The Day God Married His Creation

Shabbat! It’s the bridal feast, the weekly bridal celebration. Full of God’s glory. 

Why is it so special?  

Isn’t it just a day of rest? A wonderful day to stop our activity? To be with each other in peace? And with God? 

We all need a day to come away and celebrate the LORD and our relationship with Him.  A day to tell Him we love Him, to thank Him for all He’s done for us, to appreciate the good and very good happenings of the week, to thank each other for the blessings we’ve received. 

So why does God care so much about this day in particular? Why can’t it be any day????

It’s all in the words. In Genesis 2:1-2, through a couple hidden jewels, we learn that this is the day God married His creation. 

Let’s scratch a tiny bit under the surface.  

The Hebrew word translated “finished” in Genesis 2 is the verb form of “cala,” which means “bride” or “betrothed,” and the word translated “work,” “melachah,” is the female form of the word for “messenger” or “angel.”

Reading Genesis 2:1-2a, using these translations:

And the heavens and the earth were BETROTHED, all the host of them.  Then, on Shabbat Elohim BETROTHED HIS MESSENGER whom He had made and He rested.

All creation was His bride.  All creation was His messenger. He betrothed His message. The rocks. The stars. The animals. The seas. The land. Mankind.  Everything.  Formed to be His betrothed. 

The psalmists would sing and Paul would write that all creation declares the glory of the LORD. (Ps 8:1, 50:6, and Romans 1:19-20)  It all shouts His message. 

John would write, in Revelation 21:1-3, that the New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, would be God’s Bride. The buildings. The streets. The plants. The people. The animals. The stones. When God recreates the world, everything will be recreated to love and adore Him, His Beloved.

From the beginning of God’s story, in Genesis, until its ending, in the Book of Revelation, our thoughts are to be eternally flooded with word images of His love, His passion, His desire and His fulfillment.  He created the world with His Word and we are talking about His words of eternal love. We are the ones He created to bear His Image, so we are the ones created to steward the rest of His Bride with His Love.

So now, what is the significance of Shabbat? 

Of our remembering that we are the bride?  Created in His Image? That we are God’s messengers to the world? The ones chosen to stand for Who He Is, on earth as it is in heaven?  That we are commissioned to bring forth His glory on earth, the glory that is revealed in heaven every moment of every day, sustaining the thread of His love from the beginning of creation until its ending and recreation?

We rest in Him, on Shabbat, to be filled by Him, to be able to fulfill His calling.

Every Shabbat, as the Bride, we walk down the aisle, holding flowers, looking exquisite. We do not check our cell phones or attend to business texts. Our eyes are glued on our husband.  Our hearts are focused on the only thing that matters. Our Beloved.  God gave us a day to remember Him, a day to remember ourselves. Shabbat.

What message were you created to carry? When Christ invites you into His bridal chambers what does He give you? Our old lives are finished, the verb form of “cala” is past tense. We have entered into a totally new life in Him. Will you trust Him with what He wants to birth through you?

This is our rest …

Genesis 2:3a, “And Elohim blessed the seventh day, and made it holy.”