Isaiah 55:1-7
Come to the Waters
Good morning or good afternoon Hope Church Toronto West. My name is Vince and I am one of the elders in the church. I have the privilege of sharing God’s word with you today. Let’s pray.
Thank God for generous love, his patience, grace
Take heed of the word today
Today’s text is from Isaiah 55:1-7, so let’s take out your bible and follow me as I read.
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 (G)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.
Context
We have a lot of text to cover today loved ones, so let’s get right to it. Here in Isaiah 55, we see a beautiful invitation from God offered to all people. but I want to give a bit of context before we keep going so that we know what's happening here in Isaiah 55. The book of Isaiah shows the judgement of God because of Israel’s unfaithfulness and the hope of restoration because of the faithfulness of God. The people of God had been unfaithful to God and in the first 39 chapters God is proclaiming judgement, that will take form in the capture and exile of His people. Then in Chapter 40 to 55, God is speaking to an exiled people about the future hope of restoration. Not just returning to Jerusalem but a greater hope of a renewed world. But despite being exiled God’s people remained unfaithful, so in Chapter 49 introduces this faithful Servant of the Lord. And In chapter 52 and 53 we see that this servant will suffer and so we have this famous passage that we hear often in Easter in Isaiah 53 verse 5
)But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
(J)and with his wounds we are healed
And because of the suffering servant we have chapter 54. God shows his people how he will be a husband to them and his steadfast love will never leave them. Which lead us to our passage today. What should the response of the people be? How can be participate in this covenant of peace. That’s the context of chapter 55. God is now inviting people to come to him. There are so much to cover in these verses and I won’t be able to cover all of them but I want to highlight 2 main points today of God’s invitation. First:
God invites us to ….
Isaiah 55:1-3
Come!
1Come, 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 (G)David.
So what we see here in verse one simply a generous invitation from God to come to him but the question is
So who is God inviting?
Who?
Those who are thirsty
S
