There’s More Delight Than You Know – The Fourth Commandment

There’s More Delight Here Than You Know

The fourth commandment

Exodus 20.8; Deuteronomy 5.12

“Remember, observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

Isaiah 58.13, 14

“If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

God calls His day a delight; shouldn’t we?

God says that we can actually “take delight” in His day if we keep it as He intends. Really, isn’t that what we want in life, “delight”? Don’t we want to feel good, to be refreshed and renewed, to feel on top of things and at our best? Don’t we want to know joy, happiness, peace, and hope? This is precisely what God intends for us to know as a result of keeping His day. There is no greater joy, no richer delight than that which can be had in the presence of God and His glory (Ps. 16.11). Anyone who doesn’t believe that, or who thinks he knows a better place to get joy and delight, simply reveals by so insisting that he hasn’t really been in the Lord’s presence all that much. God’s Word says, “In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” If we believe that, won’t we make every effort to seek it? And if God promises that one day a week can go a long way toward getting us there, shouldn’t we take Him up on it?

Pray

Frankly, Lord, I just have a hard time believing that what you command and promise concerning the Lord’s Day is really what’s best for me. I need to be persuaded, but I also need to obey. I believe in You, Lord; help me in those areas – like this – where I have a hard time trusting that You know what’s best for me.
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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.