Isaiah 55:1-5
In a time when super hero movies are more popular than ever, many of us may remember a time when these heroes were bound in the pages of books – comic books. In every comic, no matter how long the build-up lasts, one knows when the action has arrived. Bright-colored text by a punch or an explosion appear – BOOM! POW! BANG! These onomatopoeias let the reader know that something is going on. The words jump off the page. Their sounds almost echo, though unspoken, for the reader – something is happening; there is action!
Isaiah 55:1-5 begins with such a unique interjection. “Ho!” Isaiah shouts. The sound almost jumps off of the page. It is meant to call attention, to shake up anyone who is tuned out, to let us know something is going on, something significant. Here is the action! The use of this word is a reminder that the words which we are reading were likely first and foremost audible words of prophetic proclamation. Much like many of us will do for our congregations, Isaiah first spoke these words out loud. They did not jump first from page to eye, but mouth to ear. It also calls to our attention that it is of utmost importance that we listen. It is not a simple statement that follows this call to attention, but imperatives, commands, calls to action. What is this word that demands us to echo it to our congregations and together with them hear and obey? It is an invitation to life.
God is extending an Invitation for the thirsty, poor, and hungry to come and find wholeness and satisfaction in God. Like a call out in a marketplace to people passing by on their search for the best produce and drink at the best price, God’s prophet is calling out for people not to choose from the vendors that compete with what God is offering. Indeed, the message is that they cannot compete. “Why spend money on bread which does not satisfy?” This implies that the other options are lesser than God’s life. Another analogy could be that of a messenger from someone throwing a grand party. The invitation is for the people to come and find the exciting life in the dwelling of God. There is wine and milk, bread and water there. This is not the first time indeed God has called the people of Israel to “milk and honey!” What is the entrance requirement? How does one RSVP for this event? The invitation is for those who hunger and thirst. The call comes out in a loud voice, calling for people to listen and to come to God.
As with all prophetic words, there is a need that the invitation is addressing. The people are putting their life into that which does not satisfy. The hunger and thirst of the nation of Israel certainly is a deep spiritual longing. For a while they have been thirsting to become like the other nations, hungering for power and wealth, and tasting the “life” of the other gods. These false gods cannot satisfy, nor the power at work outside the righteousness of God. God thus calls the people to repent and find life in God instead. Yet, this is not to be taken as merely metaphorical. Isaiah, and all other prophets point to spiritual and physical realities in order to call for repentance. The hungering and thirsting for the earthly things have left many who are literally hungry and thirsty for food and drink. One should not separate the physical injustices, inequalities, and needs of people from the spiritual call to worship God. For, it is loving God with one’s whole self and one’s neighbor likewise that is required. Of that kind of life, the people of Israel are starved. Because of this, God acts.
God invites both the spiritually and physically hungering and thirsting to come and find holistic satisfaction. What is most striking about this offer is that it comes at no charge! This does not mean that it comes cheaply. No, there is much to leave behind – all the hungering for power, lusting for things that do not satisfy, the worship of other gods, the mistreatment of neighbor, perverting of justice, hoarding wealth at the expense of the poor, etc. God is calling the people from such things, and is has done what is sufficient to make this redemption even possible! This is not cheap grace, but it is free and it is for all who hunger and thirst and answer the invitation.
How does this life come to God’s people? It is through God’s promise. For Isaiah and his early audience, it was out of a particular promise, one made to David, that life was to come to Israel as they turned toward God. After all, the promise God made for the establishment of David’s house was never for David’s benefit alone, but for the life of all the people of Israel, and ultimately, the life of the world. The prophetic word reminds people to, “Behold,” and take a look at what God did in and through David. God established David as a witness, leader, and commander of the peoples.
On the one hand, this represents David’s role as an exemplar of God’s righteousness amongst his own people the Israelites. On the other hand, the word “peoples” can also broadly include all the nations. God’s promise to David to establish his kingship was not for all people, first for Israel, and then for the world. Like David, all of Israel was to be a witness of the glory of God to the world – a priestly kingdom and holy nation. This news that God’s promise to David is still intact despite the failure of the Israelites and the house of David, is news for the life of the world that God is still offering life, still faithful, and will still keep God’s promise.
Indeed, God has kept this promise! We as the Church see this text through the lens of God’s penultimate revelation in the embodied Word of God – Jesus Christ. We affirm that Jesus not only fulfills this promise, but fills it to overflowing! Jesus is established as a leader and commander for all of creation, seated at the right hand of God. He calls all nations to himself. Out of Israel, a savior has come to bring life to the whole world. Through him, all nations and people of every generation may answer the invitation to come to the waters, to receive nourishment without money or price, and live.
Isaiah’s words call those who are spiritually and physically poor, hungry, and thirsty to come to God and have their needs met. He also calls for the people to listen carefully, inclining our ear to God that we might receive the life of God’s promises. His final call is for us to look and speak. Isaiah says, “Behold, I have made him a witness.” God has done the necessary work at making God’s promises fulfilled. We as the Church are called to set our eyes then on Jesus, the fulfillment of God’s promise to David and have our eyes opened to see ourselves differently.
As with reference to God’s past actions with David, Isaiah calls us again to, “Behold!” However, this time, we are to set our eyes on what God will do. Just as God has made this promise to David fulfilled by setting over the people a witness, a leader, God is making the people who come to God and find life into witnesses and leaders for the world. The God who made a way for the nations to find life in Jesus, ourselves included, is making all who come to him into witnesses who are moving from glory to glory in following God and leading others toward the Savior. God will make us witnesses of what God has done in Jesus. So then, we are to call out to the nations, to the people we do not know and who do not know our God, with the same invitation we have answered: “Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters!”
God has glorified us in Christ, and so we are to reflect God’s glory in our life as a testimony to the world. Therefore, for all who are far off, the thirsty, the poor, the hungry, the broken and wounded. For all who have nothing, God brings rescue, glory, and life through Christ! For a world in need of saving, God is saving the day. Glory be to Him!