The creation of man, male and female, was the crowning, as well as the finishing, work of the whole creation. There they stood, the perfect holy pair reflecting the image and glory of God.
Think of the wonderful mind and faculty of the man who by a look could read the essential nature of each creature and of the whole creation, and could speak the word that expresses the thought of that essential nature and characteristic. This word which the man spoke, defining each, was but the reflection of the word of God which had produced each.
This tells that the man was so at one with God in spirit and will and mind that at sight he could read correctly the thought of God in creation, and could exactly express that thought in the word of God. It shows that the mind and faculty and spirit of the man were truly but the reflection of the divine mind and Spirit. "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." (Genesis 1:28)
To man was given dominion over every creature of earth. But dominion over man himself belongs only to God. "And God said, Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." (Genesis 1:29)
There is the original and divinely prescribed dietary for man. Was it a proper dietary for him? Was it adapted to him? Did the Creator know what was the right thing, the best thing, for the food of the man whom He had created?
And this was the man in his original and best estate, in his divinely appointed and sinless estate. Whatever changes may have since come in man's estate that has brought changes in the dietary, is it not evident that such change in this dietary must necessarily be solely because of the change in the man's estate?
But has any change that has come in man's original and divinely appointed estate ever been for man's improvement? Most assuredly not. Then has any change from man's original and divinely appointed dietary ever been for man's improvement? Equally assuredly not.
Is it the divine will or purpose that man should remain, or that any man should be satisfied to remain, in any condition that has come by change from the man's original and divinely appointed estate? Plainly not.
Then is it the divine will or purpose that any then who seeks restoration to man's original and divinely appointed estate should choose to retain or can it be for any such man's good to retain the changed dietary that has come only as a consequence of the change from man's original and divinely appointed estate? Equally plainly not.
Plainly enough, then, it is only those who are satisfied with the change from man's original and divinely appointed estate, and would have this changed condition to be the eternal one-it is only these who can consistently plead for the permanency of the changed dietary that has come only as a consequence of the change from man's original and divinely appointed estate. "And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." (Genesis 1:31) "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made: and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made." (Genesis 2:1-2)
He rested, not because of weariness, but for the purpose of holiness: not for recuperation of wasted energy, but for spiritual refreshing, delight, and triumph in the finished creation. "Have you not known? have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary?" (Isaiah 40:28) "God is Spirit." (John 4:24)
Therefore the only rest possible to Him is spiritual rest, "that supreme repose which only the Spirit can know...Just as, in the solemn pauses between the creative days, He pronounced His creatures "very good," so did He rejoice over the finishing of His work, resting in the perfect satisfaction of an accomplished plan; not to restore His wasted energy, as man rests, but to signify that in the coming of man the creative idea has found its consummation and crown. Such is the rest possible to a purely spiritual nature,--the rest of a completed work."--Rev. George Elliott, The Abiding Sabbath, Part I: Sabbath of Nature, Chapter 1 "Ordinance of Creation."
And this rest of God was for man-for the eternal blessing, benefit, and instruction of man. "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath." (Mark 2:27)
Of this truth the 92nd Psalm is the expression. It is "a psalm or song for the Sabbath day," and it says, "You, Lord, have made me glad through your work: I will triumph in the works of your hands. O Lord, how great are your works, and your thoughts are very deep." (Psalm 92:4-5)
This is the reflection, in man's experience, of the very thought expressed in the statement that at the finishing of "all His work," (Genesis 2:2) "[God] rested, and was refreshed." (Exodus 31:17)
"Suppose the question to be asked, "How can we know that any precept is moral in its meaning and authority, and not simply a positive and arbitrary command?"...No more perfect vindication of the moral character of a law can be given than to show that it is a rule of the divine conduct, that it has been imposed upon His own activity by that infinite Will which is the supreme authority both in the physical and moral government of the universe.
That law to which the Creator submits His own being, must be of absolute binding force upon every creature made in His image. Such is the law of the Sabbath. "God rested the seventh day," and by so doing has given to the law of the Sabbath the highest and strongest sanction possible even to Deity. In no conceivable way could the Almighty so perfectly and with such unchangeable authority declare, not simply His will in a positive institution, but the essentially moral character of the precept, as by revealing His own self-subjection to the rule which He imposes on His creatures. ...
Its obligation is addressed, not to man's physical nature alone, but to man as a spiritual being made in the image of God. It is laid not only on his bodily powers and natural understanding, but upon his moral reason as right, and upon his conscience as duty. It is therefore bounded by no limits of time, place, or circumstance, but is of universal and perpetual authority."--Rev. George Elliott, The Abiding Sabbath, Part I: Sabbath of Nature, Chapter 1 "Ordinance of Creation." "And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." (Genesis 2:3)
His resting on the seventh day was for man; His blessing the seventh day was for man; His sanctifying the seventh day, was for man; yea, His very creation of the world was for man, for: "He created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited." (Isaiah 45:18)
And thus "for man" the seventh day was made the rest day. As it was made, and in all that was done to make it, the rest day, it was and is "for man."
And it is wholly spiritual; for God is only Spirit. It is the day of God's rest, and of God's blessing, unto holiness and sanctification. In that day man is not to seek his own rest, which is only physical, but God's rest, which is spiritual. In that day man is not to seek his own self-pleasing, which is only temporal blessing; but God's blessing, which is spiritual. And this spiritual rest, and this spiritual blessing, from God, are to be sought and found the seventh day for the cultivation of the soul in holiness unto sanctification.
This is not to say that physical rest and blessing cannot be, or are not to be, found at all on the seventh day, but only that these are not to be sought. The spiritual only is to be sought. And when the spiritual is found, then in and through that the physical is found in a far better and truer way than can ever possibly be by seeking the physical itself.
And thus at the very threshold of the world and of man's existence God would teach forever to all the grand and all-important lesson that man's truest existence is found only in the spiritual; that man's highest good and truest enjoyment of the physical and temporal things that are both rightly and necessarily his, are found only through the spiritual. And this transcendent truth is no more plainly taught in: "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you," (Matthew 6:33) than it is in Genesis 2:2-3, in God's resting and blessing the seventh day "for man" unto man's promotion in holiness and sanctification of heart and life unto God.--Medical Missionary, May 27, 1908.