8- Sabbath - A Delight

Isa 58:13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:

Isa 58:14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Turn THY foot away from the sabbath, from doing THY pleasure on my holy day.

Now we know that God made the sabbath FOR US. We know God made the sabbath day HOLY, that He BLESSED the sabbath day. The Sabbath is God's holy, blessed day of rest and it's a rest for us- physically and spiritually.

The thing is- God made this day of rest as a sign. God did NOT make this day of rest as a day of recreation. God made this day as a covenant sign between Him and mankind. God made this day as a day our thoughts are to turn away from self completely and turn to Him and to others. God made this day to be a blessing for man. When we turn from our own pleasures (our own pursuits) and find delight in the Lord we are blessed.

Too many look upon the sabbath day as just any other day. Too many look upon the sabbath day in disregard. Too many look upon the sabbath day as a day to selfishly do nothing but what they desire not caring about what God may desire of them.

When we are told this--

'Turn THY foot away from the sabbath, from doing THY pleasure on my holy day. '

We are being told to PUT God first in all we do on the Sabbath day and ourselves second. This day should be God-centered, not self-centered. It's not that we are not to have any DELIGHT (pleasure) but rather our delight, our pleasure should be God's pleasure, pleasing to God.

God knew that we couldn't devote ALL our time to Him. God knew that because we had minds of our own and free will with those minds, that our thoughts would not be solely upon Him. When one man became two people right then God knew that the thoughts of mankind would turn to each other as well as to self. God knew that as man tended the garden and the animals that it would be easy for man to watch a seedling grow and take pride in having been part of bring that new life into being. To keep man from FORGETTING his origins, God arranged man's life so that they would be constantly reminded of the source of ALL life, the source of THEIR life. To keep man from thinking they themselves were creators, were gods, there was a reminder put in place that was put in place PERMANENTLY. This reminder wasn't to be grievous and painful, this reminder was a call to put aside everything and have everything ready so that there would be no distractions and the entire day could be devoted to worshipping the One who created them and all they see. A willingness to set aside EVERYTHING and give glory to the Creator. We give glory to God when we do the will of God. When Jesus healed on the sabbath day He was doing the will of God. When Jesus taught that picking tiny bits of corn to appease hunger on the sabbath was okay, He was teaching that we CAN'T allow what we believe are restrictions to pull our thoughts from God and place them on self. A belly going hungry is distracting for sure! The disciples didn't set about making a gruel from the corn, they merely plucked what was there already and while they were walking snacked on the food- keeping their minds off their hunger and on what Jesus was teaching them.

In the beginning, God created the sabbath for mankind to celebrate in the Garden of Eden, from week to week. After sin entered and they were no longer in the Garden of Eden man was to still keep the sabbath every week. As the children were led from Egypt they were taught by the miracle of manna that God still expected them to keep the sabbath day. Placing the covenant command in His ten commandments, written by His own finger etched upon stone, God revealed the importance of keeping the seventh day holy and set aside for Him. Jesus kept the sabbath- teaching in synagogues as was His custom, pointing us ever to God. There was never any contention over whether or not the sabbath should be kept, never. The only contention came when the Pharisees question HOW Jesus was keeping the sabbath. The Pharisees knew Jesus was keeping the sabbath as were all his disciples- they never accused them of NOT keeping the sabbath but only that the things they were doing were profaning the sabbath they were keeping. Jesus rested in the grave on the sabbath.

From the very beginning the sabbath was instituted and mankind has been told to keep the sabbath. From our first parents to us we are to keep the sabbath. Do you imagine it to be something impossible to do as God would have you do it? Would God create the sabbath and make it impossible to keep? No. Satan would like us to believe it is impossible to keep the sabbath and he will stop at nothing to make it very hard for us to keep the sabbath.

Call the sabbath a delight.

Call the sabbath the holy of the LORD.

Call the sabbath honorable.

Honor God on the sabbath.

Spending one whole day with God first in all thing- not doing our own ways, not seeking our own pleasure, not speaking so that our conversations are without thought of God, but only on self.

Delighting ourselves in the LORD.

I read this in the Webster Bible Dictionary-

'Delight is a more permanent pleasure than joy, and not dependent on sudden excitement.'

When we love God we are loving perfectly. We can delight ourselves in the LORD- having that deep sense of pleasure, of love in a God whose promises are sure and everlasting. We can find this deep sense of pleasure in keeping the sabbath day holy, keeping the sabbath day special, keeping the sabbath day and honoring God our Creator, our Redeemer.

By His amazing grace may we find our delight to be in the LORD, honoring the sabbath as He would have us do so, now and forever.

Amen.