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Consider these verses:

Prov 10:22
It is the blessing of the LORD that makes rich, and He adds no sorrow to it.  NASU

Rom 11:29

For God's gifts and His call are irrevocable. [He never withdraws them when once they are given, and He does not change His mind about those to whom He gives His grace or to whom He sends His call.]  AMP

So once God blesses or imparts particular ability and authority to something, the blessing remains

Birds and Animals

Genesis 1:22

And God blessed them, saying,"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."  NKJV

Man

Genesis 1:28

Then God blessed them, and God said to them,"Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."   NKJV

The seventh day (in Genesis)

Genesis 2:3

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.   NKJV

let's investigate the seventh day in Genesis further:

NOTE: words in[ ] brackets define or are synonymous with the word or phrase immediately preceeding the bracket.

Gen 2:2,3 - outlined

1. God ended his work [deputyship, ministry] which he had made [do or make] .

2. God rested [desist from exertion] on the seventh day from all the work [deputyship, ministry] which he had made [do or make]

3. God blessed the seventh day

4. And God sanctified [pronounced clean] the seventh day - because - in it (the seventh day) he rested [desist from exertion] from his work [deputyship, ministry] which he had made and created. 

Deputy ( from webster's new world dictionary): a person appointed to act as a substitute for, or as an assistant to, another. Synonym; agent.

The Hebrew words in these verses characterize God's work at creation as a deputyship, and he is giving out authority and abilities to represent Himself and do things on his behalf. In other words, God is creating some things out of nothing, this is the "creating", but he is also making or "deputizing" some of the things He has created to operate and perform certain functions in this creation. This is seen in the phrase, "God blessed" which He did first to the animals, and plants, then to mankind and thirdly to the seventh day.

The "blessing" here is an impartation of ability and power/authority to "be fruitful and multiply". Now on the seventh day in Genesis, God stops this ministry of deputizing various parts of his creation - "because in it he rested from his work". God is no longer active. God identifies the seventh day in Genesis as Holy, clean, pure, set apart and entirely different from the rest of the days.

But notice that He does not instruct creation to stop being fruitful and multiplying. Rather it seems, God stops creating new things, everything that needed deputized and imparted and initiated has been set up and put into operation. Now that all of this is accomplished, God does not need to continue endlessly creating and deputizing. Now, God blesses the day itself!

This is the day!

This is the culmination of the whole operation of creation!

This is the point and completed purpose!

The seventh day in Genesis displays the full expression of what God had in mind when He first proclaimed heavens and earth from nothing pre-existing. Perfect Love now has an expression and an operation that accurately and completely demonstrates God as God. God stops pressing and giving and He releases the Day (as it were) to operate and live on its own. This day is complete! This day is Holy, as God is holy; there is no need for correction, impartation, or deputizing any more!

It is not that we or any part of creation can operate or exist independent of God, or that somehow we created ourselves or improved and developed ourselves enough that we can now operate on our own without God.

It is just the opposite. We must understand that when God "blessed" us He imparted His own substance and power, Life, part of His very own Life and ability to produce, and Be Alive. He transferred some of Himself, His "stuff" and so we increase because this blessing is inside of us living and performing the thing to which it was sent. We cannot bless ourselves, but the blessing to increase and be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth has been transferred into us and the blessing is our source.

Giving and receiving of "the Blessing"

is a fundamental principle and practice of living in covenant with God having its first manifestation in the creation account here in Genesis, the Book of Beginnings. The custom of giving "the blessing" continues from generation to generation throughout the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the blessing of the Father is so valuable that brothers schemed and lied and set up deceptions to steal the Blessing from one another (Genesis 27). Jacob wrestled with a messenger from God until he received God's blessing. At the end of the struggle, Jacob's hip was dislocated, but he got the blessing (Genesis 32:22-32). It is important to note also that once the blessing has been given, it cannot be revoked. It is permanent. Throughout the Old Testament history, God repeatedly speaks of His promise to the House of Jacob and how He will fulfill everything He has promised. The gifts of God are without repentance. (Romans 11:9) The blessing of the Lord makes rich and he adds no sorrow to it (Proverbs 10:22). So Mankind even in his fallen Adamic nature is still multiplying and filling the earth and God has not taken back the ability to multiply even though much of what we produce is out of our fallen nature. Much of what we produce is like the poisonous grain called tares that resemble wheat as described in Jesus' parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13).

