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[0:00] I want you to open up your copy of the Scriptures this morning to Genesis chapter 2.! We're finally out of chapter 1. It's taken us several weeks to get through chapter 1, and we're now in chapter 2.

[0:11] And starting next week, we'll begin to move more quickly. But this week, we're just going to look at the first three verses of chapter 2, which actually close out the creation account that we've been looking at in chapter 1.

[0:22] So, in Genesis chapter 2, we're going to begin reading in verse 1, and I want you guys to stand with me in honor of God's Word. Moses writes, You know, there are innumerable things in the universe around us that are just simply unexplainable.

[1:16] That we don't understand why things are the way that they are, and we don't understand how things got to be the way that they are oftentimes. And that inability to explain the world around us is only amplified.

[1:30] It's only made all the more greater when we try to make sense of the universe without reference to its creator. So that when we look around and we see things, for instance, I read an article just a couple of days ago about a planet that scientists have discovered because they're constantly looking for more planets out there, and they have these various techniques that they use to try to identify where they think a planet is, even though they can't technically see them with any telescopes.

[1:59] They have these techniques that they attempt to use to try to identify where they think planets are, and they believe that they've discovered one that just defies their theories and their models about how planets come to be and come to exist.

[2:12] So they discovered this planet that they say is about 11 times the size of Jupiter, which is the largest planet in our solar system. And according to all of their theories and all of their models on how planets get to be, how they come into existence, how they end up orbiting the stars that they orbit, where they are, and all those sorts of things, according to all their theories and all their models, this particular planet should not exist.

[2:37] It's impossible, according to their theories. It's too far away from its sun, from its star, it's too large to inhabit the space in which it is. It just doesn't make any sense.

[2:47] Its location and its size make no sense. And oftentimes we look at the universe around us, particularly we look to the heavens and we see things and we wonder, why is all of that there?

[3:00] We've been walking through Genesis chapter 1, and I've said over and over that Genesis chapter 1 is thoroughly focused upon the creation of man on day 6. That everything leading up to that point is preparing the land and preparing the earth for man to live upon it.

[3:17] So a key issue is that after God creates all the things that exist in the universe, we would probably say something like after God has created all energy and matter, Moses says the heavens and the earth.

[3:29] After he's done that, we read in verse 2 that the earth was formless and void, which I said meant that the earth was uninhabitable initially. It wasn't suitable for life, and it certainly wasn't suitable for mankind to dwell upon.

[3:42] And so God begins in verse 3, all the way until you arrive on day 6 toward the end of the chapter, God is preparing the earth, He's preparing the land, He's setting everything in motion and putting everything in just the right spot so that the world will be perfect for man to dwell upon and to thrive upon.

[4:03] And so we look at that and we often think, well, that's a strange way to view the universe. It almost, it sort of in a way puts man at the center of everything, and yet we look at our universe and we know at least physically man is not at the center of things.

[4:25] The earth upon which we live is not at the center of our own solar system. Our solar system is not at the center of our galaxy, and as best as scientists can tell, our galaxy, which is one among billions of galaxies, is certainly not at the center of all the galaxies.

[4:40] And so from just a physical, spatial aspect, mankind is not the center of the universe. And yet Genesis chapter 1 presents things as if man is the highest of all creations.

[4:52] Everything is moving towards the creation of man on day 6. And so we might step back and begin to ask the question, if that is indeed the case, and it is, why all of this other stuff?

[5:06] I mean, why create an entire galaxy and not just the solar system in which the earth is found? And then, in addition, why create billions of other galaxies filled with other stars and other planets if man is sort of the high point of creation?

[5:25] Why do all of those things? And we're reminded of the answer to that question when we begin to look at day 7. We are reminded that, ultimately, the universe is not about man.

[5:41] Ultimately, the creation does not exist for man. In fact, at the very beginning of this book, at the very beginning of the Bible, we begin with God alone.

[5:52] In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And when we come to day 7, we see no one else but God Himself. Take a look at verse 2.

[6:03] On the seventh day, God finished His work that He had done. Verse 3. So God blessed the seventh day, because on it, God rested.

[6:14] So you come to day 7, and like verse 1, it's thoroughly centered upon God and His deeds and what He's doing. So the creation account both begins and ends with a focus upon God alone.

[6:31] And that's crucial to us understanding everything that's happening here, not only in the opening chapters of Genesis, but understanding everything else that's happening in the Scriptures. Because the Bible tells us that God made all things for Himself.

