Did God Work on the Seventh Day?

An article in a recent issue of Bible Review begins as follows:

The first chapter of Genesis describes how God created heaven and earth and all that is therein, ending with the glorious fashioning of humankind on day six.  Then in Gene­sis 2:1, we read that "The heaven and the earth were fin­ished; and all their array."  It is a bit surprising, there­fore, to read the following statement in the very next verse:  "On the seventh day God finished the work which He had been doing" (Genesis 2:2).

If the work of creation had been completed during the first six days, what was God doing finishing His work on the seventh day?  Wasn't the seventh day supposed to be a day of rest? ¹

The article goes on to explain how this anomaly has been a source of difficulty through the ages.  Some translations, for example, the Septu­agint, the earliest known (circa 200 BC) translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into another language (Greek), reads, "And God finished on the sixth day his works. . ."  However, the received Masoretic Hebrew text definitely says it was on the seventh day.  According to ancient rabbis quoted in the Talmud, the change from "seventh" to "sixth" was intentionally introduced by the translators of the Septuagint.  One fa­mous ancient sage, Rabbi Shlomo Ben Itschak (often abbreviated to Rashi), explained it this way:  Rest was created and came into the world on the seventh day, thus completing the work of creation.  Such an im­portant thing as rest, Rashi says, could not have been in existence when God was at work--and the world was obviously not completed without it! ²

Here is a problem that I have been aware of from my earliest child­hood and one to which I have given a lot of thought.  Some years ago, the late G.T. Haywood wrote a small book outlining his own solution to this puzzle which was at that time accepted by our circle of acquain­tances. ³ Though I do not now accept the whole of his solution, I still believe that it contains a kernel of truth that can be developed into the correct solution.

Haywood proposed that the account of creation found in the first chapter of Genesis and the first three verses of chapter two is not a historical account of the creation, but is rather a plan which God was to follow.  Haywood defined the conception of this plan to be the act of creation.  God subsequently followed his plan by making everything, but making is not creating.

The second part of his solution was to recognize that God had only gotten as far as the sixth day in his making.  Haywood also believed that the days of creation, as actually realized in the making of every­thing, were not 24 hour days, but were more likely many thousands of years long.  In this, he went along with modern science, although he thought scientists had significantly exaggerated the age of the earth.

Given all this, then we must be living in the sixth day of creation and God is therefore still working, creating man in his own image.  For man as originally brought forth was, at most, an incomplete thing, and even that partial image was broken, necessitating that God make him anew.  That work is not yet finished, according to Haywood, but will be when the new heavens and the new earth are realized.  Then shall God cease from his labor and rest.  That will be the seventh day.  And God has promised that we will partake of His rest.

As I said, there is a lot of truth in Haywood's thesis, and I firmly believed it for years.  It seemed to be an elegant solution to some per­plexing problems pertaining to creation.  However, one day I read in the epistle to the Hebrews where God had already ceased from his own works (Heb. 4:10).  Because I believe the Scriptures, I knew I could no longer support Haywood's explanation in its entirety.  But how to revise it, I knew not.  I tried several ideas, some of which were too contrived; none seemed to be the complete answer.

Recently, a new insight has flashed upon me which I believe is the key to the enigma.  It preserves much of Haywood's thesis, yet is in ac­cordance with the author of Hebrews that God has already entered into his rest.

Let me begin by first establishing plausible Scriptural grounds for the first part of Haywood's thesis, namely, that the creation as outlined in Genesis 1 is actually a plan, not a history.  It is well known among scholars of the Bible that some prophecies, though written in past tense, are speaking of the future.  This is due, I understand, to a peculiarity of the Hebrew language that it contains no tenses, but two "states," perfect and imperfect.  In the perfect form, action is considered as completed, whether past or future.  In the imperfect form, the action is incomplete.  For examples of the perfect form, we might have:  "he broke," "he has broken," "he will have broken," or, as in many prophetic texts, "he will break."  An example of the imperfect form is "he is breaking."  Therefore, whether a particular prophecy is to be regarded as past, present, or future depends largely on the context and one's theology. ⁴

Hence, the first chapter of Genesis could indeed be like a prophecy in that it showed what was to happen, and not solely  narrate what did happen.  Of course, the creation already exists and Genesis 1 has, so to speak, been mostly fulfilled.  That some of it remains to be fulfilled, however, we shall discuss shortly.

