God’s Image Study • Genesis • Sabbath Study
Before examining what it means for us to rest, we begin with God’s rest.
Genesis 2:1–3 connects the seventh day with completed work, blessing, and holiness. These details form the foundation for the Sabbath passages that follow.
Rest follows completed work
The opening verses describe the heavens and earth as completed. God rests from the work He has done, then blesses and sanctifies the seventh day because He rested on it. Read Genesis 2:1–3.
The account directs our attention to completion. Isaiah also describes the everlasting Creator as neither weary nor tired. We should therefore examine God’s rest through the work accomplished, rather than assume He needed recovery from exhaustion. Read Isaiah 40:28.
The blueprint and its unfolding
In our God’s Image Study, we have been reading Genesis 1–2:4 as a blueprint presenting God’s plan through its completed outcome, with Genesis 2:5 beginning the account of its unfolding.
This reading asks us to distinguish the completed picture from the process through which that purpose is accomplished.
Genesis 2:5 introduces conditions described as not yet present, followed by the formation of the man and the garden account. We will keep that movement beside the opening description of completion. Read Genesis 2:4–8.
The sixth day before the seventh
Our comparison with the Last Adam belongs here. Genesis places the male and female, God’s image, and their commission on the sixth day, before the seventh-day rest. Paul later distinguishes the first Adam from the Last Adam and the earthly image from the heavenly image. Read Genesis 1:26–31 and 1 Corinthians 15:45–49.
Within our blueprint reading, we are examining that sixth-day image alongside the intended outcome through the Last Adam.
The sequence gives us a question to carry forward: How does the accomplishment of God’s purpose relate to entering His rest?
Completed work—and a rest still open to enter
Hebrews 4 brings these ideas together. It speaks of God’s works as finished from the world’s foundation, quotes His seventh-day rest, and still calls people to enter that rest.
It also distinguishes hearing from hearing joined with faith, and identifies disobedience as the reason some failed to enter. Read Hebrews 4:1–7.
Then it states:
“So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”
— Hebrews 4:9, LSB
God’s rest and a person’s entrance into it are distinguishable. The passage can speak of completed works while still urging its hearers to respond.
This helps us preserve both completion and progression without forcing every participant into the same stage at the same time.
Rest does not mean God has ceased every activity
After healing on the Sabbath, Jesus says:
“My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.”
— John 5:17, LSB
The surrounding discussion concerns the Father’s work, the Son’s dependence upon the Father, and giving life. Read John 5:16–21.
We must therefore ask what work is completed, what work continues, and who is being brought into its result. Scripture’s language of rest deserves that attention.
Our response matters
Hebrews calls its hearers to diligence and warns against hardening their hearts. Rest includes a response to God’s voice. Read Hebrews 4:7–11.
As we continue, we can examine ourselves: Am I trusting what God supplies? Am I receiving His instruction, or resisting it while claiming to rest in Him?
Threads to Follow
Provision before rest: Examine the double portion on the sixth day in Exodus 16:22–30.
Receiving and keeping: Consider how obedience relates to the provision already given.
Rest and restoration: Follow Jesus’s Sabbath works alongside his declaration that the Father continues working.
The books were opened…
🌿 By Maria Emilia
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