe, the extreme violence which is done to the Christian faith, when any important fact in the Scriptures, such as the institution of the Sabbath in Paradise, is attempted to be explained away by the fancy of man.
2. Yes, come with me before we close this discourse and let us adore and praise the Almighty Father of all for the distinct glories shed upon the day of religious repose. Come and praise Him for condescending to imprint its first enactment, and the reasons on which it is grounded, on the six days creative wonders. Come, glorify your God and Father. He bids you rest, but it is after His own example. He bids you labour, but it is after His pattern. Imitate the Supreme Architect. Work in the order in which He worked, cease when He was pleased to cease. Let the day of religion, after each six days toil, be to you a blessed and a sanctified season. Plead the promise attached to the Sabbath: it is blessed of God, it is sanctified of God, it is hallowed of God. Implore forgiveness of your past neglect. Let no Sabbath henceforth leave you without having sought the blessing promised and performed the duties to which it is dedicated. Let your devout meditation on the glories of creation swell the choir of your Makers praise. Join the sons of God in their joys and songs at the birth of the universe. (D. Wilson, M. A.)
The Lords day, or Christian Sabbath
1. Delight in the Lords day as a high privilege bestowed upon you: make it the matter of your holy joy.
2. Dispose of your earthly affairs wisely in the foregoing week, so that if possible you may not have the Lords day, which is a day of rest and worship, invaded and intrenched upon by the cares and business of this world.
3. Think of the promises which are made to these who with a religious care serve and worship God upon His appointed day.
4. Whatsoever spiritual advantages or improvements you obtain on Gods own day, take care that you do not lose them again amidst the labours or the pleasures of the following week.
5. Take notice what relish and satisfaction you find in the duties or services of the Lords day, and let that be a test whereby you may judge of the sanctification of your souls and your preparation for heaven.
6. Let every Lords day, every Christian Sabbath, lead your meditations, your faith, and hope onward to the eternal rest in heaven. (Isaac Watts, D. D.)
The Sabbath
I. ITS ORIGIN. Days and nights, lunar months, and solar years, are natural divisions of time; and may be easily supposed or accounted for, by the diurnal revolution of the earth, the appearance of the moon, and the annual course of the sun; but weeks of seven days cannot have the shadow of a reason assigned for their observance, except on the ground of the primeval institution of the Sabbath on the seventh day of the creation, and banded down by tradition to all parts of the world.
II. ITS PERPETUITY.
1. It was enjoined upon Adam, as the federal head and common parent of all mankind, and not given to Abraham, as the father of the Jewish nation.
2. It was introduced and enforced in the decalogue as a moral precept, and not a mere ceremonial institution.
3. The same, and even stronger reasons, may be assigned for the perpetuity of the Sabbath, than those expressed as the design of its original appointment. There is the same God to adore; there are the same works to contemplate; and we are the same dependent creatures as were our first parents, with this great disadvantage on our parts, that we are ever prone to forget the Almighty, and require more means to keep us in remembrance of the Lord than ever Adam needed in primeval innocence.
4. When the Gentiles were brought into the Church of Christ by the preaching of the gospel, their observance of the Sabbath is mentioned by the prophet Isaiah, as positive proof of their conversion to God (chap. 56:6, 8). By this they testified their faith, affection, and obedience, in the great cause which they had espoused; they thus observed the command, exalted the goodness, and magnified the grace of that Supreme Being, whose name they were destined to profess and to honour in the world.
5. The last book of the inspired volume emphatically terms it, the Lords day.
III. ITS SCRIPTURAL OBSERVANCE.
1. A complete cessation of our secular employments.
2. Holy meditation of the Divine Being and works.
3. Fervent prayer.
4. A close attention to the Word of God.
5. Public worship.
CONCLUSION:
1. Regard the Sabbath as a merciful appointment.
2. Lament the abuse of the Sabbath amongst us.
3. Observe the day thus blessed and sanctified. (Thomas Wood.)
The Sabbath
I. THE WORSHIP OF GOD OUGHT TO BE MENS FIRST AND CHIEF CARE.
II. GOD MAKES GREAT ACCOUNT OF THE SANCTIFYING OF HIS SABBATHS.
1. As serving for a public and notorious badge of our profession Eze 20:12).
2. An especial means of preserving and increasing of religion, being, as it were, the mart day for the soul, wherein we have commerce in a sort wholly with God in spiritual things, tendering unto Him, and pouring out before Him the affections of our souls in prayers and praises; and God pouring out grace and comfort upon our spirits in the use of His holy ordinances.