Now for some Scriptural references.  Isaiah wrote,

". . .I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure" (46:9,10).

To which the apostles agree.  For example, Paul paraphrased the above Scripture: ". . .God. . .calleth those things which be not as though they were" (Rom. 4:17).  James said simply, "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world" (Acts 15:18).  And Peter said Christ "was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you" (1 Pet.1:20).  Finally, the au­thor of the epistle to the Hebrews noticed the puzzling statement in Psalm 95:11, where apparently God intended for man to enter into His rest, implying that His day of rest was still in the future.  The writer adds "although the works were finished from the foundation of the world" (Heb. 4:3).

These references definitely open up the possibility that God did in­deed outline his creation plan before he began working to bring it to pass.  Let us assume this is the case.  Since mankind exists, we also know that God has completed the largest portion of it.  But has he fin­ished his work?  When, actually, did the seventh day begin?  That is the question.  The author of Hebrews implies that the seventh day has already begun when he says that "God rested", and I must accept that.  He also implies that the seventh day is still with us, for there remains a future participation in it by the faithful.

I introduce here another quotation from Isaiah:

For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.  And the Gentiles shall see thy righ­teousness, and all kings thy glory.  .  .  .

I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth (Isa. 62:1,2,6,7).

Aha!  So the Lord urges his people to not let him take his rest until he perfects righteousness in the earth.  The Christian scholar will rec­ognize this passage as one of the famous Messianic prophecies concern­ing Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  He indeed is the righteousness that went forth as brightness and salvation as a lamp that burns.  He is the light that the Gentiles have seen.  Has Jerusalem therefore been made a praise in the earth?  Well, if you are talking about the literal city that now stands in the land of Israel, the answer can only be no.  But, ac­cording to New Testament thinking, a "new Jerusalem" has supplanted the old city in God's plan and it is, or will be, truly a praise in the earth.  Of course, the wicked do not yet praise it, though we are told that day is coming.

But I digress.  The important thing to notice is that God would not permit himself to rest until Jesus Christ was sent to bring both righ­teousness and salvation to the earth.  Two solutions could be postulated:  The sixth day was not completed until "righteousness has gone forth as the brightness and salvation as a lamp that burns."  As­suming that was fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth, then the sixth day did not end until his resurrection.  I long held to this solution.

The other possibility is that the sixth day ended with the physical creation of Adam and Eve, followed immediately by the beginning of the seventh day.  But God couldn't begin his rest for he had to work out a plan to bring salvation to a fallen creation.  This is the correct answer, as we shall endeavor to demonstrate.

We now move to the New Testament.  In the gospel of John, Jesus of­ten made the claim that he had come to finish the works of the Father.  Here are two such references:

But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.  (John 5:17)

Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.  (John 4:34)

"My Father worketh hitherto. . . ."  Here is a direct statement that God was still working during the ministry of Jesus.  What was he doing?

To answer this we must look at what his Son was doing.  For Jesus claimed that he only did what he saw the Father doing:

. . .the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.  (John 5:19-20)

. . .the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.  (John 14:10)

. . .for my Father is greater than I.  (John 14:28)

An example of the kind of works that Jesus did in the name of his Father is found in John 9 where we read how Jesus healed a man born blind.  When his disciples asked him whose sin it was, his or his par­ents, for which he was born blind,

Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his par­ents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.  (John 9:3-5)

Then Jesus anointed the man's eyes with clay and commanded him to wash in the pool of Siloam.  The man obeyed and was healed.  This inci­dent is noteworthy in that we see the Father, through Jesus, literally completing an imperfect human being.  I gather from the way it reads that the man's eyes were either missing or greatly atrophied.  When Je­sus healed him, his body was "finished" with a new pair of eyes.  As my own father pointed out many years ago, the clay with which Jesus anointed this man's eyes became living flesh, thus duplicating in minia­ture the original creation of Adam out of clay.

This miracle thus signifies that God is "finishing" that which he started, namely, mankind.  For man is incomplete as he stands outside of Christ.  He lacks immortality, wisdom, and righteousness, all of which are necessary for him to be the image of God.  Furthermore, man is hungry, sick, blind, and naked, both physically and spiritually.  He is in dire need of help.