[6:45] In Colossians chapter 2, we read that all things were made by Him and for Him. In Isaiah, we read about humanity. God says, Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth, all those whom I have created, for My glory, He says.

[7:04] So that ultimately, all of creation and humanity exists for the glory of God. Everything is centered upon Him and Him alone. So why this vast array of stars and galaxies?

[7:18] The psalmist tells us, the heavens declare the glory of God. And the creation account in Genesis does not end with the last of God's works of creation, man.

[7:31] The creation account moves past that lest we fool ourselves and think that though we are the highest of all God's created beings, begin to think that we are the center and focal point of all things when we are not.

[7:50] So here we are at the very end of the creation account. And I know it's odd that we move all the way into chapter 2 to finish this account of creation. But you have to remember that these chapter and verse numbers were added way after the Bible was written.

[8:05] So the chapter and verse numbers are not technically God's Word. It's the words themselves that are God's Word. These things were added in later on. And I think that this is one of those places to where the people who added the chapter divisions just put it in the wrong spot.

[8:19] They should have put it in verse 4. Chapter 2 should have started in verse 4. And verse 4 should be verse 1. And verses 1 through 3 should be the end of chapter 1. But that's not what they did. So we're still in the same creation account.

[8:31] We're not moving to a separate story or anything different. The focus has not shifted at all. We're still looking at the account of creation as we move into chapter 2. And we're back, as I said, to this focus upon God and His activity and what He's doing.

[8:45] And what we see here on day 7 is a thoroughly God-centered worldview, but a God-centered worldview that is in every way good news for us who are made in His image.

[8:59] So let's take a look at what happens here on the seventh day. We're told in verse 1, sort of as a summary, thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

[9:10] God's done. He's finished making everything that He's going to make. In fact, we saw a while back that when Moses uses the term the heavens and the earth, he means everything that exists in the physical universe.

[9:23] Everything that we can see or everything that we can observe, everything that there is out there in the physical universe is summed up in the terms the heavens and the earth. And so now we're told, thus the heavens and the earth are finished.

[9:37] Not only have they come into existence, God has finished shaping and molding everything to the precise specifications that He wants for it.

[9:47] But He does add this strange phrase, and all the host of them. So the heavens and the earth are everything. Everything's finished. And then He adds, all the host of them.

[9:59] What does that phrase mean? Well, there have been... I'll give you three sort of interpretations of that phrase, and I'll tell you what I think that it is. There have been a number of interpreters who've said, well, the host refers to the stars.

[10:14] Because over and over throughout the Psalms in particular, the word host is used to refer to the stars that are up in the sky. So we hear about the host of heaven or the heavenly host and those sorts of things.

[10:28] And oftentimes it's simply a reference to the stars. And so a lot of interpreters look at this and say, well, He's just adding in the heavens and the earth and the stars. Which is only problematic when you consider the fact that the stars would probably be included in the phrase heavens and earth.

[10:45] Would it not be? It's already included in that. And so I'm not sure that that's quite right. Other interpreters would come in and say, well, oftentimes the word host refers not simply to the stars up in the heavens, but refers to angelic beings.

[10:59] So this is not so much about the creation of physical things that what Moses is adding here is God finished creating the physical world, but also that includes the angelic heavenly beings because many times in Scripture, the word host refers to these angelic beings.

[11:17] So for instance, Psalm 148, Praise Him, all His angels. Praise Him, all His hosts. So we know that it can mean that, but I'm not quite sure that that's right either because there's no mention of angels anywhere here in these opening couple of chapters of Genesis and that would be to sort of just throw in a concept that's just not contained here.

[11:42] It'd just be kind of out of left field, out of the blue, so I'm not sure that that's quite right, although I like that interpretation better than the stars' interpretation. Most of the time when you're reading through the first five books of the Old Testament, which is known as the Torah, Genesis through Deuteronomy, most of the time that you come across this particular word, host, it refers to one of two things.

[12:06] It's literal meaning, which is a company of soldiers, so oftentimes it refers to an army. Just, you know, you'll have the hosts of Pharaoh or the hosts of Israel, those sorts of things.

[12:17] So oftentimes it just simply refers to an army. But because it has this meaning of a company, a regiment, a group of soldiers within the army, many times this word host is used simply to refer to an organized collection of people.

[12:34] That's what it means. An organized, labeled sort of collection of people. I just want to show you one place where that is. So I want you to hold your place in Genesis and I want you to turn over to the book of Numbers, chapter 1.

