Isaiah 55:1. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Let no one ask whether he may come to Christ for salvation; he is bidden to come. Whoever wills to come, is welcome. «Ho!» says God, as men cry when they have goods to sell, and would attract the passer-by; and not merely to one does he speak, but to everyone: «Ho, every one that thirsteth,» whatever is the age he lives in, and to whatever age he may himself have attained: «Ho, every one that thirsteth.» But is there anything to be had by those who do come? There is in God exactly that which every soul needs; first, «waters» for the thirsty. There is even more than absolute, necessaries: «wine and milk,» God has an abundance of grace, yea, a superabundance. He can give us all we need, and even more than we desire. Oh, turn not away when God the Father cries, «Ho!»
Isaiah 55:2. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
Apart from God, there is nothing for us but destruction. We may spend our money, and our labour, too, but happiness is not to be found by the creature apart from the Creator, or by a sinner apart from the Saviour. God has so constituted the human mind that it cannot be perfect without him.
Isaiah 55:3. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live;
It seems a very little thing to do, does it not? Simply to hear, to incline the ear; yet that is the way of salvation: «Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.» Alas! nowadays, the mass of men will not hear God's message of mercy; they pass it by as if it were an old worn-out tale of which they knew quite enough, Hear, then, what God says to his poor forgetful creature: «I tear, and your soul shall live;»
Isaiah 55:3. And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
Will God make a covenant with man? Can it be that he will strike hands with sinful man, and enter into league and compact with him? Yes, so he says; if men will but incline their ear, and come unto him, he will enter into covenant with them: «I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.» «But David is dead,» says someone. Yes, I know he is; but the David here meant always lives, it is Jesus, the Son of God.
Isaiah 55:4. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
Jesus Christ is the people's Witness and Leader; born among them, living among them, dying for them, living still to save them; and God declares that he gives this Christ to such as hear him, to such as incline their ear, and come unto him.
Isaiah 55:5. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.
Brethren, our Lord Jesus Christ did not die in vain. He died to redeem his chosen people, and those whom he redeemed he will certainly have. Even though some reject him, others will not. God has power over human hearts; and where Christ's gospel is faithfully preached, and attended by the Holy Spirit's power, sinners must come to Christ. Their will shall sweetly yield to the supremacy of love. Even though they set themselves against Christ, yet they shall come when the Lord draws them; and glory shall be gotten to his holy name by the salvation of those who never even thought of being saved.
Isaiah 55:6. Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
«Seek ye the Lord while he may be found;» that is, now. «Call ye upon him while he is near;» he is near now. Wherever Christ is lifted up, and his gospel is proclaimed, there is he according to his promise, «Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.»
Isaiah 55:7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
What a grand word that is! «He will abundantly pardon.» However abundant sin may be, God's pardon is still more abundant. As Paul puts it, «Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.» Sin may be like the great mountains, but the mercy of God is like Noah's flood, that rose above the tops of the highest hills: «He will abundantly pardon.»
Isaiah 55:8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Oh, what a mercy it is to be taught to think God's thoughts, and to be led in God's ways! It is the entrance into a new life; it is something infinitely beyond the greatest elevation to which any ordinary life can ever reach by its own unaided power.
Isaiah 55:9-12. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye 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.
«For ye» that is, ye who have heard God's Word, and believed it, «ye shall go out with joy.» Happy hearts help to make a happy world. He who has found his Saviour, and received God's pardon, and learned God's thoughts, shall find the whole world full of music to him, wherever he may be.
Isaiah 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.
Wherever God's grace begins to work, it cuts up thorns and thistles, and plants in place of them fir trees and myrtle trees. Oh, that his grace might renew each one of us! And, then, when that blessed work has been done, may we never cease to glorify that dear name by the power of which we have been changed!