If you had the opportunity to spend a whole day with someone very dear to you, wouldn’t you be glad for it? Imagine a day to be with a kind father or mother, a loving spouse, or a dear friend. Would you resent putting aside your work to be with this loved one? Wouldn’t you avoid anything that would distract or interrupt your time together? Let that be your attitude towards the Sabbath. Make it a day of love for God and love for Christ as Lord of the Sabbath day.

If we keep the Sabbath with delight, then the Lord promises us that He “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.” To “ride upon the high places of the earth” refers to the way God provided for all of Israel’s needs in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land (Deut. 32:13).¹ The “heritage” or inheritance of Jacob is more than the land of Canaan; according to Isaiah 54, it is the spiritual and eternal riches promised in the new covenant.² This is not then just a promise of provision for our daily needs, but a promise of inheritance in the eternal kingdom of God.

The Sabbath is a sign of the ultimate glory of the church’s future.³ The prophecy of Isaiah closes with the announcement of the promise of the new heavens and the new earth for God’s people: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind” (Isa. 65:17). In this new creation, the labor of God’s people shall be wholly redeemed from the curse that has mingled pain and death with all our work: “They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them” (v. 23).

This new (or renewed) order of creation will abide as the consummation of the promise of redemption. Not only is the labor of God’s people to be wholly redeemed from the curse; the Sabbath also will at last come into its own as the universal day for the worship of Jehovah. Such is the promise of God: “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD” (Isa. 66:22–23).

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