Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Reflections on Isaiah 55

    Isaiah 55 (Contemporary English Version)
  1. If you are thirsty, come and drink water! If you don't have any money, come, eat what you want! Drink wine and milk without paying a cent.
  2. Why waste your money on what really isn't food? Why work hard for something that doesn't satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and you will enjoy the very best foods.
  3. Pay close attention! Come to me and live. I will promise you the eternal love and loyalty that I promised David.
  4. I made him the leader and ruler of the nations; he was my witness to them.
  5. You will call out to nations you have never known. And they have never known you, but they will come running because I am the LORD, the holy God of Israel, and I have honored you.
  6. Turn to the LORD! He can still be found. Call out to God! He is near.
  7. Give up your crooked ways and your evil thoughts. Return to the LORD our God. He will be merciful and forgive your sins.
  8. The LORD says: "My thoughts and my ways are not like yours.
  9. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, my thoughts and my ways are higher than yours.
  10. "Rain and snow fall from the sky. But they don't return without watering the earth that produces seeds to plant and grain to eat.
  11. That's how it is with my words. They don't return to me without doing everything I send them to do."
  12. When you are set free, you will celebrate and travel home in peace. Mountains and hills will sing as you pass by, and trees will clap.
  13. Cypress and myrtle trees will grow in fields once covered by thorns. And then those trees will stand as a lasting witness to the glory of the LORD.



God extends an invitation to all who thirst, inviting them to enjoy the "choicest of foods" through His son, the Messiah, or Son of David. Many who hunger and thirst try to satisfy this thirst with things that do not satisfy. God asks, "Why do you spend money on what is not food, and your wages on what does not satisfy?" Spending money on food is a metaphor. The real issue is spiritual satisfaction, and God is asking why people will pursue things that do not satisfy this spiritual hunger and thirst. He promises, though, that if people will "pay attention and come to me," that they will live and that He will make with them an everlasting covenant.

God's offer, however, has a window of opportunity to it. He says, "Seek the Lord while He may be found." This obviously implies that He cannot be found indefinitely. But if one is to turn to the Lord, "Let the wicked one abandon his way, and the sinful one his thoughts." (55:7) How can the Lord satisfy our spiritual thirst if we do not leave behind the lifestyle that causes that thirst? Nor should we hold back from turning to the Lord, questioning His way of salvation. For His "ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." (55:9) We cannot understand His ways, they will make no sense to us, as long as we are far off from Him. We must come to know God and to learn His ways before they make sense.

At every level, whether far off or near, we must learn to trust Gods ways. His ways are as sure as the weather. "For just as rain and snow fall from heaven, and do not return there without saturating the earth, and making it germinate and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, so My word that comes from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and will prosper in what I send it to do." (55:10-11) If we will accept God and His word, we will "go out with joy and be peacefully guided; the mountains and the hills will break into singing before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." (55:12) Then a word about ecology. Man's sin brought not only a curse upon himself, but upon creation. The only way to reverse this curse is to turn from sin. In so doing, the thornbush will be replaced by a cypress, and in place of a brier, a myrtle will come up. Creation will rejoice at man's salvation and will flourish, and will serve as an "everlasting sign" to the Lord. (55:13) All our efforts at ecology can improve it somewhat, but will not address the root problem. The same is true of our lives. Unless we turn to God, through Christ, abandoning our wicked ways, our thirst will never be satisfied.

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