Mystery of Creation, Chapter 3, Watchman Nee
We have already seen how in the beginning God created a perfect world, but due to the sin of Satan and the preadamic race who inhabited the earth, both they and the earth they occupied came under God’s judgment, and thus the earth became waste and void. Now we will see how God did the work of restoring the earth.
In the book of Job, the writer alludes to the defeat of Satan’s rebellion to prove the foolishness of contending with God. “He [God] is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and prospered?—Him that removeth the mountains, and they know it not, when he overturneth them in his anger; that shaketh the earth out of its place, and the pillars thereof tremble; that commandeth the sun, and it riseth not, and sealeth up the stars” (9.4-7). When did God perform these great things? When did He ever shake the earth and seal the stars up because of men’s hardness towards Him? From the day of Adam onward, in our present world we have never seen God doing all these things. Hence what is described here must have reference to the time when God judged Satan and the world under his rule at his rebellion. It was then that God shook the earth out of its place so that the mountains were removed. Such a catastrophe came so swiftly that before the mountains were ever “aware,” they were already removed. Not only the earth was shaken, even the celestial phenomena were affected. Under the judgment of God, the sun did not rise and the stars were sealed up, with the result that the whole world was plunged into utter darkness. And because there was no sunlight, there quite naturally was no heat: the earth entered into the glacial age. Only when God decided to restore the earth did the Spirit of God commence to move upon the face of the waters—that is to say, upon the face of the deep or of utter darkness.
Job mentioned not only the judgment of God, he also spoke of God’s restoring work: “[He] that alone stretcheth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea; that maketh the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south; that doeth great things past finding out, yea, marvellous things without number” (9.8-10). “Stretcheth out the heavens” was the work which God did on the second day when He made the firmament to divide the waters above or beneath it. He called the firmament Heaven. “The waves [or heights] of the sea” (cf. mg.) might refer to the waters above the firmament. “Maketh the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the chambers of the south” could point to God’s work done on the fourth day. Significantly the word “maketh” is not “create” since God here was not creating these stars but was merely remaking what He had formerly created. And for the record to say “sealeth up the stars” would doubtless indicate that the stars were already there. And thus the use of “maketh” would mean that God only restored the stars to the condition which obtained before their having been sealed up.
Hence God commenced to do the work of restoration. Now because there was darkness upon the waters, He called light to shine forth. This illumination divided between light and darkness. In past years—and even up to today—many scoffers have laughed at the absurdity they thought they saw of there being light before the sun was ever created. With the advance of science, however, people can no longer scoff at the record of the Bible. Recent discoveries in science have borne witness to the accuracy of what Moses said. Although as we have said, Genesis is not a book of science nor is it to be used as a scientific text book, it nonetheless is not against science and does not contain any scientific error. Modern men know that besides the sun there are other sources of light. Light is a kind of energy which comes from unknown sources and produces some sort of unimaginable agitation in the ether which surrounds the universe.
Though science still cannot tell us the source of this energy, faith knows and understands that when God said, “Let there be light,” that “there was light” indeed! How sad that people would rather search in darkness than come to God who is the source of all things. They consider such faith in God’s written record to be superstition—to be unscientific. Yet we who believe are glad because we have God as our Father.
It is not mentioned here that on the first day God created light. Before light was restored, God had confined the darkness to a definite area (“darkness was upon the face of the deep”)—that is to say, only the earth. Since darkness had been limited to a definite area, light appeared merely to the whole of this dark area. So that when God said “Let there be light,” He only commanded light to appear to this earth since the entire universe was not all in darkness.
At the time of Moses, science such as it was had no knowledge of any source of light except the sun. It was totally ignorant of cosmic rays such as the so-called Northern Lights. Yet Moses recorded the fact of God calling for light before He called for the sun. Unless he was inspired by the Holy Spirit, how could he have ever written so accurately? We thank God for He is not circumscribed by the ignorance of men. The more that scientists understand the natural laws set into the universe by God, the more they shall realize the trustworthiness of God’s word.