III. THE SABBATH DAY SANCTIFIED AS IT OUGHT IS A DAY OF BLESSINGS.
IV. THE SABBATH IS A DAY OF REST CONSECRATED BY GOD HIMSELF, AND SET APART FROM A COMMON TO A HOLY USE.
V. THE LAW GIVEN BY GOD FOR THE OBSERVATION OF THE SABBATH DAY IS A LAW UNIVERSAL AND PERPETUAL.
VI. MEDITATION ON GODS WORKS, THAT OUR HEARTS MAY BE RAISED UP TO A HOLY REJOICING IN HIM, IS, AND OUGHT TO BE, A CHRISTIANS CHIEF EXERCISE FOR THE RIGHT SANCTIFYING OF THE SABBATH DAY. (J. White, M. A.)
Intellectual gain of Sunday rest
Wilberforce accounts, in part at least, for the suicide of Castlereagh, Romilly, and Whitbread, by the absence of the Sabbath rest. Lord Hatherley, who rose to be Lord High Chancellor of England, testified, at a public meeting in Westminster, that many lawyers who were in the habit of Sunday study or practice of law have failed in mind and body–not a few of them becoming inmates of lunatic asylums; and that, within his experience, the successful and long-living lawyers are those who, like himself and Lords Cairns and Selborne, have always remembered the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. If you wish to get the full good of your mind, you will give it the rest which its Creator indicates; you will give it sleep; you will give it the Sabbath. The mind is not an artesian well, but a land spring. The supply is limited. If you pump continually, the water will grow turbid; and if, after it grows turbid, you continue still to work it, you will not increase the quantity, and you will spoil the pump. There is a difference of intellectual activity, but the most powerful mind is a land spring after all; and those who wish to preserve their thoughts fresh, pure, and pellucid, will put on the Sabbath padlock. In the subsequent clearness of their views, in the calmness of their judgment, and in the free and copious flow of ideas, they, find their speedy recompense.
The Sabbath–the weekly summer
It is the chief time for gathering knowledge to last you through the following week, just as summer is the chief season for gathering food to last you through the following twelvemonth. (A. W. Hare.)
Never-ending Sabbaths
Yes, it was the beautiful remark of an aged Christian, a poor widow, when asked by her minister, as she stood lingering in the porch of the church, What have you been thinking of so deeply?–I have been thinking, sir, oh! that my Sabbaths would never end. Happy state of mind! How natural the transition from the Sabbath that ends, to the Sabbath that never ends; from the Sabbath whose sun so soon sets, to the Sabbath of that city which hath no Heed of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof, and which hath no temple, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. There will be no more temple there, for it will be all one temple–a temple where they rest not day nor night, crying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. God has annexed this blessing to His day, that in proportion as we love to enter into its blessed services, breathe its holy atmosphere, do we feel assured that heaven is ours, and that we are heavens, and that our Sabbaths are as blessed steps by which we rise higher and higher till we reach a Sabbath whose sun shall never set. (H. Stowell, M. A.)
Sabbath the perfection of creation
In Bereshith Rabbah, a Rabbinical commentary of the second century, it is beautifully said, What is the institution of the Sabbath like? A king erected a marriage canopy, which he ornamented and beautified. When it was completed there was but one thing wanting, and that was the bride. Thus likewise, the creation of the world completed, its perfection required nothing but the Sabbath.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. On the SEVENTH day God ended, c.] It is the general voice of Scripture that God finished the whole of the creation in six days, and rested the seventh! giving us an example that we might labour six days, and rest the seventh from all manual exercises. It is worthy of notice that the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Samaritan, read the sixth day instead of the seventh and this should be considered the genuine reading, which appears from these versions to have been originally that of the Hebrew text. How the word sixth became changed into seventh may be easily conceived from this circumstance. It is very likely that in ancient times all the numerals were signified by letters, and not by words at full length. This is the case in the most ancient Greek and Latin MSS., and in almost all the rabbinical writings. When these numeral letters became changed for words at full length, two letters nearly similar might be mistaken for each other; vau stands for six, zain for seven; how easy to mistake these letters for each other when writing the words at full length, and so give birth to the reading in question.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
God ended his work, or rather had ended or
finished, for so the Hebrew word may be rendered, as all the learned know, and so it must be rendered, else it doth not agree with the former chapter, which expressly saith that all these works were done within six days.
