Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 58:13

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Isaiah 58:13. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath — The meaning of this seems to be, that they should be careful not to take their pleasure on the Sabbath day, by paying visits, and taking country jaunts; not going, as Kimchi interprets it, more than a Sabbath day's journey, which was only two thousand cubits beyond the city's suburbs. How vilely is this rule transgressed by the inhabitants of this land! They seem to think that the Sabbath was made only for their recreation!

From doing thy pleasure — The Septuagint, Syriac, and Chaldee, for עשות asoth, manifestly express מעשות measoth. So likewise a MS. has it, but with the omission of the words שבת רגלך shabbath raglecha. - L.

The holy of the Lord - "And the holy feast of JEHOVAH"] Twenty-eight MSS. (seven ancient) add the conjunction ו vau, ולקדוש velikedosh; and so the Syriac, Chaldee, and Vulgate. One of my own has the same reading.

Nor speaking thine own words - "From speaking vain words."] It is necessary to add some epithet to make out the sense; the Septuagint say, angry words; the Chaldee, words of violence. If any such epithet is lost here, the safest way is to supply it by the prophet's own expression, Isaiah 58:9, ודבר און vedabar aven, vain words; that is, profane, impious, injurious, c.

"The additional epithet seems unnecessary the Vulgate and Syriac have it not; and the sense is good without it; two ways, first by taking ודבר vedabar for a noun, and דבר dabur for the participle pahul, and rendering, -

'From pursuing thy pleasure, and the thing resolved on.'

Or, secondly, by supposing the force of the preposition מ mem to have been continued from the verb ממצוא mimmetso to the verb ודבר vedabber immediately following; and rendering, -

'From executing thy pleasure, and from speaking words

concerning it.' But the first seems the easier rendering." - Dr. JUBB.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

True religion (58:1-14)

The Jews thought they were a righteous people because they carried out the daily rituals required by the law. The prophet is about to show them that in spite of all this they are still sinners. In fact, their attitude towards these rituals is their chief sin (58:1-2).
For example, many practise fasting not because they are truly humble before God, but because they hope God will be impressed with their actions. But at the same time as they fast, they oppress their workers and fight with one another. They act and dress in a way that shows they are fasting, but such fasting is worthless in God’s sight (3-5). God would rather that they cease oppressing others and begin to help the poor and needy (6-7). Only then will he be pleased with them; only then will he accept their worship and answer their prayers (8-9a).
When the people stop treating others with contempt, God will show kindness to them. When they sacrifice their comfort for the sake of those who are ill-treated and hungry, God will bless them. He will give them fresh spiritual life and restore their country to the strength of former days (9b-12). Religious observances are important, but people must carry them out from right motives. Whether practising fasting or keeping the sabbath traditions, the important thing is to honour God, not to seek personal benefit (13-14).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“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 shall honor it, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; 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.”

Again, notice that all-important IF standing at the head of Isaiah 58:13. The multiple requirement is (1) that Israel must stop doing “their own thing” on the sabbath day; (2) they must stop teaching and parroting the words of men (their own words) and begin honoring God’s Word; (3) they are commanded to call the sabbath day honorable, and a delight; (4) they must actually honor the sabbath, not merely refer to it as honorable; and (5) they must actually do the things God commanded on that day.

This mention of the sabbath day positively identifies this chapter as directed to the pre-exilic generations from Isaiah and to the captivity; because Israel “could not have observed the sabbath” during the captivity. In fact the whole captivity was considered as a “sabbath” replacing the 490 years that the Israelites had skipped the observance of the sabbatical years. This recurrence of the “sabbath theme” in Isaiah is also absolutely Isaianic, being fully in accord with the plan of his prophecy, “here a little, there a little, line upon line, line upon line,” etc. (Isaiah 28:10; Isaiah 28:13). See Isaiah 56:2; Isaiah 56:4; Isaiah 56:6 for my comments there.

“I will make thee to ride upon the high places of the earth” This has not happened to the Israelites in subsequent generations from this prophecy; and the answer lies totally in the two IF’s in Isaiah 58:9:b and Isaiah 58:13. On the other hand, the Jews have suffered more terrible persecutions than any other people who ever lived on earth, even down to the current century.

