Isaiah 58:14, commentary and pictures

Those who stop trampling the seventh-day Sabbath and stop seeking their own pleasure, work, and words on God's holy day, and instead honor it as delightful and honorable, are promised that they will find joy in God, be lifted to a place of strength, honor and security, and be sustained with what was promised to Jacob. That delight is present peace and satisfaction in this life and its conflict, found in trusting God moment by moment, praying for His keeping, and finding happiness in doing good to others. The same promise belongs to the unselfish work of the chosen fast, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, freeing the oppressed, and putting away scornful speech, which brings light, healing, answered prayer and continual guidance. It is certain because the mouth of the Lord has spoken it, giving refuge, establishment in truth and righteousness, and ground to stand firm even when the law is opposed. Its full meaning will be known when the refreshing comes, the covenant of peace is made, and the keepers of the commandments who gain victory over the beast and its mark enter the New Jerusalem to endless life and an unfailing inheritance.

Sabbath Terms And Requirements

The blessings are for those who turn away from trampling the Sabbath and from breaking it, who stop doing their own pleasure on God's holy day, who call the Sabbath a delight and the holy of the Lord honorable, and who honor God by not doing their own ways, nor finding their own pleasure, nor speaking their own words. Then they will delight themselves in the Lord, and He will cause them to ride upon the high places of the earth and feed them with the heritage of Jacob their father, exalting them and giving them a share in what was promised to Jacob. The promise is certain because the mouth of the Lord has spoken it, and the place where the instruction applies and the time of its marked fulfillment are fixed and not left to human conclusions. It means coming out fully on God's side, showing by works regard for His precepts, keeping the Sabbath inviolate, waking up to duty and being true to entrusted responsibilities. Wrongdoing by believers and violation of the Sabbath bring weakness upon the church and become stumbling-blocks that keep sinners from coming to the light, while the whole chapter is of the highest importance for the work required today.

The Sabbath meant is the original seventh-day Sabbath, instituted by God, sanctified as His day of rest, and given as His memorial as Creator. No servile work is to be done on it, and it stands in contrast to Sunday, the first day substituted by human authority, a false day put where God's law should be and instituted by the man of sin and not by God. Honoring the Lord's Sabbath repairs the breach made in God's law when the first day was substituted for it, and accepting the light about it calls for diligent, prayerful Scripture study and obedience. As taught with Exodus 31 beginning at verse 12, God's day must be perpetuated until Christ comes to take His people to Himself, and Sabbathkeeping continues in the new earth where all come up before the Lord from Sabbath to Sabbath, so that coming up to the judgment keeping a day of man's invention leaves a person unready. The Sabbath presented here will endure through all ages and distinguish the true God from false gods.

Not speaking one's own words means not speaking for personal benefit but speaking the words Christ gives to comfort, encourage, bless and lift up those who are bowed down. It means using the mind to help others, improving it, not feeding it with trash nor injuring it with tobacco or alcohol, and never letting evil dominate it. In this way the chance is not lost to speak a timely word to a perishing soul, bearing responsibility to win souls to Christ and studying how best to relieve the suffering, the oppressed, the needy and the distressed.

The Sabbath commandment shines above all the other commandments, with the four commandments on the first table shining brighter than the six on the second. It was set apart to be kept in honor of God's holy name, and the holy Sabbath looks glorious with a halo of glory all around it.

Blessings Promised In Verse

True keeping does not make a person mournful and sorrowful but brings delight in the Lord now, right here in this world and right here in the conflict. In working to benefit and bless others satisfaction is experienced, and the Lord creates peace in the soul of more value than gold, with every faithful performance of duty registered in heaven and receiving more than an earthly reward. It offers light to those who rejoice in hope of the soon-coming morning and points to boundless joy and reward awaiting the righteous. It brings the nearness of Jesus and His presence everywhere, with words sent home with thrilling power to the heart, faces bright as if the Sun of Righteousness is shining upon them, testimonies full of heaven, the Spirit speaking to souls, and fervent petition and praise with certainty that Jesus is in the midst calling all who desire living connection with God to come forward with decided purpose and prayer for themselves and their families. Those refreshed and strengthened by God's Word will delight in the Lord and receive the blessings promised to Jacob's heritage, their lives shaped by the Word's principles and its promises sustaining and encouraging them.