“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day” (1.5). When did the first day begin? Some think it started from the inception of the waste and void. But this could not be the meaning here: “there was evening and there was morning, one day.” The “morning” must be the time in which light appeared. If there in fact had been no light before the first day, the term “evening” here would have no meaning whatsoever because the evening and the morning mentioned here were the explicit result of light. If indeed the word “evening” refers to the darkness found in verse 2, would not this evening be very, very long? Yet Genesis does not take the waste and void of verse 2 as being in the first day. So that before the “evening” of the first day, there must already have been light; otherwise, how would the evening and the morning be divided? The Bible does not say God created light on the first day; it merely records that God commanded light to shine. Where did this light come from? It could not have come from the earth since it was in waste and void and was encircled in darkness. It must have come from the original heavens which God had created in the beginning. This again proves that our present world is but a restored world.
Let it be known that the Six Days are days of twenty-four hours each. The Bible does indeed sometimes use the term “day” to represent an extended period of time such as “the day of the Lord,” etc. But the Six Days here are not to be construed as six prolonged periods. No unbiased readers will take them as being prolonged periods of time. We know each time the Bible uses the term “day” to stand for a period, it never qualifies that day with a number such as one, two, first, second, and so forth. But if a number is placed before the day, it invariably means the time the earth requires to make one revolution upon its axis. Now it is explicitly stated here that “there was evening, and there was morning, one day.” And hence this must be a day of but twenty-four hours in length.
Furthermore, when later on God set apart the Sabbath day, it is stated clearly that He rested on the seventh day; for when He commanded the children of Israel to remember the sabbath day, this is the way God phrased it: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a sabbath unto Jehovah thy God: . . . for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Ex. 20.8-11). Obviously for the children of Israel, all seven days represent days of twenty-four hours in length.
Suppose we were to take the Six Days as six long geological periods. What, then, would be “the evening” of these geological periods and what would be “the morning”? Before the third geological period, there would be no grass nor trees on earth. Before the sixth geological period, there could be no fossils of animals. The fact is that there is no such distinction of plants and animals to be found in earth’s strata.
If the Six Days were indeed six prolonged periods, would not Adam who was created on the sixth day have lived in the Garden of Eden for a very long while before he had sinned? Moses who wrote Genesis actually had no idea of using the term “day” to signify a lengthy period. Let us not bend the word of God to suit our theory or to soften people’s attack. For if we interpret the divine word according to our private opinion, we will subject the Scriptures to criticism as well as bring reproach to ourselves. On the basis of the evidences we have given above, it is certain that these Six Days are not six prolonged periods. Our God is almighty. Six twenty-four-hour days are quite enough for Him to restore the earth, so why should He need six lengthy periods? Since He was willing to repair the world in six days, let us observe His works with humility and praise Him for His majesty. We have absolutely no need to agree with the theory of the unregenerated. We know that what geology (if it is correct in its assumptions) demands can be met sufficiently during the period which lasted between the time of the first verse and that of the second verse of Genesis 1.
On the second day, God once more gave His order. He put the firmament in the air so as to divide the waters from the waters. He separated the waters under the firmament from the waters above the firmament. Science once again must appreciate this beautiful description. This is the effectiveness of the expanse or atmosphere. It divides the waters above and beneath it, and yet it is not inflexible. The firmament can contain moisture that can hang over us. It is not a solid reservoir which stores the waters in the sky since the “birds fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven” (Gen. 1.20).
