Isaiah 58:13, commentary and pictures

Turning the foot from the Sabbath means ceasing to trample, profane and break it, setting aside ordinary work, business, personal plans, pleasure and self-directed speech, and instead regarding and treating the day as a delight devoted to God, holy to the Lord and worthy of honor.
To honor the day in this way is to honor God Himself, while using its time for personal use or treating it lightly dishonors Him and robs Him of due obedience.
The day so honored is the Lord's holy seventh day of the fourth commandment, the memorial of creation in which God made the world in six days and blessed and sanctified the seventh, instituted in Eden for all mankind and perpetuated to the new earth.
The breach to be repaired is this trampled Sabbath memorial, and those who lift it up, keep the definite seventh day and call attention to the broken law become repairers of the breach and restorers of paths to dwell in in a special work for the last days joined to the third angel's message.
Those who so honor the Sabbath will delight themselves in the Lord, ride upon the high places of the earth and be fed with the heritage of Jacob, with continual guidance, spiritual satisfaction and the light of righteousness going before them.
This keeping cannot stand apart from the chosen fast of loosing wicked bands, freeing the oppressed, feeding the hungry and housing the poor, and it is fulfilled in practice by preparation on Friday, guarding acts and speech from its beginning, devoting its hours to worship, helping others and teaching children, with no ordinary labor, business, pleasure or travel except for mercy and necessity.

Words and Requirements

To turn the foot from the Sabbath is to stop trampling it underfoot, to cease profaning it and breaking it by Sabbath-breaking, no longer treading down the fourth commandment while its light stands revealed. The trampled day is to be uplifted and restored, with the seventh day kept in place of neglect, as part of repairing the breach in the divine law. Unfaithful shepherds must return to loyalty by this same turning, ceasing from personal pleasure, personal ways and personal words on the holy day.

Not doing one's own ways, nor finding one's own pleasure, nor speaking one's own words means setting aside ordinary work and business, personal pursuits and plans, pleasure and sinful amusements, and self-directed speech on God's holy day. It is a turning from one's own pursuits, pleasures and words, giving up what could have been done in the six working days in order to honor God rather than self. To call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord and honourable is to regard and treat the day as a delight devoted to God, holy to the Lord and worthy of honor, and not as common time or a burden. Obedience in this form brings delight in the Lord, exaltation upon the high places of the earth, and nourishment with the heritage of Jacob, because the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

Honoring the Sabbath in this way is honoring God Himself, for the day belongs to Him and is set apart from life's toil for communion with Him and reflection on His power and love in creation and redemption. Treating it lightly, taking its time for personal use, or dishonoring it dishonors the Lord Himself, robs Him of the honor and obedience due to Him, including in tithes and offerings, and separates from Him as the source of good. Willful disregard rejects His ordinances and forfeits blessing, while changing the blessed and holy memorial leaves no sacred day and makes the memorial of no value. Not speaking one's own words means disciplining the mind to dwell on sacred themes and placing a guard on acts and words, refusing worldly business and light, trifling talk that merely speaks whatever comes into the mind. Conversation is to be restricted from worldly business to religious themes, to present truth and present duty, to the Christian's hopes and fears, trials, conflicts and afflictions, overcoming at last and the reward to be received. Speech is instead to share Christ's words of comfort, encouragement, blessing and help, serving others by relieving suffering and oppression, helping the needy and distressed, and working to win souls, while the mind is not to be wasted or impaired by tobacco or alcohol nor left for evil to rule.

Right keeping requires a consecrated heart, willing service and cheerful devotion by the whole household, not a mournful and sorrowful spirit, but delighting in the Lord even in conflict under His keeping. It sets aside worldly business and refuses to let the mind dwell on worldly concerns or plans during the sacred hours, yet permits acts of necessity and mercy such as caring for the sick and suffering. God's commandments impose no unreasonable or selfish restrictions and can be obeyed by all, the Sabbath being a delight and not a burden of arbitrary human rules.

Sabbath Identity and History

The Sabbath of the verse is the Lord's own holy day, the seventh day of the fourth commandment, the one day on which He rested after working six days, which He blessed and sanctified and set apart for reverence and worship with servile work forbidden. It is His memorial of creation, a constant reminder of His creative power and of His claim to reverence and worship, and the sign of His work in creating the world. There is no other Sabbath of His making, and keeping it is keeping His commandments and living.

