Hear God’s gracious and urgent invitation!

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 11

Isaiah 55:1-13

We’re going from chapter 51 last week to chapter 55 this evening, because, if you recall, we covered Isaiah 52-54 during Holy Week. The last triplet of this middle section of Isaiah’s prophecy, chapters 55-57—and really, the rest of the book—depicts the Messiah guiding His people into an eternal and joyful home, and in tonight’s reading, we hear a gracious and urgent invitation to take part in the joy of the Messiah’s kingdom.

“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. It sounds, intentionally, like Jesus’ own invitation, Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. It sounds, intentionally, like the vision John saw of believers who have fallen asleep, These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb…They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. The Lord calls out to all who recognize that they’re needy, that they’re sinful and unclean, to those who realize they aren’t what they should be, that something important is missing in their very soul. There’s a hole there, an emptiness, a desire that can’t be fulfilled with anything on earth. It’s a desire for eternity. It’s a desire to have God for a Father. To such people the Lord cries out, “Come! And you will be filled!”

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? It sounds, intentionally, like Jesus’ own words, Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you. It sounds like many of Jesus’ parables, too, where a man prepared a great feast and told the guests, “Come! Come! For all things are now ready!” This is how the Scriptures portray the Gospel, as an invitation that goes out to all people to come and be satisfied, not with a comfortable or luxurious life on earth, but to come into His Church and be satisfied in the kingdom of Christ, who does not offer an earthly paradise, but a heavenly one.

Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live. How do we come and eat? What is this rich food in which we should take delight? We come, first, by listening! We come by inclining our ear and hearing the words of the Lord, hearing His invitation to let Him remove our sins from us and to enter His kingdom as clean and holy people, ready to feast at the Lord’s table with Him in righteousness and holiness forever.

I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. 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.

God had promised David that his Son would rule over an everlasting kingdom, and that the kingdom would include many nations. So here, God promises to those who accept His gracious invitation a new covenant, and everlasting covenant, based on that promise He had made to David. This is like the new covenant God promised to make with Israel through the prophet Jeremiah. Here’s part of it: Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah… I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people…For they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more. Here, in Isaiah’s prophecy, the Lord clearly extends this everlasting covenant beyond Israel, to the Gentiles, to come and be a part of the kingdom of the Son of David, to enter into a new covenant of grace and the forgiveness of sins through Christ.

Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 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.

Here is the urgency in Isaiah’s message. Yes, seek the Lord. But seek Him while He can still be found. Call upon Him while He is still near. Because the day will come when He won’t let Himself be found and when He will remove His gracious presence forever. If a person insists on clinging to his sins and wickedness, if a person stubbornly rejects His Gospel, if a person persistently resists His Holy Spirit, if a person despises the time of grace that God has given him to repent and to seek the Lord, then the Lord will stop giving him chances to repent. So seek Him now. Call upon Him now. As Paul says to the Corinthians, Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

What God says here is a general truth. He doesn’t think like we do. He doesn’t plan like we do, or like we think He should plan. And that’s so important to remember. God is above us; we are not above Him. He’s smarter than you are, wiser than you are. When you say, “Jump!,” God doesn’t ask, “How high?” In fact, it’s the root of idolatry to imagine that God should behave as you think He should behave. So what God says here is a warning. But it’s also a source of great comfort. Because, when you see things not working out in the world as you think they should, when you see evil appearing to win and lies appearing to prosper, remember that God has plans that you couldn’t possibly fathom, even if He told you about them ahead of time. And they’re better than any plans you could come up with. And yes, that’s something you just have to believe.

And where will that faith come from? “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, 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.

God’s word does everything. It created and sustains the universe. It brings to faith those who listen to it. And it hardens those who hear but refuse to accept it. Listen to the Word! And it will take root in your heart and grow to produce a faith that’s like a shield against every fiery dart of the evil one.

“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. 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.”

Israel did, finally, go out from Babylon in joy. But that joy is nothing compared to the joy that the Church will experience when the Lord Jesus returns to bring us out of this dying world. And knowing, by faith in the Lord’s word, that such joy is coming will help you cope with this Babylon here below. Amen.