Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #2 of Genesis, chapter 2 and we are continuing to read Genesis 2:1-3:

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. 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.

I will stop reading there. At the very beginning of the creation of the world, God is already instituting the seventh day Sabbath rest. God is using His own work of creation as the historical record of why the Sabbath ought to be observed. God worked six day and then God rested and, therefore, from the very beginning of the creation of the world, God instituted the seventh day Sabbath for over 11,000 years. Actually, we know exactly how long the seventh day Sabbath was to be observed, as we know the Lord created the world in 11,013BC and the Lord Jesus came and went to the cross in 33AD; until then the seventh day Sabbath was to be observed, so it was in effect for over 11,045 years. Jesus died on the cross and was placed in a tomb and as He arose early Sunday morning God tells us it was “in the end of the sabbaths as it began to dawn toward the first of the sabbaths.” The Old Testament Sabbath had come to an end and early that Sunday morning was the first of the New Testament Sabbaths and the Sunday Sabbath took effect and has been in effect ever since. God changed the Sabbath day and in doing so, He maintained the “Sabbath” as a day out of each week from creation all the way to the end of the world. The focus of the Sabbath was changed from Saturday, the seventh day rest, to Sunday, the new day of intense spiritual activity. Christ had gone to the cross and now it was time to carry the Gospel into all the world and the (new) Sabbath reflected that change.

There are many verses where we can look at the Sabbath, but let us look at one of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:8:

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Here, the Hebrew word translated as “sabbath” is Strong’s #7676. It is a related word to the word “rest” that we see in our verse in Genesis 2, verse 2. Our word translated as “rested” is Strong’s #7673 and you would pronounce it as “shaw-bath.” It is very closely related in both spelling and in pronunciation to the Strong’s #7676, which is pronounced “shab-bawth.” It is pronounced almost the same. It is this rest that God instituted. I will keep reading here in Exodus 20:9-11:

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of JEHOVAH thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days JEHOVAH made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore JEHOVAH blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

We did read that in our passage, did we not? It said in Genesis 2:3:

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it…

To sanctify it means to set it apart. It was meant to be different than the other six days. The first six days were work days, but the seventh day was different than the other six days and no work of any kind was to be performed on the seventh day. It was a blessing. God blessed the day and hallowed it. He sanctified it and made it holy over the other days of the week. It had a special significance and a special relationship to God.

As we already talked about, the significance relates to salvation. The work of the Lord Jesus in saving a people for Himself is what is in view. The six days in which we work points to God’s work of creating the heavens and the earth and the host of them and, in turn, that identifies with the spiritual creation of the celestial bodies, as well as the earth. We mentioned before how God relates “New Jerusalem” with the new earth. God says He is married to the “land” and the word “land” is the earth. In the Book of Revelation, New Jerusalem comes down from above as a bride and in that chapter we also read of the new earth; there is a close identification with the new heaven and the new earth and the elect people of God, the bride of Christ.

So when God created the heavens and earth, we learned something previously in Genesis 2:4:

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that JEHOVAH God made the earth and the heavens,

I made reference to Mr. Camping’s booklet, “The Glorious Garden of Eden,” where he went into some detail regarding the seeming redundancy of this statement. Yet, Mr. Camping pointed out that it involved the fact that from the foundation of the world God was establishing the (spiritual) new heaven and the new earth in association with creating this heaven and this earth; there was a close relationship because of the things we have been discussing in regard to Jesus being the Light of the world and being the “Day” of salvation before there were the timekeepers. Christ died and paid for the sins of His people, providing salvation already at the point of the world’s foundation and, therefore, He was establishing the new heaven and new earth of the body of believers. As God then created the physical heaven and earth, it was used of God as an example of the spiritual creation in regard to His people that would be as the stars of the heaven for multitude. God worked six days to establish this physical heaven and earth and that points to the spiritual work of faith that the Lord Jesus Christ performed before the world was as He took upon Himself the sins of His people, made payment for those sins and then rose victoriously from the dead. All of His elect were “in” Him and, thus, He guaranteed their salvation. We saw that Adam’s formation from the dust of the ground was the finishing touch of God’s creation and this was a picture of Christ rising from the dead to be declared to be the Son of God and the bride was in Him. God counted Eve as being “in” Adam, just as He counted the elect as being “in” the Lord Jesus, the Son of God.

