ISAIAH - CHAPTER 55 - "HO, COME TO THE WATERS"
ISAIAH – CHAPTER 55
“HO, COME TO THE WATERS”
Tuesday Morning Bible Study, February 9, 2015, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
In chapter 55, it is God the Holy Spirit, the Glorifier of Christ who issues this free, full, universal invitation to the whole world.
We have in this most beautiful chapter a divine picture of the Great Redemption-work of Jesus Christ.
In chapter 53, the foundation-truths of Redemption were brought before us in the sufferings and atoning death of the Great Surety-Substitute. The altar was there erected, and the blood of the Prince of Martyrs was shed. In chapter 54, we had the revelation of the crucifixion presented to us of the travail-pangs in the birth of the glorious Church.
In the imagery of a tent, we found the pegs of the tent unfastened, the ropes uncoiled, the stakes removed, the tent-curtains lengthened, in order to admit the vast spiritual progeny. Then as if the emblem of the tent failed to depict her durability and comeliness, we found the Church farther represented under the figure of a costly building, garnished with all manner of stones after the similitude of a palace; while at the same time, comfort on comfort is added, the Lord of hosts represents himself as standing allied to His people in every endearing relationship, and guaranteeing our safety, preservation, and peace.
It is a magnificent picture of the purchase secured by the Redeemer’s agony. Now, having unfolded the strength of the foundations, and the grandeur of the structure, whose stones are “laid with fair colors; its windows of agates, it gates of carbuncles, and all its borders of pleasant stones,”---what remains as set forth in this chapter, but to give to the favored ones for whom all these preparations are completed the joyous welcome.
55:1-2: “Ho, every one that thirsts, come you to the waters, and he that has no money; come you buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? And your labor for that which satisfies not? Hearken diligently to Me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.”
This great appeal is made conscious of the victory won by the Servant of the Lord and the restoration offered to His people. However, there is a condition. The invitation first recognizes the need of the people and urges them to turn and listen to Him who has been given as a “Witness to the peoples,” and as a “Leader and Commander”
55: 3-4: “Incline your ear, and come to Me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and a commander to the people.”
Verse 3 is of special interest. The exiles would be inclined to look for a human leader, another David, for selfish reasons. Instead, they are told that they have a duty to carry out David’s functions, to the world. The functions in questions are those not only of prince (leader) but instructor (commander---not a military term as in English), and indeed witness to the power of God. As C. R. North has commented, these terms imply moral leadership, not dictatorship.
In this way the timeless promises made to David are reaffirmed to the Jewish people and to the Church as a call to glorious service.
The question is, "Who are the invited guests"? Who are to be received within the banqueting halls? Is it in the case of an earthly palace, only the few, the select, the privileged, the men of rank, the world’s spiritual aristocracy? Every monopoly is to be broken up. The Gospel proclamation is without condition or qualification, without let or hindrance, for all mankind.
Free as the light of the noonday sun; free as the rain which falls from the clouds; free as the water by the wayside pool, or in a lake or ocean---so free is the entrance within the gate of this true “house” or Palace “Beautiful;” so free are these purchased blessings of this “Salvation of God”.
In Chapter 54 the Prophet introduced us to God the Divine Father, as Creator, Maker, Husband, and Covenant-God. Chapter 53 introduced Jesus Christ as the vicarious suffering. Here we are introduced to God the Holy Spirit, the glorifier of Christ, who will release these free, full, universal invitations.
The Gospel of the Grace of God is free for all mankind. It is the parallel picture, in the Old Testament, of the mission-angel of Revelation flying with the everlasting Gospel to preach to every nation, kindred, tongue and people, scattering in his flight, the leaves of that tree which are for the healing of the nations.
“Come to the waters”. It is the counterpart of the great New Testament words, “Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”(Mt. 11:28) “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink”. (John 7:37) “Whosoever will let him take the water of life freely”. (Rev. 22:17)
Man may erect his religious barriers around that fountain. God erects none. Come just as your are, without money and without price; without distinction, whether natural or spiritual, of class, rank, birth, blood or pedigree.
Such is the gracious offer of the Holy Spirit. After issuing an invitation so free, so all-comprehensive. In response to words of such amazing mercy, one would expect a universal rush of thirsting humanity to this open fountain of spiritual blessing.
55: 5-7: “Behold, you shall call a nation that you know not, and nations that knew not you shall run to you because of the Lord your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for He has glorified you. 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; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.”
