Do you take the reference in Genesis to God resting literally?

Question

Ever since before the time of Jesus, there was a tradition in Judaism that God worked even on the Sabbath (if he didn't, the whole universe would unravel without him upholding it).

If you do not take this literally, then why take the rest of the "divine working week" literally? I am not disputing that the story talks of literal days with morning and evening. But what if it does so as part of a metaphorical or symbolic depiction of a "divine working week"? Why would that be any more literal than God's throne, or outstreched arm, or anything else that depicts God in human terms?

http://blue.butler.edu/~jfmcgrat/bible/ot/genesis1.htm
http://blue.butler.edu/~jfmcgrat/science/

Answer 1

i dont take anything in genesis litterally.

the whole story is a metaphor. with several subthemes:
parrent-child relationships
brother brother relationships
and man-wife relationships.
deceit, betrayal, envy etc.

Answer 2

The fact that, in Genesis, it took 6 days for God to create the universe seems to argue against God's omnipotence. Why not 1 day or 1 hour or a split second?

In fact, the creation story would be much more believable today if it claimed God created the universe in an instant (i.e. split second). But the author(s) of Genesis didn't know then that the evidence points inexorably to a Big Bang beginning to the universe. Just as they didn't know that dinosaurs had long since come and gone.

The creation story, with particular parts of creation performed on 6 successive days, and with a 7th day of rest, seems arbitrary in hindsight; except to model a standard work-week. This "standard work-week", with God's stamp of approval, indicates that the author(s) of Genesis already understood the value of religion to control and manipulate man and society.

I think a guaranteed day off per week, enforced by their religion, garnered man's favor -- and garnered the favor of leaders and rulers by providing a productive work ethic.

Sorry, but I'm not sure what you meant by "a metaphorical or symbolic depiction of a 'divine working week'". So I'm not sure my reply addresses the intent of your question.

Answer 3

His work that He was referring to was creating the world. He rested from that in that He did no other creating that day but instead gave us an example of how to keep the Sabbath day. This is to worship God and spend time with Him. The seventh day is a day made holy by God and we are to delight in it. The body needs a rest from the usual work every 7th day and God knew this since He created us. It is a sign between Him and His people. (Eze. 20:12, 20) and is a memorial of creation. The Sabbath is God's seal in that it has His name...Lord thy God, His title....Creator, and His territory.....heaven and earth. Ex. 20:8-11

Answer 4

The jewish calendar is a lunar calendar (4 x 7 days).
The world must be finished in seven days.
If you would create a world, you would need some rest after (hard work). To keep up with the predefined 7 days, you have to hurry and do it in 6.
It's a mathematical problem.

Answer 5

The Bible says that God rested from his work of creation. As to taking the rest of the divine working week literally that is a matter that a Christian can hold differing view points on because it is not an essential part of the faith. The Bible is a book about mankinds fall into sin and the redemption that God would supply through faith in the work of the Lord Jesus. The NT of the Bible teaches that God's power is continually at work in holding his creation together as you mentioned as also being a Jewish tradition.

Hebrews 1:1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

That's one of the mysteries of atomic theory. Protons should not stay together in the nucleus of an atom. They have a like charge that should cause them to fly apart from each other. Scientists have had to come up with a theory where they postulate "gluons" as being the reason that matter stays in a stable state.

A proton is made of three quarks, yes, but the quarks are infinitesimal--just 2 percent or so of the proton's total mass. They're rattling around at near light speed inside the proton, but they're imprisoned in flickering clouds of other particles--other quarks, which materialize briefly and then vanish and, above all, gluons, which transmit the force that binds the quarks together. Gluons are massless and evanescent, but they carry most of the proton's energy. That is why it is more accurate to say protons are made of gluons rather than quarks. Protons are little blobs of glue--but even that picture conveys something too static and substantial. All is flux and crackling energy inside a proton; it is like an unending lightning storm in a bottle, a bottle less than .1 trillionth of an inch in diameter. "It's a very rich, dynamic structure," says Wilczek. "And it's very pleasing that we have a theory that can reproduce it."

Especially if you happen to be one of the guys who invented the theory, and if, more than two decades later, that theory is actually being verified by experiment. At a particle accelerator called HERA in Hamburg, Germany, physicists have been firing electrons into protons for the past eight years, showing just how insubstantial the quarks are inside. Meanwhile, other accelerator experiments may soon reveal how the universe assembled all its protons in the first place. In February, physicists at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics outside Geneva, announced "compelling evidence" that they had succeeded in melting large numbers of protons, creating for an instant the kind of quark-gluon plasma that last existed a microsecond after the Big Bang. All the protons around now congealed from that soup. At Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island in New York, a new and more powerful accelerator is getting set to cook quark-gluon soup on a daily basis this summer. By next year physicists may have a much better idea of what the universe was like when it was a billion times hotter than the surface of the sun, and quarks and gluons--not yet trapped inside protons, inside nuclei, inside atoms, inside us--could play freely in the quantum fields.

Answer 6

Thank you for asking this. The idea that God would NEED to rest or even have desire to rest is very strange indeed.

Answer 7

The day of rest was simply symbolic. God wasn't tired, but he rested to show us that one day each week should be spent free from toil so you can focus on God, family, and your own personal health.

Answer 8

He rested as an example to us.