Metaphysical Bible Interpretation of Isaiah Chapter 58
Metaphysically Interpreting Isaiah 58:1-14
58:1Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and declare unto my people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins. 58:2Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways: as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God, they ask of me righteous judgments; they delight to draw near unto God. 58:3Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure, and exact all your labors. 58:4Behold, ye fast for strife and contention, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye fast not this day so as to make your voice to be heard on high. 58:5Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Jehovah?
58:6Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? 58:7Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? 58:8Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy healing shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of Jehovah shall by thy rearward. 58:9Then shalt thou call, and Jehovah will answer; thou shalt cry, and he will say, Here I am.
If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking wickedly; 58:10and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then shall thy light rise in darkness, and thine obscurity be as the noonday; 58:11and Jehovah will guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in dry places, and make strong thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. 58:12And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
58:13If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, and the holy of Jehovah honorable; and shalt honor it, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: 58:14then shalt thou delight thyself in Jehovah; and I will make thee to ride upon the high places of the earth; and I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.
October 17, 1943: Isaiah 58:13-14
If the Sabbath was made for us, why are we told to “keep it holy” or devote it to worship? God is not benefited by the amount of time or thought we give to spiritual subjects. We ourselves are benefited by the practice of meditation. Much of our waking time is given to externals, and our inner nature is in need of development, if we wish to insure for ourselves a well-rounded, balanced life. This development proceeds most satisfactorily, when we separate ourselves for definite periods of time from the outer world and give our thought to the things of the mind and heart.
How can we “call the Sabbath delight”? By forming the habit of prayer and meditation, which the leisure of our day of rest (whether Saturday, Sunday, or some other day) allows us to do, the day may become a delight to us, a time we eagerly look forward to as an opportunity to get better acquainted with the part of our nature that we are prone to neglect, namely the spiritual.
What is within the scope of the law of Sabbath rest? Whatever is good for us is lawful for us to do on our day of rest, so long as we separate ourselves from the strain and stress, the dullness and monotony, the fear and worry, and the thousand errors that attend out ordinary days of labor, unless we rest our mind in God and trust Him to keep us and our affairs in divine order.
Transcribed by Lloyd Kinder on 01-22-2014
