Wednesday, 4 June 2025

Isaiah 55:1-11 ‘The source of satisfaction’

 


‘Our world is a vast marketplace of unsatisfying but costly remedies for our God-shaped longings.  But we are not very smart shoppers’ (Ray Ortland).

‘You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you’ (Augustine).

‘I can’t get no satisfaction’ (Mick Jagger).

1.      Come and listen (1-3)

Into our emptiness God invites us: ‘Come, everyone who thirsts.  Come to the waters; and he who has no money, come buy and eat!  Come buy wine and milk without money and without price’ (Isiah 55:1).

What is being offered here?  Wine, bread, rich food and an everlasting covenant. 

What is an everlasting covenant?  It is a solemn promise and commitment made by God.  The covenant God refers to here is the fact that God wants to take us and make us the objects of His infinite Fatherly love.  ‘I will give you all the love I promised David’ (N.L.T. verse 3).  He offers this to everyone!

It is interesting that Jesus takes these themes and uses them for Himself.  He says, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall not thirst’ (John 6:35).

My friend Georgina recently read a little book called ‘The Heart of Christ’.  It has transformed her life.  She read it twice in one week, and then she told me, ‘in my forty-seven years in this world no-one ever told me that God actually loved me.’

Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls’ (Matthew 11:28).

2.      Look and return (4-5)

He talks about the great Old Testament king, King David, and then he says, Behold, you [David] shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that you did not know shall turn to you (5). 

The people that Isaiah was speaking to knew that King David was dead.  But Isaiah is preparing them for a new king like David.  A better king.  We know that this Son of David is Jesus.

Again, notice the wideness of his invitation.  A nation you did not know shall return to you.

The first church I did pastoral ministry in was Dungannon Methodist Church.  While I was there I played on the bottom teams of the rugby club.  There was an older guy who used to come along and watch who was called Ronnie. 

One Friday I met Ronnie in the town.  It was only lunch time, but he was upset and drunk.  I asked him what was wrong and he told me that he had been given bad news by the doctor.  I said that I would call in and visit him.

When I visited he told me that his wife and his son were Christians.  I asked him if he had ever thought of giving his life to Christ.  He relied saying, ‘I am not the sort.’  I tried to explain to him that there is no one who is not the sort for Jesus.  Look at the people who flocked to Jesus!  People caught in adultery experienced a fresh start.  People who were known for being corrupt were given another chance.  There is no one who is beyond the forgiveness and restoring grace of Jesus.  Seek the Lord while he may be found … let him return that the Lord may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

           

3.      Rejoice (10-13)

This passage that began by addressing a people who could find no satisfaction ends with rejoicing.  For you shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the fields shall clap their hands (12).  Something similar is found in the book of Psalms.  ‘Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.  Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing for joy; let them sing before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.  He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity’ (98:7-9).  The amazing thing is that so many people in our world suggest that all this is of little relevance.  The truth is that there is nothing all more important.  God is going to the thorns and the thistles of our dysfunctional lives and bring beauty from it.  Such grace will be a sign for God’s glory.

Conclusion

Imagine you no longer had to fear death.  Death can be a scary thought as it is a step into the unknown.  The Bible also teaches that there will be a judgement after death and that those who have not taken hold of God’s free of forgiveness and life will be eternally condemned.  Imagine that because you trust in Jesus death was simply a step into a deeper relationship with Jesus.  Imagine that you would never be condemned.  One of the reasons that we are restless is because our consciences are uneasy.  We know that there is something wrong with our hearts and we see evidence of this is some of the nasty things we say and do.  Imagine that you were loved with a love that will never let you go.  A love that does not treat you as your thoughts and actions deserve but simply based on the infinite love in the heart of God.  As one philosopher writes, ‘What can earth do to you if you are guaranteed heaven?’ (Kreeft).  It all seems to good to be true!  But it is not!  Jesus died that we might know life.

There is an invitation in the last verse of the Bible: ‘Come!  And let those who hear say come!  Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life’ (Rev. 22:17).

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