"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) Salvation is the free gift of God. (Romans 6:23) To obtain salvation and a relationship that satisfies the deepest needs of our souls costs us nothing; it cost the Lord everything. He has done the work for us and all we have to do is trust in what Christ did for us on the cross. The Lord isn't speaking of physical hunger in verse 1 but in spiritual hunger, for the Lord Jesus said: "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."
Idolatry has profited Isaiah's people nothing. They have spent time and effort serving false gods. They have called out to false gods in vain. Therefore the Lord says: "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." (Isaiah 55:2) The Lord does promise to provide the necessities of those who are His (Philippians 4:19) but here He is speaking of the necessities of the soul. He's talking about soul-hunger and soul-thirst. Nothing except a relationship with Him can satisfy our souls. We were created for a relationship with Him and there is an empty space within us that cannot be filled by anything or anyone except Him.
"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." (Isaiah 55:3) Verse 3 is a specific promise to the tribes of Israel in that the Lord promised never to cut off the royal line of David. The Lord's covenant with David (and with all the tribes of Israel) is everlasting. But verse 3 is also a promise to everyone who believes on a particular descendant of the royal line of David: the Lord Jesus Christ. In Him the Lord fulfilled the promise to David that he would "never fail to have a descendant sitting on the throne of the house of Israel". (Jeremiah 33:17) The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal King, will sit on the throne of the house of Israel forever when He comes to reign eternally. Not only will He reign over the house of Israel, but He will reign over the entire earth, and all of us who have placed our faith in Him will live under His loving and faithful kingship forever.
"See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the peoples. 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 splendor." (Isaiah 55:4-5) I could not decide whether to capitalize the words "him" and "you" in these two verses, for I believe the Lord is speaking both of King David and of King Jesus. The Lord did indeed make David a witness, a ruler and a commander. David said in Psalm 18 that because of what the Lord had done for him, people he did not previously know now served him, that foreigners bowed before him and obeyed him. But Jesus also witnessed to the people and will someday be a ruler and commander of people from all nations. People who were not of Israel will hear of Him and serve Him; they will bow to Him and obey Him.
Because the Lord has paid a heavy price in order to make us the free offer of salvation, we must not turn Him away. There is no better day than today to make Christ the Lord of our lives if we haven't already done so. We aren't promised tomorrow. We don't know how much longer this old world will continue as usual. I don't know when the end times will commence, but we are closer to that era than we've ever been before. We are closer to the day of judgment when the Lord will judge all who have rejected Him. "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. 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." (Isaiah 55:6-7)
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