The creation account ends with the Sabbath, a day in which God ceases from His creative labors. Though the term Sabbath is not used in the Genesis narrative, it is generally agreed that its root is found in Genesis 2:2, תבש shabath, translated “rest”. [1] The Sabbath marks the completion of the creation narrative. Though the completion of creation makes the Sabbath important, its eschatological significance should not be missed.
The Sabbath is interpreted as an eschatological type more than any other Old Testament institution. [2]
Earlier studies have already intimated its importance. The structure of the Genesis creation narrative shows a chiastic counterbalance between day 0 and day 7 where day 0 pre-dates time and day 7 post-dates time. Just as there was timelessness preceding God’s creative activity, there is a return to timelessness that follows completion of God’s creative-redemptive work.
As all creative activity ceases, so time itself is suspended. The seventh day marks both the earth’s and God’s restoration. [3]
The completion of God’s creative activity moves the cosmos from unformed and unfilled to formed and filled, allowing a cessation of creative activity following the six days of God’s creative work. The seventh day is not merely a cessation of God’s creative work, God sanctified the seventh day and blessed it.
The Sabbath and Holiness
The fact that God took the unusual step of declaring a day “holy” and blessing the seventh day should draw attention to its importance. It seems intimated in the structure of the creative activities associated with each day. Each of the six days of creative work ends with the marker “And there was evening, and there was morning” after which the author tells us the day (e.g. the sixth day). The seventh day has no such trailing marker, an oversight so obvious given the prior six occurrences that it seems deliberate.
That the seventh day had no evening or morning is in strong contrast to the other six days of creation, making the seventh day unique and different. Creation studies should not focus on whether the seven days were twenty four hour days, but on this significant difference: that the seventh day had no evening and morning – no beginning, no transition point from evening to morning – and thus no end. This significant difference foreshadows the end of God’s eschatological plan. It is the believer’s hope to one “day” spend eternity in the presence of God, an eternal Sabbath with Christ. [4]
The seventh day has further significance as it was sanctified and blessed. Blessed because it anticipates the completion of God’s creative-redemptive work, where all creation is redeemed and man is able to stand in His presence without fear of destruction from God’s holiness. It sets the seventh day apart, a day that was to be holy by design. [5] There is intentionality in the order of God’s creative activity with creative work leading to holiness:
Within the seven-day scheme, creative activity is the necessary preface to holiness, and holiness marks the completion and culmination of creation. [6]
At the close of the creation account, we see a holy God who has created a holy temple declaring a holy day on which to rest. This activity has deep eschatological significance, intimating His intentions in His next great creative act, the redemption of His creation. God’s plan is not merely to redeem His creation, but to perfect it in holiness. Holiness becomes the object and ending point of His creative-redemptive program. In order for God to tabernacle with men within His creation, men and God’s creation must achieve holiness. Hence why Hebrews 12 can say:
14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
When God has perfected His redeemed creation and holiness transcends all creation, Hiscreative work is truly complete and we can enter a timeless eternity with the Lord, a Sabbath-eternity of rest from the creative work of redemption. At the climax and completion of God’s creative-redemptive plan, His dwelling place is no longer restricted to the heavens, or to temporary residence within the bounds of the Holy of Holies within the Tabernacle or Temple, a place of severe prohibition from His creation. [7] Rather, having completed the re-formation of the cosmos, God’s presence can now fill His cosmos. His glory then fills the new heaven and new earth and God dwells with His creation unrestricted, having perfected it in holiness. God and His redeemed creation can now rest for a Sabbath-eternity.
The Sabbath Sign of the Covenant and its Relation to Holiness
Rest is achieved after the completion of six days of creative-redemptive activity. It comes when peace and stability are realized throughout the cosmos. This is consistent with the mindset of the Ancient Near Eastern peoples:
. . . in the ancient world rest is what results when a crisis has been resolved or when stability has been achieved, when things have “settled down.” [8]
Peace and stability are not the object however. There will be a separating that occurs at the end of the age – those marked for holiness (Revelation 7:1-8) from those marked for judgment (Revelation 13:8, 16-17). Revelation 14 provides an interesting contrast of those marked for judgment with those marked for righteousness:
1 Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. 3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. 5 No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.
