Call It a Delight
In the manual: Come, Follow Me lesson 42, “The Redeemer Shall Come to Zion,” on Gospel Library
Start
The last chapter of Isaiah pictures all people coming to worship the Lord “from one sabbath to another” (Isaiah 66:23). Today is one of those Sabbaths.
Read Together
Back in Isaiah 58, right after the verses on fasting, the Lord teaches his people how to keep the Sabbath. He had already called the Sabbath a sign between himself and his people (Exodus 31:13).
13If 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: 14Then 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.
What It Teaches
Verse 13 asks us to “turn away thy foot from the sabbath,” stepping back from our own plans and pleasures for a day. Then it asks us to “call the sabbath a delight.”
President Russell M. Nelson said that as a young man he studied lists of things to do and not do on the Sabbath. Later he learned from the scriptures that his conduct on the Sabbath was a sign between him and God. “When I had to make a decision whether or not an activity was appropriate for the Sabbath, I simply asked myself, ‘What sign do I want to give to God?’”
President Russell M. Nelson, “The Sabbath Is a Delight,” General conference, April 2015
Jesus kept the Sabbath by blessing people. In a synagogue on the Sabbath, he healed a man’s withered hand and asked whether it was lawful “to do good on the sabbath days” (Mark 3:1–5). He taught that “the sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27).
Verse 14 gives the promise. “Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.” The day becomes a delight because we spend it with him.
Talk About It
What sign do you want our family’s Sabbath to give to God? What is one thing we could add today to make it more of a delight?
Take to Church
Isaiah calls the Sabbath a delight. It becomes one when we give the day to the Lord and spend it blessing others, as Jesus did.