Presented to Corps 614
Regent Park Toronto, 28 February 2016 and Alberni Valley Ministries, 09 February 2020 by Captain Michael Ramsay
“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.” – Isaiah 55:1
‘You who have no money, come buy and eat’ – The first
question that comes to my mind when I read this is, how can a person with no
money come and buy anything to eat or otherwise? …let alone the fancy and extravagant
stuff that is represented by milk and wine in the text? It doesn’t say someone
else is buying you food. You, who have no money, Isaiah says, come, buy and eat
all of this fancy expensive food. How is that possible?
Earlier this year Sarah-Grace and I went to a Leafs
game. (Now it is not my intent here to make fun of the Leafs…). It was a great
experience and the Leafs won which was a blessing in and of itself but
alongside that something else really stood out to me: How expensive a game is.
Not just the tickets to the game (which were pricey enough) but also the
concessions. We brought some money for food at the game but not enough, I don’t
think. I wasn’t expecting $14 for a hotdog and prices going up from there! Can
you imagine if the Leafs owned a fancy black tie restaurant: ‘I’ll have the
special please’ ‘That will be $2000 plus a 20% gratuity, would you like
something to drink with that?”
Our image in Verse 1 could be of God seeing you at the
Maple Leafs game and not buying you food but rather giving you the money to buy
a hotdog and a drink or even a side of fries or something more extravagant. And
our image is even more than that. Our image in Isaiah is of a country that is
very poor, possibly under siege, and about to be (if not already) conquered.[1]
When a place is under siege there is almost nothing to eat so everything in the
country and the city is REALLY expensive. And God in our text to Israel, He
says, ‘come over here. I’ll give you the money to buy and eat.’ God gives you
the money so that you – who have nothing, no money, no food, nothing - you can
pay for your meal and not just any subsistence meal but God gives you enough
money for a fancy meal represented by milk and wine.
Isaiah 55:1 - “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.”
This extravagant generosity reminds me of when I was
in elementary school. I was a kid in the 70s. One day I had just gone for a
haircut with my dad and I wasn’t too happy about it. I was not a big fan of
short hair back then. After the haircut, my dad and I were looking around the
mall where the barbershop was; there was a brand new toy store in the mall. We
happened to run into my Great Great Aunt Emma. She sees us and, after checking
with my dad, she tells me that I can pick out anything in the toy store and she
will give me the money to buy it. I walk around the whole store, see a little
monkey toy that I like and I pick it up. She tells me to look for something
bigger, reminding me that I can have whatever I want. So I walk around the
store again and tell her I still want that little toy monkey. My aunt speaks to
my father and my father speaks to me – ‘Really Michael you can have anything in
the store you want, anything.’ She points to the biggest and the most expensive
things in the store and my father assures me that really it is okay, I can get
whatever I want... I don’t need to pick the cheapest thing in the store just to
be nice; I can pick whatever I want. The dilemma for me was that this monkey
which was near the cheapest thing in the store was the toy that I actually
wanted; so while everyone thought I was being polite to and self-sacrificing, I
really just bought what I wanted with the money she gave me and I still have
this monkey to this day and I still remember the generosity of God and my aunt
to this day every time I see it.
Now, the rest of the toy store story is that a day or
two before seeing my aunt in the store I had actually just spent my own saved
up allowance to buy something more expensive from the same store and at some
point I remember thinking, as we were walking around the store, ‘where were you
last week before I spent my own money on the more expensive item?’ The previous
week, I learned the value of working and saving for something you desire and
this week I learned to appreciate the extravagance of Grace.
Isaiah 55:1: “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.”
This is great but then we have Verse 2. A picture here
could be of God just having given you all the money you need to go buy this
great meal – a fancy meal with all of the trimmings. You come back, you sit
down at the table with God and you start to share this meal that God has given
you the money to buy because you ‘needed it’ and then God says, ‘that’s a nice
watch you have; is that a new coat? I don’t think I’ve seen scarf of yours
before. How much did those shoes cost?’ Verse 2: ‘Why [do you] spend money on
what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy?’ Why do you buy
all that stuff with your money when you don’t even have enough for food – a
nice watch, a fancy cappuccino, a night out at the movies, fancy shoes... ?
‘Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the
richest of fare.’ God says, verses 3-4, ‘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. See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and
commander of the peoples.” ‘Enjoy your meal. Remember the promises that I made
to the people of the world through King David.’ God says, ‘I have given you,
Israel, everything, just as I promised.’
But now we wade into some troubling waters. Imagine
you, like Israel, were figuratively or even literally starving and you are at
this meal that God has given you the money and encouragement to buy and eat,
then God draws your attention to all of the other stuff you have spent your
money on.[2]
Imagine that you are sitting down at this feast that God has provided for you
and for the whole world, for that matter, and He starts asking you, ‘why do you
buy things other than food when there are people starving in our world? Why are
you spending God’s time and money on things you don’t need when there are
people starving for the Word of God in our world? And why are you spending our
time indulging in stuff you do not need while the person beside you may be
perishing?