9 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, 10 he, too, will drink of the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name.”
Those marked for holiness stand on Mount Zion, emblematic of God’s holy temple, with God’s name written on their foreheads accompanied by the sound from heaven of rushing waters and thunder, symbolic of the presence of God. These sounds often accompanied God’s presence as a theopany. Those marked for holiness sing a new song before the throne of God and the living ones (cherubim), whose placement is also before or beneath God’s heavenly throne. The imagery captured by John is a great number gathered with the living ones before God’s throne, effectively in God’s presence.
Those marked for judgment “drink of the wine of God’s fury”, are absent from God’s presence and tormented forever and ever (spiritual death). Notably they have no rest day or night. There is no rest for those who transgress or reject God’s law. [9] Rest can only be realized through holiness, which is prerequisite for entry into God’s presence.
God must take up residence and dwell with man in order that rest might follow. It is the taking up of residence with man, tabernacling with him in God’s new creation that establishes God’s cosmic temple, allowing the completion of creation and enabling rest. Taking up residence with men however, requires a separation of that which is unholy from that which God has sanctified and made holy.
In order to point men toward this great eschatological truth, God established in His first creation the cycle of seven days divided into six days of creative work followed by one day of rest. This is the model that man is to follow in order to point others toward this great eschatological truth. [10]
Man, in partnership with God is to accomplish redemptive-creative works in this world for six days followed by a seventh day, a Sabbath of rest to celebrate God’s redemptive-creative works in us (and in history), and to celebrate by faith God’s soon-coming fulfillment of His plan to take up residence in His cosmic temple, His people, filling all creation with His presence and glory. Thus, celebration of the Sabbath also anticipates the enlargement of God’s heavenly temple to all creation. These concepts are recreated in Israel’s history and provide important lessons for the New Testament church. The sign (oth) of the covenant between God and Israel was the Sabbath:
12 Then the Lord said to Moses, 13 “Say to the Israelites, ‘You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.
14 “ ‘Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people. 15 For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day must be put to death. 16 The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. 17 It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested.’” Exodus 31
The NIV does not convey the true force of the Hebrew עולם `owlam which Strong’s Concordance describes as “forever, always, perpetual, everlasting, unending, and eternal.” God’s establishment of the Sabbath as an eternal sign points to its eschatological significance. This covenant ties back to the creation narrative (vs 17), reminding the Israelites that they also are a redemptive-creation, a people set apart and holy for the Lord. Three times the Israelites are told to observe the Sabbath, emphasizing its importance with finality. Observing the Sabbath is linked with Yahweh and holiness (vs 13). The Sabbath is holy but also Israel is to be holy. Implied in being holy is observing the Sabbath. Brown calls the Sabbath Israel’s imitation Dei. [11] Imitating God requires revering the Sabbath and observing rest on the cycle of seven days. There is a prevalence of sevens surrounding Israel’s creation and covenant ratification. Many of these cycles of sevens are associated with rituals of purity and holiness:
The Sabbath served as no less than the defining moment and temporal frame for ritual purity and festival. The seven-day period, or multiples thereof, marked a time of cleansing or purification required when living in skin was made vulnerable, as in the case of menstruation and giving birth (15:1, 12;2, 5); and the seven-year period, or multiples thereof, ensured Israel’s integrity and existence in the land (25:2-34). Skin and house diseases required a quarantine of seven days. For the individual, the ritual of cleansing involved a shaving of all hair on the seventh day and purification rites on the eighth day, the new day (14:9, 10-20). Seven times the cleansed person or domicile is to be sprinkled with blood (14, 51-52); seven times oil is sprinkled before Yahweh to consecrate the oil that is reserved for the cleansed person (14:16). [12]
The seven day cycle is also observed in the consecration ordinance of the priests (Exodus 29:30, 35;Leviticus 8:33) which seems to parallel the seven day dedication of the altar (Exodus 29:37). A similar pattern is observed in Israel’s festivals as recorded in Leviticus 23:
