Then You Shall Delight Yourself in the Lord

Over the last three weeks, we have been considering God’s instruction concerning keeping the Sabbath as laid out for us by the prophet Isaiah.

God inspired Isaiah to tell us that we must honor God in our approach to the Sabbath. We keep the Sabbath holy as we avoid doing our own ways, finding our own pleasure, or speaking our own words. This approach to the Sabbath requires us to change our approach to life. We must put God first, instead of ourselves, and focus our thoughts and deeds on keeping the Sabbath holy.

Keeping the Sabbath as God instructs goes against our natural inclinations and it most assuredly goes against the direction the world is going. We must make choices in regard to what is most important in our lives.

Here are few examples to consider. On the Sabbath, should we devote extra time to prayer, or should we work on the house project that needs doing? Should we take extra time to diligently study God’s word, or should we tune into a TV program we like on Friday night. After all, watching TV is relaxing, isn’t it? On the Sabbath should we meditate on the things we have been studying in the Bible, or should we think about the work week ahead? On the Sabbath should we go to church services, or should we rest up from a hard week at work? After all, can’t we just listen to a sermon online or tune in to the cybercast?

It is true that to keep the Sabbath we must deny ourselves. But is that denial of self all that significant when we consider what God offers us?

Isaiah 58:14 describes the impact of our taking seriously God’s instruction concerning the keeping of the Sabbath. Verse 14 says, “Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Let’s consider a few points in verse 14. “Then” tells us that if we implement God’s instructions in verse 13 there will be a most positive result. The most significant result of living by Isaiah 58:13 is that we will delight ourselves in the Lord. In other words, we will find pleasure in God, His truth, and His way of life.

Not only will we take delight in the Lord, but there are also specific rewards that will come our way. I think Deuteronomy 32:9-12 offers us some insight into what God offers the Sabbath keeper, “For the Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness. He encircled him; He instructed him; He kept him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings. So the Lord alone led him, and there was no foreign god with him.” Figuratively speaking, God offers us the physical blessings of Jacob now and the spiritual blessings of Jacob in the future.

Is it worth keeping the Sabbath holy? Only if we truly want to honor God and to enjoy the blessings God only offers to those who honor Him by keeping the Sabbath.

Gary Smith

Are My Ways Pleasing to God on the Sabbath Day?

In Isaiah 58:13, the prophet begins the verse with, “If you turn your foot away from the Sabbath. . . .” In speaking of “your foot” and “the Sabbath” he is signaling to his hearers that they were in fact trampling upon the Sabbath in the way that they were observing it. While they may have recognized the Sabbath to a degree, they were showing by their actions and words that they did not take delight in the Sabbath.

Isaiah tells us that the Sabbath is a “holy day” a period of time from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday that God has made holy, through His setting apart the time, for man’s benefit. We are to honor God by the way we approach the Sabbath.

God inspired Isaiah to elaborate on how we honor God on the Sabbath. He says, “You shall honor Him.” God’s expectation on the Sabbath is that we would honor Him by certain things we would do and say.

It is easy for us to adhere to the time frame of the Sabbath. The Sabbath begins and ends at sunset so we are usually aware of when the sun goes below the horizon on Friday night and when it goes below the horizon Saturday night. We also know that we are to go to church services each week. However, God is looking for more from us on the Sabbath than the bare minimum.

He goes on to explain how we can truly honor God on the Sabbath day. We honor Him by not doing our own ways. In the context of “not doing our own ways”, we might consider a well-known Proverb, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”

Proverbs 14:12 is a warning to us that our ways can seem right to us from our human perspective. They seem right to us because we are selfish and what we selfishly want to do leads to death because God has been left out of the picture.

As we consider giving honor to God by “not doing our own ways” on the Sabbath, we might consider another passage found in Isaiah 55:8-9,  “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."

We can only come to understand God’s thoughts and ways as we humble ourselves before God ask a couple of simple questions:

• What are God’s thoughts and God’s ways? They are revealed in the scriptures.
• Are my thoughts and my ways pleasing to God?

As we answer these two questions there is a most positive outcome which is described in the next two verses in Isaiah 55, “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (10-11).

God made the Sabbath for man in order that his ways will not only be pleasing to God on the Sabbath, but throughout the rest of the week as well.

Enjoy the upcoming Sabbath day and consider, “Are my ways pleasing to God on the Sabbath day?”

Gary Smith

A Sabbath Day of Atonement

As the Sabbath begins, it also begins another of the great observances in God’s plan of salvation, the Day of Atonement.

Each Sabbath is to be time in which we stop to consider that God gives us time to rest from our labors and to reflect upon our God and His plan. Each Sabbath we are reminded that we have entered into covenant with God and there is more to life than simply living “under the sun” as Solomon brought out in Ecclesiastes 1.

This particular Sabbath is unique in that the Day of Atonement gives the time of refreshing added meaning.
Is there a being that undermines our lives more than the adversary, Satan? He intrudes in our lives with his attitudes and influences which tempt us to sin, and we see sin around us most every day.
But in being called out of this present evil world we have a unique perspective. I think that perspective is reflected in 1 John 5:19, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”

We know we are of God even in the midst of a wicked world. How is that? The Sabbath is a key reminder of our Creator who has given us rest and a great purpose for living. God has led us to repentance and our sins have been blotted out. Christ has entered our lives through the Holy Spirit and is preparing us for “the times of restoration of all things” (Acts 3:19-21).

We know something wonderful is going on in our lives, but we also know that Satan is still hard at work in this world.

The good news for us and the world is this. Through our ongoing relationship with God, we can overcome Satan, enjoy the refreshment of having God in our lives, and we can know that a time of refreshing is coming for all mankind as Satan and the demons no longer hold sway over this world.

Enjoy this Sabbath, this Day of Atonement and the rich meaning for us.

Gary Smith