From 2 Chronicles 36:21, we learn that the sabbatical years had not been observed during the period of the later monarchy; and it would appear from Isaiah’s commandments here that even the observance of the weekly sabbath had been neglected.Ibid., p. 374.

None of the Old Testament references to the sabbath should be understood as binding upon Christians; however, it appears to us that it would be in keeping with the Word of God for the Lord’s Day to be honored with the same love, devotion, and worship which was supposed in the Old Testament to have been given to the sabbath day. The necessity for providing rest for man and beast, as well as the weekly observance of worship and devotion were a much better condition than that provided by the mad pursuit of pleasure, sports, and so-called recreation on the part of the current godless generation. The people of this generation have legislated the Lord’s Day into a day of work instead of a day of worship, apparently ignorant of how it required three centuries of Christian fidelity to God’s law of worship on Sundays to win, under Constantine, the right of assembly on that day, at any other hour, than before daylight! We are very sure that future generations will pay dearly for this lack of responsibility on the part of our own.

Bishop Andrews once commented on the proper observance of the sabbath day, and applied it to the Lord’s Day, which he erroneously called, “the Christian Sabbath.” The application, however, we believe to be appropriate.

“To keep the sabbath in an idle manner is the sabbath of oxen and asses; to keep the sabbath in joviality (pleasure, sports, etc) is the sabbath of the golden calf; and to keep it in immorality, drunkenness, and licentiousness is the sabbath of Satan, the devil’s holiday.”Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown’s Commentary, p. 497.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath - The evident meaning of this is, that they were sacredly to observe the Sabbath, and not to violate or pollute it (see the notes at Isaiah 56:2). The idea, says Grotius, is, that they were not to travel on the Sabbath day on ordinary journeys. The ‘foot’ is spoken of as the instrument of motion and travel. ‘Ponder the paths of thy feet’ Proverbs 4:26; that is, observe attentively thy goings. ‘Remove thy foot from evil’ Proverbs 4:27; that is, abstain from evil, do not go to execute evil. So here, to restrain the foot from the Sabbath, is not to have the foot employed on the Sabbath; not to be engaged in traveling, or in the ordinary active employments of life, either for business or pleasure.

From doing thy pleasure on my holy day - Two things may here be observed:

1. God claims the day as his, and as holy on that account. While all time is his, and while he requires all time to be profitably and usefully employed, he calls the Sabbath especially his own - a day which is to be observed with reference to himself, and which is to be regarded as belonging to him. To take the hours of that day, therefore, for our pleasure, or for work which is not necessary or merciful, is to rob God of that which he claims as his own.

2. We are not to do our own pleasure on that day. That is, we are not to pursue our ordinary plans of amusement; we are not to devote it to feasting, to riot, or to revelry. It is true that they who love the Sabbath as they should will find ‘pleasure’ in observing it, for they have happiness in the service of God. But the idea is, here, that we are to do the things which God requires, and to consult his will in the observance. It is remarkable that the thing here adverted to, is the very way in which the Sabbath is commonly violated. It is not extensively a day of business, for the propriety of a periodical cessation from toil is so obvious, that people will have such days recurring at moderate intervals. But it is a day of pastime and amusement; a day not merely of relaxation from toil, but also of relaxation from the restraints of temperance and virtue. And while the Sabbath is God’s great ordinance for perpetuating religion and virtue, it is also, by perversion, made Satan’s great ordinance for perpetuating intemperance, dissipation, and sensuality.

And call the Sabbath a delight - This appropriately expresses the feelings of all who have any just views of the Sabbath. To them it is not wearisome, nor are its hours heavy. They love the day of sweet and holy rest. They esteem it a privilege, not a task, to be permitted once a week to disburden their minds of the cares, and toils, and anxieties of life. It is a ‘delight’ to them to recall the memory of the institution of the Sabbath, when God rested from his labors; to recall the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, to the memory of which the Christian Sabbath is consecrated; to be permitted to devote a whole day to prayer and praise, to the public and private worship of God, to services that expand the intellect and purify the heart. To the father of a family it is the source of unspeakable delight that he may conduct his children to the house of God, and that he may instruct them in the ways of religion. To the Christian man of business, the farmer, and the professional man, it is a pleasure that he may suspend his cares, and may uninterruptedly think of God and of heaven. To all who have any just feeling, the Sabbath is a ‘delight;’ and for them to be compelled to forego its sacred rest would be an unspeakable calamity.