1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies. 3 “ ‘There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the Lord. 4 “ ‘These are the Lord’s appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times: 5 The Lord’s Passover begins at twilight on the fourteenth day of the first month. 6 On the fifteenth day of that month the Lord’s Feast of Unleavened Bread begins; for seven days you must eat bread made without yeast. 7 On the first day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. 8 For seven days present an offering made to the Lord by fire. And on the seventh day hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.’ ” 9 The Lord said to Moses, 10 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. 11 He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. 12 On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb a year old without defect, 13 together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil—an offering made to the Lord by fire, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine. 14 You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. 15 “ ‘From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. 16 Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord. 17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord. 18 Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the Lord, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings—an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the Lord. 19 Then sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering and two lambs, each a year old, for a fellowship offering. 20 The priest is to wave the two lambs before the Lord as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the Lord for the priest. 21 On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. 22 “ ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.’ ” 23 The Lord said to Moses, 24 “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the first day of the seventh month you are to have a day of rest, a sacred assembly commemorated with trumpet blasts. 25 Do no regular work, but present an offering made to the Lord by fire.’ ” 26 The Lord said to Moses, 27 “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present an offering made to the Lord by fire. 28 Do no work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God. 29 Anyone who does not deny himself on that day must be cut off from his people. 30 I will destroy from among his people anyone who does any work on that day. 31 You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. 32 It is a sabbath of rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath.” 33 The Lord said to Moses, 34 “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the Lord’s Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. 35 The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. 36 For seven days present offerings made to the Lord by fire, and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly and present an offering made to the Lord by fire. It is the closing assembly; do no regular work. 37 (” ‘These are the Lord’s appointed feasts, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies for bringing offerings made to the Lord by fire—the burnt offerings and grain offerings, sacrifices and drink offerings required for each day. 38 These offerings are in addition to those for the Lord’s Sabbaths and in addition to your gifts and whatever you have vowed and all the freewill offerings you give to the Lord.) 39 “ ‘So beginning with the fifteenth day of the seventh month, after you have gathered the crops of the land, celebrate the festival to the Lord for seven days; the first day is a day of rest, and the eighth day also is a day of rest. 40 On the first day you are to take choice fruit from the trees, and palm fronds, leafy branches and poplars, and rejoice before the Lord your God for seven days. 41 Celebrate this as a festival to the Lord for seven days each year. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come; celebrate it in the seventh month. 42 Live in booths for seven days: All native-born Israelites are to live in booths 43 so your descendants will know that I had the Israelites live in booths when I brought them out of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’ ” 44 So Moses announced to the Israelites the appointed feasts of the Lord.
The number of occurrences of “seven” and “sacred” show the close relationship between the two. The Passover was specified on the evening of the fourteenth (2 x 7) day of the first month (vs 5), the Feast of Unleavened Bread celebrated for seven days (vs 6) – the first and the seventh days prohibiting work in a Sabbatical approach (vss 7-8), the Feast of the First Fruits (wave offering) made on the morning after the Sabbath (vss 11, 13), the Feast of Weeks occurring on the morning after a Sabbath. Seven Sabbaths following the Feast of the First Fruits (vss 16-17) was a day in which no work was to be done (vs 21). The Feast of Trumpets was to occur on the first day of the seventh month (vs 24), the Day of Atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month (vs 27), both days prohibiting work (vss 24-25, 28-31) with the Day of Atonement specifically referred to as a “Sabbath of rest” (vs 32) and closing with the command “you are to observe your Sabbath.” The Feast of Tabernacles was to occur on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and lasted seven days (vs 34) where work was prohibited on the first day (vs 35) and the eighth day (vs 36) – both days referred to as a “day of rest” (vs 39).