He rested, not for his own need and refreshment, for he
is never weary, Isa 40:28; but for our example and instruction, that we might keep that day as a day of religious rest.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. and he rested on the seventhdaynot to repose from exhaustion with labor (see Isa40:28), but ceased from working, an example equivalent to acommand that we also should cease from labor of every kind.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And on the seventh day God ended his work, which he had made,…. Not that God wrought anything on the seventh day, or finished any part of his work on that day, because he could not then be said to rest from all his work, as be is afterwards twice said to do; and because of this seeming difficulty the Septuagint, Samaritan, and Syriac versions, read, “on the sixth day”. The two latter versions following the former, which so translated for the sake of Ptolemy king of Egypt, as the Jews say a, that he might not object that God did any work on the sabbath day: and Josephus b observes, that, Moses says the world, and all things in it, were made in those six days, as undoubtedly they were; and were all finished on the sixth day, as appears from the last verse of the preceding chapter; and yet there is no occasion to alter the text, or suppose a various reading. Some, as Aben Ezra observes, take the sense of the word to be, “before the seventh day God ended his work”, as they think may be rendered, and as it is by Noldius c: or the words may be translated, “in the seventh day, when God had ended”, or “finished his work” d, which he had done on the sixth day, then
he rested on the seventh day from all his works which he had made: not as though weary of working, for the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not, nor is weary, Isa 40:28 but as having done all his work, and brought it to such perfection, that he had no more to do; not that he ceased from making individuals, as the souls of men, and even all creatures that are brought into the world by generation, may be said to be made by him, but from making any new species of creatures; and much less did he cease from supporting and maintaining the creatures he had made in their beings, and providing everything agreeable for them, and governing them, and overruling all things in the world for ends of his own glory; in this sense he “worketh hitherto”, as Christ says, Joh 5:17.
a T. Bab. Megilla fol. 9. 1. Gloss. in ib. b Antiqu. l. 1. c. 1. sect. 1. c Concord. part. Eb. p. 144. No. 1007. Perfecerat. “ante diem septimum” some in Yatablus. d “et compleverat”, Drusius; “quum perfecisset”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator “had finished”, Ainsworth.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
2. And he rested on the seventh day The question may not improperly be put, what kind of rest this was. For it is certain that inasmuch as God sustains the world by his power, governs it by his providence, cherishes and even propagates all creatures, he is constantly at work. Therefore that saying of Christ is true, that the Father and he himself had worked from the beginning hitherto, (102) because, if God should but withdraw his hand a little, all things would immediately perish and dissolve into nothing, as is declared in Psa 104:29 (103) And indeed God is rightly acknowledged as the Creator of heaven and earth only whilst their perpetual preservation is ascribed to him. (104) The solution of the difficulty is well known, that God ceased from all his work, when he desisted from the creation of new kinds of things. But to make the sense clearer, understand that the last touch of God had been put, in order that nothing might be wanting to the perfection of the world. And this is the meaning of the words of Moses, From all his work which he had made; for he points out the actual state of the work as God would have it to be, as if he had said, then was completed what God had proposed to himself. On the whole, this language is intended merely to express the perfection of the fabric of the world; and therefore we must not infer that God so ceased from his works as to desert them, since they only flourish and subsist in him. Besides, it is to be observed, that in the works of the six days, those things alone are comprehended which tend to the lawful and genuine adorning of the world. It is subsequently that we shall find God saying, Let the earth bring forth thorns and briers, by which he intimates that the appearance of the earth should be different from what it had been in the beginning. But the explanation is at hand; many things which are now seen in the world are rather corruptions of it than any part of its proper furniture. For ever since man declined from his high original, it became necessary that the world should gradually degenerate from its nature. We must come to this conclusion respecting the existence of fleas, caterpillars, and other noxious insects. In all these, I say, there is some deformity of the world, which ought by no means to be regarded as in the order of nature, since it proceeds rather from the sin of man than from the hand of God. Truly these things were created by God, but by God as an avenger. In this place, however, Moses is not considering God as armed for the punishment of the sins of men; but as the Artificer, the Architect, the bountiful Father of a family, who has omitted nothing essential to the perfection of his edifice. At the present time, when we look upon the world corrupted, and as if degenerated from its original creation, let that expression of Paul recur to our mind, that the creature is liable to vanity, not willingly, but through our fault, (Rom 8:20,) and thus let us mourn, being admonished of our just condemnation.
(102) Joh 5:17. This sentence is omitted in Tymme’s English version. — Ed.
(103) “Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled; thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.”
(104) The word translated preservation is vegetationem, which means an enlivening or a quickening motion; to explain this the Old English translation here adds, though without authority, “According to this saying of the apostle, In him we live, and move, and have our being.” — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) God ended his work.Not all work (see Joh. 5:17, and Note in loc.), but the special work of creation. The laws given in these six days still continue their activity; they are still maintained, and there may even be with them progress and development. There is also something special on this seventh day; for in it the work of redemption was willed by the Father, wrought by the Son, and applied by the Holy Ghost. But there is no creative activity, as when vegetable or animal life began, or when a free agent first walked erect upon a world given him to subdue.