It was instituted in Eden before the fall and before any Jews existed, made for all mankind and as old as the human race, and it will exist as long as man exists. Hallowed by the Creator's rest and blessing, it was kept by Adam in innocence and after he fell, and by all the patriarchs from Abel to Noah to Abraham to Jacob, then proclaimed anew to Israel at Sinai. It was made for everyone to observe and for all upon the earth, perpetuated until Christ comes to take His people to Himself, and kept in the new earth from Sabbath to Sabbath before the Lord. Since the Bible and Christ also came through the Jews as guardians of truth, there is the same reason to reject them as Jewish as to reject the Sabbath.

The command remains binding as part of the unchanging moral law for everyone, a divine requirement that God blesses in faithful observance. It is the Sabbath of Exodus 31, a sign between God and His people that He sanctifies and accepts those who keep it, laid upon them to show to the world that they recognize Him as the One who created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. Upon those who keep it is the seal of the living God, and true sanctification is obedience shown by perfect obedience and receiving this sign, as distinguished from false sanctification without obedience. It is a sign of respect for God as Creator, a test of loyalty that preserves from idolatry, honoring the Creator and distinguishing worship of the true God from worship of false gods, and it endures through all ages. God's Word reveals by it whether Sabbathkeepers bear the King's mark of His government and are set apart to honor Him rather than dishonoring that sign by dishonest transactions.

The first day is a spurious Sabbath of man's invention with no sacredness that God does not accept, and the Bible Lord's day is the seventh day, not the first. To uphold the seventh-day memorial that God created heaven and earth in six days and rested and blessed and sanctified, rather than the first day, is to lift up the Sabbath trampled underfoot, and to accept a common working day as holy insults God. The breach was made when the man of sin, papal and Romish power under Satan, set aside God's sanctified seventh-day memorial and put Sunday observance in its place, making a breach in God's law. That power taught that the fourth commandment was changed and that it makes no difference which day is kept, and the change broke God's law. Satan also worked through exactions added by Jews, scribes, and Pharisees that turned the Sabbath into a yoke of bondage, which Christ came to vindicate and restore to delight and honor.

The Sabbath points to Christ's creative and redeeming power, recalling creation and Eden's lost peace and pointing to peace restored through the Saviour. Those who see Christ in it delight in Him, and it is a sign of His power to make holy, given to those who become part of the Israel of God through Christ. The Sabbath commandment shines above all the other commandments because it was set apart to be kept in honor of God's holy name. The fourth commandment is a bond joining people to one another and connecting earth to heaven and humanity to God.

Repairing the Breach Prophecy

The old waste places, the breach in the wall of God's law, and the foundation of many generations are the broken Sabbath of the fourth commandment, the trampled seventh-day memorial by which God created heaven and earth in six days and rested and blessed and sanctified the seventh day, not the first. That breach was made when God's sanctified seventh-day memorial was set aside and Sunday observance put in its place, a transgression perpetuated by Satan standing for many years, made by the man of sin and papal Romish power teaching that the fourth commandment was changed and that it makes no difference which day is kept. It matters which day is kept, not just any day, because the fourth commandment was dropped out of the law, and the spurious first-day sabbath has no sacredness and God does not accept it. Keeping the verse means lifting up the Sabbath trampled underfoot, guarding God's law as the apple of the eye, seeing as God sees and working as God works, while His commandments remain binding despite all opposition.

Those who turn from self-pleasing Sunday worship that God does not accept, turn the foot from trampling the Sabbath and from doing own pleasure on God's holy day, lift up the trampled Sabbath, keep the definite seventh day, and call attention to the broken law by precept and example become repairers of the breach and restorers of paths to dwell in. They call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord honourable, and honour God by not doing own ways nor finding own pleasure nor speaking own words, pleading for the desecrated Sabbath and coming back to allegiance to the law of God. Their names are written in heaven, they are called among the heavenly intelligences repairers of the breach and restorers of paths to dwell in, they hide under its promise and find refuge in Christ who establishes them in truth and righteousness with the glory of the Lord as rereward, and together with the promise in the following verses their faithfulness is part of restoring what has been laid waste. Entering this requires seeking God until He is found, becoming intelligent in faith and doctrine to give a reason of hope, and having eyes anointed with eyesalve to see.

