Tag Archives: blessing

Our Creator is at rest, so we can be too

We’ve come to the end of God’s week of creation—the seventh day.[i] God has finished all that he’s wanted to make. This may sound like a dull day because nothing happens.

But this is far from the case. Everything has been leading to this day. And God’s project has a goal. This will become clear as we look at the four new factors that have not been present on the other days.

First, God rests. This is made emphatic with repetitions. He’s finished ‘all the work that he has done’. His work doesn’t need any corrections or additions. He can really rest.

We all know the agitation that festers when we’re not content with our work. This is not God’s problem. And he certainly doesn’t need a day off like we do. Rather, he’s resting with delight in all he has made.

Second, unlike all the other days, there’s no statement announcing an end to this day.

This is not a detail to overlook. The whole narrative is well thought out and carefully worded. We’re still in the seventh day!

In other words, for the duration of our human history, God rests in the rightness and adequacy of his creation. He’s not inactive of course because the Bible is full of other things he does.  In fact, he’s busy making sure we can share this kind of rest with him.

This thought is confirmed by the way the word ‘rest’ is used as the Bible story proceeds.

Noah’s name sounds like the Hebrew word for ‘rest’.[ii] His parents know the ground they plough has been cursed, and they long for rest from their painful toil.

Later on, God promises to deliver his people from slavery in Egypt, to give them a land where they can rest.[iii] Slavery, wandering and warring will be behind them and they will be free to enjoy a flourishing land.

And God pitches his tent among their tents, and eventually a temple among their houses, and he calls it his resting place,[iv] the place where Israel can meet with him and share in his rest.

Israel comes to their promised land but their rest doesn’t endure because they cease believing in their God.[v] So he appoints another day for this rest.[vi]

And it’s Jesus Christ who brings us this rest. Remember his promise? ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’[vii] Jesus is reintroducing us to the structure and atmosphere of peace established when the world was made.

This is followed up by the writer of Hebrews. He says God’s rest is still waiting for us. Finally, this will be the world to come, but he’s telling us about something we can start to enjoy now—by trusting in Christ.[viii]

It’s defined as resting from our works like God did from his. Clearly, we are meant to be busy and working usefully, but we’re not meant to be doing things that only God can do. In context, this must include trying to be our own High Priest and reconciling ourselves to God. Restfulness starts with trusting Jesus to do this.[ix]

One of Israel’s Psalms tells us it’s God who really gets things done, and that it’s useless being anxious because God can supply our needs even while we’re sleeping.[x] Jesus says the same.[xi] Fretting is forgetting that we live in God’s world, and that it’s his rest day.

All this is good news, but our desire to flow with the world, or to take the credit for our accomplishments, gets in the road. We need to put some effort into enjoying this rest![xii]

Third, the day is blessed.

A blessing is not just wishing us well. God has blessed fish and birds so they can breed. And he has blessed us so we can have families, and, so we can properly exercise authority in the world.

So, when God blesses this last day, we know that the time we spend in this world is going to be fruitful. Again, the Bible is full of encouragement to trust in the sureness of God’s blessing rather than to press our own agendas and frustrations.[xiii]

But how does this blessing relate to the curse that God has put on our ground? Clearly, our work is harder now. And there are constant difficulties and tragedies. We all feel them.  It’s easy to look at what is not working out in this world and conclude that the curse is all there is. Not true! God is ready with blessing for those who seek him. And it’s by looking for his blessing that we are enabled to live and even to overcome some of the difficulties we face.

This is what happens when we trust in Christ. Being turned away from our sins is a blessing![xiv] None of us can live truly with a load of guilt hanging around our necks. And receiving what Christ has brought to us—being holy and blameless before God for example—is a blessing.[xv]  Our humanity is restored. We know and love God. We love doing his will.

It’s then we know that we are still living in the long day that God has blessed.

And fourth, the seventh day is declared holy. It’s dedicated to God. All our history is for him.

It couldn’t be otherwise of course. He put it together, knows how it works and graciously maintains it and moves it on to its goal.

But we need time to keep this reality clear in our thinking. The pattern of God resting on his seventh day is included in the ten commandments—and in greater detail than any other command.

It’s important for us human beings to stop, like God, and to know that it is by his sovereignty that we have what we have, that it is by his blessing that we achieve what we achieve, and that the future is in his hands and not in ours.

And we need to know that God can keep his world running without us! We can rest from our labour periodically and know that God will sustain his creation.

No command is given by Jesus or the apostles about a rest day but when the resurrected Jesus meets his disciples on two successive Sundays,[xvi] the apostles know everything is different. A new creation has begun and they choose to use this day for worship, for fellowship and teaching.[xvii]

We’ve come to the end of this brief series on creation. And, from God’s point of view, he only finished making it yesterday!

We who trust in Jesus Christ have every reason to look forward to a new heavens and earth because we have the life of the new age already coursing in our souls.[xviii] And, as he has been raised, so shall we be. And the whole earth will be renewed—with no curse.

Creation will come to its goal. And on that day, we will be one with Christ as he hands this completed project back to the Father from whom it came.[xix]

So, God’s creation project is right on track.

[i] Gen. 2:1-3

[ii] Gen. 5:28-29

[iii] Exod. 33:12-17; Deut. 3:20; Josh. 23:1

[iv] Psa. 132:7f, 13f

[v] Psa. 95:6-11

[vi] Heb. 4:6-7

[vii] Matt. 11:28

[viii] Heb. 4:1-13

[ix] Sinclair Ferguson has some helpful comments on this at <ligonier.org/learn/articles/sabbath-rest>.

[x] Psa. 127

[xi] Matt. 6:25-34

[xii] Heb. 4:11

[xiii] Psa. 37 or 85 are good examples of this expectation. I may do a series on this later.

[xiv] Acts 3:26

[xv] Eph. 1:3

[xvi] John 20:1, 19, 26; 1 Cor. 16:2; Rev. 1:10

[xvii] Acts 20:7

[xviii] 2 Cor. 5:17

[xix] 1 Cor. 15:28

We need to be reassured

Some time back, I wrote several pieces about the beatitudes that Jesus pronounced—‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ and so on. I called the series ‘God’s kingdom people’.

I said the word ‘blessed’ could be better rendered ‘congratulated’.

This has been misleading. In today’s language, it suggests achievement for which we can take credit and so receive congratulations. That’s not what Jesus is talking about. He’s describing people to whom God is giving the kingdom, and so, whose lives reflect God’s glory rather than their own.

Those who are looking to Jesus for their life know what it means to be poor in spirit, to mourn for their sins, to be meek in relationships and hungry for righteousness—and so on through each of the beatitudes. These attitudes may not seem to be rewarding but Jesus is saying otherwise. Such people are ‘blessed’.

The word Jesus uses carries a note of reassurance with regard to what we have become. And this is important.

One of the reasons this is so is because the world commends and congratulates what it approves, especially things we’ve done our own way—things that show our independence of God.[i] And it also condemns and berates what is seen to depend on an unseen hand of God.

So, we need this encouragement from Jesus as he commends to us the way of living in his kingdom. He shows us how to value and to savour these different attitudes and behaviours.

We could say Jesus speaks to us in the way parents may speak to their small children, giving them encouragement for the small steps they take as they try to be like adults. And we all know how helpful it is—we may even call it a blessing—when someone commends who we are or what we have done. As a psychologist would say, they are reinforcing desirable behaviour.

You may find it helpful, as I have, to know how the Bible uses this word ‘blessing’. In fact, there are two words that our New Testament translates with ‘blessing’.

The one we are more familiar with is the blessing God sends to us through the gospel and through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are blessed (Greek eulogetos) with every spiritual blessing in Christ.[ii] This blessing, just like the blessing given to Adam when created, is a free act of God and without regard to anything we have done.

The second is the word Jesus uses when he teaches the beatitudes (Greek makarios). It is always spoken from one person to another and, mostly, with regard to what a person is or has done.[iii] In later teaching, Jesus uses the word to reassure those who see what he is saying or who remain faithful disciples. And the apostles use the word in the same way.[iv]

Old Testament vocabulary also has two words that are commonly translated as blessing.

God blesses (Heb. barak) humanity at creation. So, we enter into life enabled to be fruitful and multiply. This blessing is given without regard to anything we have done.

But God also blesses (Heb. ashre), those who trust the Lord, or obey him, or are generous to the poor.[v]

A Hebrew dictionary says the first of these words is a benediction, the latter more of a congratulation.[vi] Or, as I’m suggesting, we should see it as a reassurance or affirmation.

So, the blessing being announced in the beatitudes is a commendation of a new way of life brought about by the power of Christ’s reign—his kingdom. If you like, it is more about God’s success than ours. He’s assuring us that the outcome of our new life will be good. We are privileged now—because of what we are, and because of what we will receive later.[vii]

We should be deeply encouraged by this word from Christ. Our choice has been right. The outcome of our life will be good. We are on the right road.

And we should also be discouraged from seeking approval and congratulations from the world, or from ourselves. Human beings can’t guarantee any result or give assurance that all will be well.  Only the unseen hand of Christ’s reign can do that.

[i] Rom. 1:28

[ii] Eph. 1:3. See also Luke 24:50-51; Acts 3:26

[iii]The word ‘makarios’ is ‘blessedness from an ideal point of view in the judgement of others’ and translates the Hebrew ‘ashre’ (Carson on Matthew, p.131).

[iv] See Matt. 11:6; 13:16; 16:17; 24:46; John 20:29; Rom. 14:22; Jam. 1:12, 25. Eugene Peterson in his The Message variously renders the word as blessed (especially by Jesus), lucky, far happier, fortunate, better off, whetting our appetite, mighty fortunate, find delight and affirmation. One can understand the translation blessed because it is always God who is responsible for the good outcome. It is never an inevitable outcome of what we do, as though we could control our own destiny by our actions.

[v] Psa. 1:1; 2:12; 41:1

[vi] Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 1/80. For example Psa. 2:12.

[vii] The beatitudes ‘present this as the best way of life not only in its intrinsic goodness but in its results … The emphasis is not so much on time, present of future, as on the certainty that discipleship will not be in vain’ (R. T. France on Matthew, p. 109).