Troublesome Topic: Do Not Do as You Please on the Sabbath

Lesson 1 of 3

Isaiah 58:13

Translation

you turn your foot from ______

the Sabbath and from doing your own pleasure on my holy day, and if you call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of YHVH honorable, and if you honor Him by not doing your own ways nor finding your own pleasures nor speaking [inappropriate] words,

Paraphrase

If you divert your feet away from breaking the Sabbath principles and regulations, and if you refrain from doing whatever pleases you on My Day, the day set apart for my purposes, and if you act in ways that show you consider the Sabbath day to be delightful, and the day set apart for Adonai, THE ETERNAL AND PERSONAL GOD to be worth honoring, and if you honor Him by not doing your own thing, and by not seeking your own pleasure and by not speaking idle words or making business deals on this day,

Isaiah 58:14

Translation

then you will delight yourself in YHVH,

and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land

and feed you with the inheritance of your father Jacob,

for the mouth of YHVH has spoken.

Paraphrase

then you will find your joy in ADONAI, THE ETERNAL AND PERSONAL GOD,

and I will cause you to be victorious in all your battles, be respected by everyone and rule over many people; and

I will make sure you have plenty of everything you need. You can be sure of this because I, Adonai, THE ETERNAL AND PERSONAL GOD am the one saying this, and I cannot lie.

We have done exactly what Isaiah 58:13 says we should not do; we have sought our own pleasure on the Sabbath. And don’t give me that line about this being in the Old Testament so we don’t need to follow it today. This is both a principle that carries over to the New Covenant, as well as a command that cannot be separated from its underlying principle.

Those who obeyed that command found they were experiencing a level of detoxification, inner healing, and wholeness they may not have expected. Obeying God’s commands often brings benefits we did not know were associated with them. Such is the economy of God.

Detoxification

The connection between not doing what we want and detoxification is that most of the garbage that is plaguing us is due to our selfish behavior in the first place. As long as our eyes are on ourselves we cannot even begin the detoxification process. God knew this, so He gave the simple command to not do as one pleases on the Sabbath.

Most of us have allowed garbage into our minds and souls. We need to be detoxified. But How? Eph. 5:26 says that this comes through the sacrificial work of Christ and also through the “washing with water through the word.” We must enjoy time in the word in order for God to be able to cleanse our souls, our minds and our emotions. Romans 12:2 admonishes “be transformed by the renewing of the mind.” God will indeed renew our minds, purging sinful thoughts, detoxifying them of poisons and garbage, but we are responsible to put something good in there (i.e. His Word). He is always faithful to do His part, but He will not do our part for us.

I Know I Need to Detoxify When

~ I have lost respect for myself

~ Time with God is not enjoyable

~ A secret life dominates me

~ I focus primarily on survival

~ Work makes me sick rather than healthy.

The next lesson is How To Detoxify Your Inner Being

Footnotes

1

Verses 13 and 14 are one long “if … then” statement. Verse 13 includes all the “if” clauses, and verse 14 contains the “then” clauses.

2

In Hebrew, this verb is omitted, however, from the rest of the things that are said in this verse we can get the idea that this clause is a positive statement about obeying the covenant. As you can see from the paraphrase column, something like “breaking or violating” is usually inserted here.

3

The Hebrew says simply “not speaking words;” from context we know that it must be referring to words that are inappropriate for the Sabbath day. Obviously, these would be evil words, but they also could be idle words, or even the making of business deals on this day.

4

If you delight yourself in the Sabbath (enjoying time with me) then you will find delight in me, which means you will receive all I have to offer you on every level.

5

At a bare minimum this means to be a victorious conqueror; however it can very easily refer to much more than that, as is indicated in the paraphrase column.

6

The children of Jacob (meaning the Israelites) inherited a very large land which was promised to end up reaching from the border with Egypt to the Euphrates river. It started out smaller than that, and they never occupied all that area, but that is what God had promised them, if they had consistently followed Him. The blessings for following God’s covenant also included many other positive things, such as protection, prosperity, productivity, and peace. The inheritance of Jacob was an impressive package indeed.