Then immediately, we go to “rest” and the seventh day is the time to rest. No more work is to be performed. You must rest because Jesus has already done the work and completed all the necessary requirements. The work that was acceptable to God was performed only by Jesus in dying the death the Law demanded for sin. It was finished. We will look at that verse in Hebrews a little later, but first let us go to Exodus 31:14-17:

Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to JEHOVAH: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days JEHOVAH made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

The Lord continually refers back to the creation week, the 144 hours in which He formed all things, and then He tells us of that seventh day of rest as the reason why mankind is not to work on the seventh day. It was a sign to mankind. It was a sign that was to be taken very seriously and God commanded the death sentence for anyone that broke that command and worked on the Sabbath. The Lord was so jealous and protective of the seventh day Sabbath that when a man picked up a few sticks on the Sabbath day in the wilderness sojourn the Law of God had only one decree for him. Let us read this. I am sure you are familiar with it, but it says in Numbers 15:32-35:

And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And JEHOVAH said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death…

Hold it. Let us stop a second and consider who is speaking. You know, it is not God’s people that just come up with these things out of our minds when we share these things from the Bible. The Bible is the Word of God. Moses was not quite sure what to do, although he should have been sure, but Moses was a person and we as human beings tend to downplay certain sins and think that other sins are worse. After all, this man just picked up a few sticks. He was not building a house or trying to harvest anything, but he was only picking up a few sticks, so maybe God would not punish him as severely and, therefore, Moses went to the Lord and they put the man in ward until they found out what should be done with him. Then God said unto Moses, in Numbers 15:35-36:

The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as JEHOVAH commanded Moses.

This was God’s judgment. Does this seem too harsh? Today we certainly have people doing far worse things than picking up a few sticks on the Sabbath day, but they do not get the death penalty. Sometimes people kill other people and they do not get the death penalty. As we live in a society that is not following the Laws of the Bible, this seems like way too much punishment. It does not seem just to us that the condemnation would be death.

First of all, we have to keep in mind that the wages of sin (any sin) is death, according to the Law of God. God gave many Laws that we can read about in the Old Testament in the Law of Moses where the penalty was death. This was in order to teach that the transgression of the Law of God brings death and this is what happens, spiritually, when man sins; he dies and is subject to the second death and the final annihilation of his very being because he has sinned against God. The Law of God was instituted to show us our sins and the penalty for sins. So whether the sin is adultery or picking up a few sticks, it is a just and right law that shows that man is guilty of transgressing the holy Law of God. The boundaries that God has established in His Law are not be stepped over and stepping over a boundary brings judgment. What was the penalty for eating the forbidden fruit? God had said, “For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” It brought death upon mankind, even though it was a seemingly small matter, but the big issue is that God had commanded, “Thou shalt not.”

And God commanded that man should not work on the Sabbath and God jealously guards and protects this Law because it was given to illustrate the wonderful fact that Jesus had done all the work in dying for the sins of His people and man is to do “nothing.” They are not to do the littlest thing in order to become saved. It is always “the edge of the wedge,” is it not? Man says, “Oh, we do not want to do a lot of work, you understand. We do not dare to add a lot of work to grace. We would not think of it because we know we are saved by grace. However, in order to obtain that salvation, we will exercise a little belief. You have to believe to be saved and do the work of faith.” The churches try to ignore the fact that the Bible calls “faith” a work and the Bible also says, “No man is justified by the works of the law.” The whole Bible is the Law Book, so when God commands us, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” it is a commandment. It is a Law in the Law Book and trying to obey that Law is a work of faith. So, if they think, “If I can believe on the Lord Jesus and exercise my faith and just contribute that little bit.” Of course, they would add, “There is nothing else I can do. It is all by grace, but just this little bit of added work.” It is what man desires to do. He desires to work to gain entrance into heaven and God says, “No. There can be no work and there is nothing you can do. As a matter of fact, if you try to do even the least bit of work (like picking up a few sticks on my Sabbath day), the penalty is death. You will die.” God is showing us that in as serious a manner as He could possibly do when He commanded that the life of this man be taken in order to emphasize that man is not to perform the least bit of work in regard to His Sabbath rest. You are not to work.

We read in Hebrews 4:1-2:

Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them…

God is referring to Old Testament Israel. They had the same Gospel that we do today, the Gospel of grace, which is due to the faith of Christ. God goes on to say, in 4:2-4:

…not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.

The Lord ties that rest to the work of Christ. It could only be Christ who finished the works from the foundation of the world, which relates to Revelation 13:8:

…whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb of God that was laid upon the altar. Melchisedec would have been the great High Priest, who also is Christ, who brought the death blow upon the Lamb and killed Him. Jesus died as He performed that work of faith at the foundation of the world for everyone that would ever become saved at any point in history. He died for the whole company of the elect and then He arose from the dead and was declared to be the Son of God. The work of faith was finished. The works were finished from the foundation of the world.

This is another statement that the people who insist that Jesus paid for sins in 33AD cannot explain. They cannot explain how the works could be finished. Theologians have attempted to say that Christ being slain from the foundation of the world is just a statement that the work was finished “in principal.” How can a work be finished “in principal”? This word “finished” means just that, exactly as God used this word in Genesis when He said He finished the creation after six days of work. He ended His work of creation and now comes the rest. As God created the world, the work was finished and the “rest” was made available for God’s elect. They were not to work because there was no work left to be done and they would enter into that rest, which relates to God’s salvation program as it went into the world and the Word was applied to the hearts of His elect.