![After God created man, He said, Very Good! and He rested. Man's first day on earth was not spent in working for God or doing anything to please God but man spent the day with God in His rest. Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath! [Picture credit: Mark 2:27, And He said to them, The Sabbath came into being for man, and not man for the Sabbath]](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/mark2-27-sabbath-came-into-being-for-man.jpg?resize=700%2C393&ssl=1 "After God created man, He said, Very Good! and He rested. Man's first day on earth was not spent in working for God or doing anything to please God but man spent the day with God in His rest. Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath! [Picture credit: Mark 2:27, And He said to them, The Sabbath came into being for man, and not man for the Sabbath]")
After God created man, He said, Very Good! and He rested. Man’s first day on earth was not spent in working for God or doing anything to please God but man spent the day with God in His rest. Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath!
In Exo. 31:17 it says that on the seventh day God rested and was refreshed – He didn’t only just relax, rest, but He was also refreshed! God rested on His creation, being happy with the work He has done, and He was refreshed with man as His companion!
God was a bachelor for eternity – but now He has man as His companion to fellowship with Him! For eternity, God will live a married life with us, His regenerated and transformed people, as the New Jerusalem!
Today we as believers need to not only learn to work together with God, but also to enter into God’s rest and be for God’s refreshment, being open to Him and enjoying Him for His satisfaction.
God will never ask us to work for Him unless we have enjoyed Him and we are nourished with Him.
We need to enjoy God’s accomplished work and take God in, so that we may be supplied and strengthened inwardly to work together with God by being one with Him organically.
Lord, thank You for creating us in Your image and with Your likeness to be Your satisfaction. Save us from going ahead to just work for You out of our good intentions. May we stop and enjoy You. Lord, before doing anything for You, we want to first enjoy You, eat You, drink You, feast on You, love You, be saturated with You, and praise You!
God Rested and Was Refreshed
In six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed (Exo. 31:17).
After creating the heavens, the earth, the animals, the birds, the fish, the plants, and all things on earth, God said, Good! But after God created man, He said, Very Good (Gen. 1:31)!
After God’s work of creation was completed, He looked at all He has done and He rested. God created man in His image with a spirit so that man can have fellowship with God – man was God’s rest and refreshment (Gen. 1:26; 2:7, and John 4:31-34).
God was refreshed and satisfied as if drinking a beverage and having a snack when He had man – now God could fellowship with man and He could be one with man!
We see this in John 4 also with the Lord Jesus, when He was waiting at the well for His disciples to bring food – He infused the Samaritan woman with Himself as the divine life, and this was His food of which His disciples did not know about.
Christ’s food was to distribute God into man and to dispense Himself into humanity. When God gains human beings that are open to Him for His dispensing, God is refreshed, satisfied, and nourished.
When we cooperate with God by ministering Christ to people, we also enter into God’s rest and refreshment, and we are satisfied and refreshed.
God wants us that we would first enter into His rest and His refreshment, and then we can work together with Him to minister life to others.
Lord, cause us to enter into Your rest and refreshment! May we get to know and love to eat this food that satisfies You in us. Lord, we want You to be satisfied – when You are satisfied, we are also satisfied! Make us open vessels for Your refreshment and Your rest.
God was a “Bachelor” – Now He’s “Engaged”!
How can we say such a thing, that our most holy God was a “Bachelor”?
Before God created mankind, He was single, a bachelor God created man in His image and then He said, It is not good for man to be alone (Gen. 2:18, 22) – which also means, It is not good for God to be alone!
God created man to be His counterpart, so that man would receive God, love God, be filled with God, and express God to become God’s wife (see 2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:25).
God created man and He fell in love with man – He created man to be His counterpart, and now throughout history God courts man, woos man, and draws man to Himself that man may love Him, enjoy Him, spend time with Him, and be filled with Him.
Our God is now no longer a Bachelor – He is an engaged man, and we as the church are betrothed to Him to be His wife (2 Cor. 11:2). In eternity future, God will have a wife – the New Jerusalem, which is called the wife of the Lamb (see Rev. 21:9-10). Isn’t this wonderful?
All we have to do as men on earth is to open to the Lord, receive Him, accept His courting and wooing, and respond to Him in love. When we do this, God is happy and we are also happy.
When we open to the Lord to enjoy Him, God is satisfied, at rest, and He is refreshed!
Lord, we love You! We open to You! Thank You for courting us, wooing us, and drawing us every day. We just want to open to You to be infused with You and to be one with You in Your love! Lord, how we love You!
God Doesn’t Ask Us to Work Until We Enjoy Him Adequately!
Do you see the principle of the Sabbath now? It’s not an outward regulation, and it is not something we need to keep “or else…”
The principle of the Sabbath is that God wants to firstly supply us with the enjoyment of Himself, and then we can work together with Him and in oneness with Him. God would never ask us to do anything for Him unless we enjoy Him first.
We need to adequately enjoy God by opening to Him, having fellowship with Him, spending time in His Word, and praying ourselves into God.
When we enjoy God, we will become one with Him organically, and we will know how to work with Him because His thoughts have been infused into our mind, His desires have become ours, and His will is filling our will.
This is the real work for God: first resting in God and enjoying God, entering into God’s rest and refreshment, and then working together with God by being one with Him.
Every time we enjoy God there will be something rising up in us – the desire of the Savior God to save all men (1 Tim. 2:4) and to constitute them with Christ by making His home in their heart (Eph. 3:16-19) will become our desire also.
This is the way to work for God but not in our own strength – by first enjoying God, loving Him, opening to Him, and being filled with Him, so that we may be one with Him.
Lord, save us from working for You in ourselves or by our strength. Make us those who keep the principle of the Sabbath by first enjoying You adequately. Lord, we want to be one with You in Your unique work today by enjoying You, loving You, and being infused with You.
References and Further Reading
- Sharing inspired from brother Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message and portions in, Life-study of Exodus (msg. 172), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Unique Work in the Lord’s Recovery, week 6 (entitled, Keeping the Principle of the Sabbath in Relation to the Work of Building).
- Hymns on this topic:
# Give yourself to love the Lord – No other way is so prevailing / And no other way is so safe, so rich, and so full of enjoyment.
# Christ to me is so subjective, / Life imparting all the way; / As the Spirit He revives me / And refreshes day by day.
# God wants someone to love Him, / Not just someone to serve Him; / He wants someone to love Him / As His bride.
According to Genesis 2:18, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper as his counterpart.” This word has a significance in typology, and indicates that it was not good for God to be alone. Before God created man, God could be compared to a bachelor. Some may criticize us for using the word bachelor to speak of our holy God. But I believe that God is happy to hear this word used with respect to Himself. Perhaps God would say, “My child, this word touches My heart. I truly was a bachelor before I created mankind.” The Bible reveals that in eternity past God was a “bachelor.” But in eternity future He will have a wife, the New Jerusalem, which is called the Lamb’s wife (Rev. 21:9-10). Therefore, according to the revelation of the Bible that the New Jerusalem is the wife of the Lamb, I have the boldness to use the word bachelor with respect to God. (Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1823-1825)
Praise the Lord for such a 'bachelor' has His eyes focus on us to be the Lamb's wife even in eternity past! Now by and through His grace and mercy, we are in the process of being prepared to be His Bride! Hallelujah!