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. And God blessed the seventh day, and

sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work

which God created and made (Gen. 2:2-3).

The Hebrew word translated here as "sanctified" refers to setting

apart. God set apart the seventh day.

This passage is the first reference in the Bible to the sabbath.

God rested on the seventh day. He completed all of his work on

the sixth day. He had nothing more to do, and so He rested.

It seems strange to speak of God as resting. God is omnipotent.

He spoke the universe into existence. To speak of God as needing

a rest makes no sense. Yet the Scriptures are clear that God did

rest. This means that He ceased from the labor of creation. It

does not imply that he needed rest and recreation. It means that

He was setting a pattern for man, who is made in His image. We

find that God revealed to Moses in the Ten Commandments that man

is to rest because God rested on the seventh day.

Before the Fall of man, there is no indication that Adam grew

weary. It was not exhaustion that would have led Adam to rest.

Man was not in need of recuperation. He was in need of limits.

God established limits on the productivity of man. He established

the precedent of one day of rest in every seven.

This precedent

later became a law. It was not a law prior to the Fall of man.

Adam was not told that he had to honor a day of rest just because

God had honored a day of rest. That requirement was established

under the Mosaic law, but it was not established in the garden of

Eden. There was only one law governing Adam: he was not to eat of

the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There is no

suggestion anywhere in the text of the Bible that God told Adam

that there was a second law which he was required to obey.

Nevertheless, it is a good idea to abide by a precedent set by

the Creator. Adam would have been wise to acknowledge ritually

that he was subordinate to God. God rested on the seventh day.

Adam should have, too -- not as a matter of law but as a matter

of honoring a superior. Adam did not feel a physical need to

rest on the seventh day. He should have felt a sense of

obligation to honor God's day of rest, because God was his

creator.

MAN, THE OVERACHIEVER

God did not need rest physically. God did not need to rest at

all. God wanted to protect mankind from overreaching. By His

action of resting, God pointed to the necessity of a man's

acknowledging his own limitations. The day of rest was to be

honored by mankind as a means of testifying that man is not

nearly so creative as God is. Man was not to strive for equal or

greater creativity than God possessed, in a vain attempt to match

or exceed the productivity of God.

An extra work day in the week was undoubtedly tempting to man as

a way to achieve his goals. God wisely established an example of

rest one day in seven. In doing so, He was reminding man

symbolically that man is not God, and he should not strive to

become God. He should not attempt to work constantly as a way of

overtaking the productivity of his creator.

Before the Fall of man, there was no possibility that man could

work himself to death. Death was the product of a specific form

of rebellion. The curse of Adam's body and the curse of the

ground (Gen. 3:17-19) were the result of Adam's sin, not the

result of working an extra day.

God had made a point: six days of labor are sufficient to achieve

one's goals. To work an extra day is to attempt to overcome a

fundamental limit that God placed on mankind.

Furthermore, to work on the seventh day is a rejection of a gift

of God to man. God enabled man to be productive and to achieve

his goals in history while resting one day per week. He did not

call upon man to work seven days a week, and the proof of this

grace to man was the fact that God Himself ceased laboring on the

seventh day.

YOUR FINANCES

What has this got to do with your finances? It has to do with

your knowledge that God has established cause and effect in

history in such a way that every person can achieve his goals by

working six days out of seven. By acknowledging that God Himself

achieved His goals in six days, man is acknowledging that he is

under God. He respects God, and he imitates God, because he

acknowledges that he is completely subordinate to God. He

acknowledges that everything he possesses has come as a result of

God's grace to him.

Also, he does not work his way into favor with God. He does not

need to work seven days a week in order to achieve the dominion

assignment which God originally assigned to Adam and Eve. God is

pleased with a man's work six days a week, and He graciously

allows him to rest on the seventh day. God is not a severe

taskmaster. He does not work his subordinates seven days a week.

His subordinates should acknowledge the graciousness of God as

the master of creation by refusing to work on the seventh day.

There is another factor to consider. When an individual does not

work one day and seven, he forfeits the income that he could have

generated. He is testifying by his actions -- or rather inactions

-- that he is not concerned about this loss of income. He is not

concerned that he will not achieve his goals in life just because

he takes off one day and seven.

He is testifying that, with respect to the grace of God, he will

receive all the wealth that is required of him by God by working

six days a week instead of seven. He is acknowledging his

complete dependence upon the grace of God for whatever he

achieves in history. He is announcing, by his own actions, that

he does not believe that he can achieve his goals in history by

means of his own strength. He can do so only by the grace of God.

This is grace: God grants him a day of rest in seven. It is a day

in which he does not have to worry about his economic future. God

will take care of him, and he testifies to this by refusing to

work one day and seven.

This is important for everyone's finances. It is an

acknowledgment that we must not work full time to achieve our

goals as Christians. We have to work part time: six days out of

seven. If we do this -- if we accept his gracious day of rest --

without worrying about our finances, we learn the self-discipline

that is required to achieve our goals in history. Self-discipline

does not involve work alone; self-discipline involves rest. This

is confidence in the promises of God, the grace of God, and the

strength of God in upholding us in our respective callings and occupations.