“Ho! Every one who thirsts, 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 do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance. “Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, According to the faithful mercies shown to David. " (Isaiah 55:1-3, NASB95)
("HO" or other translation ignored in NIV and ESV)
“HO!” If you were walking down a street and someone across the road or perhaps in a nearby park yelled that at the top of their lungs, wouldn’t it get your attention?
“YO!” “HEY!” When a man stands in a public place and yells something like that it means he has something important he wants to communicate. Unless he’s crazy. Even if he’s crazy he probably thinks in his own mind that he has something important to say.
“YO! The world ends tomorrow right after ‘Everybody Loves Raymond!”
It interests me that in my search for some commentary on the way this chapter begins I could not find one that even made brief mention of Isaiah’s mode of capturing attention.
My guess is that since it really doesn’t mean anything in and of itself they’ve all thought it more important to go straight to his message.
I happen to think it is of great importance that we stop and consider why Isaiah apparently cried out with a loud voice, “HO!” and then went into his sermon.
THE PROPHET
Isaiah’s ministry lasted over a period of 50 years or more. He prophesied during the reigns of several kings and I won’t name them all and turn this into a history lesson, but his message was primarily to Judah, at least at first, and later to the nation in captivity to Babylon.
We also note however, that his message had a two-fold purpose. One was to bring warning and then comfort to his beloved nation which had turned her back on God, and the other was to prophecy concerning an age that would come long after Isaiah was gone, and would affect not only Israel but the entire world.
I’m certain Isaiah understood very little of that part of his message and the things he saw in visions; but looking back from this side of the cross they become amazingly clear to us, and they astound us at times with the historic detail that could not have been known to anyone but God.
Isaiah served the Lord faithfully and zealously, with a great love for God’s people and a fervency that ought to fill every pulpit in the church in our day, since we too now are going the way of that ancient nation of Israel in turning away from the Living God.
Here is what British expositor, G. Campbell Morgan had to say about Isaiah:
“The whole story of the prophet Isaiah, as it is revealed to us in this one book, is that of a man who spoke to an inattentive age or to an age which, if attentive, mocked him and refused to obey his message, until, as the prophetic period drew to a close, he inquired in anguish, ‘Who hath believed our report? And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ ” (Westminster Pulpit, vol. 10, p. 10)
So as we come to this chapter and look at just these opening verses today, remember that they come from God through His man; a man longing for a listening ear, not just so he could be heard, but so that God’s voice might be heard and the hearers would benefit for eternity.
Therefore, “HO!”
EVERY ONE
This message goes out to everyone. More pointedly, to every one. If we say ‘everyone’ we think of a sort of blanket invitation. But from God it is not that general and non-specific. It is to every one.
The nation as a whole may have turned a deaf ear to the prophet’s message and as a nation is suffering the consequences. But even in the midst of national decline the individual can make a choice to listen and benefit.
In a book titled “Candles Behind the Wall”, author Barbara Van Der Heydt recounts story after story of people who bravely stood by their Christian convictions even though trapped in East Berlin and other Communist territories and suffered dearly for their steadfastness; stories that only came to light after the wall came down and people were free to talk.
God’s voice has never been silenced and will be heard by individuals who will respond to His call and follow no matter how dark and oppressive their circumstances.
Listen, Christians. There has never been such a thing as a “Christian nation”. There never will be. Nations are not Christian; people are Christians. And they are Christians largely in the midst of nations governed by inattentive people, or people who, if attentive, mock and refuse to obey the truth.
Although the reasons are many for the weakness and overall ineffectiveness of the church in today’s society, one of them is that the church in general has become so focused on trying to legislate itself into a position of influence.
Instead of packing our briefcases and going to court, or going on television and pretending to be prophets, we should be going about the business we were set to in the first place, a set of orders that has never been revised or amended, which is getting the attention of the individual man woman and child of the street, … “HO!” … and telling them how to be saved from the consequences of their sin through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord!
STAPLES
Now let’s pause to consider the graciousness of this invitation. We have a nation that has fallen apart and been dragged away into captivity. An entire people, through willful neglect of truth and disobedience to God, idol worship, adultery, sacrifice of their own babies, paying homage to the demon gods of the heathen, now homeless and destitute and in slavery.
