The Hebrew Scriptures tell the story of origins
in the book called “Genesis.” The first several chapters describe God as the
creator of cosmic, terrestrial and human life and existence. In six days God
brings the diversity of life into reality, including the creation of humanity,
man and woman, Adam and Eve. And then here’s what the account describes as
taking place next. “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their
vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so
on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day
and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he
had done.” (Genesis 2:1-3, New International Version)
Notice the rhythm of life God institutes at the
end of the creation week. It’s a weekly cycle revolving around work and rest.
God works for six days and then rests the seventh. But it’s obviously not a
seventh day rest because of the physical
exhaustion from his work week (God certainly doesn’t get tired and so need to
rest). The story describes God changing the nature of his activity from the six
days to the seventh.
One, God finishes the creative endeavor after six days. He completes His task. Two, God rests from His work. That word
translated “rest” is “Sabbath” which literally means “to stop, to cease.” In
other words, God is stopping his creative labors because they’re all done. But
he’s also stopping in order to do something else. Look at what comes next.
Three, God blesses and makes holy the seventh
day. He’s infusing something special into this final
day of the weekly cycle. In Hebrew Scriptures, whenever God is described as blessing
and making holy something, it means He is bringing His presence into it in
order to make it authentically spiritual.
So what is God doing here? He is carving out
this seventh day as a special time for spiritual encounter—a holy God comes to
His created world to bring His holiness into that life—to infuse life with
holiness, to express value in that creation by desiring to be with that
creation and bring himself into experience with that creation.
Imagine the profound paradigm here. Unlike the pagan
gods of those early cultures who create humans to serve their every whim and
fancy, who require humans to reach up to them if they want to get connected,
this God of the Genesis story creates life in an act of admiration and respect
and value and institutes a day every week to express that special purpose and
value. This story shows God coming to His creation, serving His creation with love
and compassion. It’s a monumental reversal in paradigms from the pagan culture
of its time.
In the parallel pagan story God rests because
human beings make it possible. In the Bible story it is the other way around:
human beings rest because God makes it possible. God created the seventh day as
a day of rest. In fact, the seventh day is the first full day of life for the
human beings. And what does God give them for their first full day? A day of
rest. A day to encounter God in meaningful ways. A day of sacred space because
it has been blessed and made holy by the God of creation.
The eminent Protestant theologian Karl Barth
wrote: “God’s rest day is man’s first day. Hence man’s life begins with the
gospel [the good news of grace], not the law, in freedom to celebrate with joy
the festal day of God, not with an obligation laid upon him to perform some
task, to labor and toil. Man rests before he works.” (Barth, pp. 56-57)
No comments:
Post a Comment