This restoration is the special work for the present time and last days, done just prior to the great day of God when the divine institution is to be restored, with increasing urgency as the end approaches. It requires staunch, decided, whole-souled men and women who stand in the gap and make up the hedge with no halfway work, gaining another and deeper experience that discerns the snares of the deceiver. It calls for walking humbly before the Lord while His truth is substantiated and magnified and while guarding against every heresy brought in to corrupt the explanation of the Word, with meetings set apart for investigation and building up.

The rebuke is directed not to the wicked world but to God's professed people who think themselves righteous, seek Him daily, make many prayers, and show interest in His service while trampling His precepts. It calls transgressing churches, unfaithful shepherds, selfish institutions turned from the purposes for which they were established into serving selfish purposes, and diseased souls to repentance, reformation, conversion, and return to loyalty, having every instrumentality sanctified and set in order besides fasting and praying. Keeping the Sabbath and making many prayers do not by themselves please God, for He requires doing what is right at the right time, becoming less self-caring, practical godliness and Bible religion, doing justice and mercy, elevating the purest principles of His kingdom, and showing practical care for those in need rather than self-righteous reliance on fasting and prayer when mercy and love are neglected.

Honoring the Sabbath as described is true third-angel work, joined to that message as the hand is joined to the body and central to proclaiming it and preparing for Christ's coming, and workers engaged in that work can be trusted without fear. The Sabbath truth is to be proclaimed now with a loud voice, clearly and distinctly in clear distinct lines, in a most earnest and decided manner with the power of the Holy Spirit and a certain trumpet sound, especially at camp meetings and in evangelistic labor in all cities reaching all classes, not introduced gradually nor held back nor prepared for gradually by beating about the bush. The denominated people of God are appointed to stand before nations and the highest authority with the worldwide message of the law of God on the Sabbath question, and the impression it makes will match the earnestness with which it is proclaimed.

Keeping the Sabbath this way magnifies the law and makes it honorable, restores God's moral image in man, and brings freedom from bondage and delight in the Lord. This instruction has a definite place where it applies and a marked time of fulfillment that is made known and not left to human conclusions, standing joined to continual guidance, spiritual satisfaction, building the old waste places, raising the foundations of many generations, and the promise of delighting in the Lord, riding upon the high places of the earth, and being fed with the heritage of Jacob.

The verse predicts a reform of the Sabbath of the Lord after it has been long trampled under foot, restoring an institution of perpetual obligation since creation when the Sabbath was made for man. Its call to honor the Sabbath as the Lord's holy day rather than using it for one's own pursuits, pleasures, or words applies to restoring observance of the seventh day after the Sabbath was changed to the first day of the week. The seventh day remained holy and was observed in obedience to the fourth commandment, even as Sunday was gradually given greater honor.

Promises to the Obedient

Those who honor the Sabbath in this way will delight themselves in the Lord, be caused to ride upon the high places of the earth, and be fed with the heritage of Jacob, because the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. This keeping belongs together with repairing the breach made in God's law and with lifting up the trampled seventh day against first-day observance put in its place. It is part of the work God gives His people for today and for the last days, in a chapter of the highest importance, to be carried out in cooperation with Christ through grace.

Obedience also brings continual guidance and spiritual satisfaction and refreshment. The clear light of the Sun of Righteousness shines upon the obedient, with righteousness going before them and the glory of the Lord as their rereward. They find refuge in Christ, who establishes them in truth and righteousness, and this instruction lays the foundation for prosperous households when parents keep it before their children. Divine comfort and consolation attend them, and by calling holy what God calls holy they come to know true sanctification.

These are the specified conditions for receiving God's blessings and understanding His Word, and failure to meet them explains why the churches do not understand the Word. Receiving the Word just as it reads brings power from on high, and obedience kept in this way leads to winning souls to obedience and to the kingdom as loyal subjects. When the instruction is read and practiced with love to God and neighbor, prayer is made in the Spirit rather than as formal prayer, and such Spirit-indited prayers bear evidence of divine guidance and will be heard and answered. Its rich promises belong especially to all engaged in medical missionary work done in the love of Christ with earnest desire to impart received blessings.

Faithfulness in peaceful days gathers strength and courage for the coming grand test and time of trouble. Receiving this truth means life that measures with the life of God and a treasure in heaven that fails not, while rejecting it means death, so it must be urged with terrible earnestness because salvation of the soul is at stake and there is no second probation. Soon laws compelling all to observe the first day instead of the seventh will bring trouble, which must be met united, without stirring up contention among those professing to keep God's commandments.

