Resting

We have just went through the first chapter of Genesis, and were introduced to God who existed before He created time and place (In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1). We watched as He built a foundation (heavens and earth, v.1) and then began adding to that foundation the building blocks of this habitation. He created light so that all could function and as a marker of time (God called the light day and the darkness He called night and evening and morning were the first day, v.5). On top of that, He created atmosphere so that the proceeding creation might thrive (expanse or firmament v.6) on the second day. Then He provided a place to stand and to live (Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. v.9). The next block that was laid was herbs and trees and grass (grass , the herb bearing fruit, the fruit trees v. 11) so that now there was food for the following blocks on the third day. Time now for, hmm how to tell time again? Oh thats right. He created the sun, moon and stars not simply to shed light (although that is a function the perform) for light was already here, but to be for tracking time (let them be for signs and for seasons, for days and for years. v. 14). Who is it that is to use them for such purposes?

Now He needed to create something that would use what He had built to the present so He began on the fifth day to fill creation with moving life. the water was filled with fish and whales; the air with birds according to their species(v. 21) and told them to multiply. Then dawned the sixth day and He continued to create mobile life, this time to fill the dry land. He created living creatures, beasts, and reptiles according to their species.

Finally, He created His final block of this creation, the crown of the roof one might say. He created man. What was so special about man? Well, God created man in His own image, He created a male and a female, and then God gave man dominion over all creation!! Man is the steward of all that God created. This means then that the entire creation was made to support man!

While man was the last on the list of the creation, creating Him was not the last thing God did, for Genesis 1:31 says that God surveyed creation and saw that it was good or pleasing. And to whom was it pleasing? God of course. Thus, as verse 1 of Genesis chapter 2 says, the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

After such a climactic ending to the sixth day of creating, The Creator begins the seventh day a whole new way. He rested. Does that mean that He took a day off? No, it says that ended His work that He was making and rested from that job. In other words, He stopped creating. But still He careth for the creation (Psalm 104). And as Jesus pointed out in Matthew 6:24-34 God careth for all.

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