A blessing is something conferred in order to bring one to a fuller and more abundant life. We begin to see what God did on the Sabbath - He blessed it! We begin to see the purpose of that blessing. The purpose of the Sabbath is to bring a person - all persons eventually - to a more abundant and fuller life. To liberate them (us) from whatever it is that holds us in bondage. The Sabbath is the day of liberation - of liberty, of freedom.
What is He blessing here? He's blessing what He just created - the living creatures, animals. In verse 28, He blesses man. And then in Genesis 2:3 is the capstone of His blessings in the Creation week. It expresses God's blessing of His whole Creation; and by blessing a recurring period of time, God promises to be man's Benefactor through the whole course of human history. It's an invocation - to you and to me - of God's favor. And, as we continue along here, we will see that it's primary intention is that God will be our spiritual Benefactor.
Now, it also includes the physical as well. The two cannot be separated here, because we are physical. That's why He told us to rest. It is a blessing - to you physically and to me physically - to be able to rest on the Sabbath. Our health is increased because we do it. We don't get as sick as often as we used to. And when we do get sick, we don't get sick as badly as we used to. Because we are resting on the Sabbath day, our body is freed from much of what would normally come upon us. If we don't keep it, we don't get that blessing.
But that still is not its primary intention. Its primary intention has to do with that which is spiritual. Brethren, Jesus is clearly tying His ministry to the Sabbath concepts of blessing, deliverance, liberty, and redemption. That's His mission - to bring those things to mankind.