As we study the miracles of Jesus, we are struck by the fact that, in general, his works were limited to feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and raising the dead.  His works were directed to the sick and deterio­rating condition of man.  We also must note that the days of Jesus' ministry was very short, variously estimated at between one and four years.

There is a passage in Isaiah, cited by Paul, to the effect that the Lord would "finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness; because the Lord will make a short work in all the world" (Isa. 10:23, Septu­agint, cited Rom. 9:28).  The "short work" aptly describes Jesus' short ministry.  In light of these Scriptures, we can say that up until the days of Jesus' ministry the Father was working, not resting, and that when Jesus came, he became intimately involved in his Father's work.  Jesus said plainly that he came to "finish" it.  Just what did he mean by that?

In the garden on the night of his arrest, and knowing the hour of the evil one had come, Jesus prayed:

I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.  (John 17:4)

A few hours later, Jesus was crucified.  His last words, just before he died, were, "It is finished" (John 19:30).

As Christians of all denominations believe, it was God's plan of salva­tion that was finished.  The price of our redemption had been paid.  It was now possible for men everywhere to obtain eternal life by calling upon the name of the Son of God.  The unfinished man could now find his completion in Christ--"And ye are complete in him. . ."(Col. 2:10); for Christ is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30).

Was God then finished with his work that afternoon that Jesus died upon the cross?  Almost.  There was one thing yet remaining.  Jesus himself said that one of the works of the Father was raising up the dead (John 5:21).  Three days later, God raised him from the dead.  Shortly after, Jesus ascended into heaven, where he now sits on the throne with his Father.

We may now place the time when God actually began "resting" as the resurrection of Jesus.  With the enthronement of Jesus Christ as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, whose throne is above the highest heavens, where he sits as our Great Intercessor and High Priest inter­ceding for our sins, God's work is complete.  Any work remaining to be done will be done by Jesus Christ and his servants.  But I anticipate.

Let us return to the Genesis account of creation.  Genesis 1:31 says that God saw every thing that he had made, and it was very good.  In light of the fact that Adam's sin and disobedience resulted in mankind being the victim of every conceivable evil since the world began, how can we say that it is a very good thing?  How can it be good, let alone very good?

It wasn't--at that time.  And it still isn't.  But in God's foreknowl­edge, it was very good, for he knew that he could salvage what was lost.  He had a plan to remedy the situation: he had a "lamb" already foreordained to be slain for our salvation (1 Pet. 1:20).  He began at once to work out that plan.

But wait! I can hear you say.  Wasn't it his Sabbath?  How could he violate his own Sabbath?  Surely, you must be wrong.  To answer that, let us examine one of the good works of Jesus recorded in the New Testament:

And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infir­mity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immedi­ately she was made straight, and glorified God.

And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.

The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?  (Luke 13:11-16)

Let us consider, in light of some of the foregoing Scriptural quota­tions, what has happened here.  Jesus was only doing what he saw the Father doing.  If he healed a woman on the Sabbath, it was only be­cause the Father was healing Adam on the Sabbath.  If Jesus was rais­ing up a woman who was bound by Satan and could not "lift up her­self," it was only because the Father was raising up the human race, also bound by Satan, and unable to "lift up itself" to its rightful place of dominion.  If the Son of God could do good on the Sabbath, and if we are permitted to do good on the Sabbath such as caring for helpless livestock, why could not God the Father do good on His Sabbath by caring for helpless man?   That is precisely the point.

Let me say it again.  Jesus flatly declared that it is permissible to do good on the sabbath (Matt. 12:12 and related references).  Jesus' act of healing on the sabbath was his way of saying the Father so loved us that, though his Sabbath had begun, he postponed taking his rest until he had provided for our salvation--which surely is a far more important thing than tending to the needs of an ox or an ass.  Jesus carefully and clearly enunciated--and illustrated not once but many times--a great principle, a principle that the rulers had ignored, namely, that it is all right to do good works on the sabbath, for sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.

Jesus also said that he was the Lord of the sabbath (Matt. 12:8).  As Lord, he can do whatever he pleases on the Sabbath of rest.  This does not mean that God is arbitrary and whimsical, not guided by any princi­ples at all, nor that he would violate a principle he had already estab­lished, but he carefully weighs the worth of an action or a deed.  That which ultimately brings forth the most good is that which he performs, even if superficially it seems to violate some other ordinance.  When I say seems to violate, I mean that it appeared to be so to the Jew.  I don't think it was a violation of the sabbath for Jesus to heal on that day (he said it wasn't).  By the same token, neither was it a violation for God to forego his own rest, working ceaselessly on his own Sabbath to perfect a plan to save his creation from total destruction.