The substitution, in the LXX. and Syriac, of the sixth for the seventh day, as that on which God ended His work, was probably made in order to avoid even the appearance of Elohim having put the finishing touches to creation on the Sabbath.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. On the seventh day God ended his work “The completion or finishing ( ) of the work of creation on the seventh day (not on the sixth, as Sept . , Samuel, Syr . , erroneously render it) can only be understood by regarding the clauses which are connected with by Vav consec . as containing the actual completion, that is, by supposing the completion to consist, negatively, in the cessation of the work of creation, and positively, in the blessing and sanctifying of the seventh day . The cessation itself formed a part of the completion of the work . For this meaning of , see Gen 8:22; Job 32:1. As a human artificer completes his work just when he has brought it to his ideal and ceases to work upon it, so, in an infinitely higher sense, God completed the creation of the world with all its inhabitants by ceasing to create any thing new, and entering into the rest of his all-sufficient eternal Being, from which he had come forth, as it were, at and in the creation of a world distinct from his own essence.” Keil. God did not rest because he was weary, but because he had finished his work; and his rest was the divine refreshment of holy contemplation. Exo 31:17. The fact that there is no mention of the morning and evening of the seventh day is no evidence that that day, as here intended, continues still .
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made, and he rested (ceased work) on the seventh day from all the work which he had made. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because that in it God rested from all his work which God had created and made.’
Note the distinction again brought out between ‘created’ and ‘made’. There is a clear distinction in activity. God both created and made. First He created the matter which He then through some unexplained process fashioned into our world. Then He created life and again proceeded over time to ‘bring forth’ various living creatures. And finally He created man with the ability to know God and pierce the spiritual realm, to be ‘like the elohim’.
“Finished the work which He had made.” It was complete. We would say ‘had finished’. Nothing remained to be done.
“God rested.” Elsewhere God’s resting is seen, not as suggesting a need for recuperation, but as indicating His permanent condition in His dwellingplace as He presides over creation and receives man’s worship. In His ‘resting’ He is present in His creation overseeing all that goes on and accepting man’s homage. Thus in Isa 66:1 a, having identified heaven and earth as his royal dwellingplace YHWH asks Israel: “What manner of house will you build for me and what shall be the place of my rest?” (Isa 66:1 b; cf. 2Ch 6:18; 2Ch 6:41 ff; Act 7:49). And their reply should be that the only place suitable for His rest is in the Heaven of heavens to which men should look in worship. In the same way David spoke of his desire “to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of YHWH and for the footstool of our God” (1Ch 28:2), while Psa 132:7-8 further exhorts, “Let us go to his dwelling place, let us worship at his footstool. Rise up, YHWH, from your resting place, arise from the ark of your strength” (Num 10:35-36). And it adds in verses Psa 132:13-14, “for YHWH has chosen Zion, He has desired it for His dwelling –. This is My resting place for ever, here I will dwell”. It is true that the verbal root used here is menuchah (“rest”), and not shabath, but menuchah is the verb used of ‘rest’ in Exo 20:11 of God’s seventh day rest.
It is interesting that no ending to this day is ever mentioned. No reference is made to ‘the evening and the morning of the seventh day’. This must surely be seen as deliberate. God’s ‘week’ is over and there will be no repetition. The seventh ‘day’ does not end, for there is no eighth day. The work of creation is complete and God has no further work to do. He has seen it as ‘very good’. This is yet another indication that we are not thinking of ‘natural’ days. The suggestion of God resting is thus anthropomorphic, simply meaning that He ceased His creative activity, and indicative of the fact that all now being completed He can take up His position over the Universe. In other words He ‘ceases work’. There is no indication that God is tired.
There may also be the thought here that God has now appointed someone to take care of His creation, man, so that the necessity for His direct action has ceased. The writer may indeed be thinking in his own mind, ‘and then …….. His rest was broken by man’s failure!’
It should especially be noted that the description of the final day is solely in the writer’s words. God does not Himself act or speak. It is the writer who describes the seventh day as the culmination of the work of creation, as the ‘day’ on which God ‘finished his work, and rested’. Previously when God is said to have blessed, this is followed by His words explaining the blessing, but there are no words of explanation here. It is the writer who sees it as a day blessed and hallowed by God because it was the day when the work was finished.
But notice that he does not connect this with the observance by his people of the Sabbath (a word probably taken from sabat = cease, desist), the day when they too cease work. There is in fact no suggestion that the pattern is incumbent upon mankind, and it is noteworthy that no suggestion of the Sabbath appears elsewhere in the book of Genesis. The Sabbath would later arise from this idea, not this idea from the Sabbath.
