All who are thirsty
Isaiah 55:1-7
Ho!
If you are using the KJV or a number of other versions of the Bible, you will see this word. It is an old and rough English translation of the Hebrew word "Hoy!" which in simple translation into today’s English means:
Hey!
In NIV they have used the word "Come," but this does not convey the absolute, attention getting, feel of the actual idea:
Hey!
The only purpose of the word is to get attention. It has no actual meaning, accept, "listen up, pay attention, look over here!" So ...
Hey! all you who are thirsty, come ... (Isaiah 55:1-3 TNIV)
A clear division can be seen between the first part of Isaiah (chapters 1–39) and the second part (chapters 40–66). It is possible that Isaiah compiled these two sections at two different times. For the second section, this passage is the climax.
Isaiah is telling about servants. He is going to great lengths to explain how Israel has been God’s servant. He takes it a step further and shows how a new Servant will come who will go further in serving God than Israel has been able to do. He also talks about how an open invitation is extended to all to be the servant of God.
This is the warmth of the invitation.
• Who can drink God’s water?
• Anyone who is thirsty
• Who can be fed on God’s incredible feast
• Anyone who is hungry, even the poor
Thirst is one of the driving forces of our existence. We tend to down play it, but a person can only live for three days without water.
Dr. William Stidger tells of a conversation with a Filipino man. He asked him, "What is the most useful thing that the Americans have contributed to the Philippines?"
The answer was, "The most wonderful thing that the Americans brought to us in the American occupation of our islands was the artesian well. That has saved our babies from death!"
"Thank God for water!" he said again. " I believe that I have uttered that prayer from the depths of my heart more times than I have uttered any other prayer in my life. You would know what it meant to us if you had been here from the beginning, as some of us have."
"I used to see mothers lean over with their brown babies on their hips, brush away the green scum from stagnant pools along the roads, and let their children drink from those pools of disease and death!"
"Didn’t they know better?" He said.
"They had no better. It wasn’t a matter of knowing any better. See how they use these artesian wells, now that they have them."
Dr. Stidger continues: "He didn’t need to call that to my attention. It was wonderfully apparent. I stood one entire morning photographing people as they came to these wells up in Molodolos. It was one of the most thrilling mornings I ever put in. I saw the miracle of water in action." (2500 Best Modern Illustrations)
What could be a more welcome invitation? What could be kinder than to offer water to a thirsty child or free food to a poor woman? And not just food, fine food, food that nourishes and satisfies.
The smartest beggar I ever met
Dawn and I went to a nice Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, Philadelphia. It was a place we had eaten before when we were working a banquet, and it was so good we wanted to try it again when we were at leisure to order whatever we wanted.
As is almost always the case, when Dawn eats at a Chinese restaurant, she ordered shrimp. As is also often the case at a very good restaurant, they brought her more than she could eat, so we took the rest with us in a doggie bag.
As we left the restaurant, a man sitting on the curb across the street looked up at us and came up to us in a very friendly and non-threatening way. He said,
I am very hungry, could I have your leftovers?
Now here was a man in legitimate need who knew what he was doing. He did not ask for money. If you are like me, you don’t give money directly to beggars, especially in the city where drugs and alcohol are easily available. He also chose a good spot to get what he needed, a restaurant district, near several good places. He also asked for something that we could clearly do without. We had already eaten and were satisfied. Whatever we had eaten was so good that we were taking it along with us, so there was no danger of getting something particularly distasteful. It was packaged carefully, not thrown in a dumpster.
They had even put chopsticks in the bag.
How could we say no? This guy was hungry and he knew where to find a free feast.
This guy is one of the people Isaiah is calling out to.
• Are you too poor to buy good food?
• Are you thirsty?
• Come and get wine, milk, nourishing fine food, and water ... all for free!
It is a metaphor
Of course, Isaiah wants his readers to have all their physical needs fulfilled. But it is not physical sustenance he is announcing here.