The holy of the Lord, honorable - This more properly means, ‘and call the holy of Yahweh honorable.’ That is, it does not mean that they who observed the Sabbath would call it ‘holy to Yahweh and honorable;’ but it means that the Sabbath was, in fact, ‘the holy of Yahweh,’ and that they would regard it as ‘honorable.’ A slight inspection of the Hebrew will show that this is the sense. They who keep the Sabbath aright will esteem it a day “to be honored” (מכבד m^ekubâd).

And shalt honor him - Or rather, shalt honor it; to wit, the Sabbath. The Hebrew will bear either construction, but the connection seems to require us to understand it of the Sabbath rather than of the Lord.

Not doing thine own ways - This is evidently explanatory of the phrase in the beginning of the verse. ‘if thou turn away thy foot.’ So the Septuagint understands it: Οὐκ άρεῖς τὸς πόδα σου ἐπ ̓ ἔργῳ Ouk areis ton poda sou ep' ergō - ‘And will not lift up thy foot to any work.’ They were not to engage in secular labor, or in the execution of their own plans, but were to regard the day as belonging to God, and to be employed in his service alone.

Nor finding thine own pleasure - The Chaldee renders this, ‘And shalt not provide on that day those things which are necessary for thee.’

Nor speaking thine own words - Lowth and Noyes render this, ‘From speaking vain words.’ The Septuagint, ‘Nor utter a word in anger from thy mouth.’ The Chaldee renders it, ‘Words of violence.’ It is necessary to add some epithet to make out the sense, as the Hebrew is literally, ‘and to speak a word.’ Probably our common translation has expressed the true sense, as in the previous members of the verse the phrase ‘thine own’ thrice occurs. And according to this, the sense is, that on the Sabbath our conversation is to be such as becomes a day which belongs to God. It is not less important that our conversation should be right on the Sabbath than it is that our conduct should be.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

13.If thou shalt turn away thy foot from the sabbath. Some think that the Prophet alludes to the external observation of the Sabbath, because it was not lawful to perform a journey on that day. (Exodus 20:8) Though I do not reject that opinion, yet I think that the meaning is far more extensive; for by a figure of speech, ill which a part is taken for the whole, he denotes the whole course of human life; as it is very customary to employ the word “going” or “walking” to denote our life. He says, therefore, “If thou cease to advance in thy course, if thou shut up thy path, walk not according to thine own will,”’ etc. For this is to “turn away the foot from the Sabbath,” when we lay ourselves under the necessity of wandering freely and without restraint in our own sinful desires. As he formerly included under the class of fasting all ceremonies and outward masks, in which they made their holiness to consist, and showed that they were vain and unprofitable; so in this passage he points out the true observation of the Sabbath, that they may not think that it consists in external idleness but in true self­denial, so as to abstain from every act of injustice and wickedness, and from all lusts and wicked thoughts. First, by the word “foot” he denotes actions; because the Jews, though they did not venture to perform a journey, or to cook flesh on a Sabbath­day, yet did not scruple to harass their neighbors and to mock at the afflicted. Yet he immediately passes on to the will and to speeches, so as to include every part of the obedience which we owe to God.

And shalt call the Sabbath a delight This word, “delight,” must be viewed as referring to God, and not to men; because nothing can be more pleasing or acceptable to God, titan the observation of the Sabbath, and sincere worship. He carefully inculcates this, that men do wrong, if, laying aside the commandments of God, they esteem highly those things which are of no value; and he warns them that they ought to form their judgment from his will alone. Certain classes of duties are again enumerated by him, by which he shows clearly that the true observation of the Sabbath consists in self­denial and thorough conversion. And thus he pronounces the foundation to be the will, from which proceed speeches, and next actions; for we speak what we have conceived in our heart, and by speech we make known our will, and afterwards carry it into effect. Whoever then wishes to serve God in a proper manner, must altogether renounce his flesh and his will. And hence we see the reason why God so highly recommends, in the whole Scripture, the observation of the Sabbath; for he contemplated something higher than the outward ceremony, that is, indolence and repose, in which the Jews thought that the greatest holiness consisted. On the contrary, he commanded the Jews to renounce the desires of the flesh, to give up their sinful inclinations, and to yield obedience to him; as no man can meditate on the heavenly life, unless he be dead to the world and to himself. Now, although that ceremony has been abolished, nevertheless the truth remains; because Christ died and rose again, so that we have a continual sabbath; that is, we are released from our works, that the Spirit of God may work mightily in us.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 58

