The Revelation of Rest
We’ve just established what a sabbath rest means, and found that most of American society fifty years, ago believed that resting on the Sabbath was not particularly difficult, but rather very pleasurable.
But first, notice this in Isaiah 58:13-14,
“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of Yahweh honorable; and shall honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words:
“then shall you delight yourself in Yahweh; and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father: for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.” WEB
Let me tell you a story of how I discovered the importance of Commandment #4 and of resting on the Sabbath. I love to work, and like many believers and unbelievers, working seems to be the best way to get ahead in this world. At the time, Kathy and I were living in Maine, in the Northwoods, on a small plot of land in the middle of nowhere. Our drive to work, or civilization, was a full hour.
At the time, my job was insurance sales, and Sunday evenings I spent on the phone, setting up appointments for the following week. That I did faithfully. In addition to the calls I made Sunday evenings, I was in the middle of building a barn for myself, hoping one day to have some animals. Although I was saved, we were not attending any church. So, instead of church, I rose early Sunday mornings to work on the construction of the barn. I only came into our modest home to eat meals and get water. At one point on one of these days, I came inside to find my wife, Kathy, crying, and I asked why. Seems she felt I had neglected her as a wife, since I did not spend any time with her on our only two days off.
From out of nowhere, I heard the Spirit of God speak to me about resting on Sunday. For two weeks I debated with the Spirit from a position of fear of loss of income. Then I heard Him whisper to me, “Test Me in this”. Ok, “I’ll test You”, I thought! (What an attitude!)
This was the test. First, that I would produce more or less income on God’s plan, and second, that I would feel better or not, physically, by taking His advice. A few days later, come Sunday, I did not work on the barn, nor make calls, as I had. Instead made my appointment calls the previous night.
That first week, after completely resting Sunday, I had the best sales week of my rather new career. Soon, because of this, I became the 5th best producer in the country for new 1st year salesmen. And, this was in the state of Maine, whose average household income was only better than one other state in the whole country! My boss was smiling at me a lot in those days.
The second thing that happened, is come Saturday night, I would just drop down, fall out, and hit the wall. You know. Sunday, I rested, as God rested from all His works. On Mondays, I was a charging bull, reins clenched in my teeth, aggressively focused on everything that came my way. The other thing that happened is this; my marriage started to improve and get better. Duh.
“If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, and the holy of Yahweh honorable; and shall honor it, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words:
“Then shall you delight yourself in Yahweh; and I will make you to ride on the high places of the earth…”
Our prayer for today,
Father, I ask for Your forgiveness, at any time that I have tried to do it alone, without You, to make my life work without You. I repent, and decide now that I see Your day is in fact, a great and Holy day! In Jesus’ name, amen!
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