The question whether man was able to keep count of days and observe the seventh day before he was able to count and calculate does not therefore arise. It is only later when the account of creation in six ‘days’ followed by a day of rest has become an accepted part of worship, that recognition of the day follows, and it is seen as applicable to daily life. We are never told when this was. Thus there are no specific grounds for seeing this as ‘the institution of the Sabbath’.
“So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it.” This is the writer’s comment. It may refer to a later gradual recognition of the seventh day as a day for worship, so that it has become officially recognised by the writer’s time, or indeed to the later sanctifying of the day in the time of Moses, for it is not said that God blessed it at the time, as He had the living creatures. Or it may simply meant that as the day on which nothing further needed to be done it was a blessed day, and was uniquely different from the others.
The first known application of the Sabbath as a strict day of rest is in the time of Moses (Exo 16:1-36). There the people were gathering the manna provided by God on a daily basis, and they were forbidden to keep any until the morning after. But on the sixth day they were to gather two days supply (Exo 16:5). This is the first introduction of what would later (Exo 20:11) be instituted in God’s covenant, the day special to God. When the leaders of the people come to Moses to point out that the people are gathering two days supply on the sixth day (gathering for more than one day has previously caused problems), Moses at that point explains the law of the Sabbath.
Had the Sabbath already been strictly in practise these leaders would have known this and would not have expected people to gather on the Sabbath. This suggests that, although up to this stage it may have been generally observed by custom, it was at this point that it became in its strict state a newly ordained institution. Later God would relate it to the ‘days’ of creation (Exo 20:11). The wording with which it is expressed in Exo 20:11 suggests that by that stage this creation account had been written under God’s inspiration, and could thus be used as a pattern of, and justification for, the Sabbath. Note that Deu 5:12-15 and Eze 20:12-21 both stress the connection of the giving of the Sabbaths with the deliverance from Egypt and not with creation.
So in Exo 16:1-36 the leaders on the one hand are not aware of the strict observance of the Sabbath, but the people on the other are aware of some kind of distinction, suggesting a conception which was not yet fully formed.
This does not necessarily mean that there had been no recognition of the seventh day previously, only that it had not previously been strictly related to total cessation of work. It may well be, possibly again arising from the Creation story, that the seventh day was previously looked on as special , although we have nowhere else any earlier indication of it. The Sabbath was in fact unique to Israel and is not paralleled elsewhere (despite numerous attempts to suggest otherwise). There is no ‘race-memory’ of a Sabbath.
(The Babylonian ‘sabbatum’ was not in fact a day of ceasing from work, as various labour contracts demonstrate, and those things that were excluded on the ‘sabbatum’ were excluded because of the danger of ‘ill luck’ not because they were work. Furthermore the Babylonians had a ‘five day’ week).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Gen 2:2. Rested This word ( ishboth) is not opposed to weariness, but to work, or action. And therefore all the idle sarcasms which have been cast upon Moses and his God, are built upon ignorance and misunderstanding of the fact. God, an Almighty and Omnipotent Spirit, can neither faint nor be weary: but he may cease from exerting certain operations of his power; as here he ceased to exert his divine energy in the formation of new productions. This is all that is intended: He ceased not from his work of Providence, and superintendence of what he had created.
It should be observed here; that in this account of the creation, the Deity is in many particulars represented , after the manner of men. In many parts of scripture, he is represented with human parts, and human passions: not that this is by any means the case, but only to give us the best idea possible of such actions in the Deity as we could have no idea of at all, except from this method of analogy. It will be sufficient to have made this remark once.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 2
APPOINTMENT OF THE SABBATH
Gen 2:2-3. 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.
THOUGH we know no reason on Gods part why he should proceed in the work of creation by slow and gradual advancement, instead of perfecting the whole at once; yet we may conceive a reason on the part of man, who is enabled thereby to take a more minute and deliberate survey of all its parts, and from every fresh discovery of the creation to derive fresh themes of praise to the Creator. This idea seems to be countenanced by the institution of Sabbath immediately after the completion of the sixth days work. At all events, this is the improvement which it becomes us to make of the Sabbath: in speaking of which we shall shew,
I.
The reason of its appointment
God, after finishing his work, rested, and was refreshed [Note: Exo 31:17.]. Whether this expression be merely a figure taken from what is experienced by us after any laborious and successful exertion, or whether it intimate the complacency which God felt, as it were, on a review of his works, we cannot absolutely determine. But his sanctifying of the seventh day in consequence of that rest, shews, that he consulted,
1.
