AP

Isaiah 58:13-14  “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honourable, and if you honour it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the LORD, and I will cause you to ride in triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.”  For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

It is important that we read these verses in the light of the overall message of Isaiah 58 and the OT as a whole, and the teaching of Jesus about Sabbath observance.

We notice that the prophet calls it ‘the LORD’s holy day’, that it should be a ‘a delight’ and ‘honourable’, and that keeping it should be a source of ‘joy in the LORD’ and ‘triumphant’ living.  This sounds really wonderful and rewarding – but the problem lies in its abuse.  This was certainly the big problem in Jesus’ day, and often throughout history.  In the lead up to these verses in Isaiah 58 the prophet is exposing the utter hypocrisy of ‘going through the motions’ of religious activity (like ‘fasting’ and praying’) without having one’s ‘heart’ in it – as if just the mechanical activity itself pleases God and gains his favour!  Nothing could be further from the truth.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus forcefully exposes the emptiness of outwardly ‘keeping the rules’ but with inconsistent, empty and wrong motives.  Mechanical ‘Sabbath observance’ for the purpose of impressing God is no different!  The apostle Paul calls it striving for ‘works righteousness’ and the apostle James says: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. … … What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?  Can such faith save them?  Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 1:27; 2:14-17)

The Mosaic Law gives two accounts of the Fourth Commandment.  In Exodus 20:8-11, we are told to ‘Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy, and in Deuteronomy 5:12-15 we are told to ‘Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy’.  The reason given in Exodus, at the very ‘lightning-and-thunder’ revelation on Mt Sinai, is that God created the heavens and earth in six days and rested on the Seventh Day, setting us the pattern for one day of rest in seven.  By keeping it ‘holy’ (‘separate’, ‘other’, ‘different’) we are honouring our being made in the image of God, the Creator, and depending entirely on him for everything – so we cease from regular money-earning work.  The reason is rooted in God and Creation.

The reason given in Deuteronomy is that God rescued them from slavery and chose them to be his special covenant people, to serve and worship him alone.  It was rooted in redemption.  They were about to enter the Promised Land and mix with people who worshipped other, man-made ‘gods’ and had no thought for God the Creator/Redeemer.  Therefore observing the Sabbath would be a clear way for Israel to establish, and regularly show, their separate identity as God’s covenant people.

Both the ‘Exodus’ and the ‘Deuteronomy’ reasons are relevant to God’s covenant people in every age and circumstance, so it is appropriate and important for us to remember and observe a Sabbath as the ‘Lord’s Day’, keeping these reasons in mind, but all this relevance and significance is lost (on us and the watching world) if it becomes just a mechanical ritual and burden rather than the ‘delight’ and a ‘joy’ God intended it to be, remembering Jesus’ words: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27)  The problem with ‘Sabbatarianism’ is not that it is ‘observing a Lord’s Day’ but when it falls into the same gross error as the Pharisees did – first considering it a burden instead of a joy and delight and then, as a consequence, ignoring it altogether. 

– Bruce Christian