Verse 2: God gives us all this stuff, letting us know
that He has and will always provide for us and then asks us why we aren’t
sharing the Good News of God and His generosity with others (Dt 31:5-8, Heb
13:5). And many interpreters read the next few verses 5-9, as a real warning
that if we, like Israel, do not share this good news of God’s generosity with
others we will in essence be standing up and removing ourselves from His
banqueting table, even as others notice the feast before us and come to enjoy
it in our place (cf. Matt 22:1-14).[3]
Isaiah says to Israel:
5 Surely you
will summon nations you know not,
and nations you
do not know will come running to you,
because of the
Lord your God,
the Holy One of
Israel,
for he has
endowed you with splendour.”
(God’s
generosity to Israel will bring other nations to God but then He warns His
people :)
6 Seek the Lord
while he may be found;
call on him
while he is near.
7 Let the wicked
forsake their ways
and the
unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to
the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God,
for he will freely pardon.
(Seek the Lord
while He is here [cf. Mt 6:33]. The implication is if we do not seek Him, if we
do not sit at His table with Him at His eternal feast, then we will not be
there.) [4]
8 “For my
thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your
ways my ways,”
declares the
Lord.
9 “As the
heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways
higher than your ways
and my thoughts
than your thoughts.
God has prepared this great banquet for us both for
now and forever (cf. Matt 22:1-14). God has provided enough food, water, and
everything for all of us in the world. God has provided a real Monday through
Friday and Saturday and Sunday Salvation to the world. Temporally speaking, did
you know that Canada alone has been given enough resources to feed and clothe
the whole world? God has invited all of the nations of the earth to buy the
food; He has provided but some people and some countries hoard the wealth God
has given us and/or spend it on other things while grain, for one example, that
could be exported to hungry people around the world rots on our docks.[5]
This is sad and this is true. But what is even more
desperate and even more applicable than temporal starvation is eternal
starvation: Canada has been given the Good News of Salvation. Canada was
founded upon the Word of God. Our nation’s motto, ‘from Sea to Sea’ taken from
Psalm 72:8 declares that in this nation God will have His dominion from sea to
sea and that declaration was upheld at the establishment of the Order of Canada
declaring, with Hebrews 11:16, of its members, “But now they desire a better
country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their
God: for He hath prepared for them a city.” And even more than that, The
Constitutional Act itself declares that ‘Canada is founded upon principles that
recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.’
God has invited us collectively to sit at His table
and to partake of His eternal covenant. He has paid for our meal, this
extravagant feast of salvation, but each day and every generation more of our
nation and in every congregation people seem to be standing up from the table
and walking away from the feast as we choose to spend God’s money and God’s
time on something other than the eternal banquet to which He has invited us
(TSA d. 9). It has been 2 millennia since the money for supper was left at the
cross; how sad it would be if our country, our community, our church, our
family, or ourselves walk away from the eternal meal that God has provided
and paid for us. If any of us have pulled away from the table or if we haven’t
even arrived yet, I invite us to, like Verse 9 says, turn to God before it is
too late - as long as you have breath in your body it is not too late (cf. Eccl
12:1-7)[6]
- for as we turn and return to God, Verse 10ff.
10 As the rain
and the snow
come down from
heaven,
and do not
return to it
without watering
the earth
and making it
bud and flourish,
so that it
yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word
that goes out from my mouth:
It will not
return to me empty,
but will
accomplish what I desire
and achieve the
purpose for which I sent it.
12 You will go
out in joy
and be led forth
in peace;
the mountains
and hills
will burst into
song before you,
and all the
trees of the field
will clap their
hands.
(As we turn and
return to God)
13 Instead of
the thornbush will grow the juniper,
and instead of
briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for
the Lord’s renown,
for an
everlasting sign,
that will endure
forever.”
This is the love and the extravagant generosity of the
Lord.
Isaiah 55:1: “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.”
That is the invitation to each of us today. God is
calling all of us who are thirsty to come drink of this water of eternal life
that those of us who drink of it will never thirst again (John 4:14). God has
made and paid for our meal and He longs to share it with us for now and
forever. And this very day God is walking with each and every one of us around
the eternal toy store. He has already covered the cost for our salvation all we
have to do is accept that gift and enjoy it now and for evermore. So today I
invite each and every one of us to come, all you who are thirsty, come to Jesus
and live.
Let us pray.
---
[1] Cf. Geoffrey W. Grogan, The Expositor's Bible
Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Isaiah/Introduction to Isaiah/Authorship, Unity,
and Date of Isaiah/The history of criticism of Isaiah, Book Version: 4.0.2
[2] Cf. Alastair
Roberts, "The Politics of God’s
Plenty—Isaiah 55:1" Political Theology Today, (Manye Publishing)
2014. http://www.politicaltheology.com/blog/the-politics-of-gods-plenty-isaiah-551-5/
[3] Cf. Christopher R. Seitz, ' The Book of Isaiah 40-66
', NIB VI, (Abingdon Press: Nashville, Tenn., 2001), 481.
[4] Edouard Kitoko Nsiku , 'Isaiah', Africa Bible
Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010), 871.
[5] Cf for an American parallel, Walter Brueggemann, 'A
Covenant of Neighbourly Justice: Break the Chains of Quid Pro Quo Isaiah
55:1-9' (ON Scripture - The Bible, Feb
28, 2016), on-line: http://www.onscripture.com/covenant-neighborly-justice-break-chains-quid-pro-quo#sthash.VNKENobF.dpuf
[6] Edouard Kitoko Nsiku , 'Isaiah', Africa Bible
Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010), 871.
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