“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”” (Isaiah 58:13–14, ESV)
Our verse of the week this week is a longer verse. So I am going to break it up and cover it over the course of the next two weeks. I would encourage you to memorize verse 13 this week and verse 14 next week.
The Sabbath was created by God in the very beginning of the Bible. God created the earth in six days and on the 7th he rested. We are told that he made that 7th day holy. In other words it was a day different from all the others. The other days were for labor. This day was for rest.
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.” (Genesis 2:1–3, ESV)
The thing is that God did not need to rest.
“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary . . .” (Isaiah 40:28, ESV)
So why did he rest? He rested for you and me. He created more than the heavens and the earth on those first 7 days. He created a pattern of fruitful labor, productivity, and life.
Turning from the 2nd chapter of the Bible to the second book of the Bible – we are given the 10 commandments. The third commandment is:
“Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.“ (Exodus 20:9–12, ESV)
The Sabbath Day is one of God’s top 10. It is right up there with do not murder, do not commit adultery, and do not lie. In fact, it is even numbered before those commandments.
We take seriously a commandment like “you shall not kill.” But to honor that Sabbath Day is not a commandment that we don’t take as seriously. We blow it off more as a suggestion rather than a commandment. We work, work, work, and work more. We have got too much to do that we don’t have time to rest. But God’s truth is that we have too much to do not to rest.
What if you put honor the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy on the level of a commandment? How would your life look different? Our verse of the week gives us an indication. I hope you can get some rest today!
What day do you consider the Sabbath?
Hi Lori- thanks for the question. Under the former covenant Saturday is recognized at the Sabbath Day. But in light of the resurrection we live under the new covenant. The earlier Church began to worship on Sunday recognizing it as the Lord’s Day that Jesus rose from the dead. Christians typically use Sunday to observe the Sabbath. But it is not as important the actual day as the principle of honoring a Sabbath Day.