Genesis 2:1-17 - The Day of Divine Rest

Genesis 2:1-17

1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

Life in God’s Garden

8 The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. 9 And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. 11 The name of the first is Pishon; it is the one which skirts the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good. Bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one which goes around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel; it is the one which goes toward the east of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

As we consider God resting on the sevenths day after creating the earth and heavens, do we rest in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, from our works that attempt to appease our Maker to earn salvation, or do we rest in His work on the cross (Hebrews 4:3-4, 9-10) as we do His work in creation?  When God Almighty had finished making the universe and our world and every living being, He rested.  It was not rest required because God was tired from the effort formHe had merely spoken according to His will and plan and everything was made at once without expending effort as we mortal creatures do to accomplish anything in our own ability.  He rested as a precursor and pattern for us to enter into as we trust His work and rest in Him instead of vainly striving to earn God’s favor in a perfect righteousness which only God possesses.  This is the grace of the gospel written from the beginning even before humanity’s fall into the rebellion of sin!  This is why our Lord blessed this day as holy sanctified in the beginning even before Jesus came to call us along with Him into this eternal rest.  He then had Moses record in God’s word what the Creator did next for us to stand in wonder and awe of His work beyond our abilities yet brought within our grasp.  He explains the creation of the earth in retrospect to review His work in Chapter 1 during the first six days of creation.  The ground was initially covered in a thick mist before rain ever fell vegetation was formed by His Word’s command (John 1:1, 14, Colossians 1:16) and before man was created and given life by the breath (Genesis 2:7) of His own Spirit.  God took the dust of the earth which He had already made and from its components formed the body of Adam and then breathed life from Himself into him to make us after His image and spiritual substance!  This adds a new dimension to consider of our being made in His image.  God then planted a garden by the work of His word of command and it was so.  This place would be our first home just in the East of the place called Eden.  He put Adam there where He made the plants grow in the mist and fed the man from those trees and herbs put there for us to live on.  This was not a random happenstance, but a well planned and orchestrated plan of creating a world for we who are the capstone of His creation.  This is where He introduced the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden before the allowance and prohibition of taking from each of these was explained.  The account goes on to describe the surrounding area of rivers to water the garden and provide food and shelter for Adam as he was put into this paradise garden.  Only then when all the stage was set was man’s formerly free will to be tested by the command to freely eat of any plant or tree but the prohibited one of the knowledge of good and evil, which only God Himself had knowledge of.  The penalty of assuming to know better what was right and wrong apart from God’s word telling the man (Hebrews 5:14) so to assume he knew as much or even more than the Creator was death.  We are now broken in our own wills and are required to learn right from wrong, good from evil, from the instruction of the word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17, Philippians 1:9-10) due to our ancestors not heeding this simple command of God meant for our good.  We will see how our adversary later tries to twist this simple truth of truth into doubt through deceit into disobedience of disbelief.  The answer to these is God’s forgiveness in His work of Grace by the perfect righteousness of His Son’s sacrifice and our restored trust in His word to save us from our sin of disobedience and disbelief of His clear commands recorded in scripture.  May we rest in His Sabbath rest who is Jesus Christ instead of continuing to vainly attempt to earn God’s grace by our own works (Romans 3:23, 6:23) of shortcomings.  This is the gospel message of divine rest in the work of God from the beginning of creation and through the fall of man into sin until He sent His Son to redeem us from the curse of sin’s disobedience and disbelief.  The day of rest is before us as Hebrews 4:9-10 tell us.  We find this rest in Christ alone by faith alone in His work for us and not our efforts of our own fallible works.