It is of no small importance that Exodus grounds the Fourth Commandment upon God’s example in creation. Chantry offers this reason for referring back to creation: “God’s written fourth commandment recalls the first historic observance of the Sabbath in order to stir up our own compliance with Sabbath-keeping.” Using the text of Genesis 2 as a guide, this post will examine three creation narrative observations, followed by a discussion of whether God’s rest should be viewed as descriptive or prescriptive. First, six days of work followed by a Sabbath day of rest imitates God’s own pattern (Gen. 2:2). Ryken puts it simply: “We are called to work and rest because we serve a working and resting God.” Frame, borrowing from Meredith Kline’s work, offers three categories in which to classify the rest of God: consummation, enthronement, and consecration. God’s rest on the seventh day is the consummation of His creative work: “As a celebration of the finishing of the world-temple, the Sabbath proclaims the name of the creator to be Consummator.” The Sabbath rest of God, foreshadowing Christ’s future rest at the Father’s right hand, also demonstrates Divine enthronement: “God created the heaven and the earth to be his cosmic palace and accordingly his resting is an occupying of his palace, a royal session. The dawning of the Sabbath witnesses a new enthronement of Elohim.”