The Sabbath's importance and glory are not yet fully understood, but will be seen when the refreshing and latter rain come from the Lord. Then God's people will know what it means to be fed with Jacob's heritage and to ride upon the high places, and finally when the covenant of peace is made at God's voice the gates of the New Jerusalem will open. Jesus will welcome those who kept God's commandments, affirming their right to enter the city and receive the tree of life and a home in heaven. God Himself will pronounce a never-ending blessing on those who honored Him in keeping His Sabbath holy, with words rolling through the earth like peals of loudest thunder in awful solemnity, while the Israel of God stand with eyes fixed upward shouting Glory Alleluia, their faces lighted with God's glory as Moses' face shone from Sinai, and there is a mighty shout of victory over the beast and over his image.

The instruction gives light to those who rejoice in the hope of the soon-coming morning, contrasting the passing fashion of this world with the enduring fashion of the world to come. It promises infinite bliss and boundless joy as the reward of the righteous, with mansions prepared by Christ for the faithful. Those who love God and keep His commandments receive a clear title never to be questioned to the immortal inheritance, an everlasting life-insurance policy for those who by faith take God at His Word, and possession of the kingdom forever and ever for those who by faith enter and hold fast their profession.

Present life is test and trial whether people will be counted worthy to unite with the holy heavenly family in the courts of the Lord. Character must now be formed to give fitness for that society, because a change is to take place in the world very soon, and it rests wholly with each person to take the truth and make the Word of the Lord the counselor. Children are to be taught and trained for the future immortal life, and then the gates of the city of God will be thrown back for the nations that have kept the truth to enter in. Glory will go before and light will shine out from everyone who makes God and His Word the counselor and follows it.

Joined Mercy and Service

Sabbath keeping belongs inseparably together with the chosen fast of loosing the bands of wickedness, undoing heavy burdens, letting the oppressed go free, breaking every yoke, feeding the hungry, bringing the poor that are cast out into the house, covering the naked, and not hiding from one's own flesh. Turning from personal pleasure, personal ways, and personal words on God's holy day and calling the Sabbath a delight, holy of the Lord and honourable, is part of the same work for today, and the Sabbath cannot be kept holy apart from this work that rests on every soul who accepts Christ's service. Kept in this way it brings delight in the Lord, continual guidance, riding upon the high places of the earth, and being fed with the heritage of Jacob, because the mouth of the Lord has spoken it, with righteousness going before and the glory of the Lord as rereward and the clear light of the Sun of Righteousness shining. Keeping the Sabbath holy in this sense is closely connected with works of mercy and necessity and with building the old waste places and raising the foundation of many generations as repairers of the breach and restorers of paths to dwell in.

The chapter clearly sets forth the union of medical missionary work with gospel ministry, giving wisdom and blessing and abundant opportunity to minister to suffering humanity while being an instrument to bring the light of truth before a perishing world. God has united these two lines in His word and no man should divorce them, and when the third angel's message is carried on in right lines according to this chapter the ministry is not given an inferior place nor degraded and the poor and sick are not neglected. Honoring the Sabbath as described is true third-angel work, joined to that message as the hand is joined to the body, and workers engaged in it can be trusted without fear. Its rich promises belong to all engaged in medical missionary work done in the love of Christ with earnest desire to impart received blessings through obedience so others become loyal subjects of His kingdom, and the soul's spiritual needs must remain prominent rather than benevolence replacing the message.

Keeping the Sabbath and making many prayers do not by themselves please God, for the chapter rebukes self-righteous fasting and prayer when mercy and love are neglected, outward exactness coexisting with inward wickedness, mere profession and zeal in a false faith, and complaining that God overlooks service. What is required instead is doing what is right at the right time, becoming less self-caring, practical godliness and Bible religion, doing justice and mercy, elevating the purest principles of the kingdom, turning from sin to purity and holiness, and living out truth in conduct rather than merely speaking it. This reproof and correction plainly marks out the way of the Lord and purifies the soul.

