Finished – Genesis 2:1-3

Being made in the image of God means that mankind is considered a son of God and a servant-ruler over the earth.  We bear the same characteristics as God, in limited fashion, of course, and that makes Him our Father and our covenant God.  Though the focus of day six is the creation of mankind, the focus of the whole creation is God.  On the seventh day He finishes His work and blesses the day.

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. (Genesis 2:1–3, ESV)

The seventh day brings completion.  God stopped creating new creations and switched to what theologically we call preservation.  As Colossians 1:17 says, God through Christ is holding together the creation, making sure, as He says in Genesis 9, that He will always preserve the earth until that final day when He makes a new earth (Revelation 21,22).  God took the tohu vebohu earth, unproductive and uninhabited, made it productively finished and inhabited with all its “host.”  This word “host” is the same one used in the title for God as “God of hosts.”  God has His host (angels) and the earth has its host (humans and animals).

When it says that God finished creation and “rested,” we know it doesn’t mean He was tired (Isaiah 40:28).  Rather, God now takes up His position as Sovereign in His temple, ruling over His creation.  Heaven is His throne, Earth is His footstool (Isaiah 66:1).  God’s creation is His temple.  Though He allows for an earthly house or temple, built by human hands, it cannot and does not hold Him (1 Kings 8:27; Acts 17:24).

The seventh day is Saturday in our nomenclature.  In Hebrew it is called shabbat, which means seventh, and it is declared holy by God because on this day He rested.  This will become the basis for Sabbath observance in the law of Moses (Exodus 20:8-11).  The observance of this day under the New Covenant is still required, but its observance can be practiced on other days.  In fact, most Christians observe Sunday as the Sabbath, though it is the first day of the week.