Those who meet the conditions will delight in the Lord, be caused to ride upon the high places of the earth, and be fed with the heritage of Jacob their father. This is lifting up and exaltation to a place of strength, honor, triumph, prosperity and security. It is provision, nourishment and sustaining care from what was promised to Jacob, shared as God's sure reward by people who live to bless others, who will rejoice in the good their service brought and be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. It belongs to the work of restoring the Sabbath to its rightful place and repairing the breach in God's law, and to those who obey God, cooperate with Him and do His will.

The promise is certain because the mouth of the Lord has spoken it, and His words are certain and to be taken from God, so believers keep standing on that eternal basis and raising up the foundation of many generations even while men rail against the law and Satan is arrayed against it. It is a promise to hide under and find refuge in Christ, bringing establishment in truth and righteousness with the glory of the Lord as rereward. It calls for uplifting the Sabbath that has been trampled underfoot, and belongs to those who carry out the true fast of loosing wickedness, freeing the oppressed, feeding the hungry, housing the outcast poor and covering the naked, and to those truly converted in whom grace is progressive and imparted to save others out of darkness.

The Sabbath in its importance and glory is as yet only little sensed and realized, but riding upon the high places and being fed with Jacob's heritage will be known when the refreshing and latter rain comes from the presence of the Lord and the glory of His power. It will not be seen in all its glory and importance until God makes the covenant of peace at the voice of God and opens the gates of the New Jerusalem. There those who kept the commandments of God will be welcomed as having perfect right to enter their heavenly home and heaven as their home. This is the hope of those who make God and His Word their counselors, who form characters fit for the heavenly family, who gained victory over the beast, its image and mark and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, entering to infinite bliss and boundless joy, mansions prepared by Christ for the faithful, and an immortal inheritance to which those who love God and keep His commandments have a clear title that will never be questioned.

Chapter Context Of Promise

The promise completes the chosen fast and the work God requires, loosing wickedness, removing burdens, freeing the oppressed, breaking every yoke, feeding the hungry, housing the poor cast out, clothing the naked, not hiding from one's own flesh, putting away the yoke with pointing the finger and vain speech, and ministering to the hungry and afflicted soul. Those who do this work receive breaking light, speedy health, righteousness going before, answered prayer, continual guidance, and satisfaction in drought, with delight in the Lord, exaltation to ride on the high places, and feeding from the heritage of Jacob given to those who turn from their own pleasure on the Sabbath, call it a delight, holy and honorable, and honor God by not doing their own ways, finding their own pleasure, or speaking their own words. This includes taking personal responsibility for the Lord's poor within the church, for orphans, the aged, and those in need among the members, rather than passing them by or leaving them to others, with self-denial of luxuries and ornaments to make the needy comfortable. The chapter calls institutions and people to turn from selfish purposes and put God's principles into practice in every part of service, not fasting and prayer alone but work that sets things in order and sanctifies service. Keeping the Sabbath holy is closely connected with works of mercy and necessity, and the building of old waste places and raising of foundations of many generations gives full directions for what Christians should do toward their fellow men.

The chapter explicitly sets forth the union of medical missionary work with the ministry, enlightening anyone who would do God's will and giving wisdom and blessing to those who engage in the work as presented. It presents abundant opportunity to minister to suffering humanity and at the same time to be an instrument in God's hands to bring the light of truth before a perishing world, so that when carried on in right lines the ministry is not given an inferior place and the poor and sick are not neglected. God has united these two lines of work in His word and no man should divorce them. Its principles of justice, mercy, and truth in practical, Christlike service apply to medical institutions and sanitariums, which must keep the Bible standard, let patients see the principles carried out, preserve the truth's sacred influence, make fair charges proportionate to work done, use simple remedies from nature, join small sanitariums with schools where possible, and work under Christ's direction. Abiding in Christ with Christ abiding within, living in Christ by eating the bread of life, gives a healthy growing experience to those who do this specified work, with the righteousness of God going before them.