“And God called the firmament Heaven” (1.8a) This “heaven” is different from the “heavens” mentioned in verse 1. For in verse 1 the term “heavens” points to the universe and its fullness, whereas the “heaven” here refers only to the air or atmosphere above our earth. The heavens mentioned in the first verse have never been corrupted; only the earth and its celestial bodies were changed due to God’s judgment. Concerning the Six Days of work, God pronounced each day’s work as good except the second day. Did God forget? Not at all, for what He says or does not say is equally full of meaning. The Scriptures are God-breathed, word for word. He did not pronounce the second day’s work good because the firmament or air is somewhat related to Satan. Is not Satan “the prince of the powers of the air” (Eph. 2.2), and are not the demons that are under him called “the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6.12)? Seeing that this firmament would be the habitation of Satan and his evil spirits, God did not sum up this day’s work as being good. Yet how did these evil spirits ascend to the air? We have already mentioned how they were detained in the depths of the sea, which was the waters here. Now as God divided the waters above and beneath the firmament, these wicked beings had the opportunity of escaping at the moment of the lifting of waters into the air where their prince dwelt. Hence the New Testament speaks of the evil spirits of the air who today work upon the earth. Though they are escaped convicts, they nevertheless are allowed to be free for a while till they shall be cast into the abyss. The air thus becomes the headquarters for the kingdom of darkness. Do we not notice that the works of Satan usually begin from the air? For this reason, while we are meeting or praying, we need to ask God to clear the air by means of the precious blood of our Lord so that we may not be oppressed by the enemy.
Even though the waters had been divided above and beneath the firmament, the earth at this point was still covered with water. There was yet no dry ground. On the third day, therefore, God once again commanded, this time saying: “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so” (1.9). What is mentioned here agrees perfectly with the manner in which we have interpreted Genesis 1.1 and 1.2. The command of God was for the dry land to appear. By this we know that the land was already there, except that it was buried beneath the many waters and needed only to appear. For God did not say, “Let the dry land be created out of nothing”; He merely ordered the waters to recede to a certain place so that the land which He had created in the beginning might now appear. This further proves that the works of the Six Days were not creative but restorative in nature.
Psalm 104.5-9 describes how God in the beginning created the earth; then how He judged the earth; and finally how He bade the flood to subside—which was the work of the third day: (1) “Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be moved for ever”—this segment of the passage in Psalm 104 refers to God’s original creation. (2) “Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a vesture; the waters stood above the mountains”—this segment of the passage depicts the conditions of the earth which obtained after God had judged the earth, and thus coincides with the phrase “darkness [which] was upon the face of the deep” found in Genesis 1.2. And (3) “At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away (the mountains rose, the valleys sank down) unto the place which thou hadst founded for them. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth”—this segment has reference to the work of God performed during the first part of the third day. “Thy rebuke” and “the voice of thy thunder” are phrases which allude to God’s command in Genesis. That the waters are said here to have “fled” and to have “hasted away” show further how “the waters under the heavens [were] gathered together unto one place” at God’s command as recorded in Genesis. The words “the mountains rose, the valleys sank down” in no way imply that this was the beginnings of mountains and valleys since in verse 6 of this Psalm the mountains were already spoken of as existing. These words simply indicate how the mountains which were once covered by waters would now appear after the waters receded. And so “the dry land [did] appear” once again. Reading further in our Psalm 104 passage, we find these words: “Unto the place which thou hadst founded for them. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.” These words describe in detail how the waters were “gathered together” by God “into one place” so that “the dry land” would “appear.” Thus do we firmly believe that our present world is but what God has restored.
From the above discussion we see that the earth emerged from out of the waters. Yet this has also been attested by science, for geology today fully agrees with this fact. We are told that the geological strata were long ago formed in the waters.
Still on the third day, God had performed yet another work. When the land came out of the waters, there were no grass nor trees upon it. God therefore decorated the land with grass and fruit trees.
On the fourth day, God repaired the celestial bodies because the terrestrial conditions were by this time restored. On the first day, He had called forth light to shine; but on this day He made the “lights.” We know that the light on the first day had already divided night from day (vv.4,5); now the function of the “lights” were also to divide night from day (v.16). Thus there is a similarity in function between the “light” of the first day and the “lights” of the fourth day. Probably the light of the first day shone on one side of the earth half a day and on the other side of the earth half a day. So that there was night and day on the first day. On the fourth day, God made the “lights” or light-holders to contain the light. As our earth rotates in relation to these light-holders, the latter serve “for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years.”