His own glory
[As God made all things for himself, so he instituted the Sabbath in order that his rational creatures might have stated opportunities of paying him their tribute of prayer and praise. If no period had been fixed by him for the solemnities of public worship, it would have been impossible to bring mankind to an agreement respecting the time when they should render unto him their united homage. They would all acknowledge the propriety of serving him in concert; but each would be ready to consult his own convenience; a difference of sentiment also would obtain respecting the portion of time that should be allotted to his service: and thus there would never be one hour when all should join together in celebrating their Creators praise. But by an authoritative separation of the seventh day, God has secured, that the whole creation shall acknowledge him, and that His goodness shall be had in everlasting remembrance. In this view, God himself, speaking of the Sabbath which he had instituted at the creation, and the observance of which he was, with some additional reasons, enforcing on the Jews, calls it a sign between him and them, that they might know that he is the Lord [Note: Exo 31:13; Exo 31:17.].]
2.
His peoples good
[Though men might have worshipped God in secret, yet the appointment of a certain day to be entirely devoted to His service, had a tendency to spiritualize their minds, and to make every one in some respect useful in furthering the welfare of the whole community. Sympathy is a powerful principle in the human breast: and the sight of others devoutly occupied in holy exercises, is calculated to quicken the drowsy soul. The very circumstance of multitudes meeting together with raised expectations and heavenly affections, must operate like an assemblage of burning coals, all of which are instrumental to the kindling of others, while they receive in themselves fresh ardour from the contact.
A further benefit from the appointment of the Sabbath is, that the attention of all must necessarily be directed to the eternal Sabbath, which awaits them at the expiration of their appointed week of labour. Each revolving Sabbath, freed from the distractions of worldly care, and attended, not merely with bodily rest, but with a rest of the soul in God, must be to them an earnest and foretaste of heaven itself. Well therefore does Nehemiah number the Sabbath among the richest benefits which God had conferred upon his chosen people [Note: Neh 9:14.].]
But as some have thought the Sabbath to be a mere Jewish institution, which, like the rest of the ceremonial law, is abrogated and annulled, we shall proceed to shew,
II.
The continuance of its obligation
That there was something ceremonial in the Jewish Sabbath, we readily acknowledge: but there was something moral also; and therefore, as to the moral part of it, it must, of necessity, be of perpetual obligation. To remove all doubt on this important subject, consider,
1.
The time of its institution
[Some have thought that the mention which is made of the Sabbath in the words before us, was merely by anticipation; and that the appointment never took place till the days of Moses. But if this were the case, how came Moses to specify the circumstance of Gods resting on the seventh day as the reason of that appointment [Note: Exo 20:11.] ? It would have been a good reason for our first parents and their immediate descendants to hallow the seventh day; but it could be no reason at all to those who lived almost five-and-twenty hundred years after the event; more especially when so obvious and cogent a reason as their deliverance out of Egypt was assigned at the very same time [Note: Deu 5:15.]. But if the command given to the Jews was a repetition of the injunction given to Adam, then there is an obvious propriety in assigning the reason that was obligatory upon all, as well as that which formed an additional obligation on the Jewish nation in particular.
Besides, there are traces of a Sabbath from the beginning of the world. For, if no Sabbath had ever been given, whence came the practice of measuring time by weeks? Yet that custom obtained both in the patriarchal [Note: Gen 29:27-28.] and antediluvian ages [Note: Gen 8:10; Gen 8:12.]: and therefore, since it accords so exactly with what was afterwards instituted by divine authority, we may well infer its original appointment by God himself. And if its obligation existed so many ages before the ceremonial law was given, then must it continue to exist after that law is abolished.]
2.
The manner of its re-establishment
[Notwithstanding the long continuance of the Jews in Egypt, the remembrance of the Sabbath was not effaced: for Moses, before the giving of the law, speaks of the Sabbath as an institution known and received among them [Note: Exo 16:23.]. And, without any express direction, they gathered on the sixth day a double portion of manna to serve them on the Sabbath; which they would not have done, if they had not thought the observance of the Sabbath to be of the first importance [Note: Exo 16:22. That they did this without any direction from Moses, is evident from the complaint which the Rulers made on the occasion; for which complaint there could have been no ground, if any direction had been given.].
Nevertheless, for the more effectual maintenance of its authority, God judged it necessary to publish it to them again, both upon the original grounds, and on other special grounds peculiar to that people. And how did he publish it? Did he deliver it to Moses in the same manner as he did the ceremonial law? No: he wrote it with his own finger in tables of stone, and embodied it with the moral law [Note: Deu 10:3-4.]. Surely this affords a very strong presumption that God himself considered its duties, not as ceremonial, limited, and transient, but as moral, universal, and permanent.]
3.