NOTE:If you are unfamiliar with this parable it is well worth a read. You can find many free bibles online right here, or you can browse for a hard copy in our bookstore.

But here we are looking at the seventh day in Genesis and beyond, also called the Sabbath; so what's the connection of a polluted field of grain with the Sabbath?

Wheat and Tares

Jesus explains  the parable of wheat and tares in Matthew 13, to his disciples. The world is the field, and the Son of Man is the farmer sowing the sons of the kingdom into the field to produce according to their own kind. It is an enemy that comes along and sows the tares. The tares are the sons of Evil, which is the progeny of lies and slander. It is important to know that tares resemble wheat so closely that it is only as the seed heads are formed that they can be identified as tares and not wheat.

(Pro 14:12 there is a way--right before a man, And its latter end are ways of death. - Young's Literal Translation) Furthermore, the grain from tares is poisonous so the field cannot be harvested with mixed grains. God says that the solution to the problem comes AT THE END - then the two will be separated. This is speaking of the seventh day, the last day. It is the day of purity after all the work and working [exertion, deputyship, ministry] is done. It is the day when all the tares are gone, all the lies about God and ourselves, and everything they produces, their "sons" and "messengers" are pulled out and destroyed.

How many Sabbaths can you count?

God says to Israel,(to paraphrase many scriptures) " Keep the Sabbath Holy , remember it, bring it to mind regularly, consistently, weekly, monthly, yearly. It is the destination, whatever the toil and effort that you are in now, take heart, there is an end and this is what it looks like! Observe the Sabbath, Keep it Holy, Remember, Remember and don't forget."

That is why there is a Sabbath day every week (Exodus 20:10, 31:16), there are three yearly Sabbath seasons that contain a total of seven appointed times (Deuteronomy 16). The seventh month is the month when the Feast of Tabernacles is celebrated, it is the last  Sabbath season of the year. Here on the seventh day of the Feast, Jesus revealed himself to the people.

John 7:37-38

On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.   Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."
NIV

Every seventh year, the land was to enjoy a Sabbath  (Leviticus 25:4)

There is even a Sabbath of Sabbath years, that is after seven seven-year Sabbaths totaling 49 years, the Fiftieth year was to be a Jubilee year of liberty, canceling of all debts, and rejoicing. (Leviticus 25:8-10)

The last words of Genesis 2:3 say, "…in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made". NO MORE CREATING, NO MORE WORK. The seventh day in Genesis is this day.

David Stern, (translator of the Complete Jewish Bible)a much more accomplished Hebrew scholar than myself, renders Genesis 2:3

"God blessed the seventh day and separated it as holy; because on that day God rested from all his work which he had created, so that it itself could produce."

This says that the Sabbath (the seventh dayin Genesis) has the ability to be fruitful and produce after its own kind as do living creatures and man.

Jesus said (Mark 2:27), The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Healing is allowed on the Sabbath (Matt12:12, Luke 14:1, John 5:9  NIV

When we enter and observe the Sabbath, we are entering even if just for a moment, this eternal place of completion.

Heb 4:9-11

9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. NIV

They are all one...

This place is not a place of sleep and darkness, you do not have to eat cold food in the dark to keep the Sabbath. The seventh day is the day that is fully alive! The seventh day in Genesis is Creation Completed, alive, and healthy! Jesus performed many healings on the Sabbath. Everything is in order and nothing hinders the marvelous perfection and abilities that God has labored over, created and given to His creation. It's all here, functioning, filling and being full, displaying the perfection of the wisdom, beauty, and expression of God. It has never existed before this day, but every day before was necessary to bring us to the seventh day. The seventh day in Genesis even produces abundance from abundance! The Sabbath is blessed, and it produces itself from itself while God rests... and we rest with Him in this special place of intimacy and communion living. It is the climax, the reason, the goal, the prize of all creation in a single Day!

The seventh day in Genesis! What a find to see the completion at the beginning.

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