A few stragglers, a remnant come to the living streams. Millions in the earth continue in contemptuous indifference, bartering their eternal peace and happiness for what is only a mockery of their immortal longings.
The beauty of this chapter is, that plea follows plea, and invitation follows invitation. He proceeds to ploy them with every possible argument that they might turn and live. “See the Lord while He may be found. Let the wicked forsake his way…the Lord will have mercy on him…our God will pardon;…our God will multiply pardons. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
And if in reply to all these gracious mercies, any one should say, “No, it cannot be so, in my case…that God would stoop to pardon such sins as mine; even man could not exercise such forgiveness and favor” “True” says God; “but I am not man”.
55:8-9: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says 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.”
Do not measure my dealings by any human or earthly standard.
Then he summons the varied evangelists of outer nature to confirm His promise that they may endorse and countersign the glorious promised blessings of grace and salvation.
55: 10-11: “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; So shall my Word be that goes forth out of My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I send it.”
As surely as the material world rejoices under rains and dews; and the seed of spring-time issues a golden harvest, so surely will the seed of the divine word, watered by the rains and dews of the Holy Spirit. Blind unbelief may persist in scorning the message; but “the mouth of the Lord has spoken it;”---“It shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” That fierce soul-travail is not to be in vain; the blood of the Great surety has not been shed in vain.
The living waters will eventually break through. All human barriers and the waste places of heathendom will be made to rejoice and blossom as the rose.
The chapter poetically closes with a festal procession through these beautiful regions.
Shall we call it a festal procession on their way to the true Palace and Temple of the Great King, spoken of in chapter 54 as the Church triumphant in glory?
55:12: ‘You shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”
The way along which the procession passes is through a renovated, regenerated, rejoicing creation. The praise of creation joins in the jubilant welcome.
55:13: “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
The choicest vegetation has taken the place of dwarf and offensive plants. The lofty cypress has supplanted the prickly thorn. The fragrant myrtle-tree grows in place of the unsightly nettle “And it shall be to the Lord for a name.” The final and magnificent triumph of the Church of Christ shall be a perpetual and enduring memorial of divine power and love, a monument of praise to Jehovah’s great name, an everlasting sign and sacrament that shall not be cut off.
This chapter is unrivalled in Scripture, whether in Old Testament or New for its offers of free grace and mercy.
Let us take up the reproach of the Holy Spirit, “why are you forfeiting the permanent and enduring for the fleeting and perishable? You are seeking satisfaction in what cannot satisfy. You are vainly endeavoring to cheat the spiritual appetite by spending your money for that which is not bread. You are spending your strength on vanity. Confess it.
Church are you victims of fear, distrust, self-reproach, self-upbraiding and worse judgment and criticism of those we are entrusted to love and nurture? Is there peevishness, restlessness and discontent? If so, you are here described as wasting your money,---immortal spendthrifts,---toiling for nothing in the world’s remorseless treadmill.
If you are content with such things and seeking after such, the Lord will leave you to seek your poor happiness in the world systems. But, if you are hungering after righteousness, in the simple language of the invitation, and you feel yourself thirsty, dissatisfied with the polluted streams and longing for a nobler fountain, if the pleading Holy Spirit is calling you to a higher and diviner life, “hear and your soul shall live,” --- Do not delay. Come with joy to draw water out of the wells of salvation. These waters are the precious covenant blessings we have found in Isaiah and throughout the Holy Scripture.
“The sure mercies of David.” These waters are of every kind, and suited to the thirst and longings of every soul. Cleansing waters, purifying waters, refreshing waters, healing waters, living waters, waters “springing up unto everlasting life.”
No money is needed to pay for them, Christ has paid it all. No sacrifice is needed to procure them. Christ has procured all. “Lord, we come!” be it ours to reply. “Blessed Spirit of all grace! We have heard your gracious invitation and your lavish overtures of love, pardon and mercy.
“Jesus, joy of loving hearts”
Thou Fount of Life! Thou Light of men!
From the best bliss that earth imparts,
We turn unfilled to you again.
Your truth unchanged has ever stood.
You save those that on thee call.
To them that seek you, thou are good.
To them that find you---all in all.” (John Ross MacDuff).
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture form K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of Roger MacDuff (Comfort Ye, Comfort Ye). Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of Rev. MacDuff whose work is in the public domain.