If you refrain from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable; if you honor it, not doing your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs; then you will take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of your ancestor Jacob, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Isaiah 58: 13, 14, NRSV (The New Oxford Annotated Bible)
Heavenly Father, as we enter into the rest that this weekly oasis provides, we look forward to the day when we shall enter the eternal rest, that has been purchased by the blood of the Lamb. Amen
Isn’t it wonderful that God provided us with a day of rest at the end of the weekly cycle? He could have inserted it in the middle of the week, or He could have started the week with the day of rest. Instead, like a delicious dessert, He left the best for the last. How good it feels after a week of hard, honest, labor, to enter into God’s rest and enjoy fellowship with Him, and with our brothers and sisters!
But true rest also comes with the knowledge that during the week we did everything in our power to ensure that others will also find rest from oppression and marginalization. True Sabbath observance creates a conscientious community!
When we respect the boundaries of others, we are less likely to trample on the Sabbath. If, during the six days of the week we are busy seeking the wellbeing of the less fortunate, then it will not be difficult to set aside our own interests on the Sabbath. If we strive daily to live within His will, honoring Him instead of pursuing our own affairs will be our natural response. When we have a personal relationship with the Lord, spending the Sabbath with Him will be our delight. When we take time to get to know others, our Sabbath gatherings will be a joyous experience!
Then the blessings will flow down as rivers of water! The heritage that God promised Jacob was of abundance. However, the land whereupon he laid was not to be kept for himself and his immediate descendants, but was to be shared. He received the blessing in order that “all the families of the earth [would] be blessed in [him] and in his offspring.” This blessing would make of all the families of the earth one. He would spread to the four corners of the globe, even ”to the high places of the earth!”
This is the message that lies at the heart of true Sabbath observance: sharing the blessings of the Creator with all of His creatures. When we do this we shall truly be participating, in spirit and in truth, in the heritage of Jacob, our ancestor. And not only we shall be blessed, but so many others as well! For the mouth of [Him that cannot lie], has spoken.