Genesis 2:3 - Homiletics

The two sabbaths: the Divine and the human.

I. THE SABBATH OF GOD . A period of—

1. Cessation from toil , or discontinuance of those world-making operations which had occupied the six preceding days ( Hebrews 4:4 ). Never since the close of the creative week has God interfered to fundamentally rearrange the material structure of the globe. The Deluge produced no alteration on the constitution of nature. Nor is there evidence that any new species have been added to its living creatures.

2. Holy delight . On the seventh day Elohim rested and was" refreshed" ( Exodus 31:17 ); which refreshment consisted partly in the satisfaction he experienced in beholding the cosmos—a satisfaction prefigured and anticipated by the solemn pauses intervening at the end of each creative day, accompanied by the "good," "lo! very good," of Divine approbation; and partly in the pleasure with which he contemplated the peculiar work of blessing his creation which lay before him, a work which also had its foreshadowings in the benedictions pronounced on the living creatures of the fifth day, and on man on the sixth.

3. Beneficent activity . Even man, unless where his intellectual and moral faculties are dormant, finds it difficult to rest in indolence and inactivity. Absence of motion, with complete negation of effort, may constitute the refreshment of the physical system. The mind seeks its rest in change of occupation. Still less can the supreme Intelligence, who is pure Spirit, rest in absolute inaction; only the Divine energy is now directed towards the happiness of his creatures ( Psalms 145:9 ). Having finished his creative labors, what else could Elohim do but outpour his own blessedness upon his creatures, in proportion to their capacities to receive it? His nature as God necessitated such communication of good to his creatures ( Psalms 34:8 ; James 1:5 , James 1:17 ). The capacities of his creatures for such blessing required it. Hence God's rest may be said to have been man's birthright. He was created in that rest, as the sphere of his existence.

4. Continuous duration . That which secures its perpetuity is the Divine resolution to bless it, i.e. constitute it an era of blessing for man, and in particular to sanctify it, or devote it to the interests of holiness. And in this Divine determination lies the pledge of man ' s salvation . Without it God's rest might have been broken into by man's sin, and the era of blessing ended. But, because of it, man's sin could not change the character of God's seventh day, so as to prevent it from dropping down gifts and exercising holy influences on the creature for whose sake it was appointed. The security of the world as a cosmos may also be said to be involved in the permanence of God's sabbath. So long as it continues nothing shall occur to resolve the present goodly framework of this globe into another lightless, formless, lifeless chaos, at least until the Divine purpose with the human race has been fulfilled.

II. THE SABBATH OF MAN .

1. Of Divine institution ( Exodus 20:8 ; Le 19:30; Psalms 118:24 ). That God had a right to enact a weekly sabbath for man is implied in his relation to man as Creator and Lawgiver. For man, therefore, to withhold the seventh portion of his time is to be guilty of disobedience against God as a moral Governor, ingratitude towards God as Creator and Preserver, robbery of God as the original Proprietor of both man's powers and time's days. As an institution of God's appointing, the sabbath deserves our honor and esteem. To neglect to render this God counts a sin ( Isaiah 58:13 ).

2. Of sacred character . Among the Israelites its sanctity was to be recognized by abstinence from bodily labor ( Exodus 20:10 ; Exodus 34:21 , &c.;) and holy convocations (Le Genesis 23:3 ). That this was the manner of its observance prior to the giving of the law may be judged from the regulations concerning the manna ( Exodus 16:22 ). That from the beginning it was a day of rest and religious worship may be reasonably inferred. That it was so used by Christ and his apostles the Gospels attest ( Luke 4:16 ). That the same character was held to attach to the first day of the week after Christ's resurrection may be deduced from the practice of the apostolic Church ( Acts 20:7 ). The sanctity of the sabbath may be profaned, positively , by prosecuting one's ordinary labors in its hours ( Isaiah 58:13 ; Jeremiah 17:24 ); negatively , by neglecting to devote them to Divine worship and spiritual improvement ( Ezekiel 44:24 ). Christianity has not obliterated the distinction between the sabbath and the other days of the week; not even by elevating them to the position of holy days. An attempt to equalize the seven days always results in the degradation of the seventh, never in the elevation of the other six.

3. Of beneficent design ( Mark 2:27 ). The sabbath is adapted to the wants of man physically, intellectually, socially, politically. Innumerable facts and testimonies establish the beneficial influence of a seventh day's rest from toil upon the manual laborer, the professional thinker, the social fabric, the body politic, in respect of health, wealth, strength, happiness. It is, however, chiefly man's elevation as a religious being at which it aims. In the paradisiacal state it was designed to hedge him round and, if possible, prevent his fall; since the tragedy in Eden it has been seeking his reinstatement in that purity from which he fell.

4. Of permanent obligation . Implied in the terms of its institution, its permanence would not be affected by the abolition of the Decalogue. The Decalogue presupposed its previous appointment. Christianity takes it up, just as Judaism took it up, as one of God's existing ordinances for the good of man, and seeks through it to bring its higher influences to bear on man, just as Judaism sought, through it, to operate with its inferior agency. Till it merges in the rest of which it is a shadow by the accomplishment of its grand design, it must abide.

III. THE CONNECTION OF THE TWO . God's rest is—

1. The reason of man's sabbath. The Almighty could have no higher reason for enjoining a seventh day's rest upon his creature than that by so resting that creature would be like himself.

2. The pattern of man's sabbath. As God worked through six of his days and rested on the seventh, so should man toil through six of his days and rest on the seventh. As God did all his work in the six creative days, so should all man's labor be performed in the six days of the week. As God employs his rest in contemplation of his finished work and in blessing his creature man, so should man devote his sabbath to pious meditation on his past life and to a believing reception of God's gifts of grace and salvation.

3. The life of man's sabbath. Whatever blessing comes to man on his weekly day of rest has its primal fountain in the rest of God. As man himself is God's image, so is man's sabbath the image of God's rest; and as man lives and moves and has his being in God, so does man's sabbath live and move and have its being in God's rest.

4. The end of man's sabbath. The reinstatement of man in God's rest is the purpose at which man's sabbath aims, the goal towards which it is tending. God's rest remains on high ( Hebrews 4:9 ), drawing men towards it. Man's weekly sabbath will ultimately lose itself m God's eternal rest.