How can a God who doesn’t get tired rest?
The idea of God resting after creating the material universe could be daunting to many people, particularly Christians who are genuinely looking for answers. Atheist and Agnostic sometimes use this to challenge the omnipotence of God and thereby discrediting the authenticity of Scriptures.
The Bible says
It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed [1].
God after creating the universe was said to have rested and was refreshed. However, Isaiah 40:28 asserts
Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
How do we reconcile this seeming dissonance to maintain the authenticity and the integrity of the Holy Bible?
The Old Testament of the Bible was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic. While the New Testament was written in Greek. This seems strange, since one would have thought that the New Testament as well would be either Hebrew or Aramaic. However, Greek was the language of scholarship during the years of the composition of the New Testament from 50 to 100 AD. Therefore, the New Testament authors wrote in Greek [2].
The Bible however, has gone through series of translations. Biblical Hebrew, sometimes called Classical Hebrew and Aramaic were the original languages of the original manuscripts. The very first translation of the Hebrew Bible was into Greek, before it was translated from Greek to other languages.
This and other alleged discrepancies in Scripture are obviously attributed to the Eastern custom of applying a plurality of names to the same person or object [3]. In matters of everyday life, this custom is widely prevalent. The Hebrew language has as many as fifty words denoting a body of water of some kind. There are at least eighteen Hebrew words used to express different kinds of prickly shrubs or weeds which occur in the Hebrew Scriptures. Wilhelm Gesenius, a renown Hebrew lexicographer gives eight different Hebrew terms for “counsel,” twelve for “darkness,” thirty-two for “destruction,” ten for “law” and twenty-three for “wealth.” Therefore, the Hebrew word interpreted as “rested” could have a lot of meanings.
However, “Rested and was refreshed”, as seen in Exodus 31:17 is merely a vivid oriental way of saying that He ceased from the work of creation, and took delight in surveying that work. Dr. J. P. Thompson said.
To rest here does not mean to seek repose from fatigue, but to suspend activity in a particular mode of operation, to cease from doing thus and so.
The Bible says and the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat [4]. This is not to say the ark was tired and it took some rest, perhaps by taking a nap or relaxing. But rather, the ark ceased from moving. God is Omnipotent, Omnipresent and Omniscient, hence He never goes weary.
References
[1] Exodus 31:17
[2] International Bible Society “In what language was the Bible first written?,” Accessed January 6, 2022. url: https://www.biblica.com/resources/bible-faqs/in-what-language-was-the-bible-first- written.
[3] John, Haley. Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible. (New Kensington: Whitaker House, 1992), 28.
[4] Genesis 8:4
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