Drawing on what the text itself provides, tell me what meaning is being conveyed. What primarily is God doing in this account? The human person? And taking it as an obvious truth that God doesn’t need to rest, what is this business with the seventh day?
Regardless of whether or not the first part of Genesis is supposed to convey a factual scientific account of how the universe came to be, it conveys that God brought forth the universe, the world, and life on that world. At first it was all nothing, and God made that nothing everything. In contrast to evolutionist accounts of creation, there was divinity and intention. The universe was no accident, and it didn’t simply just fall into place. There was a masterful plan behind God’s execution of creation, and it was artful. So much so that God took a day of rest from his creation to conclude what he had done. From what I interpret, the day does not represent a needed recovery for relief of exhaustion from what God had just completed, but it represents a deliberate opportunity for him to admire his creation and what he had done. It conveys a sense of certainty and contentedness in his work, and reinforces the mastery behind it that is greater than any ordinary accomplishment. Like man, which God created in his likeness and image, it was all no accident. We were put in the universe for a reason, like everything else which God created, except with dominion over all living things. Something truly interesting about it all is the lack of conflict. There was nothing which brought out the creation the universe except God himself as the architect. There was no problem in the universe that warranted the creation of a universe, because there was none. God did it all because he could. He created the heavens and the earth, night and day, and creatures to inhabit that earth, all because he could, and it all goes to show his greatness and power in that he had a plan for it all. God made everything and it was good.
Foundations of Theology (sgutier5) 