Divine Rest

I love doing word studies from the Bible. Take a word, any word from Scripture and dive into the meaning.

As an average American, we do not really think about the meaning of a words. We just use words, write words, and throw words around without thinking deeply about what the word means. But in the original languages of the Bible (Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic), words had a deep meaning. So each week, as I work through a given passage, I do a few in depth word studies. I take a word or two in the original language and dig deep into what the word meant and how I can understand the passage.

Over the last three weeks, I have been working from Genesis 1. The opening story in the Bible is the story of Creation. In these opening 34 (1:1-2:3) verses, God takes a situation that is chaotic and fills it with order, structure, life, and purpose. The story of Creation is a story of a good God who brings life into existence and gives it an order with a purpose.

As I have been working through this story, I decided to do a word study on the word "rest" that is a big part of day 7. As a child hearing the story of Creation, day 7 always seemed to be a throw away day. The picture of day 7 usually included God leaning up against a tree looking on His creative work. In my son's graphic Bible, day 7 of Creation has God laying on a hammock with an ice tea relaxing from the hard work. All of these images seem to picture the thought that God must have been tired and needed a nap after He created everything. Sadly, these images are very far from the actually truth. Creation was not hard work for God anymore than it is hard work for me brushing my teeth or folding a paper or saying words with my mouth.

The picture I had been given all my life of God needing a nap, made me stop and ask, what actually is day 7 about. This is where I embarked on my word study in the Hebrew for our word "rest". To keep it English here, the Hebrew word for rest used in Genesis 2:1-3 is a simple verb in the Hebrew language. A common word that would describe rest of any being (man or animal). But it is the type of rest that caught my eye.

We as American's have gotten this idea that rest is taking a nap or laying in the shade with a cool drink. But this word rest in the Hebrew comes with the feelings of enjoyment, accomplishment, and fulfillment. This is like the rest I would get after a hard days work, enjoying the finished view of a new roof. This is rest after spending 8 hours chopping wood and seeing the pile that will keep the house warm in the winter. This is rest that a baker would feel after finishing a beautiful wedding cake. This is a rest that is full of enjoying for what was labored on. This is rest in a sense of accomplishment in what was completed. This is rest in feeling fulfilled in what was just undertaken.

The rest on day 7 is delightful joyous rest. The word study of rest brought a very new picture to what God was doing on day 7. God on day 7 was enjoying the Creation He had just finished. God was delighting in the life and purpose He had just created. God, in His rest, was rejoicing with and in the order, structure, life, and meaning, He had just brought forth by the power of His word. The divine rest of day 7 is all about a sovereign good King creating a world for Him to delight and rejoice in.

The fact that Creation is about a sovereign King creating, adds to the point of divine rest. God is not just sitting back and delighting in His creation. When day 7 took place, God walked to His throne, sat down on His throne to rest, and He rested by taking great pleasure in all that He had just created. Divine rest of day 7 is a rest of a good sovereign King sitting down on His thrown to rule and take great pleasure in all that He had just created. This is the divine rest. This is the point of Genesis 1. 

This is what the word study of "rest" showed me as I was studying the passage.  But more importantly the study of divine rest showed me what my Sabbath rest is all about. If day 7 is set by God to be a holy day for me. I must make my Sabbath rest all about taking pleasure in the one who created me, gave me a purpose, and is delighting in me. The study of divine rest has taught me; when I observe Sabbath rest in the Creator, it is showing the world that I know my good sovereign King has created me for pleasure and is sitting on His throne. Now I am to take pleasure in Him.