All these sacred assemblies are preceded with a Sabbatical reminder (vs 3), emphasizing the overarching importance of the Sabbath (which itself is a seven). All these appointed feasts with their “sevens” and seven-day cycles are generally recognized as eschatological. The mention first of the Sabbath demonstrates its place as the most important of all these eschatological days. The cycle of sevens extended beyond the weekly cycle to include a cycle of seven years and a cycle of seven Sabbaths of years whereupon a year of Jubilee was celebrated in the fiftieth year:
2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. 4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. 5 Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest. 6 Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your manservant and maidservant, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, 7 as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten. 8 “ ‘Count off seven sabbaths of years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbaths of years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is to return to his family property and each to his own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields. 13 “ ‘In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property. 14 “ ‘If you sell land to one of your countrymen or buy any from him, do not take advantage of each other. 15 You are to buy from your countryman on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee. And he is to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for harvesting crops. 16 When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what he is really selling you is the number of crops. 17 Do not take advantage of each other, but fear your God. I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 25
The land was to rest in the Sabbath year, as well as in the year of the Jubilee, marking a redemptive-restoration of the land that followed six years of subduing and harvesting the land. This redemptive-restoration returned the land to its original “tenant-owner” while also freeing those sold into slavery, giving them an “exodus-rest” from the work of indentured servitude. The return of the land back to its family-clan also reinforced the link between man and the land/earth, as man is from the earth/ground, providing not just redemption for man, but a “holy” place for him to conduct himself in holiness.
His exodus not only removes him from this world but provides him with a land and place where he can commune with Yahweh. An important precedent is established that redeemed man will have a sacred place with which to tabernacle with God. Because the land is preeminently a place where man meets with God, man has the responsibility to be holy and to maintain the land’s holiness through Sabbath observance, both for himself and the land. The land thus appears like a sacred space, an interim model of the Holy of Holies, an interim model of Eden.
The cycle of sevens extended to the Temple, the construction of which took seven years (1 Kings 6:38), after which Solomon specifically mentioned God giving rest to His people (1 Kings 8:56) further linking the seven year cycle to Israel’s Sabbatical rest and to the consecration of the temple, a sacred place. He then celebrated the festival for fourteen days, again establishing a Sabbath to follow temple completion.
The prevalence of cycles of sevens seems deliberate, providing further support that the sign of the covenant between Yahweh and His people is the Sabbath. Given that the Sabbath is an eschatological “marker” of the completion of God’s redemptive plan, it should not be surprising that this sign is so closely associated with God’s people who are to be in partnership with Him, building his holy, sacred temple. This seems to be borne out in Isaiah 56 which ties Sabbath-keeping to the in-gathering of Israel (the set up of the temple) while also promising a most unique blessing to those who keep the Sabbath as holy:
1 This is what the Lord says: “Maintain justice and do what is right, for my salvation is close at hand and my righteousness will soon be revealed. 2 Blessed is the man who does this, the man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath without desecrating it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.” 3 Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely exclude me from his people.” And let not any eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.” 4 For this is what the Lord says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant— 5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off. 6 And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant— 7 these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” 8 The Sovereign Lord declares— he who gathers the exiles of Israel: “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.” Isaiah 56
That this passage opens with “maintain justice . . . and do what is right” links the Sabbath with what is holy and sacred and thus, those who celebrate the Sabbath must be holy. The passage also intimates that those who keep God’s Sabbath, keep from evil-doing and obey God’s covenant will be rewarded with an everlasting name and a memorial within the walls of God’s temple, again establishing a sacred place for them to commune with God. [13] A name better than sons and daughters shows the importance of keeping the Sabbath as part of God’s righteous requirements.
There is intimation that those keeping God’s requirements will have a special place in God’s temple, a place of uniqueness and closeness to Yahweh. The reference to “my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations” combined with the promise “I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered” suggests that those who keep to God’s righteous requirements and keep His Sabbaths are representatives of the nations in bringing prayers and petitions to the Lord.
Concluding Reflections
Scripture closes with a picture of our ultimate restoration, a perpetual Sabbath without morning or evening in the new Jerusalem, part of the new heaven and new earth where there is no night, and where the city is continuously lit with the glory of God. The closing chapters of Revelation predict a restoration that is consistent with the opening chapter of Genesis, an eternal Sabbath with no evening or morning. [14]
No wonder then that the timing of God’s redemptive program is found in the Feast of Tabernacles, the seventh of Israel’s feasts, a feast of the seventh month, celebrated for seven days with an eighth as a Sabbath . It’s very description is Sabbatical. Ironically, it also marks the completion of God’s harvest, yet also traditionally celebrated Israel’s wilderness wanderings. Living in booths on their wilderness journey would no longer be necessary after taking possession of God’s land of rest. The Feast of Tabernacles is undoubtedly a Sabbatical celebration.