[12:44] It's not far away from Genesis. Numbers, chapter 1. And to be really honest, Numbers is one of the most difficult books in the Bible to read because it's just lots of lists of people and names and it's hard to get through.

[12:57] If you've ever read through the whole Bible like that, you know you slugged your way through Numbers. But Numbers, chapter 1, uses this term a few times. And in verse 2, this is what we read. God commands Moses, take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel by clans, by fathers' houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head, from twenty years old and upward, all in Israel who are able to go to war, you and Aaron shall list them company by company.

[13:30] Host by host is literally what it says. List all the people, list all the males, and order them up host by host. And then, again, look down in verse 52.

[13:41] He says, The people of Israel shall pitch their tents by their companies, each man in his own camp, and each man by his own standard. So this word host has to do with an organized company of men, of people.

[13:58] When we understand it in that way, when we get back to Genesis chapter 2 and we see that God finished creating the heavens and the earth and all their hosts, I think that what Moses is saying here is that God not only finished creating everything that exists, but now he is finished ordering it, placing things in all the categories in which he intended for them to belong, putting everything in its right place.

[14:22] All of creation is arranged now company by company, host by host. And we actually saw that a couple of weeks ago. Genesis chapter 1 does emphasize this idea of everything being created according to its kind and everything serving a purpose and everything having a particular place and purpose within God's creation.

[14:43] creation. So I think here that what Moses is telling us is that not only is all the creation done, but everything is exactly as God intends it to be. Everything is where he wants it.

[14:55] It's all perfectly ordered. It's all perfectly arranged. And since that is the case, now what we learn on day 7 is that God having done all of that, we're told having finished his work, he now rests.

[15:13] He rests. What does that mean? What are we supposed to understand from this terminology? God rests. Take a look.

[15:23] 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. We shouldn't think from this that God is now at the end of six days of creating, that God is now tired.

[15:38] He has exhausted himself and he's worn out and so now God, much like we do after a long week at work, now God needs to sort of put his feet up and breathe a sigh of relief and he just kind of needs to rest and regain and regate his composure and his strength and his energy back.

[15:56] We shouldn't think that way at all because God doesn't have an exhaustible store of energy, of power. He has an inexhaustible store of power. When you're omnipotent, that means that you possess all power so that no matter how much power you use, you never have any less than when you started.

[16:15] If you had an infinite amount of money, no limit, an infinite amount of money and you spent a trillion dollars, you would still have an infinite amount of money left. And when you have an infinite amount of power, no matter how much power you exert in the creation of the universe, you have no less power, no less strength, no less energy at the end of it than you did at the very beginning.

[16:35] So God's not tired in fact, the prophet Isaiah tells us this much in reference to creation. He's just spoken of creation in Isaiah chapter 40. After speaking of creation, he says, Have you not known and have you not heard?

[16:50] The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. He doesn't get tired. He never grows weary.

[17:02] He's never depleted, and he never has any energy subtracted from him because he possesses infinite power. So what does it mean when he says that he rested?

[17:14] Literally, the word that's used here in chapter 2 is the word ceased. He stopped. He was finished with all his work of creation and then he stopped.

[17:25] Stopped doing what? Didn't stop doing everything. The Bible tells us that he is right now currently upholding the universe by the power of his word. God is constantly active in his creation.

[17:38] He's providentially overseeing everything that happens, not only by the ordinary processes of the world that he maintains and keeps in effect, but he's also frequently intervening in those processes and doing the amazing and doing the miraculous.

[17:52] God has not ceased to work, so what has he ceased to do? He has ceased from the work that he was doing in Genesis chapter 1. He's finished creating things. He's done with that work.

[18:03] It's over with now. He's done with the work of creation and Moses says that explicitly. On the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done. What work? Well, the work just described in verse 1, the heavens and the earth were finished.

[18:18] See the same word there? Finished. They're finished. Now God finished his work. He finished the work of creating and ordering the heavens and the earth. Then at the end of verse 2, God rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.

[18:33] What work? The work of creation. So God is now finished. God has ceased to do the work of creation. He's done with that.

[18:44] It's completed. Why are we told this? One of the things, one of the questions that needs to be at the front of your mind when you're reading your Bible constantly is why?

[18:57] I don't necessarily mean questioning the ways in which God does things and doubting his wisdom. What I mean is just asking why is this detail contained in the Bible?

[19:08] The Apostle Paul says that all Scripture is God-breathed and all of it is profitable or useful for God's people. So obviously, God intends to teach us something here by revealing to us and showing us that God finished and completed and was done with his work of creation.