Honoring the Sabbath means self-denying care for the needy carried into detail: educating families and setting God-given faculties to work in caring for the church's own sick and poor, using tact and ingenuity, denying luxuries and needless ornaments to make sufferers comfortable, and having other churches assist a church overtaxed in this work, with blessing promised to those who do it. It includes relieving distressed families and those cast out for courage in accepting truth, supporting poor commandment-keeping families so they are not left without help and forced to work on the Sabbath, and tenderly caring for widows, fatherless children, youth lacking a father's guidance, and other members of the household of faith. It extends to every father, mother and child acting as missionaries in all the cities to relieve suffering and affliction, to building humble meetinghouses, and to not diverting men and means to unordained experiments or to homes for infants and the degraded. Those whose hearts harmonize with the Word in this keep in harmony with God, reveal God in life and works, have His righteousness revealed, and have the waste places built up.

True keeping is more than sitting in church Sabbath after Sabbath listening to preaching; it requires a precious and extended saving work of visiting friends, neighbors and families to create interest in present truth, planting the Word in many hearts, dealing out the bread of life to hungering souls, and lifting up Christ before the world. The greatly enlarged understanding promised belongs to those who stop going over the same ground and instead work for souls in darkness with knowledge already received, teaching others while depending on Christ's grace, searching Scripture diligently, being doers of the Word, and meeting physical necessities sympathetically before presenting present truth as it is in Jesus. In that labor the Holy Spirit works close by every worker, cooperating with human agencies to arouse moral powers, kindling love in the ministering soul, giving understanding by practice, and leading rescued souls to a rock foundation for faith.

Carrying out this wide field of service overcomes selfishness and covetousness which are idolatry, gives the church's light to the world in living faith and godly example, and brings spiritual growth, blessing and power. Piety and advanced spiritual knowledge and growth come proportionate to the zeal, piety and missionary intelligence brought in and carried out, with increase and blessing and power on the labor, overcoming the selfishness that binds souls. This is the remedy for the church's selfishness and stationary condition, calling it to work earnestly and unselfishly for God and the saving of souls and to live with Christlike unselfishness that brings praise and thanks to God.

Sabbathkeepers must follow Christ's example of tender compassion with honest dealing in all business, medical and missionary work, with no robbery, extortion, overcharging or dishonest transaction, for God will join no dishonest act. The Sabbath stamps the keeper with the sign of God's government, the King's mark, showing one chosen and set apart to honor Him, and that sign must not be dishonored by unjust practices.

The whole chapter is profitable to commit to memory and repeat when Satan comes with temptation, walling the soul with restriction and instruction from God. Its It is written most effectually resists Satan when he would lead the mind to dwell on earthly and sensual things, and it gives clear evidence that those who obey it are keeping God's commandments and the faith of Jesus as the people God is leading and preparing by tests and provings to stand in the great day.

Practical Sabbath Observance

The sacredness of the day requires a guard to be placed upon acts and words from the moment it begins, for the time is strictly the Lord's, and everything that can possibly be done in the six working days God has given must be finished beforehand so that not one hour of holy time is robbed from Him. Friday is the day of preparation in work, thought and conversation, so that nothing Heaven would count a violation is left to be said or done on the Sabbath, and cooking, mending and routine tasks are not left over to make it like a common day. Honoring the day in spirit and practice means setting aside one's own work for a livelihood, not suffering children to do it, turning from one's own ways, pursuits, pleasures and unsanctified thoughts, and regarding the time as set apart from toil and cares for communion with God and reflection on His power and love in creation and redemption. Necessary care for the sick and suffering is permitted, but unnecessary work left undone when the Sabbath begins should wait until it ends, and willful disregard rejects God's ordinances, separates from God the source of good, brings bondage and condemnation, and forfeits the blessing He intended.

Families honor the day by exalting it in the home and making its weekly return joyful as the most interesting, delightful day of days, hailed with joy so that children look forward to it with welcome in their hearts. This is done by devoting time to interest children and give their restless minds something to feed upon, devising means to impart proper instruction in spiritual things, giving correct views of the character of God and what He requires to perfect Christian character and attain eternal life. Parents are to keep this lesson of turning from own pleasure and calling the Sabbath a delight, holy and honorable, before the minds of their children as the foundation of prosperous households, even as the significance of the typical sacrifices prefiguring redemption was kept before children in the old dispensation. The instruction is to be taken home and studied in the home as the will of God bearing on eternal life and preparation for immortal life, for it shows how much God values the human family, fits the family for the salvation of the children, and neglect gives children an example contrary to the Word.

