Isaiah 58:13 “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;
Nehemiah 13:15-22 In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the day when they sold food. Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself! Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.” As soon as it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut and gave orders that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. And I stationed some of my servants at the gates, that no load might be brought in on the Sabbath day. Then the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem once or twice. But I warned them and said to them, “Why do you lodge outside the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time on they did not come on the Sabbath. Then I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves and come and guard the gates, to keep the Sabbath day holy. Remember this also in my favor, O my God, and spare me according to the greatness of your steadfast love.
Jeremiah 17:21-27 Thus says the LORD: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction.
Psalms 27:4 One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.
Just as joy is more than the absence of sorrow, the Sabbath is more than cessation of labor. Resting in bed all day does not amount to a keeping of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is to be a delight and joy ( Isa 58:13 ). Freedom and liberty seem to have a way to blind our eyes to what it means to walk with God, to hear His whispers of guidance, and to follow Him above all else. In our culture each person must decide whether they will exploit freedom and liberty or curtail them for intelligent and moral ends. In freedom and liberty we choose to do as we will and it can be for the pleasure of ourselves, humbly serving God, or the harm to others. It is in this freedom and liberty that we have opportunity to honor God.
We don’t have to look far into our social culture and how it says; you are good enough and doing enough to please God by your lack of doing bad, that by attending church once per week you have fulfilled your requirement to hear God’s word for the week, setting in place laws where it is your legal right to kill an unborn child, and where pornography is redefined as adult entertainment. The lack of God’s word in our heart and mind leave us wide open to using our cultural freedom and liberty as it pleases us rather than honoring God. We have no knowledge and understanding of what it truly means to humbly serve, honor, follow and obey. We soon find the very freedom and liberty we cherish has slowly dimmed the light of God’s word in our heart to the point of darkness.
Let the light of God’s word feed your heart, mind and soul. Let not a day go by without it being first on your mind in the morning and last thing in your heart at night. Use your freedom and liberty to honor, serve, follow and obey God. We have free will to choose and will be held accountable to Him alone.
