Why Does God rest on the seventh day?
Does God need rest or not?
Why not let God provide the answer for
us. Its clearly spelled out in the
text - No interpretation is needed!
The Text reads
“And on the seventh day God finished
His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day
from all his work which He had made” Gen.2:2
Here is
the Hebrew text 
Have a look at God’s footnote contained in this text. It
explains the reason why God rested on the seventh day.
Its clearly spelled out in the text when the text is
aligned just a little differently
That God should clear this up is
a good thing since readers have been stumbling over this text
for millennia.
They ask, ‘How is it possible for God to need
rest since He is all powerful’?
The most common explanation scholars offer is:
the word ‘Sabbath’ has been
incorrectly translated to mean to rest as if from tiredness. Of this Hebrew word ‘’, some
Rabbis have said,
….Sabbath…,”would be better translated as, ‘to stop
or cease’, Furthermore, this odd term used in Gen. 2:2 is an
anthropomorphism intended to help the reader understand God’s
cessation from the act of creation. The very idea that He
needed rest is, of course, absurd. God never tires because He
is All-powerful”.
Such
reasoning only underscores the fact that ‘opinion’ is the only
criteria by which ‘scholars’ analyze this problematic text.
They don’t offer answers they offer opinions disguised as
answers. They have not successfully explained why God rested
from His work. Also, they have not addressed the fact that in
most places, including
the Ten Commandments, wherever the term, ‘Sabbath’, is found in
the scripture, it does in fact have something to do with resting
due to ‘fatigue’.
So we have a solution to our theological conundrum. Does God need
rest or not?
Can
anything be more clear than this? God rested on the seventh day
because He, “… was weary”. Hopefully the reader is stunned to
see this. It’s so clear and to the point. How much
interpretation is needed? None.
The
Hebrew word operative in this text is “ la ha –
להה” and it means ‘to
languish or faint’. Used only twice in scripture, Gen 47:13 and
Prov.26:18, ‘la ha’ conveys a strong sense of languishing or
even passing out due to exhaustion due to a frenzy of activity.
It is an intense verb which clearly in this case expresses the
idea that in some mysterious and unfathomable way God tires; He
is utterly spent. Obviously, this flies in the face of
traditional theology which would prefer to translate Gen.2:2 to
mean God desisted from the act of creating
rather than to ascribe to Him a characteristic
which we share as humans. They find this 'rest
idea' threatening even though the scripture
teaches us we were created ‘in His Image after His Likeness’.
Here’s a new angle to things, we tire because He
tires. Rather than appending to God characteristics of humankind
it is He Who appends to us characteristics of divinity, i.e., a
reversal on the word, anthropomorphism.
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