As I have indicated, God began resting only after he had perfected one man (Jesus) and exalted him to be the King over the works of his hands.  When Jesus was enthroned, God took up his dwelling in him and began to rest.  Whatever work remains to be done is being done by Je­sus and his servants.  Let us follow this thought just a bit farther.

We read in Genesis 1 that man was to be ruler over all that God had made.  It appears that God intended for Adam and his children to take charge of the creation, and whatever work was to be done, they would do it while God rested.  Adam was to "dress and keep" the garden, which he could not do without working.  He was to "subdue" the cre­ation.  In short, Adam was to be king.  But, alas, it didn't turn out that way.

After the fall, instead of man being the king, Satan became the king.  Instead of man subduing, he was subdued.  God's masterpiece, that for which everything else was created, ⁵ was destined for destruction.

Though it was time for God to rest, he had nowhere to rest.

Do you mean to tell me that the great God almighty had no place to rest?  Yes, I mean that.  It is a subtle point and perhaps shocking, but I am prepared to support it.  Let me refer again to Hebrews.  The author cites from Psalm 8:4-6:

But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?  Thou madest him a little lower than the an­gels; thou crowndedst him with glory and honour, and dist set him over the works of thy hands:  thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.

Then he comments upon this passage:

For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him.  But now we see not yet all things put under him.

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the an­gels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man (Heb. 2:6-9)

That is, though man is slated for kingship, he has not in general made it yet, as anyone can see, ⁶ for not all things (death, for instance) has yet been put under his feet.  Only one man, namely, Jesus Christ, has actually been exalted to that supreme position.  It is no wonder that Paul likened Jesus to a "second Adam."  What God had intended for Adam to accomplish was accomplished in fact by Jesus.

To repeat, when God designed his creation, he had planned to give the reigns to his son, Adam (Luke 3:38 declares that Adam was the son of God).  Adam was to subdue the creation to his own ends; he was to dress and to keep the garden.  While the human race worked, ⁷ God would have rested.  It seems credible to me that God intended to dwell in Adam and the human race.  That would have been his place of rest, his dwelling place forever.  Paul explains that we are God's temple, for God desires to dwell in his people and walk in them.  Originally, how­ever, because of man's defilement, the Lord could not take immediate possession of his house (we might ask, who did?  See Matt. 12:43-45).  Therefore, it was necessary, if God were to rest, that he either build himself a new house, or clean up the old one.  New Testament theology combines these two ideas into one:  the process of cleaning up man has made him into a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17).

Which brings us to the idea of a "house" for God."  The pagans around Israel built temples in which to house the images of their gods.  They regarded those temples as the houses in which their god(s) rested.  Israel likewise built a temple for their God but they were explicitly commanded that no graven image was to be placed therein.  Though they believed that God at times met them in the temple, they did not believe (at least, at first) that it was literally his house.  For example, King Solomon, who built the first temple, said in his dedicatory prayer,

The Lord said that he would dwell in thick darkness.  I have surely built thee an house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in for ever. . . .But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded? (1 Kings 8:12,13,27)

Then Solomon requested of the Lord that at least his eyes be open toward this house night and day, and that when his people turned to­ward it in prayer, the Lord would hearken, and that regardless of the sins of his people, should they turn to the temple in repentance and supplication, God would hear and forgive.

Thereafter, God met the high priest annually to accept the atonement sacrifice and to forgive the nation for their sins of the past year.  The temple remained empty of any images (except when Israel sinned by be­coming idolatrous), for God intended to supply that image himself when the time came.

We also read,

For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eter­nity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones (Isa. 57:15).

Jesus was meek and lowly.  He said that the Father dwelt within him.  He is "the brightness of [God's] glory, and the express image of his person" (Heb. 1:3).  Jesus is also the temple of God (John 2:19-21).  And Paul tells us that now the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Jesus bodily (Col. 2:9).  Putting all this together, we see Jesus, now exalted far above all things (that he might fill all things) is the "throne" in which God is resting.  One can consider Jesus to be either the image in which God dwells, similar in thought to the pagan notion that the spirit of their gods dwelt in the images they carved for them, or that Jesus is the temple in which God dwells, the house of God.

