Good Morning.
Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. (Genesis 2:1-2)
The Hebrew word translated as “finished,” and then again as “ended,” is a root word that means “perfection.” Yet this same word is also translated as “destruction.” How can the same word mean “perfection” and “destruction,” seeing that the two seem to oppose one another? To understand the connection, we must consider the purpose of Shabbat, the seventh day.
Shabbat is the completion or the perfecting of Creation according to the biblical account, because this is when the Creator ceased from His work. For Shabbat to serve its purpose, the work that occurs on the previous six days must come to an end. And so it is for so many other things: for something to come to fruition, other things must come to an end.
If the Messiah is to rule over all nations from Jerusalem, the kingdoms of this world must come to an end. So believers shouldn’t be frightened when we see things we have leaned upon begin to crumble. To the contrary, we should take heart in the fact that the Creator is perfecting His Will in the world even as He is perfecting His Will in us.
As His children, we will not be perfected until some aspects of our existence come to an end. If we are to be His sons and daughters, our willingness to remain in our sin has to die. In fact, we are born again so that we may learn how to die to our will. As new creations, we are being conformed to the image of the Son of God, which means that, at some future point in time, this corruptible flesh must cease to exist; it must come to an end. Paul says this mortal must put on immortality; corruption must give way to incorruption. When that happens, you and I shall be perfected and the good work He began in us will come to fruition.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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