The greater light which God made is the sun. It does not say here that God “created” the sun because it had been created in the beginning. Here it was merely being “repaired.” Possibly the preadamic world had also the sun as light-holder. After the rebellion of Satan, though, the sun was affected and, being surrounded by darkness, it failed to shine. Nevertheless, our earth continued to rotate around the sun. But on the fourth day, God repaired the sun and caused it to be a light-holder again.
Scientists tell us that the moon is a barren desert waste. It is not hard to conceive that the sun, moon and stars were all evilly affected by the rebellion of Satan.
After God had “made the two great lights,” He also made “the stars.” Let us again reiterate that these stars were not created at this time because they already existed. We can prove this from the book of Job: “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? . . . Who determined the measures thereof, . . . or who stretched the line upon it? Whereupon were the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner-stone thereof, when the morning stars sang together ... ?” (38.4-7) Whether the earth spoken of here refers to the original creation or the restoration of the third day, one thing is nonetheless certain, which is, that before the earth was made, there already were the stars. For when the earth was in the making, the morning stars already “sang together” about the works of God. So that here on the fourth day God was merely making an adjustment to the stars which He had created before. Now since He placed so much light in the sun, God quite logically called it the greater light. And then He caused the stars to appear in the horizon to meet the need of the earth.
When God inspired Moses to write, He enabled the latter to describe His works with human needs in view because the Bible has been given to men to read. He did not show us the other uses of these sun, moon and stars but only their use to men. Even so, because these are “for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years,” they do have a relationship to other created things as well, yet the fact they are “for signs” is especially significant for mankind because none except humanity would regard heavenly phenomena as signs. The places and positions of sun, moon and stars have likewise been determined through ordinary human observations. According to mankind, the sun is the greater light, the moon the lesser light, and the individual stars even lesser lights than the moon. How wonderful that God should provide us humble men with such a vast world!
On the fifth day God prepared and created living things to inhabit the earth which was already restored. “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven” (1.20). This was God’s command, which represented His thought. “And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature that moveth, wherewith the waters swarmed, . . . and every winged bird . . . (v.21) This shows how God created them out of nothing. We do not know with what new materials God created fishes and the other living creatures of the waters. We do know, however, through Genesis 2.19, that the birds were made out of the ground. Science informs us that living creatures existed in the waters before they appeared on the land. Aquatics are the earliest species of such living creatures. Even today there are still large families of living creatures in the seas. Birds are an earlier species among warm-blooded creatures. How much in agreement the findings in science and the statements in the Bible are.
On the sixth day man was created. He was created according to God’s image. In the first chapter of Genesis it mentions simply the creation of man to indicate his position among the created beings. Only in Chapter 2.7-15 is the origin of man described in detail to indicate his relationship with God.
Let us notice that man was “created” (1.27) by God. He was not “evolved” from the lower animals. We have previously explained this word “created” to mean a calling into being from nothing. This is a distinct act of God and not the result of natural selection. The Bible never endorses the theory of evolution, which remains forever only a theory. Let us consider the following events. On the third day God ordered that “the earth [bring] forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind” (v.12). Herbs cannot become trees, nor trees change to be herbs. On the fifth day “God created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature that moveth, wherewith the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind” (v. 21). And on the sixth day “God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the ground after its kind” (v. 25). Each and every species of created being is after its kind. Though the Bible does not tell us how these species are divided, nevertheless, the phrase “after its kind” at least proves that all that were created are after their kind. Since God has said “after their kind” or “after its kind,” He has clearly ordained the boundary of each kind. There is no possibility of one kind evolving into another. Not only is it impossible for a plant to become an animal, it is also impossible for one species of plant to become another species of plant or one species of animal to become another species of animal.
