AND HE RESTED

First, God wasn’t tired. How could he be? He’s God! Creating everything didn’t leave him out of breath. He wasn’t weary from the workweek and eager for the weekend. He wasn’t telling everyone, “Thank Me It’s Friday!” When Genesis 2:2 says, “…and he rested” it simply means that he ceased. He ended his work of creating. He was done everything he wanted to do, so he stopped doing it. Somehow, we have associated the seventh day, the Sabbath, with being tired. Makes sense since we’re human, and we get tired. We’ve also made Sabbath-keeping a rule to keep rather than a blessing to be enjoyed. We codified it in a way that God never intended, and Jesus addressed the nonsense religious rite that it became. In Genesis 2:1-3, God inaugurates the first Sabbath day. He blessed the day and “called it holy,” setting it apart from the other six. The manufacturer’s specifications for humanity were, “you need to stop the work I’ve given you to do after every six days. Take a day off from work. Every week.” We ignore this loving instruction and gift to our own peril. But there’s far more going on than what appears. The rest, the ceasing, speaks to a different striving. A deeper one. One that has everything to do with what Jesus did. A Sabbath that comes at the end of his work, not ours. A Sabbath that is ours to enjoy for eternity. I’m looking forward to working through all of that with you on Sunday. And then I’ll take a rest day on Monday.

Series: Genesis – The Things That are Revealed
Message: 4 – And He Rested
Text: Genesis 2:1-3
Todd Dugard
Harvest Bible Chapel
June 7, 2026

When I see the Sabbath as God sees the Sabbath, I come to realize that…

…time is precious (v. 1)

Ecclesiastes 3:11

Psalm 90:12

Ephesians 5:15-16

1 Thessalonians 5:1-3

chronos – sequence of events; time as linear
kairos – a significant time; moments of crisis and opportunity

Biblical time, then, is not so much a matter of one thing after another, as it is the story of God’s interactions with his world; a story in which God gives moments of opportunity, moments of decision, times of repentance, a day of grace.
– David J. Atkinson

…work is positive (v. 2a)

…rest is required (v. 2b)

…being still is blessed and holy (v. 3)

In a culture where busyness is a fetish and stillness is laziness, rest is sloth. But without rest, we miss the rest of God: the rest he invites us to enter more fully so that we might know him more deeply.
– Mark Buchanan, The Rest of God

Hebrews 4:9-11

Psalm 46:10a

For resources relating to the Genesis series, go to harvestbible.ca/resources and scroll down to “Genesis”.