Isaiah 6.3, Isa. 55
Isaiah • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 3 views• Week 24: Chapters 54–55 - Promises of Restoration and Invitation ◦ Explore the glorious promises of restoration, the eternal covenant, and the gracious invitation to all who are thirsty.
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Prayer Requests:
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Nancy Skinner
Isaiah 54, especially the second half of it, emphasizes this idea that God’s people, those receive salvation, that they will not be cut off. That salvation is sure and certain and that God will stay true to His promises. The invitation of these chapters is this: Receive the salvation of the Lord, he offers it out of his grace and in fulfillment of His promise.
That invitation to receive and experience His forgiveness is continued in chapter 55, this chapter unfolds over 6 movements, I’ll read the whole of the chapter, then we’ll take this a few verses at a time.
1 “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. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. 4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. 5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. 6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 12 “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
This is painting a picture for us of the joy of salvation in the Lord. Movement 1, v. 1-3, God’s invitation.
1 “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. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
God is calling those who thirst, those without resources, those who have need, all to come to Him and they will receive, but not only will they receive nourishment and refreshment, they will receive it freely. “He who has no money, come, buy, and eat!” Buy these things without price.
Isaiah offers us a contrast between those who come to the Lord and refreshed for free with those who labor and exhaust themselves pursuing something that will not nourish them. Why do you spend money for that which is not bread and labor for that which does not satisfy?
Do you see the image the prophet is giving us?
You have two choices before you: come to the Lord, and through Him you will receive food, water, wine, milk, all that you need for nourishment and growth. And he’s giving it away for free!
OR
You can be like those who pursue all these different plans to satisfy themselves or save themselves, but the irony is, of course: they can’t save themselves! Here is a fundamental human problem: we cannot save ourselves yet we will exhaust ourselves pursing things that we think will save and help us. There are certainly things we pursue that give us pleasure or fulfill some desires of our hearts. But none of these are the ultimate thing.
Here’s a headline from last fall: “The tech billionaires trying to hack aging to extend their lives” Do you see—this is what all that wealth, power, and influence is for, to try to keep living and pursue saving one’s self.
But none of these things are the ultimate source of satisfaction and provision and salvation. God’s offer transcends physical life or physical pleasure or satisfaction. it is eternal and it addresses the whole person, our body, mind, and soul. It is our whole self that needs to be rescued and saved!
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
These verses offer a command: listen carefully! “eat what is good” Don’t pursue the lower things, the false gods and idols, don’t pursue worldly satisfaction, eat what is good. And then look at v. 3, the metaphor shifts. Incline your ear and come to me—and then what does God speak of here? Its all about covenant. I will make you an everlasting covenant. God’s promise of unconditional and everlasting love: THIS is the good food to eat, this is the true thing that will satisfy us.
It is a step of purposely entering into the “everlasting covenant” relationship with Him, and then to partake—to eat of the free gift of life and blessing, to “taste and see that the LORD is good,” and experience a “filling up” of deep contentment that only his Holy Spirit can provide. The covenant itself becomes the nourishment. This covenant promises to bring God’s “unfailing love” and compassion, extends unendingly into the future with no cut-off point, meaning that the covenant is sure, lasting, and 100 percent dependable.
What is it that gives you hope? That’s the question God is posing to his people, and he’s saying: find your hope in me.
4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. 5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
These verses shift to the importance of David and his lineage to the Israelites. David is important because it was with David that god made an everlasting covenant, that the line of David would continue forever. Now the nation of Israel is a light and witness to the nations around her—this an unexpected turn for this nation in exile. In case they thought that maybe the covenant with David had been made void, God still plans to fulfill his promise of David’s line through this nation.
We know that this is ultimately fulfilled in Christ Jesus—and if we’re ever tempted to think that God’s promises have failed, we only need to look to the cross and be reminded of our resurrected Lord who now sits at the right hand of the throne of God. Christ reigns and is now, through us, extending his invitation of salvation to the world.
OK, movement 3:
6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
These verses represent an invitation, or I’d say a command, to the wicked and the sinners. It’s an urgent call to repentance. Seek the Lord while he remains accessible (while he is near!), abandon your wicked ways (think Psalm 1, do not walk in the way of the wicked). Instead, turn to the Lord and by turning to the Lord, what will we find? Abundant love and grace and forgiveness. For exiled Israel, these verses offer not restoration conditional on perfect obedience, but restoration grounded in divine compassion toward those who genuinely turn and repent.
Movement 4:
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
The fourth movement is meant to contrast with the two verses that came before it. v. 7 says, to the sinner: “forsake his way,” emphasizing that the way of the wicked belongs to man, belongs to the person, it does not belong to God. And now, in contrast, is the amazing and inconceivable way of the Lord. God’s thoughts and ways transcend human understanding as vastly as the heaven exceeds the earth.
But what’s important here is that this is the reason for God’s abundant forgiveness. I will forgive you, for [or BECAUSE] my thoughts are so widely different than yours.
The passage specifically grounds God’s willingness to pardon in this transcendent difference. The plans and purposes of God in regard to forgiveness are as far above those of men as the heavens are higher than the earth.3 Human forgiveness operates within narrow constraints—people struggle to pardon at all, harbor grudges, limit forgiveness based on repetition or severity of offense. Men find it difficult to pardon at all, harbour malice, seek revenge, and are slow to forgive an injury. Not so with God—he harbours no malice, has no desire of revenge, and has no reluctance to forgive.3
More profoundly, God’s thoughts in regard to the mode of pardon are far above ours. The plan of forgiveness through a Redeemer—illustrated in chapter 53—is as far above any modes of pardon among men as the heavens are above the earth, contemplating the incarnation of the Son of God and proffering forgiveness through his substituted sufferings.3 This divine logic—redemption through sacrificial death—transcends human moral calculation entirely. For exiled Israel, the point is clear: trust God’s incomprehensible mercy rather than your own limited understanding of what justice demands.
Now, another question we might have, however, is this: if God’s ways are so vastly different from ours, what hope is there that we could follow in His ways? The answer lies ahead!
***Movement 5:
10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Verses 10–11 use the metaphor of rain and snow descending from heaven to illustrate how God’s word operates on human hearts and lives. It establishes the power and efficacy of God’s word itself. God’s word functions as “a special messenger of God on a mission to change the lives of people and bring them under God’s grace and pardon in Christ.”
So verses 10–11 shift the focus from what we must do to what God’s word accomplishes. Just as rain inevitably produces growth in the earth, God’s word—empowered by the Spirit—inevitably produces spiritual fruit in those who receive it. The transformation isn’t something we achieve through willpower; it’s something God’s word works within us. This answers your earlier question: the hope lies not in our capacity to match God’s ways, but in the transformative power of His word operating within us.
The point is that we don’t bridge the gap ourselves; the Holy Spirit is connected with the gospel at all times, which always makes it effective.
And finally, the climactic end here: Movement 6—
12 “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
We rejoice! If you come to the Lord and listen, you will go out with rejoicing and peace, you’ll be singing with all of creation itself and you will never be cut off from the Lord.
A people in exile are the original audience. A people who would have felt totally cut off and depleted, no peace, no rejoicing. This is their future just as it is ours in Christ Jesus.
