1, 2. What can we conclude from an accurate rendering of Genesis 2:3, and what questions arise?

FROM the first chapter of Genesis, we learn that God prepared the earth for human habitation during six figurative days. The end of each of these periods is marked by the words: “There came to be evening and there came to be morning.” (Gen. 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31) However, with respect to the seventh day, the Bible states: “God proceeded to bless the seventh day and make it sacred, because on it he has been resting from all his work that God has created.”​—Gen. 2:3.

² Notice the form of the verb “has been resting.” That suggests that the seventh day​—God’s “day” of rest—​was under way in 1513 B.C.E. when Moses wrote the book of Genesis. Is God’s rest day still ongoing? If so, can we enter into it today? The answers to these questions are of vital importance to us.

 5. What was the purpose of the seventh day, and when will that purpose be fully realized?

⁵ In order to answer that question, we must remember the purpose of the seventh day. Genesis 2:3 explains what it is: “God proceeded to bless the seventh day and make it sacred.” That day was ‘made sacred’​—sanctified, or set apart, by Jehovah—​in order to bring his purpose to completion. That purpose is for the earth to be inhabited by obedient men and women who will take care of it and all life upon it. (Gen. 1:28) It is toward the realization of that purpose that both Jehovah God and Jesus Christ, the “Lord of the sabbath,” have “kept working until now.” (Matt. 12:8) God’s rest day will continue until his purpose in connection with it has been fully realized at the end of Christ’s Thousand Year Reign.