The second thing Isaiah says I must do if I am to walk in continual victory is to give attention to the rights of God. He says that if I honor the Sabbath and do not use it for my “own pleasure” (Isaiah 58:13), then certain great benefits will be mine: I will delight in the Lord, I will ride on the high places of the earth, and I will be fed with the inheritance of the Lord (v. 14).
What does that mean to me in this year of our Lord? Am I to keep the Sabbath with Old Testament exactitude, down to the merest jot and tittle? No, I do not think so. Isaiah is talking about rights, the rights of the hungry and afflicted, and now the rights of God. The hungry soul has a right to the bread of Jesus Christ; he has that right both in his birth and in the cross of our Lord. If I am to enjoy continual victory, I must respect his rights. But God has rights also. He has the right to expect of me continual obedience to His will and continual adherence to every command He gives me. The Sabbath was an expression of God’s will to Israel; I am to give God His way in every expression of His will, as He makes that will clear to me from His Word.
In a sense, I must not be occupied with victory, for victory is a result of a previously met pair of conditions. If I think about victory, it will escape me like a mist. But if I think about serving others, if I think about thoroughly obeying the will of my Father, victory will be as automatic and continual as each day’s sunrise.
Lord, I desire to be a watered garden and to ride on the high places of the earth; but help me to see that I cannot get them by seeking them, but by seeking to feed the afflicted soul and by seeking to do Your will.
“From my distress I called upon the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me in a large place. The Lord is for me; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Psalm 118:5–6).
Daily with the King 