Commentary on "In the Beginning"

COLLEEN TINKER

 

Day 2: Sunday, January 8, 2012 - Creation Week

 

Overview

Today’s lesson reviews creation week, noting that the first three days describe God forming the earth, and the last three days are parallel, describing how God filled each thing He formed. The lesson is accurate as far as it goes, and there is nothing actually “wrong” in what is said.

 

Observations

There are, however, certain assumptions that underlie some of the statements, and it is the unwritten suppositions that skew the direction of this lesson.

First, there should be no need, in a Bible study for self-proclaimed Christians, to argue about whether or not there is a God and whether or not He created the world. These facts are fully embraced by Christians everywhere, and arguments designed to convince the reader that God is real and creation is a fact are generally directed toward unbelievers. The fact that these subjects are receiving so much “play” in this week’s lesson suggests that a great many Adventists question these facts.

Moreover, it is known that there are circles of Adventists who pride themselves on their scientific immersion who do argue for evolution, and La Sierra University in Southern California has been the focus of much concern because of the fact that may of its biology teachers believe in and teach evolution. In spite of its rigid official stance on creation, Adventism is threatened on the inside by many members who question it, question the personal involvement and omnipotence of God, and suspect evolution makes more sense. This reality helps explain the almost-excessive attention to arguing in favor of God’s existence and creation.

 

Celebrating on the seventh day

Another unspoken assumption underlies the last sentence in the third paragraph:

“Finally, all was pronounced “very good” and then regally celebrated on the seventh day by God Himself (Gen. 2:1-3).”

It is true that God rested on the seventh day and blessed it. Nevertheless, there is a significant difference in the biblical account of the seventh day from the accounts of the first through the sixth days. In Genesis 1, at the end of the descriptions of the creations that occurred each day, there is this formula: “And there was evening and there was morning, the (first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth) day” (Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31).

On the seventh day, however, there is no such formula. The Bible simply says,

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. (Genesis 2:1-3 ESV)

God did not create on the seventh day. He rested on the seventh day, and He blessed and sanctified it. Moreover, God sanctified it because His work was done. The seventh day, in the Genesis account, is not described with a beginning or with an ending. The seventh day marked the end of God’s work, and since His work was done, the rest of the seventh day did not end at evening. God did not resume work on the next day. He was finished, and it was that finished work, His own ceasing and rests, which He blessed and hallowed.

Adam and Eve were created as the last thing God made in creation. They were created into His finished work, His rest. And that rest did not end at the end of the seventh day. It was continuous and unbroken. Adam and Eve were created into God’s rest, and entering His rest was the first, not the seventh, day of their lives. And it was a day that had no end.

Hebrews 3 and 4 echo this remarkable fact:

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.’ As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.’”

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said,

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

“As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest,’”

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said,

“They shall not enter my rest.”

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. (Hebrews 3:7-4:10 ESV)

Notice that the author discusses the fact that Israel did not enter God’s rest—even though they entered the Promised Land and kept the fourth commandment. This reality makes little sense from an Adventist perspective, but the fact is that the author of Hebrews is not talking about the fact that the Israelites didn’t properly keep the Sabbath and rest on that day. Not at all!

Rather, the author is saying that Israel did not enter “God’s rest”. God’s rest is when God doesn’t work; God is finished, and He has nothing more to do on our account. Israel failed to enter God’s rest—not their own rest.

Entering God’s rest occurs when we believe in the Lord Jesus and pass out of death and judgment into life:

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (John 5:24 ESV)

Hebrews 4 continues by saying that if we hear His voice “today”, we are to enter His rest. God’s rest has absolutely nothing to do with the seventh day. In fact, in verse 4:4 above the author refers to the seventh-day Sabbath vaguely: “For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: 'And God rested from all his works.’”

He then continues by quoting the Old Testament again: “They shall not enter my rest.” So God declared that Israel would not enter His rest, even though they rested on the seventh day; even though they entered the Promised Land.

But the author then says that some will enter God’s rest, and they will do so by hearing His voice. It is quite revolutionary to read this passage of Hebrews without inserting our preconceived ideas about it.

