God's declaration that his work "was very good" concluded the sixth day. It also marked the conclusion of God's creative work on earth. Jehovah then declared the seventh day to be sacred as he rests from his work. Logically, God's rest period is equal to the length of the other periods of creation that God called "days."
God's work is unlike any other because it is not static. It is a living, breathing, independent creation capable of failing. Jehovah did not intend for Adam and Eve to simply live alone in Eden forever. God had already given them the mandate to be fruitful and become many and subdue the earth. Unlike the angels who were individually created, God endowed humans with the ability to procreate. And God was going to depend on humans to finish the creation he had begun. The fact that the first man and woman lived in a local paradise when God declared his purpose was for them to subdue the earth meant they were to take Eden as a model and take paradise earth-wide. You might say they and their offspring were to engage in a worldwide work. Evidently, the paradise project would be accomplished at the conclusion of God's sabbath rest.
Shockingly, one of the cherubs who had originally shouted in applause and who had been entrusted with overseeing Adam and Eve hatched a scheme to elevate himself as God. Being a glorious heavenly being he apparently imagined he could outsmart God and cause him considerable embarrassment and making it rather unseemly if God were to destroy him out of spite. After all, as stated already God had entrusted the accomplishment of his purpose to two fallible humans. If they ate from the forbidden tree God said they must die. But if they die how could they fill the earth and subdue it? If God lets them off the hook for their brazen disobedience then God is a liar, because he said "You will surely die." And if God lets them die and goes back to work to create two more humans and try it again then he violates his own self-imposed sabbath. Not a good situation for God.
For all of his brilliance, apparently the covering cherub miscalculated. On the very day Adam and Eve rebelled and became unqualified to extend Eden one inch from its boundary or produce a sinless offspring, Jehovah announced his new purpose to provide a "seed." As it turned out the promised seed was not from this world so God did not create a new earthling from the dust and violate his rest. Paul explained that the first man (Adam) was from the dust, but the second man (Jesus) was from heaven. However, God graphed his heavenly son to human stock by fertilizing an imperfect virgin with the perfect heavenly seed, thus Jesus was related to mankind but untainted by sin. Being related to mankind, Jesus was in the position to offer himself as a sacrifice of equal value to the perfect, sinless life Adam possessed originally.
Because Satan not only slandered God as a liar, and even cunningly tried to force God to break his word, but worse, claimed that God does not really trust his creation (understandably in the case of Satan) and he has deliberately held back from giving anyone authority to determine for themselves what is good and bad, Jehovah did something extraordinary, beyond anything anyone could have imagined. He purposed to bring into union with the holy seed others from the sinful offspring under Satan's influence. For what purpose? Jehovah intends to adopt these as heavenly sons and give them immortality, something no angel even possesses. So, theoretically, the 144,000 will not need God for any reason and could conceivably go their own way with impunity. But because they will know Jehovah, not just superficially, or even as the holy angels know God, but as the only Son knows the Father, they will cast their crowns before God and worship him forever. Jesus and Paul both described God's purpose for this to have been determined before the founding of the world; meaning before Adam and Eve had any children outside of Eden, but after the Slanderer claimed Jehovah was suspicious of his creatures and selfish.
At the conclusion of God's rest day, with mankind restored to sinless perfection, the entire Earth a paradise teeming with life, with no trace of Satan and the demons, and Christ and his 144,000 kings and priests turning the Kingdom over to God, we expect Jehovah to declare all his creation, including the new creation, to be very, very good. And those multitudes of faithful angels who applauded God's work originally will have even greater reason to shout in applause over the masterful way that the Almighty God will have dealt with the haughty angel who dared to stand up against him as an opposer.
A New Heaven and a New Earth
After creating the first man and woman in his image, Jehovah stated his purpose for them was that they fill the earth and have in subjection every non-human creature on the planet. Being made in God’s image not only means that humans are endowed with divine characteristics but seeing that God
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Awake and shout joyfully, you residents in the dust!
Sunday, November 14 Look! a great crowd. —Rev. 7:9. The apostle John received an exciting prophetic vision. In it, angels are told to hold back the destructive winds of the great tribulation until the final
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The New World
When Christopher Columbus returned to his native land with the news of his discovery Europeans immediately began to refer to it as “the New World.” For the past half millennia the Americas have been called the New World. For desperate millions the New World offered the hope of a fresh start...
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