Proclaim It Good

On the seventh day of Creation, we’re told that God rested. But what does that mean?

God wasn’t exhausted. He didn’t work up a sweat. He could have created every day for millions of years and never repeated himself. Every day another new creation.

Mark Twain is said to have made this wry observation about creation: “Man was made at the end of the week’s work, when God was tired.” That says more about humanity than God. It’s funny, but the part about God isn’t accurate. Isaiah reminds us:

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
(Isaiah 40:28–29 NIV)

God doesn’t grow weary. He wasn’t tired. He has the same full strength after the days of creation that he had before he began. And has endless reserves of strength and power to give to anyone who needs it.

But he did treat the seventh day uniquely.

I believe God was taking time to savor his creativity and to model for us what our rhythm of work, worship, and restoration should look like.

Here’s perhaps a better way to understand it: God took in all that he had made. He fully saw it. He enjoyed it. He stopped doing more, at least momentarily, to experience it. He was completely content and pleased with the magnificence of what he’d done.

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. (Genesis 2:3 NIV) He blessed it. He made it holy. He paused from creating. And he proclaimed it good as he savored his creation.

Let’s follow his example by taking time to pause and savor what we made with God. When we see it as God does, we can proclaim it good rather than just call it done.

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