But I never heard“ Sabbath” and“ delight” in the same sentence growing up. Sabbath was about resting, yes. It was about going to church and having a family meal. But if it was about anything, it was about not doing things. My immediate family didn’ t have much of a Sabbath practice, so most of my associations with the word came from stories my mom told of her childhood. All I knew was that Sabbath was synonymous with prohibitions, which were intended to maintain the sanctity of the day. Most forms of play were prohibited: no swimming in the lake or using the boat. No hitting a ball or playing a ball game. No golfing, no games, no riding bikes. Additionally, no yard work, no washing or gassing up the car, no eating out, no shopping, no causing someone else to work. The goal was to prohibit anything that would potentially disrupt the holiness of the day. Approved activities included church twice a day, a family meal, Bible reading, napping, and preparing to teach next week’ s Sunday school lesson. This isn’ t the full story of my mom’ s early Sabbaths, but it’ s all I knew growing up, and it was enough to plant seeds of negativity in my heart about the Sabbath. I was glad we didn’ t take Sabbath very seriously as a family because what my mom described sounded boring and restrictive, the furthest thing from delight I could imagine.
And then, a few years ago, as I was reflecting on what Isaiah 58 contributed to the Bible’ s testimony about the Sabbath, the climactic line“ call the Sabbath a delight” kept ringing in my ears as part of the bedrock of Sabbath teaching in Scripture. In fact, I am convinced that delight is both a trailhead for and a signpost along the Sabbath way. If a Sabbath practice is whittled down to its irreducible core, what remains is largely a commitment to making room in one’ s life to recover a sense of delight. But Isaiah’ s Sabbath delight is neither escapism nor cheap thrills. It is not a selfish abnegation from responsibility nor a laugh at someone else’ s expense. It does begin by not doing things, however, such as,
not going your own way, serving your own interests, or speaking empty words. Isaiah 58:13
But it doesn’ t end there. To understand Isaiah’ s invitation to delight, we must first understand Isaiah’ s context, which I refer to as a“ delight diaspora.”
A Delight Diaspora The first thing to note about Isaiah’ s context is that the message of Isaiah 58 was given to a community of exiles returning to Israel after decades of devastation in Babylon. They had not only been exiles from their homeland; they had also been what poet Maya Angelou brilliantly called“ exiles from delight.” 1 They were part of a delight diaspora. While the return from exile was a joyous occasion to be sure, it was also a time of profound uncertainty, and the people were struggling to rebuild their lives back home after losing so much. Isaiah’ s instinct to reintroduce the Israelites to Sabbath at this critical juncture of their return to their homeland suggests that Sabbath helps guide us home— to our literal homes, but even more so on the metaphorical journey home to ourselves.
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