Homilist Genesis 2:2-3 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.… I. THE DIVINE COMPLETION OF HIS CREATIVE WORK. No further creations. II. THE DIVINE CONTEMPLATION OF HIS CREATIVE WORK. Everything complete. Everything in subordination. Everything ready for the higher and more glorious exercise of the Divine activity in providence and grace. All prepared for the kingdom of probation, by which the last created of the world was to be tried, disciplined, and perfected. We may learn here — 1. Evil has no natural place in the universe. 2. Matter is not necessarily hostile to God. The Bible, in this picture of Divine contemplation, cuts away the ground from certain forms of false religion and philosophy. Divine life is not the destruction of matter, nor the rising out of the region of the sensuous; but so restoring the harmony, that God may again look upon the world, and say it is "very good." 3. The present condition of things, so changed from that which God first looked upon, must be the result of some catastrophe. III. THE DIVINE REST AFTER HIS CREATIVE WORK. The rest began when the work was done. The contemplation was a part of the Sabbatic blessedness. The Sabbath: 1. It was a season of rest. It does not imply that there was weariness, but cessation from creative activity. 2. The rest was blessed by God. As He saw His work good, so He saw His rest good. 3. There was an appointment of a similar blessed rest for His creatures. "He sanctified the seventh day." It is not for us to discuss the relations of God to labour and repose. The fact may be beyond our comprehension. It has lessons for us: 1. There is a place and time for rest. 2. The condition on which rest may be claimed is that men work. 3. This rest should be happy. Much of the modern idea of a Sabbath is not that which God would say was blessed. The Sabbath is not a time of gloom. 4. This rest should be religious. 5. This rest is unlimited to any particular portion of the race. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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