We Christians believe in the word of God. Without a “thus saith the Lord” we will believe nothing. How can we believe anything which is contradictory to God’s word? His word is sufficient to solve all problems. People of the world may ridicule what they deem to be our foolish logic, but we are satisfied with God’s word. How sad that people do not believe in our God and so they wander aimlessly. They even create for themselves a kind of teaching in which they place their faith. They conclude that for God to create out of nothing and to form man from the red earth is too much of a wonder in which to believe. Yet is it not even a more incredible proposition to have to believe in, as many men do, to believe that a microscopic seed evolves through many species until it becomes an ape and then finally evolves into a man? Is not this even far more exceedingly unbelievable a thing than for God to create man? I would therefore wish to warn people not to believe in such absurdity which has been propounded in these last days. We must not believe in it or even listen to it. We should not heed those books and magazines which advocate such false teaching.
We thank God for the simplicity of His word. He said “after their kind” and “after its kind.” We do not observe any plant or animal before our eyes which does not obey the word which God had spoken. Earlier the evolutionists had said how millions of years ago our ancestors had been certain creeping things or animals. Now they tell us that millions of years into the future our progeny will become a kind of creature without fingers or toes. Whether they talk of millions of years before or beyond our current day, we shall never see what they claim or predict, and therefore we have no way to argue with them. The Bible, though, is a current book. It never makes an irresponsible statement. None of the created beings disobeys the law enunciated in Genesis of being “after its kind.”
We are told that the word “God” (Elohim) is a uni-plural noun which always is followed by a singular verb. It is rather unusual for a plural noun to be conjoined to a singular verb. But this is used to express the trinity of God. Because in the Godhead there is more than one person, no singular noun can be used. Elohim in that sense is a collective noun; it speaks of three in one, not of three Gods; hence it takes a singular verb. Though the Bible never says plainly that God is triune, there are nonetheless plenty of proofs and hints in it to support this truth. The doctrine of the Trinity is a major teaching of the holy Scriptures which we need not question. Furthermore; in Genesis 1.26 (“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”) the word “us” reveals the plurality of the Godhead while the word “make” shows the unity of God’s will. In the first chapter of Genesis the phrase “God said” is used 31 times. What God says is His “Word,” and as we read John chapter 1 we learn that the world was made by the “Word” of God. So that even in Genesis 1 the creative work of the Lord Jesus (who is the Word) is already being mentioned. We witness in Genesis 1 how the triune God worked together in creation. “God,” “God said,” and “the Spirit of God”—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—were all present.
Now before God created man, there was a pause. There was a council among the Godhead, and the decision was: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion . . .” (v.26). In pondering upon this divine council we can understand how carefully God worked. Due to the failure of Satan and the preadamic race, the earth became waste and void. Then God restored the earth and its heaven to be habitable. All the living creatures were now made and ready. But then a pause. And then a conversation among the Godhead: “Now let us make man!” Such is the spirit of the word of God here.
Yet what is the purpose in creating men? “Let them have dominion,” we are told by the Godhead. Satan has failed, he can no longer rule the world. Though he is yet free, he is under the judgment of God because his sin has already received its sentence. The earth which God has restored is to have nothing to do with Satan. It is to be a new order. In spite of the possibility of Satan retaining his title as “the prince of the world,” the man whom God created has a free will—that is to say, he has his sovereignty. For God appointed man —outside the power of Satan—to rule over the newly recovered earth and all the plants and animals on it. If man could preserve the sovereignty which he received from God, Satan would merely hold on to an empty title. For God intended to destroy the power of Satan through man.
Now we know it would be very easy for God by himself to destroy the devil. We therefore do not know why God would rather have man to work with Him in destroying the works of the devil. Nevertheless, God proceeded to make man and to give him dominion. This office was lost to Satan, and yet, alas, very soon we witness the fall of man. Man loses his sovereignty, and the devil regains the power and reign of his title as “the prince of the world.” In chapter 3 of Genesis, to be discussed later, we shall see more of this. But suffice it for us for now to know that God has only one purpose in His counsel and works regarding this world, and that is, to destroy the power of Satan. The Lord Jesus called Satan the enemy (see Matt. 13.39). We believers who have been chosen by the Lord should therefore never forget this purpose of our being involved in destroying the works and the power of the devil. Whatever we do, we should not ask if this matter is good or bad but ask instead if it is profitable to God and destructive to Satan. We will not do anything if it has no power to affect the kingdom of darkness and to cause damage to the devil.
