*Scripture: Genesis 1:20--2:3 (NKJV)* 1:20 Then God said, "Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens." 21 So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." 23 So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 24 Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind"; and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." 29 And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. 30 Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food"; and it was so. 31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 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. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. * Devotion* At the end of His creative work the Triune God rests. He rests not out of necessity, but to teach us about Jesus Who is our Sabbath rest. Some mistakenly demand that we must worship on Saturdays as God commanded the Hebrews. They make the day of rest another attempt to please God with works and superficial pious attitudes. The Judaizer and one who desires righteousness by works are the same. Neither will let Jesus be our true Sabbath rest. Jesus is the only rest for our weary souls. Only by faith in Christ do we find solace and peace from a conscience attacked by guilt over sin. Only by faith in Christ do we receive repose from disputation with the devil, who seeks to lead us into further temptation, despair of God's mercy, and other great shame and vice. Only through faith in Christ Jesus are we justified before God the Father. Our sins are blotted out by Him, removed "as far as the east is from the west," (Psalm 103:12) and we receive true consolation that God is for us and not against us. As God initiated His rest on the seventh day He initiates our rest by giving us faith through the proclamation of His Gospel in Word and Sacrament, so that we know that such rest is not earned, but given, and therefore can be enjoyed for the repose it truly is.
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