We can arrive at the same conclusion from another direction and ac­quire some details that round out the picture.  To do this, we must turn to Psalm 132.  But first, a little background.

When King David took the throne of Israel, he had many enemies to fight. Israel was surrounded by hostile neighbors, the Philistines and many Canaanitish tribes.  At last, he conquered these tribes and turned his attention to other things.  It is written in 2 Samuel 7,

And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his ene­mies; that the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth with curtains.

And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the Lord is with thee (2 Sam. 7:1-3)

David conceived the notion that it wasn't proper for himself to dwell in a house superior to that of the Lord.  Heretofore, God had dwelt in a mere tent that had been carried about from place to place, following the wanderings of the Israelites.  It was time for God to acquire a perma­nent home, like David, so he could rest.  David proposed building a better place for the ark of the covenant to dwell.

As the story relates, the Lord, through Nathan, expressed his great satisfaction with David's intention.  However, because David was a man of war, God would not permit him to build the temple, though David could collect materials for its construction.  The actual construction was assigned to David's son, Solomon.  There was something else that the Lord told David, however, and it was something that greatly intrigued him.

The Lord was going to appoint for his people Israel a place of their own in which they would dwell forever.  Neither would the wicked afflict them again.  Then, almost as an afterthought, Nathan added,

"Also the Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house.  And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.  He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom forever. . . . And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever" (2 Sam. 7: 11-16).

The Lord had given David "rest" from his enemies.  Or, we might use the word "sabbatical," a period of time granted to an employee (as a college professor) every so often for rest, travel, or research.  Instead of resting, however, David became interested in building a house for the Lord to dwell in that was at least as good as his own.  But the Lord turned it around: he would be building a house for David that would involve one of his sons in some future time, a son that would bring permanent peace and rest to the whole nation of Israel.

To see why this startled David, we must understand what the Semites meant by "building a house."  They did not mean simply constructing a material building of rocks and lumber.  They really meant founding a progeny, a line of descendants.  For example, we read that Rachel and Leah built the house of Israel (Ruth 4:11).  David understood that God's offer, then, was to establish for him a line of children, one of whom would be the Messiah who would in turn "build the house of the Lord."

And we know who that was:  Jesus Christ, who said he would build his church.  Though Solomon thought he was that prophesied one when he built the first temple, what he built was only a type of the true building of God (Heb. 8:2).  The church is the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15) and Christ is a son over his own house, whose house are we (Heb. 3:6).

We can now state that God is resting in Christ Jesus, who, as the second Adam, has taken over the labor of caring for the kingdom, building (the church), planting, watering, and harvesting.

Furthermore, we are laborers together with Christ (2 Cor. 6:1).  We are instructed to be zealous of good works (read the whole of Titus).  For, even though it is the seventh day, the day of God's rest, it is en­tirely acceptable to do good works on the sabbath.  If we are faithful in our labor, we too shall enter into God's rest (Heb. 4:9-11).

Now let us turn to Psalm 132.  Rather than quote the whole Psalm, however, which is too long to be included here, I will simply paraphrase it, quoting verbatim only where absolutely necessary.

The Psalm contains a parallelism that we shall discuss shortly.  He­brew poetry uses the idea of parallelism almost exclusively as its poetic "device."  There is no rhyme and no metrical rhythm such as charac­terizes the poetry of the Western nations (though I understand that in the original Hebrew tongue it does exhibit considerable rhythm).  Its main device to achieve the poetic voice is the parallel construction.  This is best exhibited in individual statements, where the second half of the sentence echoes, or sometimes opposes, the first half with a slightly different wording.  A good example occurs in one of the verses we are examining, Psalm 8:4:  "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?"  The second half repeats the idea of God's great concern for the human race expressed in the first half, but in different terms.  Another parallel, or rather, an anti-paral­lel,  occurs in the very next verse:  "For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and with honor."  Here, the second half, the crowning of man, is in direct con­trast to the first half which reflects man's subordinate position in the universe.

These parallels, and they occur very frequently in the prophetic writings, often extend beyond the single sentence to whole chapters, to larger sections of books, or even between the books themselves.⁸ They are quite useful in determining a prophet's meaning of very obscure metaphors, similes, and other figures of speech that form a large portion of the prophetic literature.  Such is the case in this Psalm.