In all our works we are to judge them not by the apparent result but by the effect they shall have in the spiritual realm as to who will gain and who will lose. This is spiritual warfare that is not to be waged by the efforts of flesh and blood. This is also to be the criterion at the judgment seat on that day: whether a work is to be burned or to stand shall be based on how effective it was in effecting the will of God. (The best way to attack the power of darkness is on the one hand to resist the works of Satan in the Spirit and deny him the victory, and on the other hand to use prayer as a weapon by asking God to destroy all the works and wiles of Satan. Positively, let us do the will of God. For each time we do His will, Satan suffers loss.)
On that sixth day man was created in God’s image and after His likeness. This does not refer exclusively to the flesh, it instead shows that man is in a position to represent God on earth since he bears a similarity to God in both mind and morals, thus enabling him to know God and to communicate with Him. Unfortunately, through sinning he lost the image and likeness of God. The foolishness of man towards God today is beyond comprehension. And except he is born anew from above, he will never know how to converse with God. In the New Testament Paul has told us that man “is the image and glory of God” (1 Cor. 11.7). For when God created man, He created him to represent His own glory. To whom was the glory to be shown? To Satan who resides in the air. But the first man failed. The Second Man did not fail, however, for He being “the very image of his [God’s] substance” (Heb. 1.3), Christ Jesus was able to fully represent God.
“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food: and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food” (1.29,30). In the world before sin entered in, meat was not eaten. Only in the sinful world has meat become a necessity. In the future—in the new heaven and the new earth—aside from eating the fruit of the tree of life, there is no record of eating any meat at all. The will of God for us today is: “For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4.4,5). In this world of ours which is full of evil, “to abstain from meats” (4.3) is to deny that the world is under a curse.
“And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (v.31). God never made anything bad. All things bad come from sin and not from God’s creation. We who live in this evil world should not murmur against God, because in Him there is no evil and nothing bad ever came from His creative hands. On the contrary, God treated mankind with utmost kindness. He prepared the grass and herbs on the third day as food for man, the animals and birds—whom He then made on the fifth and sixth days. He made ready the environment before He put us in it. If we truly see this touch of kindness, what comfort it can be to us! God always provides for His creatures. Before the grass, He prepared the earth; before the animals, He prepared the plants. Sometimes we grow fearful because we fail to see God and His goodness. But how blessed are those with faith! For nothing can shake their hearts!
Chapter 2.1-3 should really be an extension of chapter 1. On the seventh day God finished His work and rested. One thing worth noticing here is that the rest mentioned is God’s rest, not man’s. The Bible declares that this is God’s sabbath. God had worked for six days, and now He rested. This rest, however, was not physical, because God is never tired: “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? The everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary” (Is. 40.28). What, then, is the meaning of His rest? It is not physical but spiritual in nature. It signifies God’s satisfaction. As He looked at what He had made and saw that all of it was very good, He was satisfied. All who study the Scriptures carefully should understand the meaning of God’s rest. He had not set up the sabbath for man to keep, for man had done no work yet and therefore had no need to rest. Only after Adam sinned did he begin working (Gen. 3.19). Before he had sinned, Adam did not need to rest on the seventh day. Therefore, today we neither keep the sabbath of the children of Israel (for such belongs to the law) nor keep the sabbath of God’s creation (for He had not given this day to man).
Another matter calls for our attention. With respect to the six preceding days it was always recorded that “there was evening and there was morning”; on this seventh day—the day of rest—there is no such record. After God had finished His work, He rested in the eternal day which is always day and never night. This rest is a type of the eternal rest (Heb. 4.3) in which all who labor with God shall rest eternally in that unending nightless day. The very thought of this should make our hearts glad.