The confirmation of it by the Prophets
[That its obligations should be sanctioned by the prophets, we might well expect; because they lived under the authority of the Jewish law. The mere circumstance, therefore, of their insisting on the observation of the Sabbath would prove nothing. But their speaking of the Sabbath, as to be observed under the Christian dispensation, very strongly corroborates the perpetuity of its obligations. Now the prophet Isaiah does speak of the Sabbath in such a connexion, that we cannot doubt of its referring to the times of the Gospel: and he represents the keeping of the Sabbath as no less necessary to our happiness, than the laying hold of Christs righteousness and salvation [Note: Isa 56:1-2.]. We can scarcely think that the prophet would have so strongly marked the continuance of the Sabbath, if its obligations were to cease with the ceremonial law.]
4.
The observation of it by the Apostles
[The precise day on which the Jews kept their Sabbath, was indeed changed; and the first day of the week was substituted for the seventh. This was done in order to commemorate the resurrection of our blessed Lord; an event, the most interesting that ever occurred from the foundation of the world; an event which proved, beyond all doubt, the Messiahship of Jesus, and has served from that time as the corner-stone of all our hopes [Note: Act 4:10-12.]. When Israel was brought out of Egypt, God, in order to commemorate that deliverance, changed the commencement of the year from the Autumn to the Spring [Note: Exo 12:2.]: can we wonder then, that, in remembrance of an infinitely greater deliverance, he should alter the day on which the Sabbath had been observed? It was in the appropriation of a seventh part of our time to God, that the morality of the Sabbath consisted; and that is preserved under the Christian, as much as under the Jewish economy.
This change was sanctioned by our blessed Lord, who repeatedly selected that day for the more public exhibition of himself to his disciples [Note: Luk 24:13; Luk 24:33; Luk 24:36; Luk 24:40; Luk 24:45; Joh 20:19; Joh 20:26.] ; and on that day sent down the Holy Ghost upon them [Note: This is ascertained by calculators, as well as from its being the seventh Sabbath after his resurrection.] ; in order that the application, as well as the completion of his redemption, might give a further sanctity to the new-appointed day.
From that time the first day of the week was invariably observed for the public services of the church [Note: Act 20:7; 1Co 16:1-2.] ; and, to stamp peculiar honour upon it, it was distinguished by that endearing name, The Lords day [Note: Rev 1:10.].
Who that weighs all these arguments, can doubt the continued obligation of the Sabbath?]
For the regulation of our conduct on the Sabbath, we should inquire into,
III.
The nature of its requirements
The same kind of strictness is not required of us as was enjoined under the law
[We have before said, that there was something of a ceremonial nature in the Jewish Sabbath. The Jews in the wilderness were not permitted to leave their habitations on the Sabbath-day [Note: Exo 16:29.], except to assemble for divine worship; and the portion of manna which they gathered on the preceding day for the consumption of that day, was, for the space of forty years, kept fit for their use upon the Sabbath by a constant miracle, on purpose that they might have no excuse for transgressing the divine command [Note: Exo 16:24.]. They were forbidden even to kindle a fire on the Sabbath-day [Note: Exo 35:3], or to do any species of servile work. But all this rigour is not necessary now: it was suited to the burthensome dispensation of the law; but not to the more liberal dispensation under which we live. Indeed, our blessed Lord has shewn us clearly that works of necessity [Note: Mat 12:1-8.], or of mercy [Note: Mat 12:10-13.], may be performed on that as well as any other day. Being himself the Lord of the Sabbathday, he dispensed with those rites which were merely temporary, and requires of us such services only as a spiritual mind will most delight in.]
Our sanctification of the Sabbath should consist rather in mental than in bodily exercises
[What are the proper employments for our minds, the prophet Isaiah has plainly told us: We should account the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and should honour him, not doing our own ways, nor finding our own pleasure, nor speaking our own words [Note: Isa 58:13.]. We should endeavour to have our thoughts abstracted from the world, and to fix them with intenseness and delight on heavenly objects. On every day we should present to God our sacrifices of prayer and praise: but as, under the law, the accustomed sacrifices, both of the morning and evening, were doubled upon the Sabbath [Note: Num 28:9-10.], so, under the Gospel, we should have our minds doubly occupied in the service of our God.]
The subject before us suggests ample matter,
1.
