And God had finished on the seventh day his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
God's making is over, and the seventh day arrives with no work in it. It is a day marked out by what God stops doing. The verse raises two questions: what does it mean for God to rest, and did that rest last?
The word does not describe a tired workman recovering. One writer says why the day matters, and what God rested from:
Here the work and the rest of God stand in clear view of the human race, and the seventh day — the sabbath — has immense importance. The first time it is mentioned, it clearly witnesses to God's rest: His rest — not from weariness, of course, but from the work of creating and making. That work was now finished for the life we live now. And just as the six days before it were literal days, so the seventh is the closing day of the week.
Stopping is only half of it. Another writer names both marks of that rest:
This led to creation rest, and it has two marks. First, God was satisfied with all that He had made. As we read, "And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good." Second, He stopped all His creation work completely. As it is written, "He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done." So we learn the two great truths that mark God's rest: complete delight in the result of the work; and, once He was satisfied, the complete end of all toil.
Readers often come to this verse thinking about sabbath-keeping. But this chapter gives man no command. It only reports what God did:
In the chapter before us there is no command given to man at all. There is simply the record that God rested on the seventh day. … We are simply told that God enjoyed His rest, because everything was done, as far as creation itself went. There was nothing more to do. So the One who had worked for six days stopped working and enjoyed His rest.
The wording that God finished His work on the seventh day has long puzzled readers. Some early copies smoothed it over. One study of the old manuscripts compares the Samaritan text of Genesis with the ancient Greek translation called the Septuagint:
In Genesis 2:2 the Samaritan text agrees with the Septuagint, the Syriac and others in reading "sixth." Here we see the tendency to adopt readings that are easier and seem less troubling.
The rest of the Bible does not treat this rest as still running. One writer imagines a devout reader objecting that God's rest is already past. He answers by asking what God rested from:
He would say, "Well, I thought God rested when He created the world…" Oh yes, says the writer, "God rested from all His works." And so He did. But sin broke through His rest. He rested only from creating; He never rested in the works of His hands. Sin came in at once and disturbed His rest. It left Him with three choices: 1. to destroy everything by judgment; or 2. to leave everything in its ruined state, fallen along with the man He had set over it; or 3. to begin working again. He refuses to destroy them by judgment, and He will not let things stay ruined. So we find Him working again, making coats of skins for Adam and his wife. And He has never rested since that day.
Each of the first six days closes with evening and morning. The seventh does not, and commentators read that silence as deliberate:
In the first six days we read of the evening and the morning. But there is no mention of this on the seventh day, because there is no reckoning of time in eternity. … One day He will rest with a rest that no morning or evening breaks. Adam's sin broke His rest after the six days of work on the first creation. Since then God has worked, and He will work until sin is gone from His creation, as the Lord Jesus said, "My Father is working until now, and I am working."
Commentators differ here. Kelly calls the seventh day the closing day of the week. Grant reads the missing evening as pointing beyond time.
- Finished — God stopped because nothing was left to do, not because He was tired.
- Satisfied — His rest has two marks: delight in a world He called very good, and the complete end of all toil.
- Free — This verse gives man no command. It records a rest God Himself enjoyed.
- Broken — Sin came in. God chose neither to destroy the world nor to leave it ruined. He began to work again, starting with coats of skins.
- Promised — The seventh day alone has no evening. Its unclosed ending points to a rest that sin can never break.
And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it, because that on it he rested from all his work which God had created in making it.
The account of creation ends with something new. For the first time God sets a day apart. The reason is not what He made, but what He stopped making. So what does it mean for God to rest, and does that rest still stand?
(Where the quotes below say "sanctified," the ESV says "made it holy.")
The verse moves in steps, and the blessing has a cause — God's satisfaction with a finished work.
Three things are mentioned. First, God ended His work — the dawning of the seventh day brought with it the end of His labour. Second, God rested; this is what the day brought in for Him — rest. Third, God blessed and sanctified it. The blessing of the day can only consist in God's delight and satisfaction over the finished work. That finished work is what makes rest possible. It is sanctified — set apart for the enjoyment of this delight and satisfaction.
God's rest here is not what we usually mean by the word.
How touching the testimony of God's delight in the creation, as yet unspoiled! He rested on the seventh day. He did not rest in the sense in which we use the word, as the opposite of being tired. He rested as the opposite of the six days' work.
God sets things apart more than once in Scripture, and this is where it begins.
The first mention of sanctification in the Bible is connected with creation. God sanctified the seventh day in which He rested (Gen. 2:3). The second is connected with redemption, when He brought Israel out of Egypt.
Commentators differ on how far this day reaches. Some hold that a day of rest after six days of work belongs to human life from the start. Others hold that the text records God's rest only, and that the command to man comes much later.
There is no mention here of man at all. We are not told that man rested on the seventh day. People may infer, conclude or imagine that he did; but the second chapter of Genesis says nothing about it. We also look in vain for any reference to the sabbath in the whole book of Genesis. The very first mention of the sabbath in connection with man is in Exodus 16 … There we see clearly that God gave it to Israel, a people in recognised covenant relationship with the LORD.
The other reading traces the pattern back to the start of man's history:
So God blessed the seventh day in a special way and set it apart. We may say that a seventh day of rest after six days of work is a thought that dates back to the very beginning of man's history. The word "sabbath" does not appear until Exodus 16:23 … After that God gave the law, and this "sabbath" — this "ceasing," as the word means — became a legal institution for Israel.
God's rest depended on a creation with nothing wrong in it.
This is the only sabbath which God ever celebrated, as far as the inspired record tells us. After this we read of God commanding man to keep the sabbath, and man failing completely to do it. But we never read the words "God rested" again. On the contrary, the word is, "My Father is working until now, and I am working" (John 5:17). God could celebrate the sabbath, in the strict and proper sense of the word, only when there was nothing to be done. He could celebrate it only in an undefiled creation — a creation with no spot of sin on it.
The text never closes the seventh day with an evening.
In the first six days we read of the evening and the morning. On the seventh day there is no mention of this, for there is no reckoning of time in eternity. God has worked and will work until the thousand years of peace end and the judgment of the great white throne takes place. Then He will rest with a rest unbroken by morning or evening.
The sanctified day points forward to a redemption fully accomplished.
Here God alone appears, and the work being ended, all being according to His mind, He sanctifies the day of His rest. How significant this is of that day, which will never give place to another! When redemption is fully accomplished … He will indeed put the seal of His perfect delight upon the whole new creation, made holy to Himself for ever. How could God rest short of this?
- Finished. The blessing rests on a completed work; God ended, God rested, and only then did He bless.
- Set apart. To sanctify the day is to mark it off from all other time — the Bible's first act of making something holy.
- Shared. The day was God's rest first. The command to keep it comes later, given to Israel. Commentators differ over how far it reaches.
- Broken. Sin interrupted that rest, and Scripture never says "God rested" again — instead, "My Father is working until now, and I am working."
- Remaining. The seventh day alone has no evening. It holds out a rest founded on redemption, one that will never give place to another.