“Call
the Sabbath a Delight”
[Isaiah
58:1-14]
June
27, 2021 YouTube
Jesus tells this parable:
“Two
men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax
collector. The Pharisee, standing by
himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice
a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far
off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying,
‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house
justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be
humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:10-14, ESV).
Is
it wrong for the Pharisee to refrain from breaking the Law, to fast, and to give
tithes of everything he receives? No.
The problem is that he is going through the motions of keeping the Law with no
true piety or holiness. He is doing what
he believes is expected of him with the expectation that he will be rewarded,
rather than having a true heart belief that leads to his keeping of the Law.
This
is the accusation that God brings against His people in our text.
And we see, first, going through the motions is not enough.
“Cry
aloud; do not hold back; lift up your voice like a trumpet; declare to my
people their transgression, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me
daily and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did
righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God; they ask of me
righteous judgments; they delight to draw near to God.”
God
tells Isaiah to cry out to the people – to not hold back the rebuke of God – to
cry out loudly, with attention drawn to His message like the announcing of the
trumpet. God tells Isaiah to declare to
His people that they have sinned against God – all of them.
They
come to God every day, wanting to hear good things from God. They want to hear that God is pleased and
they are wonderful people – and God is lucky to have them. They think they are a truly righteous
nation. They are self-deceived in
believing that they have been obedient to God because they have merely kept the
blatant word of the Law. They come
before God excited to hear how God will praise them.
And
when they do these things and God does not respond as they think He should,
they get angry with God:
“‘Why
have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take
no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own
pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to
fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make
your voice to be heard on high.”
“God,
what’s wrong with You? Don’t You see
that we have fasted? How good is
that?! Don’t You understand how humble
we have been? Don’t You know how
pleasing we have been to You? Why aren’t
You praising us?”
And
God rebukes them in this: “You only fast – You only keep My Law – in letter
only – not in heart – because you believe I will praise you and make you feel
good about yourself. You say you keep My
Law, but you oppress your workers. You
say you love Me, and you abuse and hate those who work for you. And whenever
you fast, you get in arguments with others that lead to fistfights. I will not hear or reward that type of
fasting – fasting like that is not true fasting.”
Jesus
says, “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they
disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to
you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and
wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father
who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew
6:16-18, ESV).
Jesus says, “If you are fasting – or keeping
the Law in any way – simply to have others praise you – thinking that God will
praise you – you’ve missed the point of the Law. You have received all that you will receive
in the praise people have given you for your pursuits. If you are going to fast – to keep any of the
Law – don’t march around with trumpeters or whine and moan about how hard it
has been. No, obey God quietly. Be obedient for your love of God and your
neighbor – not looking for or expecting praise, but desiring God would be
praised and worshipped.”
Going
through the motions is not enough. If
that is all there is to your obedience, it is not acceptable.
Second,
heart-obedience includes love of God and love of neighbor.
“Is
such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow
down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will
you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the LORD?”
The
externals – the things that are seen – are not the most important part of
rightly, truly, piously keeping the Law.
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose
the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed
go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover
him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”
God’s
“fast” – obedience to God – is delivering people from wickedness – guiding them
out of sinful lifestyles, freeing them from oppression, sharing your food and
home and clothes – all the gifts God has given you, as you are able to share
them.
Does
this mean God doesn’t care if we keep the letter of the Law – for example, that
we actually, physically fast – or strictly obey any other of the
commandments? No.
God
is saying that if our keeping of the Law is only checking off a box and waiting
for God to praise us, we’ve got it wrong.
It is good to fast. It is good to
worship God. It is good to refuse to
worship idols. It is good to keep the
Sabbath. But when we keep the Law, we
must do so for the love of God and neighbor and respond by acting rightly
towards God and neighbor. The fast validates itself through social mercies and
abolishing wrong social structures.
John
writes, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for
he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has
not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also
love his brother” (I John 4:20-21, ESV).
In
Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats, God addresses those who think well
of their life before God, but have never shown love to their neighbor:
“Then
he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal
fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no
food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not
welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not
visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you
hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not
minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as
you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And
these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal
life” (Matthew 25:41-46, ESV).
But,
if we do have that heart-obedience with includes love of God and neighbor, we
will experience the superabundant free grace of God and progressive
reinvigoration – God will grow us and mature us and make us into the Image of
His Son, as is His intention for all those who truly believe.
“Then shall your light break forth like the
dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go
before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall
call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If
you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and
speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the
desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your
gloom be as the noonday. And the LORD will guide you continually and satisfy
your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be
like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail. And
your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many
generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of
streets to dwell in.”
Don’t
misunderstand, God is not saying that our good works will save us. Rather, He is saying, if we have been saved –
if we have believed in Jesus savingly – we will do good works and God will be
pleased and grow us in them and in our progressing in holiness.
For
Jerusalem specifically, there is also the promise in this text that after the
exile, God will bring them back – they we be obedient and faithful, loving God
and neighbor, and God will see that Jerusalem and the Temple are rebuilt.
Heart-obedience
includes love of God and love of neighbor.
And
third, let us call the Sabbath a delight.
“If
you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy
day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if
you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking
idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the
heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for
the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
God
gives Israel the fourth commandment, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it
holy. Six days you shall labor, and do
all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you
shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant,
or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your
gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is
in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath
day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:8-11, ESV).
Jesus
says, “And he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the
Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath’” (Mark 2:27-28, ESV).
And
the author of Hebrews writes, “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the
people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his
works as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:9-10, ESV).
How
do we put this all together with what God says in Isaiah?
God rested on the Sabbath, so He calls humans to rest on
the Sabbath – to not engage in their normal routine – and to especially give
the day to the worship of God. The
Sabbath is not given as a list of rules that must we reluctantly obey – no, the
Sabbath is a time of rest from work and the rejuvenation in worship with other
believers. And there is a further Sabbath rest in the Kingdom for all those who
believe.
The Sabbath is a day of trust, faith, obedience, and
worship of God, and it is a day that God has given to humans for refreshment
and growth. If we keep the Sabbath Law
in the love of God and neighbor, it will be a delight to us as we do what God
commands and receive blessings. It is a delight as we renounce our sin, receive
forgiveness by God through Jesus, and pursue the holiness we are called to.
But it’s not just the Sabbath Law:
David writes, “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving
the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the
precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the
LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring
forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. More to be
desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and
drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in
keeping them there is great reward” (Psalm 19:7-11, ESV).
All of the moral Law is a delight to the believer. So, when God speaks of calling the Sabbath a
delight, that is symbolic of the entire moral Law. It is a high example of what it means to love
God and neighbor as expressed in the moral Law.
God says, “If you have heart-obedience for the Sabbath
and delight in it as true believers, you will find all of the moral Law a
delight to obey and rest in.”
God did not give us the Law to prove how wonderful we
are. God did not give us the Law to make
our lives unbearable. If we keep the Law
without delight – only to be recognized and ultimately praised by God, we will
fail and anger God. If we love God and
love our neighbor and delight in the Law of God and obey it in those loves, we
will rest in the joy of the Lord.
Let us call the Sabbath a delight.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for showing us how Israel
wrongly kept the Law – how we wrongly keep the Law. We thank You for explaining that keeping the
Law is not merely a matter of doing what is right but doing it with the right
motivation and in love of God and neighbor.
Cause us to be delighted in what You have commanded and send the Holy
Spirit to empower us to delight in obeying Your Law. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment