Isaiah 58 and the Sabbath

Not having been raised in the Adventist church but attending various evangelistic meetings in the early 70s I soon learned Isaiah 58 was a very important text in understanding and keeping the Sabbath day. The evangelist would read verse 12 and explained that the mission of this church was that God was calling it to repair the breach in the wall of truth which included bringing back the seventh day Sabbath to the world. Verses 13 and 14 explained the principle of how to keep it.

Before we get around to verses 12 - 14 I think we should look at verses 1 - 11 and discover the context of this chapter. It is quite surprising what the emphasis of this chapter is and how that leads us into verse 12. The emphasis is on caring for your neighbor especially the disenfranchised and the poor. The humility and fasting that God wants is to loose the chains of injustice (Verse 6), set the oppressed free and break every yoke. Share your food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer with shelter -- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not turn away from your own family. (V.7) Stop pointing the finger and talking maliciously but spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed (Vs 9,10.

This is the context before you get to verse 12. Rebuilding the ancient ruins and raising up on the foundations; becoming a repair of the broken walls and restores of streets begins with treating one another compassionately, especially the poor. The emphasis in verse 12 finds its strength in verses 1-11. After that we could talk about keeping the Sabbath and careful way. In fact, doing things for the poor and the disenfranchised is an appropriate way to keep Sabbath even if it causes you to sweat.

Verse 13: If you keep your foot- This clearly refers to traveling on the Sabbath. And back in those days to travel 5 or 10 miles was work. Today we can fly from one coast to the next in little more time than it took them to walk 10 miles. But in major traveling I prefer not to do it on the Sabbath.

From doing your own pleasure or as you please… call the Sabbath a delight- I have often had difficulty with these two phrases. In one sense you are not supposed to have pleasure, in another sense you are. Make up your mind. Right here is where I discovered Adventist’s keeping of the Sabbath differs from the way the Jews and perhaps even the Bible teaches us to keep it.

With all of the Jewish laws recorded in the Mishnah with detailed and technical rules about what you could and could not do on the Sabbath, there were no rules that restricted fun, pleasure and play. The Jews put quite a bit of emphasis on having a good time on Sabbath. They had free reign on play with no restrictions. My wife and I visited a Synagogue in Jerusalem one Friday night. Though I was not allowed to take notes during the service, the children continuously ran up and down the aisles playing. None of the adults seemed to care. This would never happen in American churches. I assume it had something to do with the way the Jewish people regard the Sabbath. They want everyone to have fun, even in the service.

Even in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day. Jesus married them. The first Sabbath experienced together was right after their wedding. So, what do you think Friday night was? A honeymoon of course. Where do we get this idea that pleasure is somehow evil and sinful? It doesn't come from God. But it does come as a carryover from the medieval church and even Puritan, Victorian America. I discovered that when I looked at some of the faces of Adventists on the Sabbath they believed a false interpretation of Isaiah 58. When I saw them the rest of the week they looked happy.

What is Isaiah referring to when he says we should not do our own pleasure? The word pleasure here actually refers to business. We should not carry on our business of gainful employment.

Problems in our accepted practice: If you have ever spent much time around Adventist institutions like universities, hospitals, etc. you will discover that the way those institutions keep the Sabbath is very different than the way 90% of Adventists do. Just walk around on the campus of these institutions and you will discover that they have their own security patrolling the grounds day and night, workers in the cafeteria, cleaning floors, operating the power plant, running the laboratory, and numerous other tasks. When we hold Sabbath convocations in public buildings, we higher people to perform various necessary functions and we expect to be served in restaurants where we eat. There seems to be a feeling that if you're working for an Adventist institution you are exempt from keeping the Sabbath in the same way that people who live outside are. If we were to go to a restaurant in Charlotte and an Adventist served us we would think he was breaking the Sabbath. Are we being ethical?

Let's face it, if we really want to be strict about keeping the Sabbath we will go out to our breaker box on Friday before sundown and turn off the main power supply to our house as well as close the water tap into the house and not even flush the toilet. Because we are making somebody have to work so that we have those conveniences. It can really get complicated to keep the Sabbath strictly today in 21st century America and be consistent when your goal is somewhat legalistic.
We all have different ways that we keep the Sabbath. We all have settled in our own mind what we think is approved and what we think isn’t. One should not judge another. “You then, why do you judge your brother?” (Romans 14:10)

The bottom line, 3 things: 1- Spiritual day 2-Physical rest 3-Family. In fact, the Sabbath is a date with God where we spend time together without interruptions.