The Holy of the Lord

Isaiah 58:13-14: "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, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: 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.

Six days in the week we grind away--sometimes it's work, sometimes it's play, sometimes it's something in between, but for six days our attentions are focused on our day to day lives.

Yet we are eternal creatures having a mortal experience.  Our day to day lives, while they are important, are not the most important thing.  So we are given the blessing of the Sabbath, a day to concentrate our attentions on things that matter more, but which are less immediate.

One day a week, we stop our labors and do not add to the labors of others.  One day a week, we get the chance to change ourselves and have a holy day.

As a child, I thought of the Sabbath day mostly as a day with prohibitions.  I thought it was a difficult day, and if the only thing one concentrates on is the prohibitions then the Sabbath is onerous.  Nature abhors a vacuum, and if the only thing you concentrate on is what to remove you'll find you won't be able to.  Instead, focus on what to substitute.  Focus not on what daily tasks you should avoid, but what godly tasks you should do.  Concentrate not on the day to day concerns, but on the eternal problems, and then you will find that the Sabbath becomes a true joy.

This is because by concentrating on the things that matter most, our minds become prepared to receive all the blessings that rain down from heaven toward us.  By observing the Sabbath day (and by engaging in all the holy habits) we reorganize and re-prioritize so that we are capable of receiving more than we otherwise would.  And when the Sabbath day is a holy day instead of a holiday, when it is a delight, a day to do the work of the Lord, then we will be fed with "the heritage of Jacob [our] father."