Some expositors have expressed surprise that God would declare a day (the Sabbath) holy and to sanctify that day. Creation is a type of restoration. Just as God rested from all the work He completed in creation, He will rest from all the work He has completed in restoration. If God would declare His completed creation holy, it should be no surprise that God would declare the completed task of re-creation holy, set apart and eternal.
God’s greatest work is His work of redemption and it is to be celebrated and praised for eternity, that He would care enough for us to give His life, redeem us, sanctify us and ultimately restore us to the position He had intended before the fall. In this regard, the words of Jesus seem particularly appropriate:
“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27
The true Sabbath, the eternal Sabbath for which our current Sabbath is only a shadow, is in fact for man. The purpose of God’s program of redemption is for man, to restore him from the curse of sin that followed his fall. When we observe the Sabbath as God has required, it is a testimony to the unbeliever where we show our faith in God’s plan to restore us – our actions justifying our faith. It is God’s greatest work of restoring man to full relationship with Him.
A comparison of the fall in Genesis to the restoration in Revelation shows that God restored virtually all that was lost in the fall. Armed with the knowledge of the eschatological significance of the Sabbath, we can now understand why God’s law required the Israelite who desecrated the Sabbath to be cut off from God’s people, we are now equipped to determine what our attitude toward the Sabbath should be and how important it is for us to meet the Sabbath requirements in our lives. Our lives should bear witness to how great this completed work already is, and yet will be.
Proper observance of the Sabbath should be at the core of believers’ values, an affirmation of God’s eschatological program – already realized in Christ but not yet fully realized on earth through His kingdom. God’s eschatological salvation has been achieved and His kingdom should be visible in our lives through sacred and holy living. Through proper observance of the Sabbath, believers are set apart and made holy, yet also a type, professing to the world that God’s eschatological program is true, and His return is forthcoming. The words of Wenham are particularly appropriate:
The seventh day is the very first thing to be hallowed in Scripture, to acquire that special status that properly belongs to God alone. In this way Genesis emphasizes the sacredness of the Sabbath. Coupled with the threefold reference to God resting from all his work on that day, these verses give the clearest of hints of how man created in the divine image should conduct himself on the seventh day. [15]
[1] The first occurrence of the term Sabbath is found in Exodus with the ratification of the covenant of Sinai, marking another great creative act of God, the redemptive-creation of Israel, a people for Himself. Despite its relatively late use, the cycle of sevens in Genesis (Genesis 7:4, 10; 8:10, 12; 29:27) and Job 1:4-5 suggest a recognition and observance of the Sabbath from the earliest times. E.J. Young and F.F. Bruce, The Illustrated Bible Dictionary Part 3, Sabbath, Wheaton, IL, Inter-Varsity Press, Tyndale House Publishers, 1980,p. 1355
[2] Goppelt, Leonhard, Typos, The Typological Interpretation of the Old Testament in the New, Grand Rapids MI, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1982, p. 37
[3] Brown, William P., The Ethos of the Cosmos, The Genesis of Moral Imagination in the Bible, Grand Rapids MI, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999, p. 46
[4] The lack of the trailer “and there was evening and there was morning” on the seventh day not only intimates the end of God’s eschatological plan, it also marks the starting point of God’s eschatological plan. One could argue that the completion of God’s cosmic temple and assignment of Adam as priest of this temple, brought all creative activity to completion and man is now positioned to spend an Eternal-Sabbath with God in the garden. That eternal-Sabbath of rest was interrupted – ended by Adam’s sin, initiating God’s second great creative act, redemption, which had been planned from before the foundations of the world.
[5] Everything must be holy to be in God’s presence. Creation must be made holy and the “time”, the seventh day, must thus also be made holy.
[6] Ibid, p. 127
[7] Psalm 132:7-8 is particularly appropriate with the wording “Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool”, a known reference to the ark within the tabernacle/temple. Then follows “arise, O Lord, and come to your resting place”, an invitation to dwell with Israel even if only from the small space of the Holy of Holies. This was the most the Israelites could hope for until the coming of Christ – God in a ten by ten by ten cubit space and the Israelites outside in the outer court.
