Call the Sabbath a Delight

"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 findings thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: 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." [Isaiah 58:13-14]

The above verse from the book of Isaiah is speaking to us about the Sabbath day. On the seventh day of the world the Lord God Almighty hallowed the Sabbath day as told us in the fourth commandment. In other words, the Lord made the Sabbath holy and in the above verse we are told how to observe the Sabbath in an holy manner.

The Lord has put it into my heart to try to persuade those who do not believe the observance of the Sabbath is for today. So, I will seek to do this to the best of my ability to the glory of God.

As I mentioned before, the Lord rested the seventh day from all of His labors. We are told this in the fourth commandment in Exodus chapter 20. The fourth commandment is not the first time we are introduced to the keeping of the Sabbath day. Notice, the fourth commandment does not start with "Thou shalt" or "Thou shalt not." No, it says "Remember," because we have already been shown the Sabbath day in Genesis after the sixth day of creation. "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made."(Genesis 2:2-3)

So, in the fourth commandment we are given a command from God to keep the Sabbath holy and the verse from Isaiah shows us how to do this.

Question: That is all good and fine, but the fourth commandment was not reiterated in the New Testament and all of the other commandments were. Why then do we have to keep it?

Answer: First, the first table of the law is not reiterated in the New Testament. You may say, "But the Lord tells us to love the Lord with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all mind and with all of our strength. This is the first table of the law." That is true. That is the first table of the Law, but the reason why you say that is because you are told that in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Second, Walter Chantry, said in his book, Call the Sabbath a Delight, "If anyone says that the New Testament does not teach the fourth commandment, perhaps he should read the Gospels before he pretends to speak for the whole Testament." In other words, the Lord speaks of the fourth commandment all over the New Testament and He was not just speaking to the Jews. No, He was speaking to us as well. If we believed Christ was only speaking to the Jews, then the only part of the Bible that really matters is the death of Christ.

Question: When the Lord spoke of the Fourth Commandment in the New Testament, wasn't He referring to the Seventh day? Furthermore, didn't the Lord fulfill the law when he died?

Answer: Yes, Christ was referring to to the Seventh day, but it is obvious that the day changed after Christ's death. First, Christ rose again from the dead on the First day of the week (Sunday). So, every time we come together on Sunday for church we should remember that the Lord rose from the dead on the First day of the week. Second, after Christ had risen up into Heaven, the disciples met for Pentecost on the First day of the week. Also, when the young man fell out of the window while Paul was preaching, this was on the first day of the week. Furthermore, in the book of Revelation chapter 1 verse 10 it says, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day..." Never in the Old Testament was the Seventh day referred to as the "Lord's day." No, the only day we refer to as the Lord's day is the First day of the week or Sunday. This is because Christ rose on the first day of the week. Also, the Lord did indeed fulfill the law when he died, but if you read Hebrews ten, it is clear that He fulfilled the Sacrificial laws and the Ceremonial laws but did not fulfill the ten commandments.

Lastly, in Hebrews four, the Bible speaks of a rest for the children of God. It seems that the rest the writer is speaking of is that Sabbath rest we will enjoy in Heaven for all eternity. The reason I have come to this conclusion because the writer says in verse 4, "For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works." It then proceeds to speak of a rest yet to come. This to me and to other Bible scholars including Calvin is speaking of the rest we will enjoy in Heaven.

You see, we as Christians must have some sort of rest so that we may completely concentrate on the Lord. This is why we were given the the Sabbath day by God. The Rocky Mountain Times some time in the 19th century said that, our nation was in the state that it was because of the failure to observe the Christian Sabbath. Voltaire said, "If you want to destroy the Christian religion, you must first destroy the Christian Sunday." Having the rest needed to completely focus on God without other distractions gives us a strength to proceed with the week to follow. Completely focusing on God is what we will enjoy in Heaven. Our Sabbath is a small picture of what we will enjoy in Heaven for all eternity.

I ask you, if you are not willing to sanctify one day to the Lord, will you be able to sanctify eternity to the Lord? What I mean is this, if you are not willing to spend one day a week focusing on God completely for the entire day, will you be willing to spend eternity focusing on God completely or will you want to play baseball or ultimate.

Keeping the Sabbath day reflects a love for the Lord, unless you are keeping it just because you were told to. It is a matter of the heart. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." I beg you to reconsider your belief concerning the Lord's day. I beg you to pray to God that he would open your eyes. I beg you to study the Scriptures. Soli Deo Gloria.

One last thought, the verse I started this post with talks about delighting ourselves in the Lord. The Bible says in the Psalms, "Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Delight yourself in the Lord and keep His holy day, dear brethren in Christ.