Come if you're thirsty
This week's study is online at Isaiah 55:1-3:
There's an old abbey an hour or two from where I live with a huge old decorated wooden door that says:
It's interesting that God describes receiving his free gift as buying it. Obviously someone is paying if it is a purchase and not charity. There are strong hints of Jesus in these verses. God is offering to provide for these people, who he should hate, whose actions have put them in rough shape. But it's not actual food but something spiritual.
Elsewhere, the Bible talks about hungering and thirsting for righteousness. We have a need to feel righteous that might as well be biological. How many times have you reviewed your day remorsefully and wished you could have changed this or that action? Those of us who are not sociopaths have a sense of righteousness, and of when we are empty of it. It eats away at you sometimes.
God says for the Israelites (and us) to come and listen to him, to eat what is good and be filled with the richest of foods. If we come to him, we will be righteous, and will live. He will pay the price for whatever we lack. And in case we're still confused, he hints at Jesus again with the remark about the everlasting covenant of love.
God loves us enough to not want us to suffer through life in regret or shame. If we're parched, or starving for value, he will provide it. Why work and spend your life only to not be satisfied, to never really feel complete? When God finds us and tells us to come in, and join him, and be taken care of, we'd have to be out of our minds to turn him down.
“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
There's an old abbey an hour or two from where I live with a huge old decorated wooden door that says:
These verses remind me of that door, which is to me one of the purest expressions of God's love in writing. Here God is speaking through Isaiah to the Jewish people who had sinned against him and were down on their luck. Think about what these words mean to people who were exiled, and who eventually had to return to their war ravaged land where squatters had taken over their property. You have no money, you have to fight for everything, and God is describing free water and wine, and milk and food.
"Come and be at peace,
blessed by the Lord.
Why do you linger outside?
Come, and I will take care of you."
It's interesting that God describes receiving his free gift as buying it. Obviously someone is paying if it is a purchase and not charity. There are strong hints of Jesus in these verses. God is offering to provide for these people, who he should hate, whose actions have put them in rough shape. But it's not actual food but something spiritual.
Elsewhere, the Bible talks about hungering and thirsting for righteousness. We have a need to feel righteous that might as well be biological. How many times have you reviewed your day remorsefully and wished you could have changed this or that action? Those of us who are not sociopaths have a sense of righteousness, and of when we are empty of it. It eats away at you sometimes.
God says for the Israelites (and us) to come and listen to him, to eat what is good and be filled with the richest of foods. If we come to him, we will be righteous, and will live. He will pay the price for whatever we lack. And in case we're still confused, he hints at Jesus again with the remark about the everlasting covenant of love.
God loves us enough to not want us to suffer through life in regret or shame. If we're parched, or starving for value, he will provide it. Why work and spend your life only to not be satisfied, to never really feel complete? When God finds us and tells us to come in, and join him, and be taken care of, we'd have to be out of our minds to turn him down.
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