For reproof
[Many, very many there are who hate the duties of the Sabbath; and, breaking through all the restraints of conscience, follow without remorse their usual occupations. Others, complying with the established forms, cry, What a weariness is it [Note: Mal 1:13.] ! When shall the Sabbath be over, that I may prosecute more pleasing or more profitable employments [Note: Amo 8:5.] ? When they come up to the house of God, they find no pleasure in his service, but are rather, like Doeg, detained before the Lord [Note: 1Sa 21:7.]. Some, indeed, conceiving that they are doing somewhat meritorious, spend without reluctance the time allotted for public service; but, though they draw nigh to God with their lips, their hearts are far from him [Note: Mat 15:8.]. It is not such worshippers that God seeks or approves; nor is such the sanctification of the Sabbath that he requires. On the contrary, he is indignant against all such profaneness or hypocrisy; and declares that such persons worship him in vain. [Note: Mat 15:9.] Whatever such persons may imagine, they indeed profane the Sabbath. And what the consequence will be, they may form some judgment, from the punishment inflicted on the man who gathered sticks upon the Sabbath-day. By Gods express command, he was stoned to death [Note: Num 15:32-36.]. If, then, so heavy a sentence was executed upon him by the direction of the Most High, can we suppose that God is more indifferent about the conduct of his creatures now? or that he has loaded them with mercies for no other end than to give them a greater license to sin? Let us well consider this: for if they, who despised Moses law, died without mercy, surely a far sorer punishment awaits us, if, with our additional obligations, we disregard the wonders of redeeming love [Note: Heb 10:28-29.].]
2.
For encouragement
[Not only personal, but even national judgments may be expected for the violation of the Sabbath [Note: Jer 17:27.]. But, on the other hand, every blessing may be expected, both by individuals [Note: Isa 56:4-7.] and the community [Note: Jer 17:24-26.], if the Sabbath be habitually and conscientiously improved. Indeed, it seems almost impossible that any one who sets himself in earnest to improve the Sabbath-day, should ever perish. God would bless to such an one the ordinances of his grace; and rather send him instruction in some extraordinary way, than suffer him to use the means in vain [Note: Act 8:27-35; Act 10:1-21.]. We can appeal to all who have ever laboured to sanctify the Sabbath, whether they have not found their labour well repaid? Surely God has never said to any, Seek ye my face in vain: and the more diligently we keep his Sabbaths below, the more shall we be fitted for our eternal rest.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
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.
Deu 5:14 . How beautiful is it to behold the first institution of the Patriarchal sabbath. God rested from his work. Not from fatigue, but complacency. Beholding his creation and expressing his approbation, and then sanctifying it in a sabbath. Reader! Think how delightfully recommened in this view, is the sabbath to man. How ancient, how honourable, how dignified, and how endeared it ought to be. And yet more if possible to the believer in, Jesus, since by his glorious resurrection the Redeemer rested from his work of salvation, and thereby commended its observance. Well may we cease from our work as God did from his. Heb 4:10 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Gen 2:2 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.
Ver. 2. He rested, ] that is, he ceased to create; which work he had done, without either labour or lassitude Isa 40:28 He made all, by command not by works. nutu, non motu.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
seventh. Samaritan Pentateuch and Septuagint read “sixth”, which is evidently correct.
day. See on ch. Gen 1:5.
God ended. See on Gen 1:1 and App-5.
made. See note on Gen 1:7.
rested. From achievement; man rests from fatigue.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
And on: Gen 1:31, Exo 20:11, Exo 23:12, Exo 31:17, Deu 5:14, Isa 58:13, Joh 5:17, Heb 4:4
seventh day God: The LXX, Syriac, and the Samaritan Text read the sixth day, which is probably the true reading; as [Strong’s H2053], which stands for six, might easily be changed into , which denotes seven.
rested: Or, rather, ceased, as the Hebrew word is not opposed to weariness, but to action; as the Divine Being can neither know fatigue, nor stand in need of rest.
Reciprocal: Gen 2:15 – the man Gen 8:12 – seven Gen 29:27 – week Exo 3:15 – this is my name for ever Exo 16:23 – rest Exo 31:15 – the sabbath Lev 23:38 – the sabbaths Lev 25:8 – General Num 19:19 – on the seventh day he Psa 95:11 – my rest Isa 40:26 – who hath Jer 17:22 – neither do Zep 3:17 – he will
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Gen 2:2. God rested on the seventh day Not as if he were weary, or needed rest, as we do after labour, which to suppose would be inconsistent with his infinite perfection, Isa 40:28 : but for an example to us. Accordingly, in the fourth commandment, Gods resting on the seventh day is assigned as a reason why we should rest on that day.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he {b} rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
(b) For he had now finished his creation, but his providence still watches over his creatures and governs them.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
"Seventh" comes from a Hebrew root meaning "to be full, completed, entirely made up." [Note: Bush, p. 46.] "Rested" means ceased from activity (cf. Exo 40:33). There is no implication that God felt fatigued by His creative activity and needed to rest. He simply stopped creating.