Its hours are for devotion, worship and spiritual exercises, gathering with few or many, helping others to serve and honor God to the best of ability, and turning the mind toward God's goodness and glory, including time outdoors contemplating Him. Calling the Sabbath a delight is not fulfilled by merely resting from work, sleeping through much of the day, spending the day sleeping away time neglected in the week, skipping meeting to recover from work, using the hours for personal aims or in an empty careless way, or holding prolonged tedious services. Those who sanctify the Lord in the heart with a strictly devotional frame of mind and faithfully use the sacred hours acknowledge the claims of the fourth commandment, and all heaven beholds them with interest while angels mark their high regard and place blessing upon them with special light, help, strength and health. Those who fail to appreciate the sacredness of God's sanctified day have angels turn from them and remove light and strength, leaving them overshadowed with a cloud, desponding and frequently sad, feeling lack of the Spirit of God.

Honoring the holy and honorable day includes dress for worship, since God's house is as the audience-chamber of the Most High where heavenly angels are present. All who meet to worship on the Sabbath should if possible wear a neat, well-fitting, comely, clean, modest and simple suit distinct from weekday clothing, not the soiled clothing worn through the labors of the week on the farm when anything more suitable can be obtained, for to do so dishonors the Sabbath and God and His house. Such regard does not confuse neatness with pride or gaudy display, nor excuse carelessness, untidiness and lack of order and taste as separation from the world, but calls for orderly and tasteful apparel showing sacred regard. Those who are able should through self-denial of costly apparel and extra fixings give a Sabbath suit to worthy persons who with whole heart would honor the Lord of the Sabbath but cannot obtain a change, using the money saved to help a poor brother or sister obtain neat and modest apparel, producing greater uniformity pleasing to God.

The Sabbath is set apart for the purest, holiest service and worship of God, and therefore calls for special carefulness in diet with food selected with reference to the duties of the day. Eating as much as on a working day is entirely out of place, for a clogged stomach means a clogged brain, and eating too much dulls and stupefies the mind so it cannot appreciate spiritual things. Habits of eating account for much dull Sabbath worship.

No circumstance of poverty, supporting a family, convenience or worldly profit justifies working on the Sabbath for a livelihood, for six days are given for all labor and the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord. Keeping holy means not only avoiding unnecessary labor but setting aside worldly business, personal pursuits, plans, pleasures and words, refusing to let the mind dwell on worldly concerns, with the command applying to everyone in the household through willing service. Personal pleasure excursions, secular labor for profit, and studying for one's own purposes and personal ambition during sacred time violate the day and place personal ambition above God's command. Acts of necessity and mercy are permitted, including caring for the sick and suffering and rescuing an animal, and physicians may travel to relieve real suffering, but unimportant medical cases should wait until after the Sabbath.

Travel on boats or cars when it can be avoided should be refused, with arrangements made even with difficulty so as not to arrive on the Sabbath, tickets secured and all other arrangements made on another day, for carelessness and irreverence break the command and the promised blessing requires stricter observance and right example before children and youth. Travel on the Sabbath is permitted only when necessary to reach churches that need help and give them God's message. When so traveling, business talk and undesirable company are withdrawn from for communion with God, using providential opportunity to speak truth and relieve suffering with wisdom and knowledge God gives, in heart service and consecration at all times and places with continual learning in order to teach, obligation each day proportional to ability.

Church instrumentalities and institutions must be sanctified, set in order and revolutionized from selfish purposes and false ideas, for elements brought in do not work as Christ worked and without a single eye to God's glory the whole body becomes full of darkness. The principles of justice, mercy and truth laid down in the chapter must govern conduct and be preserved with sacred influence in institutions serving God, and the work found there is what Christ in person would prescribe. The trumpet message showing transgression and calling professed daily seekers back to true obedience is to be read and studied carefully by all, especially those entrusted with responsibility, so they walk humbly, give careful heed to His Word rather than becoming careless and inattentive, and are not deceived.

Restaurant work must not be enlarged so that those who should be engaged in giving the gospel to souls starving for the bread of life are occupied in serving tables. Turning away from doing personal pleasure on God's holy day and in daily life is a sure remedy for poor health when joined with self-denial, exercising physical powers in simple inexpensive ways, and liberality to God's needy cause by giving means spent on self-pleasing fancies to advance destitute missions and build humble houses of worship.

