The following is an edited version of the lecture given on May 26th, 2006 in the series entitled "In the Beginning." Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.    (Genesis 2:1-3) On the Seventh Day God RestedGenesis chapter 1 verse 1 begins by saying that God created "the heavens" and "the earth." Then in verse 2 it says that the earth was without form and void. It is as though the narrative passes down from above to below. Then God created the firmament and divided the waters below the firmament from the waters above the firmament. He gathered the waters below the firmament into one place and made the dry land to appear, and then He planted seeds in the dry land. The seed came into being. The starting point of life can be seen continuously through this first chapter of Genesis. "Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day" (Genesis 1:3-5). Through these words, the first day of the creation is presented to us. There is a reason why we need to remember these words. It is because of the fact that there was not only this light but also darkness, and this is a theme that permeates the entire Bible, all the way through to Revelation chapter 20. Then in Revelation chapter 21, we are presented with a world in which a complete distinction is made between the light and the darkness. "Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, ... coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (Revelation 21:1-2). This is talking about the New Jerusalem. In that city there was no day and night, and the Lamb is its light (See Revelation 21:23, 25). Here we are presented with a somewhat different image from the one we find in Genesis chapter 1. We need to be sure to remember this point before we begin to study Genesis chapter 2. "God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good." It was because this light was good in God's eyes that He divided the light from the darkness. God saw that the light was good, but through Genesis chapter 1 it cannot be denied that the darkness was also there. Herein lies the secret of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that appears in Genesis chapter 2. Thus Genesis chapter 1 reveals in detail how everything was put in order during the six days of the creation. Then the events recorded in Genesis chapter 2 from verse 4 where it says, "This is the history of the heavens and the earth ..." to verse 25 are included in the six-day creation. So we cannot take Genesis chapters 1 and 2 as being completely in chronological order. First let's turn to Genesis chapter 2, verse 1.Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.  (Verses 1-3) In chapter 2, verse 1 it says, "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished." At the point when the sixth day had come to an end and the Sabbath day was about to begin, the Bible says,  " ... were finished." Jesus said something similar as He hung on the cross, didn't He? He said, "It is finished" (John 19:30). Then as Jesus hung on the cross on the day before the Sabbath day, just before He breathed His last breath, He said, "It is finished." That was just as the Sabbath day was about to begin. Is this just a coincidence? Did Moses just happen to write, "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished"? Or is there some connection between this matter and the Man by the name of Jesus who shed His blood as He was whipped and nailed to the cross? This is a matter that we clearly need to consider. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.  (Genesis 2:2) Generally, we think that God finished the work of creation in six days and we tend not to take our thoughts any further than that. Of course this is true. But here it says, "On the seventh day God ended His work which He had done." As Jesus hung on the cross and shed His blood, the sun began to set. The Sabbath Day was beginning. According to the Jewish calendar, a day begins in the evening. So according to our timing, the Sabbath day begins on Friday evening. Since the Sabbath Day was approaching and the Jews could not just leave the bodies on the crosses, they asked that the bodies be taken down, and the soldiers brought them down. Since the two thieves who had been crucified with Jesus were not dead yet, the soldiers broke the legs of these two men to speed up the process and they died. Since Jesus was already dead, however, they did not break His legs. They brought Jesus' body down from the cross and His body was wrapped in fine linen. Then His body was laid it in a tomb that had never been used before. We find this account written towards the end of John's gospels (See John 19:31-42).The significance of the Sabbath Day for us as saved Christians is a matter that we need to think about deeply. Let's turn now to Colossians chapter 2 verse 16. So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.  (Verses 16-17) This passage is saying that the Sabbath day is a shadow of a things that is to come to us some day in the future. Also in Hebrews it says, "Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest" (4:11). In that case, how are we to understand this matter of the Sabbath Day?In Genesis chapter 3 we find that God had already begun His Sabbath rest but then the man that He had created did something wrong. The man ignored the word of God and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So Adam clothed himself in a covering of fig leaves and, when he heard the sound of God walking in the garden, he hid himself. The Bible says that Adam heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden. This was the voice of God as He looked for Adam and called to him saying, "Where are you?" (See Genesis 3:8-9). In this way, God's Sabbath rest was disturbed. Through the words of the Bible, we have come to know that our sins have been forgiven through the cross of Jesus Christ. Through the blood of the cross, we have been born again. There was definitely a time when we experienced this peace in our hearts, as the hymn says, "Now it's begun within my soul ... 'Tis Heav'n my Jesus here to know" (Hymn 495). This generally, however, is the extent of our knowledge of the Sabbath Day, and we tend not to think about it any more than that. A representative example regarding the Sabbath may be found in Exodus chapter 16. This is an event that occurred amongst the Israelites about two months after they came out of Egypt. Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, "Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." Then the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not."  (Exodus 16:2-4) The Israelites had come up against such great difficulties in the course of their journey through the wilderness that they started complaining. God could have given them a few animals to eat or told them of a place where they would find a lot of fruit that they could eat, but He did not use human methods such as these. God said, "I will rain bread from heaven for you." Since God said, "from heaven," we may take this as meaning the quails that fell from the skies or the manna that came down like dew. We find that this is what happened in the passages that follow.In Psalm 119, however, it says, "Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven" (Verse 89). Then in the last chapter of Proverbs we read that the virtuous wife "brings her food from afar" (See 31:14). This virtuous woman who brings her food from afar is a shadow of the Church. Where is that far-off place? It is the place where God is. The food that comes to us from that far-off place is the secrets of the Bible, which are unraveled to us in the process of fellowship. When born-again Christians talk and act together in order to spread the gospel, God's amazing word is revealed to us. This is presented to us in advance through the image of the food that appeared before the Israelites. In the Bible it is expressed in this way: "I will rain bread from heaven for you." In the book of Deuteronomy it says, "So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD" (8:3). These are precisely the words that Jesus used to overcome the words of the devil when He was being tempted by him (See Mattew 4:4). If we think about this food that comes down from heaven, we can understand clearly that this food is the blessed word of God that has been given to us.But even though we understand this, when we then read Exodus chapter 16, we begin to become confused. Let's take a look at chapter 16, verse 5. "And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily." It says, "on the sixth day." Please be sure to keep this in mind. Now let's read from verse 17. Then the children of Israel did so and gathered, some more, some less. So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one's need. And Moses said, "Let no one leave any of it till morning." Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them.  (Exodus 16:17-20) Here we have a rather strange passage. As I was reading this, I fought with the Bible a little. God definitely said that He gave them the manna to eat so that they would know that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So how was it that when this manna that represented God's word was left until morning it went bad? Does this mean that if we read God's word too much it becomes bad for us? Of course, that won't be what it means, will it? But still I became curious as to why God expressed Himself in this way. In John chapter 2 we come across some words there that hold a very deep significance. It says, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!" (John 2:10). This is really strange. Wine is wine, so what is the inferior wine and what is the good wine? This is a matter that may easily trigger our curiosity. Through the Bible, however, we discover that blood sacrifices were offered to God, but there is a clear difference between the blood of animals and the blood of Jesus Christ. We can see this very clearly in Hebrews.In Matthew chapter 15, we find the Jews asking Jesus a question: "How can your disciples eat bread without first washing their hands? How can they transgress the tradition of the elders in that way?" To this Jesus replied, "Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?" (See verses 1-3). In the gospels we often come across scenes in which Jesus clashed with the Jews who centered their lives on Jerusalem. The apostle Paul was referring to Jews like these when he wrote, "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God" (Romans 10:3).The righteousness that these Jews sought to establish as their own righteousness was the Old Testament Scriptures. Nevertheless, they did not recognize Jesus Christ who appeared when the fullness of the time had come and spoke the words of the Old Testament in person. At that time, all of their knowledge of the Scriptures just disappeared before them and they could not see the light of Jesus' words in their lives. Instead, the power of Satan was leading them along the path to hell. However, amongst the Jews, who were waiting for the coming of the Messiah of which they had read in the Old Testament Scriptures, there were some who heard the words of Jesus Christ who came and spoke when the fullness of the time had come, and they realized that He was the Messiah. They received the tremendous blessing of receiving the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and entering into the true Sabbath rest as members of the born-again Church. Now we too, as Gentiles, have been able to join their ranks. So as I thought about all this and read this passage from Exodus, I found it all very interesting. You might easily misunderstand this verse and think it means that God's word goes bad, but this is not the case. What happened on the sixth day of the creation? "God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:27). This appears again at the end of Genesis chapter 2. Many animals were brought before Adam, but there was not found a helper comparable to him. So before "the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished," God caused a deep sleep to come upon Adam and from one of Adam's ribs He formed a woman. This scene appears to us as the image of Jesus and the Church. Just as man was created in the image of God on the sixth day, Jesus Christ was born on this earth and revealed to us in an image resembling that sixth day.Also, the words that Jesus Christ spoke allow us to see once more that the whole of the Old Testament Scriptures are the words of life and that these words that the Israelites had been obeying as commandments in fact had the power to be able to lead them to eternal life. Such were the words and actions of Jesus when He came. So the manna that the Israelites had gathered on previous days all went bad, but the manna that was gathered on the sixth day never went bad. The manna that was gathered on the sixth day would be eaten on the Sabbath Day (See Exodus 16:22-24).So through the Old Testament, we find shadows of Jesus Christ, and through the New Testament, we can see the image of the Son of God who came to this world in the flesh, and who shed His blo

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