The work of the chapter accompanies the third angel's message as closely as the hand with the body, and belongs with preparing people for the Lord's coming. It warns of transgression and calls for decided Sabbath truth to be proclaimed in clear distinct lines with a loud voice, not by gradually preparing the way, with Isaiah 55 and Isaiah 56 joined as a burden of warning to arouse God's people to give the last note of warning to save a perishing world. It includes supporting workers who take truth where it has not been heard and providing facilities through giving means to God's treasury. That practical benevolence is to accompany the message, not take its place, with the spiritual needs of the soul kept central and without diverting from proclaiming the message or letting benevolence replace spiritual need. Honoring the Sabbath as the sign that God sanctifies His people belongs to this preparation, and the promise of delight in the Lord and the heritage of Jacob stands within it.

The chapter is reproof and correction in righteousness that plainly marks out the way of the Lord, calling not for mere profession and false zeal but for practical godliness, Bible religion, doing justice and mercy, and elevating the purest principles of the kingdom. It describes a people and nation that forsook and forgot God, followed corrupt ways, trampled God's law, broke His everlasting covenant, and despised the Sabbath, which is given as the reason for calamity. Outward fasting, prayer, and complaint without obedience bring no blessing, while following Christ and obeying the commandments opens the Lord's readiness to bless. God's word spoken by the Spirit through it can break and subdue hearts, bring repentance, reveal His power and presence, and accomplish in a moment more than human labor in a lifetime, giving its promises as spiritual food and joy to the believing soul. In it are given the terms of salvation, the most valuable education, deep repentance and reformation called for among youth and instructors, and the covenant of peace.

The chapter is profitable to commit to memory whole and repeat when Satan comes with temptation, walling the soul with God's restrictions and instructions and resisting the mind's drift to earthly and sensual things with It is written, giving clear evidence from keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus that God is leading and proving a people to stand in the great day. It calls for taking heed to all God's commandments with living reality and power like fire shut up in the heart, taking a decided stand that gives victory to souls in the valley of decision. It exposes trusting in fasting and prayer while neglecting mercy and love to God and man, showing that claimed connection with God is proved by righteous works for others. It connects the Sabbath with the ways of robbing God in tithes and offerings, gives reviving healing light to those rejoicing in hope of the soon-coming morning, and once led a listener to resolve to keep the Lord's Sabbath, trust the Lord through coming trials, and make the light of truth known to others.

Prophecy Of Sabbath Restoration

The breach in the law was made when the Roman power changed the day of rest from the seventh day to the first, trampling the fourth commandment which declares that God made the world in six days and rested on the seventh. That work is identified as the work of the papacy and the man of sin, who set up a spurious first-day sabbath with no sacredness instituted not by God but by human authority, putting a false day where God's law should be. Against this stands the teaching that it makes no difference which day is kept, while the true Sabbath is for everyone to observe and must be perpetuated until Christ comes to take His people to Himself, continuing even in the new earth where all come before the Lord from Sabbath to Sabbath. The verse holds precious promises for those who labor to bring back the true Sabbath and call people just before the great day of God back to loyalty to the broken law, with attention called to the breach by teaching and by example. Those who honor the Sabbath as holy, turn from self-directed pleasure and call it a delight, receive what is held out: joy in God, a lifted-up and honored place, and feeding with what was promised to Jacob, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

God calls for a people who build the old waste places, raise the foundations of many generations, and are called repairer of the breach and restorer of paths to dwell in. That repairing means restoring the Sabbath to its rightful place, exalting the trodden-down memorial of creation, and turning feet and many others' feet from disobedience by precept and example. The Sabbath's observance is bound up with restoring God's moral image in people, and the work joins supreme love to God with mercy to humanity, advocating the commandments while manifesting benevolence and tender pity for the fallen race, so that love revealed for suffering humanity gives significance and power to the truth. This promise belongs to the work God requires and appoints for His people in this time, laying a foundation for prosperous households where parents teach children obedience to all statutes and commandments and keep before them the meaning of the typical sacrifices that prefigured the great sacrifice for redemption. Those who so honor the Lord by treating the Sabbath as holy and delighting in it rather than pursuing their own ways and pleasures will delight themselves in the Lord, be raised to the high places of the earth, and receive the heritage of Jacob.

