Isaiah 58:13,14

3. HERITAGE

TEXT: Isaiah 58:13-14

13

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, and the holy of Jehovah honorable; and shalt honor it, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:

14

then shalt thou delight thyself in Jehovah; and I will make thee to ride upon the high places of the earth; and I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken-it.

QUERIES

a.

Why is the sabbath so important?

b.

How will they ride upon the high places?

PARAPHRASE

You people must stop kicking around My sabbath day and wiping your feet on it as something that can be desecrated by exploiting it for your own greedy gain. You must cherish My sabbath as that which is exquisitely precious, that which you delight in and honor. You must honor My sabbath by ceasing to take the day to concentrate on your own indulgence and talking of everything but Me. If you will take this attitude toward My sabbath and cherish Me, then I will exalt you and make you conquerors. I will give you the spiritual birthright which I promised to your ancestor Jacob. That will sustain you for all eternity. These are the words of Jehovah the omnipotent God!

COMMENTS

Isaiah 58:13 DEVOTION: The Hebrew word oneg (Isaiah 58:13) or te -annag (Isaiah 58:14) is translated delight but means literally, delicate, exquisite, luxurious. The Lord is insisting that His people cherish His sabbath. They are presently trampling it under foot, so to speak, as of no more value than something to wipe their feet on. It is being used as a day for planning self-indulgence. They are gathering on God's holy day, a day set aside to think and talk of Him, to talk of making money and plan ways to circumvent His Law (Amos 8:5).

Why is the Sabbath so significant? It was the one condition or requirement that could provide a covenant-keeping relationship that would bring the Hebrew closer to Jehovah than any other. The Sabbath was instituted and set aside as holy unto the Lord long before the Mosaic law. It was consecrated from the beginning of creation. It was given as a type and symbol of the cessation from labor (or rest) into which one enters when entering into covenant relationship provided by Christ. In other words, the old sabbath was an experience symbolic of the Christian experience. The sabbath rest remaining in Hebrews 4:9-10 was being entered by the ones believing (Gr. oi pisteusantes, present tense) of Hebrews 4:3. In other words, the one who believes Christ and becomes a Christian does (present tense) enter the rest God symbolized by the old sabbath day (cf. also Matthew 11:28-30). Of course, the Christian's present rest will some day be finally and ultimately consummated in the new heaven and new earth when he will cease from his labors (cf. Revelation 14:13, etc.). That is why proper relationship to God for those of Isaiah's day be expressed by proper attitude toward God's sabbath day! It had to do with all that God was going to do in salvation and redemption in the Messiah and His kingdom.

Isaiah 58:14 DOMINION: Proper attitude and action toward God's revealed will (in this case the Sabbath law) logically results in proper attitude and action toward the personhood of God. If a man cherishes God's laws (Psalms 119:1 ff), he will cherish God. Actually the relationship is cyclical. We must first cherish God in order to cherish His law, But the more we cherish His law, the more we will cherish Him! The more we luxuriate in God and His will, the higher we will ride! The phrase,... make thee to ride upon the high places of the earth. symbolizes victory, conquest, dominion. If we have faith as a grain of mustard seed (cf. Luke 17:5-6) we can do mighty, victorious, conquering things. The mustard seed means qualitative, not quantitative. It is not a small or big faith that counts but a living, producing, working faith (like a seed has life and production in it). To that kind of faith God will fulfill His promises of victory. It may not be the kind of victory measured by worldly standards; it may not be physical victory or dominion in this life. Physical victory in this life was what the majority of the Jews anticipated from the glorious promises of their prophets (e.g., Isa. ch. 60-66). But God intended to give those who were faithful victory and dominion over sin and death through the Messiah. The heritage of Jacob was, of course, the birthright. The birthright was a physical thing that had to do with perpetuation of the Hebrew family's inheritance of land and goods through the eldest son. But it had as its ultimate goal the preservation of a people whose destiny was messianic! The birthright was really a spiritual thing. It was to result in the redemption of the whole human race through a human family from a particular human nation.

The promises of Isaiah 58:14 may find a temporary fulfillment in the return of the Jews from the captivities, but like all other promises concerning the Jewish people and their land and their nation, the ultimate fulfillment was in the seed (singular) (cf. Galatians 3:16 ff), the Christ and the New Israel (Galatians 6:16). The redemption of man will be consummated when God restores man to the dominion man was given at creation which Christ earned for man (cf. Hebrews 2:5-18).

QUIZ

1.

What attitude does God want the people to take toward His sabbath?

2.

Why?

3.

What does one's attitude toward the law of God have to do with one's attitude toward God?

4.

How will God give man dominion?

5.

What is the heritage of Jacob?