Did God work on the first Sabbath?
Question: Did God work on the first Sabbath, and if He did what did He do and why?
Answer: The Creator worked on the first Sabbath (the seventh day of the creation), as it is seen in Gen 2:1.
And the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. (Gen 2:1-2 JPS)
From Genesis 1 we understand that the Creator made the universe and everything visible and invisible in six days, but on the seventh, the Sabbath day, He finished His work, and on the same day He rested. The simple meaning of the words of the text implies that God worked on the Sabbath, because He finished something on it.
What did He finish on the Sabbath? Well, we were not there to see it, but from the six days of creation, we also understand that He created the days themselves, not only the created things. Therefore, on the first Sabbath He created the rest day itself, and then He rested. So, did God work on the first Sabbath? Yes, He did.
Now, we may say that that was permissible to create the Sabbath day, because the Sabbath day needed to be created, but definitely He has rested on the Sabbaths from that day on. Well, there is only one verse in the entire Bible that says that He does something even on the Sabbaths.
But to find out what He does, read more in the article “What does God do every day?” (Sabbaths included)