David begins by reminding the Lord how he had proposed to build a better house for the mighty God of Jacob.  We recall, from the account in the book of Kings, that God had given David "rest" from warring with the native tribes of Canaan.  But David refused to "rest," to sit back and become complacent--here is how he put it:

Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob (Psa. 132:3-5).

Then, in anticipation of that temple he proposed to construct, David says,

Arise, O Lord, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength.  Let thy priest be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy (Psa. 132:8-9).

Then David recalls the Lord's promise to him that of the fruit of his body would he set upon David's throne (v. 11).  If David's children also kept the covenant, they would also sit upon his throne for evermore.  Then,

For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation.  This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.

Then follows a blessing upon Israel's priests and saints and the promise of retribution on David's enemies.

What we can readily see here is:  the true house of God is the godly people, his chosen and elect, who keep his covenant and his testimony.  Collectively, this body, or congregation, is called Zion.  Zion is the place of God's habitation, and the place of his rest.

The parallel is this:  David, thinking to build a literal stones-and-mortar building as a place where God could rest from his wanderings in the wilderness in the tabernacle of Moses, was given to know that, though God appreciated his offer very much indeed, he had something far grander in mind.  God himself would build his own house, and, won­der of wonders, that house would be made of people who honored and obeyed him.  As Peter said, "living stones."  Evidently, such a house either did not yet exist, or was only partially built.  David importunes the Lord to "arise into thy rest."  For he knew that God had chosen Zion as his resting place.

Of course, when God finished making man in the beginning, Zion did not exist, at least for very long.  Adam and Eve could have been the foundation for that house, but their disobedience defiled them to such an extent that God was deprived of his "house."  He could not yet rest from his labors.  Therefore, even though the seventh day had arrived when he should have been resting, he had to work to either construct another house, or cleanse the defiled one.  As I indicated above, he did both:  for by the very process of cleansing the old habitation, he cre­ated a new one.

The parallelism then consists of the following:  Even though the time had come for David to rest, he would not take advantage of his author­ity to do so until he had built a house "of rest" for the Lord.  Like­wise, the time had come for God to rest; yet, like David, he eschewed the pleasure of resting, choosing rather to build David "a house of rest," where not only would David and Israel rest in peace forever, but the Lord would too.

Christian theology has long held that God intends to create a new heavens and a new earth.  For example, here is what the Lord said through the prophet Isaiah (and alluded to by Peter):

For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind.  But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, be­hold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy (Isa. 65:17,18).

The apostle John wrote in the Apocalypse,

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. . ." (Rev. 21:5)

That being the case, when will (or did) God create and make all things new?  Let us again return to the Genesis account of creation.  Moses ends the account with the following statement:

These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field be­fore it grew. . . " (Gen 2:4,5)

Once more we see that the whole thing was created before anything ex­isted--another verification of Haywood's thesis.

Here we have another term for the days of creation: "generations."  As a matter of fact, the word "genesis" is closely related to this word.  Compare it, however, with the word "regeneration," that occurs exactly twice, both times in the New Testament.  Jesus told his twelve,

. . .Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt. 19:28).

And, the only other place it occurs is in a statement by Paul explaining the grace of God in saving us:

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but ac­cording to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regen­eration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:5-7).

Another of Paul's statements:

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into his death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life.  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  For he that is dead is freed from sin" (Rom. 6:4-7)

Paul explains that if one is dead with Christ, he shall also live with him and that death will have no more dominion over that one.

In the original generations of the heavens and the earth, God's pur­pose was to make man in his image and "likeness" and for him to have dominion over all things.  But because of Adam's sin, man lost his do­minion and was placed under the curse of death.  Paul is therefore saying that, if we are baptized with Christ (the "washing [laver] of re­generation" in Titus), we have been buried like one dead.  Indeed, God counts it as though we had died, although it was Christ who actually paid that penalty, he who "tasted death for all men."  Therefore, we shall be renewed by the Holy Ghost to walk in the newness of life.  And afterwards, we shall be raised from the dead to die no more, being in the "likeness" of his resurrection.  When that happens, we shall at last have "dominion."  From being made "a little lower than the angels," we shall be exalted to the very throne of Christ (Rev. 3:21).  We, the church,  are that "new creation." We are also "a chosen generation" (1 Pet.2:9), and this day, the day of salvation, is the "regeneration" when all things are being made new.   Paul himself said that "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17).