[8] Walton, John H., The Lost World of Genesis One, Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate, Downers Grove IL, InterVarsity Press, 2009, p. 73
[9] This truth is foreshadowed in the judgment against Adam (with phrases like “painful toil”, “it will produce thorns and thistles for you”, “by the sweat of your brow”). Work becomes toilsome and unsatisfying, the garden-paradise no longer providing its bounty. Israel, God’s corporate Adam, is given this warning in Deuteronomy 28:65 as part of the judgments to befall them for failing to honor the covenant: “. . . you will find no repose (rest), no resting place for the sole of your foot”. The failure to appropriate rest is seen in Psalm 95:8-11 where it refers to the generation that rejected God. That generation never entered the Promised Land, symbolic of rest appropriated. That generation never entered God’s rest. This episode is typical and anticipates the generation that rejected Christ, the greater than Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15-19; cf. Luke 17:25). It may also be typical of those at the end of the age who choose not to participate in the great exodus from Babylon (Revelation 18:2-4), the generation not entering their rest in the Kingdom of God.
[10] Note the model of Christ, the new man, obedient to the Father, where He reenacted the creation week in John 12:1: “On the first day of the redemptive week, the Light of the World approached the temple from the direction of the eastern sunrise (cf. Matthew 21:9; Psalm 118:26-27). During the week the Word of God spoke daily in the temple (Luke 19:47), entering into creative combat with the religious and political leaders who represented, according to John, the darkness of original creation (John 1:5, cf. 13:30). On the sixth day of Passion Week, the Word surveyed his redemptive work and pronounced it finished (John 19:30, cf. Genesis 2:3), resting on the Sabbath day in the rest of death (John 19:31). Thus is the old creation redemptively reenacted in the new creation.” Gage, Warren Austin, The Gospel of Genesis, Winona Lake IN, Carpenter Books, 1984, p.22. Gage has thus shown how Christ has led the way and provided the model of redemptive work of the new creation in inauguration, pointing toward its grand consummation, not with rest in death but rest in eternal spiritual life through Christ’s work. His work also brought us restoration with the Father, with His Spirit indwelling us and tabernacling with us, providing an inaugurated foretaste of the marvelous rest to come in consummation.
[11] Brown, William P., The Ethos of the Cosmos, The Genesis of Moral Imagination in the Bible, Grand Rapids MI, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999, p. 87
[12] Ibid, p. 117 The purification rites that occurred on the 8th day are particularly noteworthy, possibly intimating a coming new covenant that replaces ritual purity with true purity. Likewise, the change in calendar from the 7th month to the 1st month coincident with Israel’s Passover redemption (Exodus 12:2) may justify the change in “Sabbath observance” from the 7th day of the week to the 1st day of the week that accompanied the church’s redemption secured in Christ’s death and resurrection. In Exodus 40:2, Yahweh commanded Moses to set up the tabernacle on the first day of the first month, again intimating a new creation commensurate with its set up, symbolic of God dwelling with a people He has redeemed for Himself. Some consider the tabernacle a type of Christ. If true, His resurrection may be compared with Moses’ setting up of the tabernacle on the first day of the first month, again inaugurating a new creation.
[13] That Israel falied to keep the Sabbath was well documented in the Old Testment, most notably their failure to keep the Sabbath of rest for the land every seven years. That Yahweh exiled them from the land for seventy years, the number of Sabbath years they had neglected is also important. Lamentations 1:3, in describing the destruction of by Nebuchadnezzar and the Israelite exile states “After affliction and harsh labor, Judah has gone into exile. She dwells among the nations; she finds no resting place.” It is consistent with Israel’s view that the land was an interim garden of Eden from which they were expelled for their sin and unholiness.
[14] The Sabbath of Revelation, as antitype, is elevated above the Sabbath of Genesis, for the Sabbath of Genesis, while intended to be eternal, was broken – interrupted and terminated by the sin of the man and woman. The final Sabbath in paradise has no tree of knowledge of good and evil, the symbol of man’s free will. In the eschatological Sabbath at the end of eternity, there is no longer any chance of interruption by sin. The last Sabbath is truly secure and thus superior to the Sabbath of the first creation.
[15] Gordon J. Wenham, Word Biblical Commentary 1, Genesis 1-15, Waco, Texas, Word Books, 1987, p. 36