[19:25] That he's not in the business of creating the physical world anymore. That's important for us. But why is that important for us? I think that you can discover it as you move forward through the biblical story.

[19:38] I don't think you see it clearly here in Genesis chapter 2. I don't think it's overly clear. But I think as you move through the biblical story, you'll see. Because man has work to do. Even before the fall, Adam and Eve had a job.

[19:51] They had work to do. They were put in the garden to keep it, to serve it. To be masters over the garden. But that work took on a new form, a new flavor after sin entered into the world through the fall.

[20:04] I want you to just hold your place in chapter 2 and look over to chapter 3. You probably don't even have to turn the page. After the fall, after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, God came to them and he pronounced judgment upon them.

[20:20] I want you to look closely at what he says to Adam. We'll start in verse 17. To Adam, God said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded, you shall not eat of it.

[20:33] Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain, you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.

[20:45] By the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground. In other words, with the fall comes very difficult toil and labor.

[20:58] Now we will have to work very, very hard throughout our days. Food will not simply be there for the picking. It won't simply be there for the taking. The creation won't simply bend to all of our whims.

[21:10] Now for us to exercise dominion over the world that God has placed in front of us, now it's going to take work just to live, just to survive in this world that initially was made perfectly suitable and habitable for us, now just to survive in a fallen world is going to take immense amounts of effort and energy for us.

[21:29] And unlike God, we don't have a limitless reserve of energy. We will run out. We will wear out. We'll wear out individually. Every week we'll wear out. Which is why later on in the law, in the Ten Commandments, God looks back to this day, to day seven and the creation.

[21:48] And he says, I want you to do what I did. I want you to pattern yourself after me. Because I created the world in six days and then I rested. And I want you to work for six days and I want you to rest.

[21:59] Why? Because our work and our labor here is difficult and we don't have an infinite reserve of energy. And every week we're going to wear down. Have you ever thought about why we measure things in weeks?

[22:14] Why do we measure things in weeks? I mean, all of our other measurements for time are sensible. They make sense. So, for instance, a year is the amount of time it takes for the Earth to make one full circuit around the sun.

[22:27] Roughly 365 days. That makes sense. It's no surprise that throughout human history we have measured years to be right at, right around 360 to 365 days in all cultures all over the world.

[22:41] That makes sense. That's how long it takes for the Earth to go around the sun. A day, 24 hours, roughly the amount of time it takes the Earth to complete one rotation on its axis. That makes perfect sense that we would measure things in days.

[22:55] Even months make sense because originally when months were recognized by most cultures throughout the world they were timed according to the cycle of the moon, the lunar cycle, which is about roughly 28 days in length.

[23:10] And so months originally were all 28 days. now we've lengthened them, made them a little bit longer so that our years match up with our months on our calendars. But originally when months were celebrated they were celebrated as lunar months that lined up with the lunar cycle so that all of our major time measurements that have existed throughout the world and throughout all sorts of various cultures have been tied to the sun, moon, and stars which God said would be markers for times and seasons.

[23:37] All of those make sense. But the week doesn't make sense. There's nothing happening in nature that would say measure your time in weeks.

[23:48] Measure your times in seven day allotments. And in fact when you look throughout ancient history most cultures did not measure things in weeks. It just wasn't a term to them.

[23:58] It just didn't make any sense to a lot of cultures. And yet here we are 2013 still measuring things by weeks. Why? Why do we do that?

[24:10] Because God came to Moses and gave him ten commandments and said within those ten commandments just like I rested on the seventh day you need to rest.

[24:23] You need to rest though because you need refreshment. Your body needs to be rejuvenated and renewed. Which is why Jesus chided the religious leaders of his day and said do you not know that man was not made for the Sabbath the Sabbath was made for man.

[24:41] The Sabbath exists to rejuvenate and renew us. That's why God put it in the law. But it's interesting that when you read Genesis chapter 2 off which the Sabbath day is based that there's no command here in chapter 2 to observe the Sabbath.

[24:56] There's just not. In fact the word Sabbath doesn't even occur here. The word seven is related to the word Sabbath but the actual word Sabbath doesn't occur here in Genesis chapter 2 so that the Sabbath is not like marriage.

[25:09] It's not a creation ordinance. It's not a universal ordinance that should apply in all times and all places but it does help us to see and establish this pattern of rest that we need.