Verses 4:8-10 state unequivocally that one there is a Sabbath rest for the people of God, and this rest is reality for whomever enters God’s rest. One does not experience Sabbath rest by resting; rather, one experiences it by entering God’s rest.

And how does one enter God’s rest? By not hardening one’s heart when one hears His voice.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30 ESV)

It is when we surrender our lives to the Lord Jesus and receive His sacrifice for our sins, allowing Him to be our Lord, to have and “own” our lives, that we enter His rest.

The seventh day of Genesis 2 is a day without beginning or ending. God’s rest did not cease after He finished creating the world. His rest was continuous, and Adam and Eve were part of His rest. They were created into it. He did not ask them to rest, command them to rest, or give them any instruction about every seventh day being “set apart”.

In fact, no instruction about the seventh day was given until Exodus 16 when God gave the manna, one month before the covenant on Mt. Sinai was given.

The lesson’s statement that on the seventh day God “celebrated” His work is misleading. It deliberately uses words that echo Adventism’s treatment of the Sabbath. The Bible, however, makes no such statement. Is says simply that God rested, or ceased from His work, and that He declared this seventh day of completion to be “holy” and “blessed”. God sanctified, or set apart for Holy use, His finished work. He blessed it. His finished work was for His glory and purpose. Adam and Eve, the entire world and its new inhabitants, the entire created universe was set apart, sanctified, and blessed.

This reality is very different from God “celebrating” and making a commemorative day. Rather, God created so that His creation would be holy and sanctified to Him. Each day His work was very good, but on the seventh day, the day when He made nothing but everything was complete, He blessed His finished work. He ceased; He rested. His finished work was set apart for Him.

This finished work, this ceasing, is God’s rest…and it is this rest into which God’s people enter. They do not enter a weekly day off, a physical and emotional and spiritual time of rest; they are to enter God’s rest, not their rest.

Hebrews 4:10 explains that whoever enters God’s rest then, as a consequence of entering God’s rest, enters his own rest. One doesn’t rest and thus experience God’s rest. Rather, one trusts Him when He hears His voice TODAY, and when he has trusted, he suddenly realizes that his own work of trying to be righteous ends. God’s work has now been accomplished in him.

Finally, this lesson again ends with the statement that there are two choices: believe in evolution, or believe that God created. This is a fact, but once again, the lesson ignores the reality that there are different ways creation can be understand while remaining true to the biblical text. A literal seven-day creation is not mandated by the biblical text.

 

Summary

1. Christians all believe in the existence of God and in the fact that God created.
2. The fact that this subject is emphasized in the quarterly calls into question the true belief of the audience.
3. Many Adventists insist that the world came into being by evolution, and many question the existence of the Triune God.
4. Unspoken assumptions underlie this lesson; for example, the idea that God “celebrated” on the seventh day leads the reader to understand the the emphasis on the Adventist attitude toward the Sabbath.
5. Scripture treats the seventh day differently from all other days of the creation week. It has no beginning and no ending.
6. God ceased His work on the seventh day. It was done, complete, and He blessed and sanctified it, setting His finished work apart for Himself.
7. The seventh day was the day of completion, and that completion did not end. Adam and Eve were created into the finished work of God.
8. We enter God’s rest not by assuming the correct attitude and behavior toward the Sabbath; we enter His rest by not hardening our hearts when we hear His voice.
9. We enter His rest TODAY when we hear Him say to us, “Come unto Me, all who who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
10. When we enter His rest, only then do we experience our own rest.
11. When we receive the Lord Jesus, we receive His finished work on our behalf, and we can cease trying to be worthy.
12. God did create the world, but the length of the days and the fact that God rested on the seventh day do not mandate our keeping the seventh day.
13. God’s finished work of creation on that seventh day is parallel to Christ’s finished work on the cross. God completed His work on our behalf, and He rests, bringing us into Himself and His rest when we receive Him.

 

GO TO DAY 3

 

Copyright 2012 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised January 4, 2012. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.

The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.

 

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