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Ponderize Isaiah 58:13-14 (17-23 April 2016)

13 ¶If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.  Isaiah 58:13-14

I am pondering this scripture because of the phrase about the sabbath being a delight.  I have always thought that if we obeyed the law of the sabbath, then we would find delight in the sabbath.  But now that I think about this scripture in more depth and read it carefully, it says for us to “call the sabbath a delight”.  Calling the sabbath a delight is part of the commandment, not part of the blessing.  Often our church callings make the sabbath as much of a day of work as it is a day of rest.  So, the command is to find delight in doing the work of the Lord on his holy day and putting aside our own pleasure. When we do that, then we delight ourselves in the Lord and we are blessed.  When you think of it in this context, then you begin to see that the day to rest from our labors (D&C 59:10) is not a day for us to do our own pleasure by laying around all day, but rather it is a day to turn from our personal labors and focus on doing the work of the Lord.  

Quote:
     Not pursuing your “own pleasure” on the Sabbath requires self-discipline. You may have to deny yourself of something you might like. If you choose to delight yourself in the Lord, you will not permit yourself to treat it as any other day. Routine and recreational activities can be done some other time.
     Think of this: In paying tithing, we return one-tenth of our increase to the Lord. In keeping the Sabbath holy, we reserve one day in seven as His. So it is our privilege to consecrate both money and time to Him who lends us life each day.22 [See  Mosiah 2:21
     Faith in God engenders a love for the Sabbath; faith in the Sabbath engenders a love for God. A sacred Sabbath truly is a delight.  (Elder Russell M. Nelson, “The Sabbath is a Delight”, April 2015 General Conference) 

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