R & R

It is amazing to me how the Word of God convicts. I am currently working through Bruce Waltke's An Old Testament Theology, and today's section dealt with the form of the creation narrative. My intention for most of my reading was to get onto a soapbox and talk about the reasons that Christians should not get lost in a scientific debate about how God created the cosmos. I was going to borrow from Dr. H. Bruce Stokes and Dr. Nathan Lewis and talk about spheres of influence to show that science can never prove the biblical creation narrative, and the Bible does not attempt to explain itself in a scientific manner. But, I reached a point in Waltke's theology that talked about God resting on the seventh day. This launched me down the rabbit hole, and ended showing me that I have been lacking in a key spiritual discipline. So, I shall give a single quote by J. I. Packer that I think sums up my argument against trying to prove the creation narrative through science.

"Genesis 1 and 2, however, tell us who without giving many answers about how. Some today may think this is a defect; but in the long perspective of history our present-day "scientific" preoccupation with how rather than who looks very odd in itself. Rather than criticize these chapters for not feeding our secular interest, we should take from them a needed rebuke for our perverse passion for knowing Nature without regard for what matters most; namely, know Nature's creator." (Packer, I Want to Be a Christian)

That being said, a small passage in Waltke's book lead me to what I think is a greater understanding of our Creator. Waltke was discussing anthropomorphisms in our descriptions of God. For those that do not know, an anthropomorphism is giving a human trait or characteristic to something that does not have that trait. The Bible is full of anthropomorphisms because we have to use what we know and what we can see to describe God whom we cannot see. The particular anthropomorphism that Waltke touched on was that of God resting on the seventh day. God does not grow weary, but on the seventh day, he is described as resting, and Exodus 31:17 goes further to say he refreshes himself. How can this be? I believe that this anthropomorphism is here to describe the nature of God as a juxtaposition to the nature of man.

Augustine pointed out that the seventh day is the only day that is never terminated by "it was evening". This shows that the seventh day never ends, and that God is presumably still at rest. This does not mean that God is not active in the world. His hand is always present. Rather, God's rest is a state of being that is opposite to that of man. Man was once part of God's rest, but through the sin of Adam, man was separated from God's rest. Genesis 3:17-19 lays out the curse that God places on Adam. "In toil you will eat of [the ground] all the days of your life... By the sweat of your face you will eat bread..." Man's curse is to work to survive. God is separating man from His rest.

Despite this, God has a redemptive plan. He wants to bring man back to Him and lift the curse of Adam. The Bible is full of shadow and substance. Shadows are earthly images of an eternal substance. One of these shadows was the land that God promised to Abraham. The Promised Land is a shadow of the New Jerusalem where man and God will dwell together for eternity. Deuteronomy 12: 9 refers to the Promised Land this way, "for you have not yet come to the resting place and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you." In the promised land, God promises to give Israel rest from their enemies if they will follow his commands. When the Israelites disobeyed God, and were afraid to enter the promised land, God swore that they would not enter into His rest (Ps. 95: 10-11).

Ironically, the command that Israel has the most trouble following is the command to remember the sabbath. Of the ten commandments, the command to cease working on the seventh day is the longest. It sets apart the sabbath as holy. Why is this day given so much importance? When we cease from work and focus on worshipping God, we experience a shadow of what eternity will be like. We get a taste, albeit a very small taste, of what it is like to be in God's rest. God created the Sabbath so that His people could draw closer to Him and experience what he is like.

There is much debate in Christianity over whether or not we are still required to remember the sabbath. Personally, I don't understand the debate. If God prescribed a way to draw nearer to Him and experience His presence, why would you not want to do it? This is what God has convicted me of this morning. It is funny how there are famous verses in Scripture that everyone knows, but no one can remember the context of that passage. Hebrews 4:12 is the famous passage, "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart." However, what God convicted me of this morning was the context of that passage. Hebrews 4:9-11 says this, "So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience" (NASB). When you couple that with verse 12, it is clear. If the intention of your heart is to grow closer to God, you will enter into his rest by remembering the Sabbath. But, if you hear the good news preached and do not obey His commands, you will be like the Israelites that did not enter the promised land, and you will be separated from God's rest.

My prayer is always that as God speaks and convicts me, He will speak to others through me. I plan on making sure that I set aside time to enter God's rest from here on.