God is announcing a feast that Jesus announced later in the Sermon on the Mount:
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
(Matthew 5:6 TNIV)
This righteousness is more than a simple desire to do what is right, or to live in a world where right is the rule rather than the exception.
It is the character of God Himself. That character is one of righteousness and love and blessing and spiritual satisfaction and purpose.
How can we be filled?
First of all, we must accept the invitation
Through Isaiah, God invites everyone to come.
• Jesus is the living water
• His blood is the wine we are offered
• He offers both the milk and the meat of the word
• His body is the bread of life
We may freely feast on Jesus and on His word. His call is:
The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let those who hear say, "Come!" Let those who are thirsty come; and let all who wish take the free gift of the water of life. (Revelation 22:17 TNIV)
In another place Jesus says:
Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. (John 6:35-36 TNIV)
It is one of the mysteries of our lives, that we can know something, even be confronted with it and still not deal with it. People knew and walked with Jesus, heard Him speak and watched His miracles and still did not believe. How much easier is it for us to know about Him and still not believe?
What is the difference between knowledge about Jesus and belief in Jesus? We think of Jesus as our Savior and our Master, but He is also a feast. When we are thoroughly and deeply celebrating, we do not go to a feast and pick at the condiments. We fill our plates and go back for seconds. We indulge our appetites on all we can get.
What is the difference between knowledge about Jesus and belief in Jesus? It is the difference between picking and feasting.
Do you indulge yourself in Him? Do you explore His riches and sate yourself on them? Or do you leave Him on the periphery of your life, only going to Him when you are famished or in danger of dehydrating completely. Do you use Him to stave off starvation or do you live constantly in the abundance of His presence?
Explore the promise
God is offering to fulfill in anyone who will go to Him the promise He made to David. Obviously, this cannot apply to everything He promised David ... there can be only one family sitting on the throne of Israel. However, there is a detail that He offers freely, and it is clarified in the ideas immediately following the promise:
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 TNIV)
In the same way that David’s name is a name that evokes immediate images, God will do that for you. What are the images evoked by David’s name:
• Power in the face of overwhelming odds
• Consolidation of the whole nation
• Protection from his enemies
• Uninhibited worship of God
• Sin ... but also forgiveness and restoration
Some people may not know much about the Bible, but if you mention David, they will remember Goliath and they will remember who won, and they will know why.
• It is because of God
• They will know that he was a great, perhaps the greatest king Israel ever had
• People may remember Bathsheba, but if they know the whole story, they will also know of David’s repentance.
• Almost everyone knows at least some of Psalm 23
• In knowing Psalm 23, they know where David found comfort, and hope. It is in the LORD.
How would you like it if your name evoked the same kind of witness to God’s power and love? How would you like it if when someone mentioned your name, the response would be:
• I’ve heard of her, she is always singing songs about God.
• I know him, it seems like he is always praying
• I know her, she helps people and won’t accept a dime in return, she says it is because Jesus helps her for free too.
Deeply indulging in the feast and the flood, we become so associated with God that the most outstanding thing about our personality is that association. Our own identity becomes lost in His. And Isaiah says it can be so attractive to people that they will seek you out to ask about it ... they will want what you have.
• Are you thirsty? Just come and drink
• Are you hungry? Just come and eat ... Free!
How?
The next couple of verses show us:
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 TNIV)
God is right next to you. He always has been. He is very near.
Perhaps you think He is more here than anywhere, but that is not so. He is here now, and He was with you when you got up this morning.
He has been calling you all your life. He wants you. He wants to provide living water and the bread of life for you. He wants to be so associated with you than when people think of you, they think of Him. That is an incredible kind of witness, when your very existence and the recollection of your name is a witness to Christ. You need not say anything, just exist.
Call on Him
• Extend your thoughts and your desire to Him
• Anything wrong you have done, confess it, He will freely pardon.
• Any punishment you deserve, He will have mercy.
• Turn your back on sin and turn your face toward the LORD.
• In prayer, reach out to Him
He is near.
If we persist in our sin, there may come a time when He is not so easy to find, as He is today, here, now.
Call on Him, He is near.