This restoring work belongs to the present and to the last days to the very close of this earth's history in a time of general departure from truth and righteousness. It is aggressive gospel work in which the first, second, and third angels' messages linked together live and exert power upon religious experience while time lasts, warning the inhabitants of the world that Christ is coming again with power and great glory. Belief must not remain merely theoretical but be put into works, combining faith and works in practical service such as medical missionary work and educating students to do service, walking in light shining in strong steady rays across the pathway and undertaking the service others are unwilling to do. If present duties are taken up and the faults condemned in ancient Israel are avoided, with calm unwavering trust in Christ, the assured blessing follows turning from self-pleasure on God's holy day and honoring the Sabbath as a delight. Believers must not sit in churches Sabbath after Sabbath only listening to preaching, but must lift up Christ by visiting friends, neighbors, and families, planting the Word in hearts, dealing out the bread of life to hungering souls, creating interest in present truth, and laboring in simplicity to win souls, so that when the work of judgment is finished they will stand right with heaven. The truth as it is in Jesus in all its bearings is to be proclaimed by God's appointed denominated people before nations and highest authority, with evangelistic labor in all cities and camp meetings reaching all classes, wise temperance work closing saloons and ending poisoned liquor that creates madness and bloodshed, special effort for the higher classes, and carrying the law of God on the Sabbath question with warnings to the whole world rather than consuming means in unordained experiments. Though opposed by enemies, the work steadily advances because God, angels, and His battles give precious victories to those who watch, pray, and work, showing obedience to God's law as safeguard and foundation for lasting reform.

The call stands when laws will soon compel all to observe the first day of the week, requiring a people to stand for the seventh day and meet that difficulty with trouble enough ahead without stirring up contention among those who profess to keep God's commandments. Turning the foot from the Sabbath means not doing personal pleasure on God's holy day, not doing own ways nor finding own pleasure nor speaking own words, and calling the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable. Keeping the Sabbath from polluting it is duty, not a question of convenience, following Jesus who left the royal courts of heaven, clothed divinity with humanity, and became poor so that through His poverty people might be made rich. No circumstance justifies working on the Sabbath for worldly profit, even poverty or supporting a family, and disregarding this express injunction to advantage self brings future woe and divine judgment, while the obedient will be prospered and provided for.

Doctrine And Scriptural Connections

The Sabbath is God's memorial of creation, to be restored and honored by those who worship the Creator. It is a sign between God and His people that He sanctifies them, and a sign of Christ's creative and redeeming power pointing to Him as both Creator and Sanctifier. Keeping it as a delight leads to delighting in the Lord, for it recalls the lost peace of Eden and tells of peace restored through the Saviour. Such obedience throughout the generations for a perpetual covenant brings divine comfort and consolation and a knowledge of what constitutes true sanctification. Honoring the Sabbath by turning from personal pursuits and treating it as holy and honorable expresses allegiance to God and obedience to His moral law.

That loyalty marks His people, guards against idolatry by identifying the living Creator, and will endure through all ages to distinguish the true God from false gods, including from Sabbath to Sabbath in the new earth. The verse stands together with verses 12-13 as one connected section, and belongs with verses 10-14 as God's encouragement and duty. It applies to present experience together with Isaiah 55, Isaiah 56, and the rest of Isaiah 58, bringing the Lord's help and wonderful sustaining strength. It belongs with Isaiah 55 and Isaiah 56 as a burden of warning calling God's people to arouse to give the last note of warning to save a perishing world. Its teaching about the Sabbath parallels the requirements given to Moses in Exodus 31:12-18 and is to be read and explained together with that passage as the Lord's instruction.

The Sabbath is a testing truth that must not be left out of the message. Honoring it as the Lord's holy day by turning from personal pursuits brings the promise of delight in the Lord, the high places of the earth, and the heritage of Jacob, and this is a matter of life or death where receiving these truths brings life and rejecting them brings death. Disregarding the Sabbath robs of that pledged blessing and separates from God, the source of good. Those who walk in the light of God's commands are in the right and are not the ones who should be maligned and persecuted. The verse belongs to God's covenant with the people He is seeking to save today, telling the terms of salvation and giving the education of most value today, the highest knowledge a human being can possess.

