How does rest influence the seven days of creation?

Sometimes we need to take a break. And if we really need one and don't take it, God might tell us to lie down in green pastures. I've been there. Done that. And apparently, needed to do it again. And that got me to a day of rest. Actually, a time of rest. Which leads to: Was it seven days of creation? Or seven creation days? Ever since the beginning, the two things are tied together. That begs the question, how does rest influence the seven days of creation?

How does rest influence the seven days of creation? is article #1 in the series: In The Beginning. Click button to view titles for the entire series

Between the image and the idea of resting, and the title, the verses below might come to your mind.

Ps 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

Ps 23:2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

The Lord, green pastures, and quiet/still waters.

It's something that comes to me when things are anything but green and quiet and I need a break from things.

For those who may not be familiar with the 23rd Psalm, here's the whole thing.

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

Ps 23:1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

Ps 23:2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

Ps 23:3 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

Ps 23:4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

Ps 23:5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

Ps 23:6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

I still have trouble with the first part of verse 5. You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies. I don't feel a need for that. I guess it's an Old Testament thing maybe. It feels kind of embarrassing, like having a celebration to gloat over people who were my "enemies".

Sometimes God wants us to take a break

The 23rd Psalm tells us at least part of the reason for taking a break. That is, taking a break with God to be in His presence.

• he restores my soul.
• He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
• I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
• your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
• Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
• and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

That's a lot of good stuff.

Lie down in green pastures when we need to rest

Nine weeks ago I wrote It’s week three of radiation treatment – time to be thankful.

The treatments ended four weeks ago.

Believe it or not, even though I wrote that, I didn't really "do" it.

Not completely anyway.

I was thankful for how well things seemed to be going. "Seemed", because as of the time of writing this, it's still two more months before I get results on how effective the radiation was.

But, there's more to this Psalm than being thankful.

Actually, way more. And that's the part I missed.

And it's a big, even huge, part. Let's see what I mean.

Seven "days" of creation.

OK - the seven "days" of creation. Notice, I put "days" in quotes. Why? Because the Bible wasn't written in English. It was originally in Hebrew. And the Hebrew word doesn't necessarily mean it's a 24-hour day. That, and some other things in "The Beginning", indicate something very different. Something referred to in some Jewish tradition as a creation day.

For more info on the seven days of creation and the "creation day", please check out Is evolution a concept from Satan? in adjacent the inset box.

I point that out for a couple reasons.

First, I don't want to lose people who disagree with the literal 24-hour days of creation who might just leave the page if I insist on that. In fact, quite the opposite.

I do believe God could have created everything in six 24-hour days, and made it appear to be billions of years old. Even Hollywood did that in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan with the Genesis Planet.

However, given the evidence we have to draw our own conclusions, either God took billions of years to create everything in our universe, or He made the Genesis planet thing work out a whole lot better than the Star Trek people.

Either way, the point I'm after by bringing in creation is actually to look at the seventh "day". The day of rest. You may remember how that went.

The Beginning

...
Ge 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.