Cry aloud, spare not ( Isaiah 58:1 ),

The Lord is commanding now the prophet Isaiah.

lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily ( Isaiah 58:1-2 ),

Now there was a real inconsistency here, because the attendance at the temple worship had not diminished at all. People were still going through outward forms of religion. There was a popular religious movement on the surface, but the heart of the people was still alienated from God. And so there was a combination. They would go to temple and worship God. And yet they were still worshipping their own little idols and still following after their own flesh. And such was the dichotomy that existed then and such is the dichotomy today. There are people who still on the surface acknowledge God. And it's a surface experience, but it hasn't really affected down in their hearts and down in their lives, their way of living. And God was interested in the heart.

Now you remember when Jeremiah who prophesied shortly after Isaiah, and during the time of Jeremiah's prophecy, and we'll be getting into that a couple of weeks now, during the time of Jeremiah's prophecy when Josiah became the king. He was a good king and there was a popular religious movement under Josiah. You might say a revival. Everybody was going back to temple. And so the Lord said to Jeremiah, this young boy, "Now you go down to the temple and cry unto the people as they're going into the temple, saying, 'Trust not in lying vanities saying, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these."'" In other words, God again was crying out against the fact that it was only a surface movement. It wasn't down deep in the hearts of the people a move towards Him. So here God is telling the prophet, "Cry out. Let your voice be like a trumpet. Show My people their transgressions for they seek Me daily."

they delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; and they take delight in approaching God ( Isaiah 58:2 ).

They had a great form of religion. Going to hear, inquiring, "What does God say?" And then they were complaining. They were even fasting, but they were saying to God,

How is it that we have fasted, and you do not see it? we have afflicted our soul, and you haven't taken any acknowledgment of it? ( Isaiah 58:3 )

But the Lord answers them.

Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and you exact all your labors. Behold, you fast for strife and for debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high ( Isaiah 58:3-4 ).

You're not really fasting to seek God but to prove a point.

Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? ( Isaiah 58:5 )

Do you think that I want an outward kind of a thing from you?

Now Jesus said when you fast, don't be like the hypocrites who like to make a big, open kind of a display of their fasting. They get a very mournful face and they don't anoint themselves and all. And they look very gaunt and sad. You say, "Oh, what's the matter, brother?" "Oh, I'm fasting today, brother, you know." "And oh my, isn't he spiritual?" And the Lord says, "Hey, don't do it that way. That's not... I don't want an outward fasting kind of a thing. If you're going to fast, let it be something really of your heart and seeking after Me. Don't let it be to prove a point. Don't let it be to gain an advantage." How many times people are trying to fast just to gain some kind of an advantage with God. Force God to answer my prayer because I'm fasting. If I'm going to afflict my soul and going to fast, let me do it out of a pure motive of just wanting God and more of God in my life. And do it unto God, not in a big display or show. But God said,

This is the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when you see the naked, that you would cover him; and that thou hide not yourself from your own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning ( Isaiah 58:6-8 ),

When you really are fasting right, doing what God wants, fasting and doing, God wants you to set free those that are oppressed. To feed those that are hungry. To clothe those that are poor. Take of your substance and really give it to someone else. "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning."

and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall [come behind you] be your rearward. Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity ( Isaiah 58:8-9 );

So there is a fast that God will honor. And God will be with you. He'll go before you and behind you. He'll answer you when you call. They were fasting, but it was just a formality. And then they were saying, "Well, why doesn't God respond?" And so God answers why He was not responding.

And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness shall be as the noonday: And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not ( Isaiah 58:10-11 ).

