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, honourable; and shalt honour 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.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Some of God’s promises are general rather than specific; some are conditional, others unconditional; some are fulfilled in this life, others in the world to come…Let it be noted that these promises are conditional, conditional on obeying the preceding exhortations.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): God will keep His promise to you; only see you to it that the way in which He conditions His engagement is carefully observed by you. Only when we fulfill the requirements of a conditional promise can we expect that promise to be fulfilled to us.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Too many of those who profess religion, are, it must be confessed, scarcely, if at all, advancing in the divine life: their evil dispositions still retain such an ascendant over them, as to make them go on heavily all their days. But, if we were to inquire how they spent their Sabbaths, and what efforts they made to glorify God in their public, private, and social duties, we should soon find the reason of their slow progress…A person who has attained to fifty years of age, has had above seven years of Sabbaths. O what blessings might not have been secured in that time, if all those Sabbaths had been sanctified to the Lord! and what judgments does not he merit, who has wasted all of them in a wilful neglect of God! Little as we think of Sabbaths now, we shall find ere long, that the profaning of them has greatly increased our guilt and misery.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): What blessings God had in store for them, if they would make conscience of sabbath sanctification?
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): Whatever reference there may be in our text to the return of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon, we cannot doubt but that the promises here made have a higher and more spiritual import. In them we are assured, that, if we really keep the Sabbath as we ought, we shall be blessed with delight in God. There is not any thing which God more delights to honour than a due observance of the Sabbath. We may perform the outward duties of that day, and reap no material benefit: but if we truly and earnestly endeavour to honour God in the way before described, God will draw nigh to us, and reveal himself to us, and fill us with joy and peace in believing. And here we confidently make our appeal to all who have ever laboured to spend a Sabbath to the Lord, whether they have not found such a measure of grace and peace flowing into their souls, as has abundantly recompensed their utmost exertions?
C. H. SPURGEON: There is no doubt that a reverent, happy, joyful keeping of the Sabbath ministers greatly to spiritual advancement. Here is the promise made to those who delight in the Sabbath―“And I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father.”
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): Thou shalt enjoy the good of the land of Canaan, which God had promised as a heritage of Jacob and his seed, Genesis 35:12, and feed on the fruits of it. Why doth He say of the “heritage of Jacob” and not of Abraham or Isaac? Because the whole posterity of Jacob was within the covenant, but Ishmael and Esau, one the seed of Isaac, the other the seed of Abraham, were both excluded.
THOMAS COKE (1747-1814): The benefit of such an improvement of the Lord’s day will be great; for, “then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord;” abundant consolation will be the blessed fruit; and clearer discoveries of the riches of the grace and love of Christ be made to the soul; so that by experience we shall say, “One day in thy courts is better than a thousand,” Psalm 84:10.
CHARLES SIMEON: And where the Sabbath is thus habitually honoured, we will venture to say, that such happiness will at times flow into the soul, as David experienced, when he said, “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, whilst my mouth praiseth thee with joyful lips,” Psalm 63:5; yes, “they shall be satisfied with the fatness of God’s house; and he will make them drink of the river of his pleasures,” Psalm 36:8.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “And I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth;” to live above the world, and to have their conversation in heaven; to be in the utmost safety, and enjoy the greatest plenty, especially of spiritual things.
MATTHEW HENRY: Those that honour God and His sabbath He will thus honour. If God by His grace enable us to live above the world, and so to manage it as not only not to be hindered by it, but to be furthered and carried on by it in our journey towards heaven, then He makes us “to ride on the high places of the earth.”
THOMAS COKE: Their prayers shall be heard and answered. Thou shalt call and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am, a very present help in trouble; while they are speaking, He will hear; He will be near them, when affrighted they cry to Him.
CHARLES SIMEON: Victory over our spiritual enemies—this seems to be the import of that expression, “I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth:” compare Deuteronomy 32:13 & Deuteronomy 33:29; and it shall be fulfilled to all who conscientiously improve their Sabbaths to the glory of their God.
THOMAS COKE: They shall be honoured as the instruments of building up the church of God.
MATTHEW HENRY: “The mouth of the Lord has spoken it; you may take God’s Word for it, for He cannot lie nor deceive; what His mouth has spoken His hand will give, His hand will do, and not one iota or tittle of His good promise shall fall to the ground.”
HUDSON TAYLOR (1832-1905): He means just what He says and will do all that He has promised.
CHARLES SIMEON: What blessings may not you yourselves expect at His hands?
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): The Lord will guide continually, it is said. He will satisfy thy soul in drought. He will make fat thy bones.
MATTHEW HENRY: Blessed, therefore, thrice blessed, is he that doeth this, and lays hold on it, that keeps the sabbath from polluting it.
