And on the
Seventh Day, God rested.
He rested
from His work of Creation. All of it had been done, and He had declared it
Good. In this moment we are allowed to pause, and draw breath, and look ahead,
just a bit.
We know how
the story goes. In some ways we have the advantage over those folk who lived in
the OT times, who were not part of the Saving Grace of Christ which is very
much a part of us if we let it, and yet, they were faithful to God, and did His
Will according to the Grace apportioned to them in their lives. You can’t look
at Abraham, nor indeed David, or many others and argue differently. The anointed
were blessed, and God used them mightily for His purposes, moving His
Redemptive Plan forward to that day it found its fulfilment in Christ.
I was
reading from the book of Matthew this morning, and found the joy of Jesus
prayer in chapter 11. Verse 25 Jesus says “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven
and earth …” Leap to verse 27 which says “All things have been committed to me
by my Father.” God as Sovereign. God in Control of All Things that have been
created.
“No one
knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and
those whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Here is an
admission that the wise are without knowledge. The Pharisees are tied to their
own admission of wisdom. And yet they do not know Christ as He has come to them
as King. Matthew up to this point is about the revelation and then the
rejection of Christ. The chapters that follow are about His condemnation and
finally His ultimate revelation of the Father’s Purpose through the
Crucifixion.
And yet the
job is not quite done. Christ declares “It I finished,” from the agony of the
Cross. But on the third day, that final day, that Sabbath Day, He can rest in
that He has achieved that final moment, that final full stop to the Work of God
in our History, which is the Redemption form Sin that we can either deny or
joyously, Gloriously accept, purchased with such enormous price on our behalf.
It is done
indeed. It is done for me. It is done for you. It is done by Him because of His
Great and Perfect Love.
Amen.