The chapter is of the highest importance and explicit to enlighten anyone willing to do God's will, specifying the work for this time in preparation for the Lord's coming and supporting the presenting of truth so more may accept and worship God. Its law is the great standard of character, a transcript of God's character and eternal truth that cannot be changed or annulled, given as covenant terms educating the whole being mentally, physically and morally for present and eternal good. Accepting only selected words without thorough obedience leaves its message unreceived.

Keeping the Lord's Sabbath has brought a listener to trust God as fortress and support through trials and to share the light of truth with others, and its message comes with the presence of the Lord and Holy Spirit impressing hearts to decide to obey even when trials and difficulties lie ahead. Hearts have been moved in worship with testimony of God's power and presence when the Sabbath is honored as a delight. The verse is to be taken home and studied as God's will bearing on eternal life.

The nation's calamity is linked to forsaking and forgetting God, choosing other gods, following corrupt ways, trampling God's law and breaking the everlasting covenant by despising the Sabbath. Trampling it by rejecting His holy Sabbath for a spurious rest-day forfeits protecting care, so that when awful calamities come by sea with vessels hurled into eternity without warning and by land with fire consuming hoarded riches, much accumulated by oppression of the poor, the Lord will not interfere to protect property. These destructions sweeping away costly structures are God's plagues already falling, permitted to warn the world, bring professing Christians to their senses, and cause sinners to fear and tremble. The fourth commandment is a bond joining people to one another and connecting earth to heaven and humanity to God.

The verse is a call with divine power resting upon it to God's own people to bring souls to conversion, make up the breach the man of sin made in God's law, take heed to His commandments, take a decided stand to keep them all as followers of Christ, and when given with power bring those in the valley of decision to choose obedience and gain victory. Those who obey by doing no worldly business or self-serving work on His time honor God, while stealing it for own ways and profit robs Him, and honoring the Sabbath with its principles of relieving oppression and need is duty on which God will fulfill His promise, with righteousness going before those who abide in Christ and do this work in wholesome experience. This binds medical mercy with ministry as a sealed united work lest time pass unwarned.

Obedience is to be regardless of consequences or human commands, as Paul and Silas singing praises in prison illustrate, when God's power led the jailer to seek salvation. Christians must obey even when the majority opposes, choosing what is right in God's sight though appearing singular for keeping the seventh day rather than following the world's practice of Sunday, and deciding about Sabbath light is not a matter of little moment. Turning from own pleasure is necessary to lay hold of God, for one hand cannot fasten upon His mighty arm bringing salvation by faith while the other is employed ministering to pleasure. The right fast reaches up with one hand of faith to take hold of God and reaches the oppressed with the other hand of love to relieve them, searching for the hungry and poor cast out, bringing them to the house and drawing out the soul after them.

Honoring the Sabbath is walking in the light of God's commands, and those who do so are not to be maligned and persecuted, while those who insult God by forcing worship of the beast should fear judgment. The obedient hunger and thirst for righteousness, put away foolish distractions turning the mind to the world, teach children the way of the Lord, and find comfort and satisfaction created by the Lord exceeding gold, with every faithful performance registered in heaven for more than earthly reward. The instruction from Isaiah 55 through 58 gives an open door to meet God, seek Him earnestly with assurance He will be found, humble the heart and stand in right relation to Him in Christlike meekness, receiving grace in order to give it to others. The message calls Sabbathkeepers in worship who have means to help the Lord's work and meet needs of His institutions, not spending all effort merely in commercial lines but laying up treasure beside the throne.

Hearing without obedience does not avail, for those persisting in unbelief and sinful indulgence are not blessed though they complain, and piety, true Christian life, putting away sin and sanctification through truth are required. Only thorough obedience receives the message, and faithful observance keeps God's work from being hindered by authority imposed on servants. Giving God's law pre-eminence and claiming the seal of the living God and sanctification by truth requires putting away all selfish indulgence that weakens physical, mental and moral strength and leaves no true sense of sacredness, with strict observance according to the commandment. Honoring the Sabbath not only by voice but by helping hands, zeal and God-given faculties places the standard of truth in every place, living out Christ's commandments in practical love to help and uplift the wounded and straying as faithful representatives of Father and Son. Restoring the memorial of creation means upholding God's commandments and raising companies of Sabbathkeepers carrying missionary work, exposing departure through worldly policies and principles into transgression, and living in Christ so His light goes before. The verse belongs together with the surrounding verses as one section on restoring paths to dwell in.