Hi there.
I don't disagree God is holy, and he calls us to be holy... to be set apart, to be totally "other"
Leviticus 11:45
I am the LORD, who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy...
There it is again... It originates with Him... our source... because they would have to represent Him to the other nations, they were to respond in a particular way as a particular people. So the Sabbath day the 4th commandment was to be kept
1. GOD - in honor and acknowledgement of God who provides and of the one who freed them from slavery (not in our own strength)
2. SELF - for their benefit, as it allowed them rest and provision
3. CREATION - animals and land could rest
4. OTHERS - they got to rest but others would also be able to see that Israel's God was a totally different God than those of wood and stone, He commanded respect and he cared enough to give them rest.
All things, all of creation could rest, it acknowledged God as the CREATOR God... as I said in a previous post. God was progressively revealing who He was to a people that did not know Him. This revelation would culminate in God become flesh in the person of Jesus Christ who was Lord of the Sabbath, that is the One who was greater than... as he created it... (John 1:3). He is the climax of our biblical story.
God did not "shabat" on the seventh day because He needed it... what kind of God would he be if he got tired or weary? He ceased because all that He had created was "very good". He didn't need to do anything else... I surmise that if Adam and Eve had not sinned they would have been in a perpetual shabat... where what they were asked to do i.e.. be fruitful and multiply ..."cultivate the land" would not be burdensome or laborious. But that it would flow naturally from this "very good".…