Genesis 2 introduces us to a series of “firsts” that are important to us if we want to build our lives according to the basics God has put into His universe.

The first Sabbath (Gen. 2:1-3)

The word “Sabbath” isn’t found in this paragraph, but Moses is writing about the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. The phrase “seventh day” is mentioned three times in verses 2-3. “Sabbath” comes from a Hebrew word shabbat that means “to cease working, to rest” and is related to the Hebrew word for “seven.”

We need to consider three different Sabbaths found in the Bible.

The personal Sabbath of the Lord God (vv. 1-4). This first Sabbath didn’t take place because God was tired from all His creative work, because God doesn’t get weary (Isa. 40:28). God set apart the seventh day because His work of creation was finished and He was pleased and satisfied with what He had created. “And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31).

Three things are distinctive about this seventh day of the creation week.

First, there’s no mention of “evening and morning,” suggesting that God’s Sabbath rest would have no end. Unfortunately, man’s sin interrupted God’s rest; and God had to search for Adam and Eve and deal with them (3:8-9, and see John 5:9, 17).

Second, there’s no record that He blessed any of the other six days, but God did bless the seventh day (Gen. 2:3). In blessing it, He made it a blessing.

Third, after blessing the seventh day, God sanctified it (v. 3), which means He set it apart for His own special purposes.

Jehovah is the God of time as well as the Lord of eternity. It was He who created time and established the rotation of the planets and their orbits around the sun. It was He who marked out the seven-day week and set aside one day for Himself.

Every living thing that God has created lives a day at a time except humans made in God’s image! People rush around in the frantic “rat race” of life, always planning to rest but never seeming to fulfill their plan.

It has been said that most people in our world are being “crucified between two thieves”: the regrets of yesterday and the worries about tomorrow. That’s why they can’t enjoy today.

Relying on modern means of transportation and communication, we try to live two or three days at a time, only to run headlong against the creation cycle of the universe; and the results are painful and often disastrous.

A famous Chinese scholar came to America to lecture and during the course of his tour was met at a busy metropolitan railway station by his university host. “If we run quickly, we can catch the next train and save ourselves three minutes,” said the host. The scholar quietly asked, “And what significant thing shall we do with the three minutes that we save by running?” A good question that could not be answered.

Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden over a century ago, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” I wonder what he’d say if he saw the frantic people running up and down escalators in our airline terminals!

God had done many wonderful things during the six days of Creation, but the climax of the creation week was God’s “rest” after His work. As we shall see, God has sanctified work as well as rest, but it’s rest that seems to be the greatest need in people’s hearts today.

Augustine was correct when he wrote, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”

The national Sabbath of Israel.

There’s no mention of the Sabbath in Scripture until Exodus 16:23 when God gave the regulations to Israel about gathering the daily manna. From the way this commandment is worded, it suggests that the Jews already knew the importance of the Sabbath and were observing it as a day of rest. In giving the Sabbath to Israel, the Lord related this special day to other events in sacred history.

To begin with, when God gave Israel the Law at Mount Sinai, the Sabbath was connected with Creation (20:8-11). God was the generous Giver of all that they needed, and they must acknowledge Him by worshiping the Creator and not the creation. They were not to imitate the pagan nations around them (Rom. 1:18ff).

Moses even mentioned the weekly rest needed by servants and farm animals (Ex. 23:12), so keeping the Sabbath was a humanitarian act as well as a religious duty. The Lord commanded His people to observe every seventh year as a Sabbatical Year and every fiftieth year as a Year of Jubilee. This would permit the land to enjoy its Sabbaths and be renewed (Lev. 25).

The Sabbath was not only connected with Creation, but at the close of the giving of the Law, it was vested with special significance as a sign between Israel and Jehovah (Ex. 31:12-17; Neh. 9:13-15).

“Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you” (Ex. 31:13, nkjv).

There’s no evidence that God ever required any other nation to observe the Sabbath, because the Jews alone were the chosen people of God.

There’s a third connection between the Sabbath and the Jews. When Moses rehearsed the Law for the new generation about to enter Canaan, he connected the Sabbath Day with their deliverance from Egypt (Deut. 5:12-15). The weekly Sabbath and the annual Passover feast would both remind Israel of God’s mercy and power in freeing the nation from bondage.

Furthermore, this weekly day of rest would also be a foretaste of the rest they would enjoy in the Promised Land (Deut. 3:20; 12:10; 25:19; Josh. 22:4). God had brought them out of Egypt that He might bring them into the Promised Land to claim their inheritance (Deut. 4:37-38).

In the Book of Hebrews, this concept of a “promised rest” is applied to believers today.

The nation of Israel eventually declined spiritually and didn’t observe God’s laws, including the Sabbath law; and they were ultimately punished for their disobedience (2 Chron. 36:14-21; Ezek. 20:lff; Isa. 58:13-14; Jer. 17:19-27).

The Northern Kingdom of Israel was swallowed up by Assyria, and the Southern Kingdom of Judah was taken into captivity by Babylon.

By the time of the ministry of Jesus, the scribes and Pharisees had added their traditions to God’s Word and turned the Law in general and the Sabbath in particular into religious bondage.

The few prohibitions found in Moses (Ex. 16:29; 35:2-3; Num. 15:32-36) were expanded into numerous regulations.

Jesus, however, rejected their traditions and even performed miracles on the Sabbath! He said, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).

The spiritual Sabbath of the Christian believer (Heb. 4:1-11).

Hebrews 4 brings together God’s creation rest (v. 4) and Israel’s Canaan rest (v. 8) to teach us about the spiritual rest that believers have in Christ (vv. 9-11).

When you trust Jesus Christ, you enter the “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17) and into His spiritual rest (Matt. 11:28-30). You also enter into the spiritual inheritance He gives all who trust Him (Acts 20:32; Eph. 1:18; Col. 1:12).

Believers are not under bondage to keep the Law (Gal. 5:1) because the Holy Spirit fulfills the righteousness of the Law in us as we yield to Him (Rom. 8:1-3).

The first Christian believers met daily for worship and fellowship (Acts 2:46), but they also gathered together on the first day of the week, the day of Christ’s resurrection from the dead (John 20:19, 26; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2).

The first day was known as “the Lord’s day” (Rev. 1:10); and to make the Lord’s Day into a “Christian Sabbath” is to confuse what these two days stand for in God’s plan of salvation.

The seventh day of the week, the Jewish Sabbath, symbolizes the old creation and the covenant of law: first you work, then you rest. The first day of the week, the Lord’s day, symbolizes the New Creation and the Covenant of Grace: first you believe in Christ and find rest, and then you work (Eph. 2:8-10).

In the New Creation, God’s Spirit enables us to make the entire week an experience of worship, praise, and service to the glory of God.

The Jewish Sabbath law was fulfilled by Christ on the cross and is no longer binding on God’s people (Gal. 4:1-11; Col. 2:16-17). However, some believers may choose to honor the Sabbath Day “as unto the Lord,” and Christians are not to judge or condemn one another in this matter.

When good and godly people disagree on matters of conscience, they must practice love and mutual acceptance and grant one another liberty (Rom. 14:1-15:7).

“Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink [the dietary laws], or regarding a festival or a new moon [the Jewish feasts] or Sabbaths” (Col. 2:16, nkjv).