Keeping the Sabbath stamps the soul with the sign of God's government and the King's mark as chosen and set apart to honor God. That mark must not be dishonored by fraud or extortion, for God will be party to no dishonest transaction. Sabbathkeepers are to follow honest methods in revealing the Father's heart of tender compassion through Christlike medical missionary work, and the chapter specifies those methods as a guide to honoring God through honest conduct. Market places, merchandise stores, courts of justice, lawyers' offices, the medical fraternity, and medical missionary work need cleansing and purifying from robbery, overcharging, and dishonest practice. The verse is also connected with the ways people rob God, including withholding tithes and offerings.

Faithful Sabbath Observance Daily

Delighting in the Lord on the Sabbath requires placing a guard over self, acts and words from the moment the Sabbath begins, lest time that is strictly the Lord's be taken for personal use. No manner of own work for a livelihood is to be done, either personally or by allowing children to do it, and nothing is to be left to the Sabbath that could have been done on the six working days. Friday is the day of preparation, to be used for making necessary preparation and for thinking and conversing about the Sabbath, so that nothing remains to be said or done on the Sabbath that would be regarded in heaven as a violation. Faithfulness requires not only resting from physical labor but disciplining the mind to dwell on sacred themes and keeping the Sabbath holy in speech, dedicating the household to God in devotion and cheerful service. Sabbath conversation is to be restricted to religious themes — present truth, present duty, the Christian's hopes and fears, trials, conflicts and afflictions, overcoming at last, and the rewards to be received — and the Sabbath is not to be given to worldly talk, idleness, sleep, or making up sleep lost by hard work for money through the week, but to spiritual exercises with family and with believers, as the most favorable of all days for devotional thoughts and feelings whose divine influence attends through the week until the next Sabbath.

Conversing about worldly things or engaging in light and trifling conversation is speaking one's own words and virtually transgresses the commandment, and those who so break the Sabbath while claiming to keep it should receive kind and solemn reproof, with ministers especially to be circumspect in example, avoid worldly talk, and encourage devotion to God on His holy day. Every deviation from right brings bondage and condemnation, while those who honor the Sabbath as holy and delight in it will delight in the Lord and receive His blessing. Seeking personal amusement in sinful, forbidden amusements on God's holy day is violation rather than the delight described, and the Sabbath is instead to be exalted in the family and made the most interesting, joyful day of the week, not mournful. Parents fulfill this by family worship and instruction that gives children correct views of God and what He requires to perfect Christian character and attain eternal life, laying a foundation for prosperous households where obedience to all statutes and commandments is taught and the meaning of the typical sacrifices pointing to the great sacrifice for redemption is kept before them.

This instruction is to be taken home, studied in homes, and carried out as the will of God, since obeying what is written concerns eternal life and fits families for the salvation of children, while disobeying gives children an example contrary to the Word, showing how highly God values the human family. It is done by devoting time to interest children, walking with them in the open air, sitting with them in groves and bright sunshine, feeding their restless minds by conversing upon the works of God and calling attention to beautiful objects in nature to inspire love and reverence, and by devising means to impart proper instruction in spiritual things. When the Sabbath is made so interesting, its weekly return is hailed with joy, looked forward to, and welcomed in the heart, with homes graced by sweet piety. Those who place a high value on the Sabbath recognize the obligations its observance brings by doing everything that can possibly be done in the six days given for work and keeping the Sabbath fully holy, without robbing God of even one hour of holy time.

Those who refrain from labor on the Sabbath may claim every comfort and consolation God promises, believing God, calling holy the day He calls holy without shame, doing what He has commanded, keeping the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant with all His commandments, observing it strictly according to the commandment in a holy Christian life put away from sin and sanctified through the truth, and thereby coming to know what constitutes true sanctification. Such faithful keepers arrange travel at difficulty to avoid Sabbath boats and cars, with tickets and plans made beforehand, and when travel is unavoidable withdraw from undesirable company to commune with God and relieve suffering, keep a limited diet with reference to the day's duties to keep the mind clear, and give the day to devotion rather than idleness. Those who so honor the Sabbath as God's holy day and find delight in it will delight in the Lord, receive blessing and honor, and share the heritage promised to Jacob, with obedience that does not leave them without support even when providing for families seems impossible, bringing freedom from bondage and joy in the Lord.

