The seven days of creation

Genesis 1 sets out God’s creative acts in two parallel parts:

• In days 1–3, God established the spaces where his kingdom operates.
• In days 4–6, God filled those spaces with what belongs there.

Jewish commentator Nahum Sarna summarizes it like this:

Day	Group I: The Resource Creative Act	Day	Group II: The Utilizer Creative Act
1	Light	4	The luminaries
2	Sky, leaving terrestrial waters	5	Fish and fowl
3	Dry land Vegetation (lowest form of organic life)	6	Land creatures Humankind (highest form of organic life)

With the spaces arranged and filled so that everything is in order, God rests. In the story that follows, things to wrong that require God’s intervention, so God is not at rest anymore (compare John 5:16–17), until his promise of rest for creation is fulfilled (Hebrews 4:1-11).

It follows that we’re better to read the creation week as part of a bigger story. It’s not an account of matter coming into existence and clumping into galaxies and living things all in one literal earthly week; it’s the story of God giving form and function to a world that would be formless and void — lacking shape and significance if not for our heavenly sovereign’s decrees.

The seven-day week was already in use in the Ancient Near East, but the notion of God resting on the seventh day was unique to Judaism. Sarna explains:

This seven-day typology is widely attested in the ancient world. As early as the twenty-second century B.C.E., King Gudea of Lagash, in southern Mesopotamia, dedicated a temple with a seven-day feast. The literatures of Mesopotamia and Ugarit are replete with examples of seven-day units of time. Most common is a state of affairs that lasts for six days with a climactic change taking place on the seventh. While the Creation narrative conforms to this literary convention, it is unique in that a different action occurs each day, with no activity at all on the seventh.
— Nahum Sarna, The JPS Torah Commentary (Jewish Publication Society, 1989).

The chapter break after Genesis 1:31 is unfortunate. The seven-day story doesn’t end until three verses later:

Genesis 2:1-3 (NIV)
¹ Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. ² By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

For Israel, the seventh day was holy, meaning set aside, devoted. In the Jewish Law (Torah), the Sabbath was devoted to rest, set aside from other days (Exodus 20:8-11). God never gave this law to the nations, so Christians are not required to keep Israel’s laws (Acts 15:28-29).

But Israel’s laws still reveal something about God, so what does the Sabbath reveal? Like the other days of creation, the Sabbath is a comment on the generosity of God.

God provides everything: habitats for all his creatures, meaningful work, fruitfulness, and food to eat (1:28-29). And God’s abundant provision means we do not need to work seven days a week. God is not a slavedriver. The Lord is not like Pharaoh, forcing the people to serve him, accusing them of being lazy if they wanted time off (Exodus 5:8, 17).

But the Sabbath was far more than individuals having time off. Everyone rested together, so they could all enjoy each other in family and community. They stopped work to experience the presence of God in his people.

So if you’re driven to work seven days a week, you’re probably serving a god named Dollar. Open your eyes to the Father who provides for all creatures. Instead of seeking to accumulate resources for the self, seek first his kingdom and his justice. Together, we discover the Father who provides for us all (Matthew 6:24-33).

Rest is not a law for us. It’s a blessing.

What others are saying

John H. Walton, Genesis, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2001), 65:

Genesis 1 is a simple but majestic account of God’s bringing order to the cosmos. The literary balance between days 1–3 and days 4–6 results in highlighting day 7 as the climactic moment, when God takes up his residence and history begins under his exclusive sovereignty. Disdaining the myth-laden concepts of the ancient world and disregarding any attempt at scientific sophistication either ancient or modern, the text charts a course of theological affirmation that results in a picture of an ordered, purposeful cosmos with God at the helm, masterfully guiding its course. The cosmos functions just as it was designed to function—it was good. People are portrayed as the pinnacle of creation, endowed with dignity as those made in the image of the Creator. They are made in order to serve God, not as slaves but as partners, whom he delegates to do his work in the world. They enjoy his favor (blessing), and he provides what they need (food).

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