[25:21] And what the observation of the Sabbath throughout Israel tells us is that Israel understood and the law revealed to them and to us that God's resting on the seventh day has something to do with us.

[25:37] And it does have to do with this regular pattern of rest that we need during the week but it doesn't have to do only with that. There's something bigger at work here.

[25:50] And you begin to see a larger picture drawn as you just move your way through the biblical story. I'll show you what I mean. I want you to just turn over a few pages to Genesis chapter 5.

[26:01] Genesis chapter 5 is one of those genealogies that we normally tend to skip over. But within every genealogy there's crucial information for us to understand what God is doing. And as you come to the end of this genealogy you run across a man named Lamech.

[26:16] Verse 28. When Lamech had lived 182 years he fathered a son and he called his name Noah saying out of the ground that the Lord has cursed.

[26:30] So that's a reference back to Genesis chapter 3. God cursing the ground making us work hard now for survival. Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us my translation says relief literally it says rest.

[26:48] This one shall bring us rest from our work and from the painful toil of our hands. Noah's name itself is a form of that word rest that's here.

[27:01] Nuach is the word for rest and Noah is Noah's name. So that what Lamech is expecting, what Lamech is hoping for, he's looking forward to the day when God sends someone who will undo what Adam did.

[27:17] Who will undo the curse that fell upon us with the fall and bring us into and help us to enjoy the kind of rest that God enjoys. He's looking forward to this, to a redeemer, to a deliverer who will come and set all things right so that now we no longer have to labor and toil in a cursed world, but now we can become a part of and we can begin to participate in God's rest.

[27:44] And Lamech hoped that his son was the one who would do that. And while Noah was destined for great things in God's plan, Noah was not the one who would bring rest to God's people.

[27:56] Noah was not the one who would gather God's people together and bring them into his blessing and rest. He wasn't the one to do that. And the history of Israel is a long history of hope that that one will come and deliver us and deliver God's people from the pain and the toil that came with the fall, from the curse, to envelop us into God's rest.

[28:28] So that God says in the Psalms, when speaking of Israel's disobedience, He says that because of disobedience, He says, I swore in my wrath. He's angry with Israel for her failure to trust in His promises.

[28:42] And He says, I swore in my wrath, they, this disobedient Israel, they shall not enter my rest. So there's this possibility of entering into God's rest, but we know we need a Redeemer to bring us into it, and God says to Israel as they're disobedient and they refuse to believe His promises, you are not going to enter into my rest.

[29:06] I will not allow it. The history of Israel is a long protracted history of disappointment because the people fail over and over again to enter into this rest of God.

[29:23] Yet it's also a history filled with hope that someday this might happen. Someday the Redeemer will come. Because the Redeemer was promised in Genesis chapter 3, one who would come and crush the head of the serpent, one who would undo all that the devil and Adam had done.

[29:43] The hope is there throughout Israel and only realized when we arrive at the New Testament. And there a descendant of Abraham, a descendant of David is born.

[29:55] And when that one grows up, he stands in Matthew chapter 11, verse 28, and he says to the people, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

[30:11] Come to me. I will give you the long anticipated rest that you have all wanted. You've been looking for it. You've been hoping for it. Noah didn't bring it to you.

[30:22] Abraham did not usher it in. King David did not bring rest to the land of Israel. But now I have come. Anyone who comes to me can receive rest.

[30:33] But I want you to consider that for a moment. We don't receive God's blessing. We don't enter into God's rest by anything that we ourselves are able to accomplish or do.

[30:46] Jesus does not say, fulfill this list of demands, perform these things, and then come to me, and I'll help you to find rest.

[30:56] He simply says, come to me. Come needy, come wanting, come empty, and I will make you full. I will give you the rest that you've been wanting for all your life, and that humanity has wanted for all of human history.

[31:12] I will give you that rest. How? By simply trusting in Him. Turn over to Hebrews chapter 3.

[31:26] It's the clearest place in all the New Testament where God begins to speak once again about this rest that we might enter into.

[31:38] And He makes a reference back to these various Old Testament passages that we've mentioned. He makes a reference back to Genesis chapter 2. He makes a reference back to the command about the Sabbath day.

[31:52] He makes a reference back to Psalm 95 in which God said that Israel would not enter His rest. He's referencing all of that long history of a longing for rest. And in chapter 3, we read this, verse 7, Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years.

[32:21] Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart. They have not known my ways. As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Why?

[32:33] Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you away from the living God. What is it that keeps us away from God's rest?