When justice is done and truth is exalted, the Lord Himself is keeper and preserver of His people and enables them to do His will, caring for those looked down upon, despised and rejected, as shown in providing a school farm where they can be trained for labor and go forth to lift up the oppressed, strengthen weak hands, and lead men and women to honor God. Those who obey trust the Lord as fortress and support through trials and difficulties, receive light and blessing and drink richer and deeper draughts of the water of life, lay aside labor in their own strength and the filthy garments of selfishness to be clothed with the change of raiment, even the righteousness of Christ, gain evidence of acceptance with God, and make known the light of truth to others, being preserved as the apple of His eye and watched over against evil angels seeking to turn minds aside, as illustrated by one willing to leave home rather than yield the Sabbath. Faithful observance brings special light, help and strength, and the promise is to be hidden under as refuge in Christ by which God raises His people to victory and gives Jacob's inheritance, establishing them in truth and righteousness with the Lord's glory as rereward, to be seen only with eyes anointed with eyesalve, while treating the sacred day carelessly brings spiritual loss and sadness.

Compassionate Service And Reward

The promise belongs to unselfish service that heals selfishness as a spiritual disease, for obedience shown in mercy and right doing is what brings delight in the Lord and His blessing. That service is feeding the hungry, housing the homeless and outcast, clothing the naked, and giving personal, practical care to children and youth, orphans and widows, the aged, the sick, the wounded, the tempted, the poor and the neglected. Special care is due within the household of faith and to families in distress, especially to those who suffer because they courageously accept the truth and are cast out, rather than neglecting them for outsiders, and the chapter does not lay on the church responsibility to provide for every depraved person, drunkard or prostitute. Religious claims and worship are not accepted in place of this work, for supreme love to God must be joined with mercy to humanity, with benevolence and tender pity for the fallen race giving significance and power to the truth, while selfishness narrows the spiritual life and generosity brings spiritual renewal and sustaining care like a watered garden.

This service calls for self-denial and liberality instead of spending on self-pleasing fancies, giving means to supply the needs of the Lord's work and His institutions and to spread the truth in cities and villages near and far where it has not been heard. It is to be done by exercising physical powers in a simple, less expensive way, by economizing, by denying inclination and appetite that weakens health, character and mind, and by investing means to help destitute missions and erect humble houses of worship for poor new believers, in view of the nearness of the end. Those who have means are not to spend all their efforts merely in commercial lines but to lay up treasure beside the throne of God, supporting workers and providing facilities through God's treasury. Such self-denying liberality brings satisfaction and health of soul and is a sure remedy for poor health.

Practicing this instruction brings a healthy soul and joyful, growing experience, with righteousness revealed and going before, like a watered garden. Diligent study of the Word joined with doing the appointed work enlarges understanding of Scripture, the Holy Spirit stays close to the worker, kindles the love of God in the soul, and imparts progressive grace to save others from darkness. It teaches prayer in the Spirit with no more formalism, but with love to God with heart and soul and mind and strength and love to neighbor as self, so that prayers bear evidence of divine inditing and guidance and are heard and answered. For a church, piety, spiritual knowledge and growth are proportionate to the zeal, piety and missionary intelligence brought in and carried out to bless those most needing assistance, opening a wide and extensive vineyard to be worked on the lines pointed out. Doing that work increases moral resources so the church no longer remains almost stationary, brings blessing and power attending labor, overcomes the selfishness that bound up souls, and gives light to the world in clear bright rays in living faith and godly example.

Those who live not to please themselves but to bless the unfortunate who have few blessings will delight in the Lord, be lifted up to ride upon the high places of the earth, and be fed and sustained with the heritage and inheritance promised to Jacob their father. They will rejoice in the good their service brought and be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. The promise comes true in thrilling satisfaction and rejoicing when they meet and greet in the redeemed life those for whom they carried a burden.