Introduction
We love a buffet!
If you have ever had the opportunity to go on a cruise...
and one of the highlights for many people...
is the midnight buffet!!
Have you ever experienced this phenomena?...
They actually open the buffet line earlier than midnight...
not for people to eat...
but just so that people can go through the line before it gets all picked over...
and take pictures of the food, the decorations, the ice sculptures, etc...
Let me share some pictures with you so you can have an idea of what I’m talking about...
Now, I know that you might accuse me of being rude and thoughtless...
talking about a huge buffet...
right in the middle of Lent...
but actually, our Scripture uses food and water in a metaphorical sense...
to refer to spiritual thirst and spiritual hunger being satisfied...
Read: Isaiah 55:1-9
Isaiah was a very prominent author in the Bible...
arguably the greatest writing prophet in the Bible...
He was married with at least 2 children...
His name means, “The Lord is Salvation”...
He began his ministry in 740 BC...the year that King Uzziah died...
The book of Isaiah is neatly divided into two halves...
the first half, Isaiah 1-39, contain judgments from God against the people of Israel because of their sin...
and also judgments against some of the enemies of the people of Israel...
But the 2nd half of Isaiah contains some of the best literature in the Bible...
it offers comfort to God’s people who were struggling under Babylonian exile...
and Isaiah prophesied the end of the exile...
The first 2 verses of this second half (Isaiah 40:1-2) says:
Comfort, comfort my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
1. Buffet
so picture people living in exile...
they are not free...
they are separated from the Temple...
which to the people of Israel symbolized the very presence of God...
it would not be uncommon for people in exile to be impoverished...
they would likely have been very familiar with being hungry and being thirsty...
they would have been familiar with being mistreated...
so, picture these people and their situation...
and then listen to the first two verses of our text again...
and think about how it might be an encouragement to people living under very difficult circumstances...
“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.
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.
Try to put yourself in a similar situation...
I know it’s hard...
but use your imagination...
you are hungry...
thirsty...
but you have no money to buy food...
you walk by Golden Corral...
you can smell the delicious food...
you begin to salivate...
and your stomach aches...
just hungering for a crust of bread...
and just as you are walking by...
someone throws open the doors and says...
“Come on in...
“Oh, I wish I could, but I have no money”...
“That’s okay, your money’s not good here anyway!!...
take all you want!!!
eat your fill!!”
a person struggling with hunger might even break down in tears...
at the thought of all that food available for free...
and not just to satisfy hunger...
but to someone who is literally starving to death...
the buffet provides new life!!...
But, as I said...
this picture of food and water is a metaphor for spiritual blessing...
Romans 6:23 says,
“The wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We are born in sin...
and not only that...but we have willfully committed sins
and because of that sin that we were born with...
and because of those sins that we committed...
we deserved death...
death is the penalty for sin...
it was obvious in the Old Testament sacrificial system...
when a pure animal...
without spot or defect...
was killed for the sins of the people...
that death should have been ours...
but, because of that “gift of God”...
we do not have to suffer the death that we have rightfully earned...
instead, we can enjoy eternal life...
and what IS that “gift of God”?...
that gift of God is His Son, Jesus Christ, hanging on the cross...
the ultimate Sacrificial Lamb...
without sin...
without defect...
taking upon Himself...
the punishment that should have rightfully been ours...
And God is calling out to us as sinners...
“Come...you who are spiritually dry and thirsty...
come to the Living Water...
that provides LIFE...
Come, you who are hungering and thirsting after righteousness...
come and be filled!!”...
What? You don’t deserve it?...
You’re right...you don’t deserve it...
but I am offering it to you anyway!!...
Free...No charge!
But, the unfortunate reality is...
the offer is there...
but people will turn their backs on this free offer....
they will take their money...
and they will take their efforts and energies...
and they will expend them on things that do not satisfy...
Why go out and buy a moldy hunk of stale bread?...
when Jesus is offering you your fill at the midnight buffet?
God says,
“Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare”...
God sees those that are hungry and thirsty...
He throws open the doors of the midnight buffet of spiritual blessings...
but many people will turn away...
they will pursue that sinful life that never satisfies...
they will try and try to satiate their own selfish desires...
but that satisfaction NEVER lasts...
it may feel good for 10 minutes...
or a couple of hours...
but there is no lasting satisfaction...
Lasting satisfaction is only found in Jesus Christ...
2. Davidic covenant
In Isaiah 55:2-3, Isaiah makes reference God’s covenant with David...
In this covenant, God makes a promise to David through Nathan the prophet...
it is found in 2 Samuel 7 and other places...
God promises David and Israel that the Messiah (Jesus Christ) would come from the lineage of David and the tribe of Judah...
and would establish a kingdom that would endure forever...
The reaffirmation of this promise would certainly offer encouragement to those who are currently living in exile...
but, this also offers encourage to us as well...
because the Messiah is not JUST a Jewish Messiah...
Jesus is the Messiah for ALL people...
Isaiah 55:5 says,
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.”
So, we have this midnight buffet of spiritual blessings...
it is provided without cost to any who would respond...
and yet, we know that many people have, and continue to spurn this incredible offer...
3. Carpe Diem
These first 5 verses, and verses 8 & 9 are the words of God...
God is the Speaker...
but in verses 6 & 7, The prophet speaks out what is burning on his heart and mind...
HE SAYS:
“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.
Are you familiar with the Latin phrase, “carpe diem”?...
It is commonly translated as “seize the day”...
It was originally written by Horace...
a Roman poet who died just a couple of years before Christ was born...
the full line of the quote (if you’ll pardon my latin), goes like this)
Carpe diem quam minimum credula postero
which is translated...
“seize the day, putting as little trust as possible in tomorrow”...
Before Horace was ever born...
The prophet Isaiah is telling the people...
the time is now...
do not delay...
Today is the day of repentance...
This theme of repentance and humility certainly resonates with us during this time of Lent...
Yes, we have sinned...
yes, God has provided us an incredible midnight buffet of spiritual blessings...
But this buffet is not open indefinitely...
The offer is not forever...
we must respond in a timely manner...
the important thing to remember is...
we don’t know when the doors will close...
there is a window of opportunity for repentance...
and this idea is found throughout Scripture...
That’s one of the messages of Noah and the Ark...
and that’s one of the messages of Jesus’ parable of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25...
In Acts 22:16, Ananias confronted Paul and said
“And now what are you waiting for?
Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’
John the Baptist, preparing the way for Jesus...
In Matthew 3:2 says, “
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Paul, preaching to the people in Athens, said, in Acts 17:30
In the past God overlooked such ignorance,
but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
4. We are quick to acknowledge that we don’t understand such things...
but, the point is, You don't have to understand, you simply chose to join the feast...
God said
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Finite people have tried to understand the Infinite God from the beginning...
and we have failed...
some people think they have God all figured out...
But Romans 11:33-36 has it right...
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
“Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
“Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?”
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
Why would God offer us His love and blessing...
free for us...
but at great cost to Himself?...
Yes, He does love us that much...
but I know what I’ve done...
I know what my life has been like...
I remember turning my back upon the midnight buffet of God’s blessing...
and yet, God still threw open the doors and gave me another opportunity...
today, God is giving YOU another opportunity...
Will this be your LAST opportunity?...
I don’t know...
God Himself is the only one who knows...
“Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.”
