Before we finish the present series on the days of creation, we still have to call attention to the seventh day which God instituted as the sabbath for creation and especially for man.

Of this we read more than once in Scripture. First of all in Gen. 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. 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.” And in the law, as recorded in Ex. 20:8-11: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.” And in Ex. 31:15-17: “Six days may work be done; but in the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work on the sabbath day, shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.” And in Heb. 4:4-9: “For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest on the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, after so long a time; as it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given the rest, he would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God.”

Now, what does this all mean?

1. First of all, the question arises whether the seventh day also was an ordinary day like the six days of creation. This, you understand, stands in immediate connection with the subject we have been treating in these articles. Some have denied this. First of all, because the text does not limit the seventh day by evening and morning as was the case with the six days of creation. Some have even gone the length of reasoning backward from the seventh day to the six days of creation and maintain that just as the seventh day was no ordinary day so also the six days of creation cannot have been days as we know them but must have been long periods. This, however, is absurd and impossible. For, if from the fact that neither evening nor morning are mentioned in the account ofGen. 2 concerning the seventh day, the conclusion is drawn that, therefore, this day was without end, it must follow that also the six days of creation, supposing they were like the seventh day, must have been endless. And this is absurd. Hence, we maintain, that also the seventh day as it was sanctified by the Lord for the creature and especially for man, was an ordinary day limited by evening and morning. This is corroborated by the fourth commandment which speaks of the six days of creation and, in the very same connection, mentions the seventh day as the day on which God rested. This is also the explanation of Keil in his commentary on this passage. Writes he: “But true as it is that the Sabbath of God has no evening, and that thesabbatismos, to which the creature is to attain at the end of his course, will be bounded by no evening, but last forever; we must not, without further ground, introduce this true and profound idea into the seventh creation-day. We could only be warranted in adopting such an interpretation, and understanding by the concluding day of the work of creation a period of endless duration, on the supposition that the six preceding days were so many periods in the world’s history, which embraced the time from the beginning of creation to the final completion of its development. But as the six creation-days, according to the words of the text, were earthly days of ordinary duration, we must understand the seventh in the same way; and that all the more because in every passage, in which it is mentioned as the foundation of the theocratic Sabbath, it is regarded as an ordinary day.”

With this we agree.

2. The question still remains, however: how we must understand this rest on the part of God? We realize, of course, that for the eternal God there are no days. There is no time at all in God. But we would mention two things concerning this rest of God on the seventh day. First of all, it means that, on that created seventh day, God ceased from creating; creation was finished and completed. This is evident from Gen. 2:2: “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 also in vs. 3: “in it he had rested from all his work which God had created and made.” This, therefore, is the first meaning. God did not create anymore. We must understand, of course, that this was a revelation of God in time, a revelation for us. As we said above, for God there is no time: there are no days and months and years. For that matter we may say that in His eternal decree God eternally creates and eternally rests. But in time God reveals Himself in the six days of creation and the seventh day of rest. On that day God finished His work of creation and He created no more. Secondly, it also means that God, on the seventh day, also entered into the enjoyment of His perfect work, for “God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”

3. This seventh day God also blessed and sanctified so that it became a sabbath for man: “And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it,” Gen. 2:3. Here, surely, it is evident that also the seventh created day, like the six preceding ones, was an ordinary day of twenty-four hours. Man, who was created after the image of God, was also to enter into God’s rest. For man was created as the friend-servant of God and as such he might live in God’s fellowship. That was his rest and of that rest the weekly sabbath was both a picture and a partial realization. Hence, God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.

4. However, this was not the end, Man did not enter into creation-rest of God permanently. He fell into the restlessness of sin. But God had provided some better thing for us. Although His works were finished from the creation of the world, Hebrews 4:3, and although He rested on the seventh day from all His works, Hebrews 4:4, and although man, through sin, failed to enter into the creation rest of God, yet God spoke of another day. That day is the eternal rest according to which the people of God in Christ Jesus our Lord will dwell in God’s tabernacle forever. Of that final and everlasting day the seventh creation-day is a shadow.

However, in conclusion, we reiterate that the days in Genesis can by no stretch of the imagination be explained as long periods of thousands or millions of years. Honest exegesis demands that we conceive of them as ordinary days.

H.H.