Therefore, we may safely conclude that even now the new heavens and the new earth are being prepared.  That is, the redeemed souls, who keep God's commandments, constitute a new creation and a new man who will eventually obtain what the first man failed to obtain: dominion over all things, including death itself.

As I close out this essay, I wish to once more refer to the Genesis account:  it reads that God created man in his image, after his likeness, and commanded him to subdue the earth.  Paul makes the following statement:

For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:  who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself (Phil. 3:20-21).

It will only be in the resurrection, when we arise in that glorious new body "like" the one Jesus now has, that we shall be created "after his likeness"; it will only be then that we will be able to "subdue" all things unto ourselves.  It will only be then that we shall have "dominion."  It will only be then that the creation, as originally in­tended, will be finished.  At that time, God will have turned over the whole thing to his elect people to rule forever and ever.

Nor can I fail to note that, though the first six days consisted of an "evening" and a "morning," nothing was said about the seventh day having an evening and a morning.  The seventh day, I believe, has al­ready begun.  It will have no end.  It is that "perfect day" mentioned in Proverbs:  "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Prov. 4:18).  It is that day of which John wrote:  "And the gates of it [the holy city] shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there" (Rev. 21:25).  Or, that day that Paul foresaw when he wrote, "But when that which is perfect is come, than that which is in part shall be done away. . .For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known" (1 Cor. 13: 10, 12).  It will be the "perfect" day in which there is no darkness, no ig­norance, no misunderstanding, no evil, but all shall be light, rest, peace, quietness and assurance forever (Isa. 32:17).  The former things of this life, the sufferings, the unspeakable evil, and the works of darkness shall never be brought to mind.  That is the new creation.

In closing, I will recapitulate:  God created the physical heavens and earth in six days.  He had planned to rest, letting the man he had cre­ated run things.  In fact, from all the evidence, it appears that man himself was the house (or, perhaps, throne) of God where God would have rested.  But the sin of Adam defiled God's house.  Even though it was his Sabbath, and he should have been resting, he hesitated not to rescue his "ox" from the pit into which it had fallen, or to lead his "sheep" out to living waters to satisfy its thirst.  Jesus aptly illus­trated the principle by healing afflicted people on the sabbath,⁹ saying that it was perfectly permissible to do good on the sabbath.  He compared it with taking care of the needs of livestock who cannot fend for themselves.  The Mosaic law did not condemn a man for that kind of work on the sabbath.  How much more is God justified in taking care of the needs of mankind on his Sabbath?  The Father continued to work until "righteousness went forth as the brightness," which found its ful­fillment in Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the "light of the world."   After that, Jesus himself continued the work of the Father and finished it on the cross.  He now sits enthroned in the highest heavens and is build­ing his church, the house of God.  Eventually, God will have a place to permanently take his rest (though, in fact, even now he is "resting" in the man Christ Jesus).  The running of the universe will then be in the hands of Jesus and redeemed mankind, exactly as God intended from the start.

We may also regard the whole thing in a slightly different way.  God went about cleansing his "house," and, in Paul's doctrine, this by the washing of "regeneration," (baptism) and the renewing of the Holy Ghost (the indwelling presence of Christ and the Father). This "regeneration" is the creating anew the "generations" of the heaven and earth, which is even now (on God's rest day) taking place.

In regards to our own day, from Calvary until the final judgment, being the day of "regeneration," or the creating anew of the heavens and the earth, we say that it all began with the arrival almost 2000 years ago of Jesus Christ.  It is instructive to compare the prologue of John's gospel with Genesis 1.  Genesis is an account of the origins of the first creation.  John gives us an account of the origins of the sec­ond creation.  Both began with the creation of "light," which destroyed darkness. ¹⁰

Either way one views it, man shall have achieved at last that goal that God set for him, namely, to be both in the image and the likeness of God, and to have dominion, subduing all things unto himself.  At the moment, we see only Christ Jesus in that role who has conquered (subdued) death for himself, and is in the process of subduing it for his servants.

When we arise into that new life having a body "like" unto his most glorious body, it will then come to pass that we will have become a fin­ished man both in the image, and after the likeness, of God; we will have "entered into God's rest," as he has desired.

With David, I can say:

As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness:  I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness (Psa. 17:15).

And the Apostle John,

. . . but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2).