So the prosperity, the blessing, the glory if you draw out your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul.

And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the old foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. 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, honorable; and thou shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your 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 to feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it ( Isaiah 58:12-14 ).

So the right way to fast; the wrong way to fast. The right purposes and the wrong purposes. And also it does also follow in the keeping of the sabbath day, the right and the wrong way. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

True worship 58:6-14

Isaiah contrasted God’s conception of fasting with that of His people (cf. Matthew 6:16-18).

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

If the Israelites practiced the Mosaic legislation with the right attitude and applied it properly to their lives, God would be pleased. Isaiah was not saying the Mosaic legislation was wrong, only that the legislation as his audience was practicing it was not pleasing to God. They were obeying to further their own selfish purposes. They should have obeyed to further God’s purposes out of love for Him (cf. Matthew 6:10). For the Israelites, Sabbath observance was best suited to teach this lesson. The Sabbath day provided an opportunity for them to reorient themselves to spiritual reality once a week. It was not a fast but a feast day.

"The Lord is more interested in enjoyment of his blessings through obedience than in self-imposed deprivations." [Note: Motyer, p. 483.]

"Turn your foot" means walk away from.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath,.... From walking and working on that day; or withdrawest thy mind and affections from all worldly things; the affections being that to the mind as the feet are to the body, which carry it here and there. The time of worship, under the Gospel dispensation, is here expressed in Old Testament language, as the service of it usually is in prophetic writings; though its proper name is the Lord's day, Revelation 1:10, and is here instanced in, and put for all religious institutions and services to be attended unto, and which will be with greater strictness in the times referred to:

from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; that is, if thou turnest away, or dost abstain from doing thine own servile work, the business of thy calling; which may be agreeable for the sake of the profit of it; or from recreations and amusements, which may be lawfully indulged on another day:

and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of God, and honourable; take delight and pleasure in the service of it; in all the duties of religion, private and public, to be observed on that day; in reading and hearing the word, and meditation on it; in prayer, and in attendance on all ordinances; and reckon it as separated for holy use and employment, and on that account honourable; and so have it in high esteem, and desire the return of it, and not think the service of it long and tedious, when enjoyed, and wish it was over: or, "for the Holy One of God, and honourable"; that is, for the sake of Christ, the Holy One of God, in both his natures, and honourable in his person and office; accounting the sabbath a delight, in remembrance of the great work of redemption and salvation wrought out by him:

and shall honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; honour the Lord on that day, by not attending to any secular business, or walking abroad in the fields, to the neglect of private duties or public worship; by not seeking the gratification of the fleshly and sensual part, or indulging to those things which are agreeable to it; and by not speaking such words, or talking of such things, as relate to worldly affairs, or the things of civil life, but walking in the ways of the Lord, doing those things which are well pleasing in his sight, and conversing about spiritual and heavenly things; by such means God is honoured on his own day; and the reverse of this is a dishonouring him. The Jews o make this honour to lie chiefly in wearing other clothes on this day than on a weekday, and not walking as on other days, or talking as on them; yet they allow of thoughts, though not of words, about worldly things.

o T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 113. 1, 2. & 119. 1. & 150. 1.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      13 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 finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:   14 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.

      Great stress was always laid upon the due observance of the sabbath day, and it was particularly required from the Jews when they were captives in Babylon, because by keeping that day, in honour of the Creator, they distinguished themselves from the worshippers of the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth. See Isaiah 56:1; Isaiah 56:2, where keeping the sabbath is joined, as here, with keeping judgment and doing justice. Some, indeed, understand this of the day of atonement, which they think is the fast spoken of in the former part of the chapter, and which is called a sabbath of rest,Leviticus 23:32. But, as the fasts before spoken of seem to be those that were occasional, so this sabbath is doubtless the weekly sabbath, that great sign between God and his professing people--his appointing it a sign of his favour to them and their observing it a sign of their obedience to him. Now observe here,

      I. How the sabbath is to be sanctified (Isaiah 58:13; Isaiah 58:13); and, there remaining still a sabbatism for the people of God, this law of the sabbath is still binding to us on our Lord's day.

