1:1–2:3 describes God as the creator of the cosmos. Its themes focus on God’s sovereignty as Lord over all: the importance of Sabbath rest, humanity’s rulership over creation, and the creation of abundant life.

2:4–25 emphasizes different themes: the creation of man, his home, his partner/helper, and his work. At the beginning of all, God is both the transcendent Creator who is sovereign overall and the imminent Lord providing a world in full harmony with himself and the people he has created.

Some Biblical “Non-Negotiables” About God

• God simply is.
• God made everything that is non-God.
• God is a talking God who interacts with his creation
• Everything God makes is good—very good.

“Rest” Big Picture:  If we enter into “God’s rest” (Ps. 95; Hebrews 4) it will be by following the ultimate primordial paradigm of God himself, established in Genesis 2:2-3: we cease from our works. Human beings are justified – that is, we are declared to be in right standing before God’s judgment bar with all our sin forgiven – by faith alone, in Jesus alone, without any mixture of our own works.

Simplified Biblical Timeline

• The “faithless generation” of Israelites are delivered from Egypt, but die in the wilderness over a span of 40 years (circa 1540 - 1501 BC).
• Israel enters into the “Promised Land Rest” under Joshua, circa 1500 BC.
• 500 years later, the psalmist writes Psalm 95, circa 1000 BC.
• Hebrews is written sometime before AD 70, around 1100 years after Psalm 95.

*This sermon owes much to D.A. Carson’s “The God Who Is There” and “Creation” by Andrew M Davis.