March 30, 2025 -- Isaiah 58:13-14 -- The LORD's Day restored as delight

People loved by the Father, in the Spirit's power: Sh'ma ~ hear and obey Jesus!

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
 
In Genesis readers are instructed that God rested on the Sabbath, that is, the seventh day of creation. The LORD our Creator made the day to be a sanctuary in time. Time for God and His people to meet. Delighting in the Sabbath was designed so that inevitably by the observance of it people would delight in the LORD Himself.
 
In the New Testament the Sabbath is the first day of the week, Sunday. Why? It is the day Jesus rose from the dead. His sacrifice for sin was accepted by the Father in heaven. In Jesus Christ we have new life. We are a new creation. New Testament believers gathered on the new Sabbath, the LORD’s Day, the first day of the week: Sunday.
 
No wonder our world fights against the Sabbath-Sunday celebration. In the 1970’s and 1980’s Canadian culture systematically fought against the uniqueness of the day God had set apart. Stores were opened. Sporting leagues and ice rinks opened. Finally like in the time of Isaiah, economic, government and cultural forces intentionally defiled the Sabbath. It became a day for pursuing one’s personal pleasure. So, here we are today, delight in the Sabbath, and therefore delight in God Himself, the Giver of the day of rest and gladness is at an all-time low ebb.
 
We were never designed to go seven days a week. We were made to work, because work itself is both a gift from God and it is something He designed so there is pleasure in the execution of it. Additionally, He gave the day of Sabbath. Rest in Him as a delight. Stop from work. Stop from pursuing your own pleasure, your profit-chasing, your entertainment seeking. A day to realize everything you have and all you are is a gift from Him—your breath, your strength, your talents, your health, everything you are and are able to do is based on His grace to you.
 
Reclaim the day. Trust God to bless the day. More importantly, trust God that by honouring the Sabbath-Sunday, by attending church, reading your Bible, intentionally seeking Him out, He will do as He promised. He will bless you in the best way possible, by teaching you to delight in Him.
 
Father in heaven, when You saved Your people from Egypt, and later, once again, when You prepared them to enter the Promised Land, you gave the Ten Commandments. A central feature is the command to keep the Sabbath Day holy, as the LORD your God commanded you. Jesus Himself honoured it by in His words and actions, restoring it to be a day of delight in You. By Your Spirit’s presence in me, teach me to delight in the LORD’s Day. Teach me what Jesus knew and modeled so that gracious Father, I will wholly delight in You on the LORD’s Day. Then I will find in You joy and strength, hope and soon salvation’s glad-hearted song will fill the rest of my days and nights. Amen.
 
https://youtu.be/ZLO9KJv0RlA?si=79fr8KM4sAebZmMQ O Day of Rest and Gladness
 

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