The Seventh Day and Worship

The first thing that was called “holy” in creation was the seventh day, Genesis 2:3. It was also the third thing that God blessed (first blessing was given to the fish and the birds with the command to be fruitful and multiple, 1:22; second blessing given to man with the same command, 1:28).

The seventh day of creation was unique with the third blessing and then set apart with a characteristic exclusive for God, it was called holy. There would be many other places, people, and things called “holy” by God in the Old Testament, but the seventh day, the first one, gave meaning to the designation.

The seventh day of creation was blessed by God and called holy because God saw that what He had said, He had done, completely and perfectly. “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.”

God did not rest because He was tired, He rested because His work was completed. God works by speaking, and all that He had said in creation, was accomplished, and it was finished, and it was good. God is faithful. What He says, He does, perfectly, every time.

The seventh day revealed God’s faithfulness in creation, and it pleased Him. Rest is pleasant. Rest is a slow deep breath. More than that, rest signals completion and a transition to a new beginning. Rest is faithfulness in that what God has said, He will do, and will do again, and again. AMEN and Hallelujah!!!

God used “seven” in the Old Testament to point to the perfection of His work by His word, His faithfulness; seventh day, seventh month, seventh year, seventh cycle of years, all pointed to His work by His word to reveal that God is faithful. When man joined Him in being faithful, he (man) pleased God and was called righteous, holy, faithful. These are all characteristics of God and are good and please Him.

But the Old Testament also reveals the failure of man to be faithful. Man is seen in the OT as sinful, unfaithful and disobedient. But in the midst of man’s unfaithfulness, God promised One who would come and be perfectly faithful; His Servant, His Messiah. The OT closed with the signal that Elijah would announce His arrival (Malachi 4:5 – 6, the last two verses of the OT).

The New Testament is the record of the Life of rest, the Life of faithfulness, the Life that is pleasing to the Father, the Life of Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son. When Jesus was dying on the cross, His last words were “It is finished!” and the six days of the New Creation were completed, salvation was created in Christ!

When you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the work of salvation that He accomplished by His Life, death, and resurrection from the dead, you enter His seventh day, His rest. Joining Christ in His finished work pleases the Father because He sees Himself in you, He sees the faithfulness of His Son. This is what it means to worship the Father in spirit and truth.

Today, rest from trying to please God and see that Christ Jesus did, fully and perfectly. Rest in that truth and receive His Life as yours today. Meditate on that Life by reading one event from the gospel accounts of His Life and see yourself learning of Him in that event. For example, meditate Luke 19:1 – 10, the story of Zacchaeus.