In Genesis 2:2-3, God is the subject of those two verses. 10 times the word “God”, “His” or He”, referring to God, is used.
We see that a great God, who needs no rest, rested on the seventh day. The phrase “seventh day” was used 3 times. In the Bible, 3 signifies the Godhead.
The creation is referred to 3 times as well. God “made” the heavens and the earth.
The disciple is not above his [M]aster, nor the servant above his [LORD].
Mat 10:24 (KJV)
God, who is not a man that He should need rest (Num 23:20, Isa 40:28), chose to rest on the seventh day and then made a great emphasis on that choice. And while emphasizing that choice, God also reminded us 3 times that He is the Creator and 10 times that He, the Creator, is choosing to rest.
If we choose another day of rest such as Sunday, do we think we are above our Master and that we can rest on another day? Are we taking the place of the Creator?
If we choose not to rest at all, are we saying we don’t need rest? Are we calling ourselves God? In the Garden of Eden, the serpent said, “ye shall be as gods” in Gen 3:5. Are we believing that original lie to mankind?
Job 4:17 asks us a very sincere question.
Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his [M]aker?
Job 4:17 (KJV)
Shall man take the prerogative of God by implementing his own rest day?
A day that God never rested on? A day that Christ, Himself, never acknowledged as special.
Christ declares Himself the Maker by a very few short words.
For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.
Mat 12:8 (KJV)
Shall the disciple of Christ think himself better than Christ, who is LORD of the Sabbath? This means, by the way, that He is the One who created it, instituted it, rested on it and emphatically reminded us about it in Genesis 2:2-3.
He is the One who spoke the words “Remember the Sabbath” in Exodus 20:8 from the mountain reminding the Israelites that He created and instituted it during the Creation. He is the subject of Gen 2:2-3 and it’s His sabbath, not the Jews’ sabbath. His presence was so powerful that the Bible describes it as such:
And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
Exo 20:18
He was the One who died for our sins on Friday. And, after the painful and dreadful work of saving us, He said “it is finished” (John 19:30). A striking similarity to the words in Gen 2:1, “The heavens and the earth were finished.”
After the work of making it possible for you and me to live a life free from the penalty of sin, He rested on the sabbath, yet again. Reminding us that God, who is now a man but still God, chose to rest.
Are we following Christ when we choose not to rest on His day? Or are we following someone else?
And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Rev 12:17, 9
The dragon is angry with the church (woman) that keeps God’s commandments. Is he happy with the churches that break the 4th commandment by keeping another day of worship?
Instead of following our own laws we should heed the words of Christ.
“It is enough for the disciple that he be as his [M]aster, and the servant as his [LORD]…” Mat 10:25 (KJV)
It is enough for us to be as Jesus and rest like He did…. on the sabbath. It is enough to follow Him. It is spiritual suicide and idolatry not to.