[32:47] Unbelief. A failure to trust in the Redeemer who has come to bring us rest. Chapter 4, verse 1, Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us fear, lest any of you should fail to reach it.

[33:06] For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them. Why? Why did the message about the coming Redeemer not benefit the people of Israel? Why?

[33:18] Because they were not united by faith with those who listen. For we who have believed enter that rest.

[33:30] We enter that rest. And then one more, one more, phrase down in verse 9 of chapter 4. So then, therefore, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from His.

[33:46] The promise that if you will believe in the one who says, come to me and I'll give you rest, the promise that if you will trust in Him wholeheartedly, you will enter into that rest.

[34:00] You will be redeemed. You will be delivered from all the effects of sin in the world. Your sin, Adam's sin, all the sin in the world.

[34:10] You will be delivered from it and you will participate with God in His rest. What's that look like? The book of Revelation tells us what that looks like.

[34:20] I just want you to hear these words from the end of the Bible. And I've told you over and over that the words from the end of the Bible echo the words from the beginning of the Bible.

[34:31] Listen carefully. This is what God's rest will look like. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away.

[34:49] It says later down, later on, they will see His face, Christ, and His name will be on His foreheads and night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun for the Lord their God will be their light and they will reign forever and ever.

[35:05] What does God's rest look like for us when we participate in it? It looks like no more pain. It looks like no more fear. It looks like no more death. It looks like no more suffering.

[35:17] It looks like no more toil. It looks like no more difficulty. No more darkness. It looks like perfect, everlasting, ever increasing joy in the presence of God Himself.

[35:31] And for that, you and I were created. How do you experience that? Trusting in Jesus alone to provide what He alone is capable of providing.

[35:48] God rested on the seventh day. Not because He was weary, not because He was tired, not because He was depleted, He rested on the seventh day to show us that He is supreme and has made all things.

[36:04] And those whom He has made in His image, they may someday join Him in that rest. But He does more than simply rest on that day.

[36:15] We are told also, turn back to Genesis chapter 2, we are told one more thing. we are told in chapter 2, verse 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.

[36:37] Two things here. First, He blessed the seventh day, which is an interesting, somewhat strange phrase for Him to use to describe a day. God blesses people often throughout the scriptures, which makes sense because to be blessed by God is to obtain joy in His presence, it is to obtain His favor.

[36:58] God blesses people, but it's a strange thing for God to say that He blessed a day. How do you make a day joyous? How do you make a day happy? Well, He helps us to understand exactly what He means by that term blessed, and the next word says that He made it holy or He sanctified it.

[37:14] He set it apart. He made it special. He made it to stand out. You know, this is the first time in all of the Bible that the word holy or the word sanctify is used.

[37:28] It's one of the most important words in all of the Bible, and this is the first time that we see it. The root meaning of it is simply to separate, to set something aside, to consecrate it for a special purpose, and now here we're told that God consecrated and separated out this seventh day for a special purpose.

[37:49] Why? What was He doing? Why would He do that? Why consecrate a day? We see it in our marking of things by weeks.

[38:00] We see it in the history of Israel as they rest every seventh day, every Saturday commanded to rest. We're not bound by the Old Testament Sabbath law anymore.

[38:13] we're not bound by that, we're not under the law, and yet we need to recognize that there is something crucial, there is something important about this pattern of seven days, six days of work, one day of rest.

[38:30] God has set it aside so that we might not ever forget our hope of entering into His rest someday. He wants us to remember, He wants us to have a constant reminder, one day, if you trust in my Son, there is laid up for you a great, everlasting hope.

[38:56] And I've set apart this day, and you will mark your time by weeks so that you won't forget. I'm resting. I'm not done working all together, but I'm resting from creation, and someday my creation my people can rest with me.

[39:15] Let's pray. Father, we come to the end of this creation account, and I pray that above and beyond everything else that we've seen here, that the one thing that we are reminded of, the one thing that impresses itself upon us, is that the universe is a profoundly God oriented creation.

[39:52] Though fallen and fractured and broken through our sin, the whole universe points to you. God and I pray that we would not be so prideful as to think that the universe is about us, or the universe is about the people that we care about.

[40:13] And I pray that we wouldn't put on a false humility that says that we don't matter at all because the universe is so vast, but that instead we would humbly come before you, the creator of all things, the one for whom all things exist, and acknowledge that we are in desperate need of your mercy and grace, and that we would come to your son for rest and for hope of an eternal rest in your presence.

[40:41]  I pray this in Christ's name. Amen.