To grasp the kind of history presented in Genesis, the reader must supply the missing context, assumptions, religious imagery and sensibilities, and cultural elements that are implicit in the text.
In ancient Near East creation accounts, “rest” is not only the motive for undertaking Creation in the first place, but also the happy end that follows Creation as the culminating event of the triumphant victory of order and divine dominion over chaos. In the biblical account, as in ancient Near East accounts such as Enuma Elish,1 God rests (or “ceased”3 ) when His work was finished.1 When He does so, taking His place in the midst of creation and ascending to His throne, a temple made with divine hands comes into full existence as a functional sanctuary4 — a “control room of the cosmos,”5 as Walton terms it.
True rest is finally achieved only when God rules supreme in His divine temple — and His righteous and duly-appointed king rules on earth.