      1. Nothing must be done that puts contempt upon the sabbath day, or looks like having mean thoughts of it, when God has so highly dignified it. We must turn away our foot from the sabbath, from trampling upon it, as profane atheistical people do, from travelling on that day (so some); we must turn away our foot from doing out pleasure on that holy day, that is, from living at large, and taking a liberty to do what we please on sabbath days, without the control and restraint of conscience, or from indulging ourselves in the pleasures of sense, in which the modern Jews wickedly place the sanctification of the sabbath, though it is as great a profanation of it as any thing. On sabbath days we must not walk in our own ways (that is, not follow our callings), not find our own pleasure (that is, not follow our sports and recreations); nay, we must not speak our own words, words that concern either our callings or our pleasures; we must not allow ourselves a liberty of speech on that day as on other days, for we must then mind God's ways, make religion the business of the day; we must choose the things that please him; and speak his words, speak of divine things as we sit in the house and walk by the way. In all we say and do we must put a difference between this day and other days.

      2. Every thing must be done that puts an honour on the day and is expressive of our high thoughts of it. We must call it a delight, not a task and a burden; we must delight ourselves in it, in the restraints it lays upon us and the services it obliges us to. We must be in our element when we are worshipping God, and in communion with him. How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! We must not only count it a delight, but call it so, must openly profess the complacency we take in the day and the duties of it. We must call it so to God, in thanksgiving for it and earnest desire of his grace to enable us to do the work of the day in its day, because we delight in it. We must call it so to others, to invite them to come and share in the pleasure of it; and we must call it so to ourselves, that we may not entertain the least thought of wishing the sabbath gone that we may sell corn. We must call it the Lord's holy day, and honourable. We must call it holy, separated from common use and devoted to God and to his service, must call it the holy of the Lord, the day which he has sanctified to himself. Even in Old-Testament times the sabbath was called the Lord's day, and therefore it is fitly called so still, and for a further reason, because it is the Lord Christ's day,Revelation 1:10. It is holy because it is the Lord's day, and upon both accounts it is honourable. It is a beauty of holiness that is upon it; it is ancient, and its antiquity is its honour; and we must make it appear that we look upon it as honourable by honouring God on that day. We put honour upon the day when we give honour to him that instituted it, and to whose honour it is dedicated.

      II. What the reward is of the sabbath--sanctification, Isaiah 58:14; Isaiah 58:14. If we thus remember the sabbath day to keep it holy,

      1. We shall have the comfort of it; the work will be its own wages. If we call the sabbath a delight, then shall we delight ourselves in the Lord; he will more and more manifest himself to us as the delightful subject of our thoughts and meditations and the delightful object of our best affections. Note, The more pleasure we take in serving God the more pleasure we shall find in it. If we go about duty with cheerfulness, we shall go from it with satisfaction and shall have reason to say, "It is good to be here, good to draw near to God."

      2. We shall have the honour of it: I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, which denotes not only a great security (as that, Isaiah 32:16; Isaiah 32:16, He shall dwell on high), but great dignity and advancement. "Thou shalt ride in state, shalt appear conspicuous, and the eyes of all thy neighbours shall be upon thee." It was said of Israel, when God led them triumphantly out of Egypt, that he made them to ride on the high places of the earth,Deuteronomy 32:12; Deuteronomy 32:13. Those that honour God and his sabbath he will thus honour. If God by his grace enable us to live above the world, and so to manage it as not only not to be hindered by it, but to be furthered and carried on by it in our journey towards heaven, then he makes us to ride on the high places of the earth.

      3. We shall have the profit of it: I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, that is, with all the blessings of the covenant and all the precious products of Canaan (which was a type of heaven), for these were the heritage of Jacob. Observe, The heritage of believers is what they shall not only be portioned with hereafter, but fed with now, fed with the hopes of it, and not flattered, fed with the earnests and foretastes of it; and those that are so fed have reason to say that they are well fed. In order that we may depend upon it, it is added, "The mouth of the Lord has spoken it; you may take God's word for it, for he cannot lie nor deceive; what his mouth has spoken his hand will give, his hand will do, and not one iota or tittle of his good promise shall fall to the ground." Blessed, therefore, thrice blessed, is he that doeth this, and lays hold on it, that keeps the sabbath from polluting it.