In sharp contrast God is offering the very staples of life, free of cost and with no questions asked. We see in these verses an offer of water, milk, wine, and bread; not only water to quench thirst, but milk for strength and wine for gladness and bread for sustenance and growth.
All of these things are used throughout scripture to symbolize Christ and God’s Word. And these are the things God continues to offer, not only in a physical sense but more importantly in a spiritual sense, to a modern world that through its neglect of truth and disobedience to the call of God is spiritually homeless and destitute and in slavery.
Christians, these are not friends of God who are being heralded with this gracious offer. They are not even just ignorant strangers. They are enemies of God who have deliberately defiled themselves in every kind of sin and debauchery, yet the offer is, ‘come, drink, eat, without money and at no cost’.
And that is therefore our message and we are to be the heralds of that message to the enemies of Christ. Not, “HO! Your friends and family all drowned because you allow sin in your town”, Not “HO! Your leader is in the hospital because of some bad decisions he made”,
Not “HO! The earth shook and swallowed half your community because you worship little statues”, but “HO! Come and drink from the waters of life! Come and eat of the spiritual food that will satisfy forever. No cost. Don’t worry that you have no money and nothing to give. On the other hand, don’t think if you are rich that you will somehow be able to purchase what is offered.
“Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?”
The question is put to those who are trying to find their satisfaction in the passing things of this world, and those things never fill or satisfy no matter how much is attained to and acquired.
Alexander wept upon the throne of the world because there were no more nations to conquer. Billionaires have been asked in interviews how much is enough for them and they have answered without hesitation ‘there is never enough’. Kings have lamented that there is no fulfillment even in the luxuries of royalty.
“Listen carefully to Me and eat what is good and delight yourself in abundance”. The prophet is offering that which the world cannot and it is eternal and it is eternally satisfying.
As our Lord was to promise to an obscure Samaritan woman centuries later, “…whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
My goodness, brothers and sisters in Christ! No wonder our society is angry and scoffing and ridiculing the church! When was the last time you saw any public message from the so called church of God that sounded anything like what Isaiah is shouting out in these verses; anything like what Jesus was offering the woman by the well?
Do you think people don’t know that they are in need? Oh, yes they do! They don’t understand their true spiritual condition and they don’t know where to find help unless we tell them but don’t think for a moment that they don’t know they are empty and hurting and useless. They know that! It’s why lawyers and psychiatrists and fortune tellers get rich!
And what we have to offer is free! It was free to us and it is free for them and it is an eternal solution to their need!
LISTEN
“Incline your ear and come to Me”, he says in verse three.
First, in case you haven’t already noticed, be aware that the word “Me” in verse 2 and again here in verse 3 is capitalized. So this is God speaking through the prophet. This is God’s offer. It is not the grace of the man but the grace of God that is calling for men to take advantage of what is being given freely and without cost.
Second, be reminded that the offer is made to the individual. It is not a blanket invitation like we might see in a newspaper ad or hear over the radio, announcing some sweet deal hoping to draw in takers like a net.
“Incline your ear”, is the invitation, and it is individuals who have ears.
That word ‘incline’ conjures a mental image of someone cupping their hand behind their ear and leaning forward so they catch what is being said. There is a deliberateness in it. The body language says that they are attentive and they want to hear.
Remember the earlier quote from G. Campbell Morgan saying that Isaiah was crying out to a largely inattentive people.
But God’s invitation is ‘be attentive’. He has made his gracious offer of spiritual fulfillment but there is more to come and it is even better than at the first, so ‘listen carefully’.
That is our challenge today, church. Getting people to listen in a society and in an age where people’s ears and eyes are being bombarded daily, hour by hour, with noise and flash.
The paradox is, while modes of communication are rampant and seemingly unlimited, people are largely inattentive. We talk past each other.
“Have a nice day”. “You too”.
“Have a nice day”. “You too”.
“Thank you”. “You too… (what did he just say?)”
God is trying to get the attention of individuals. Listen that you may live.
“Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen that you may live.”
Wow. That’s important, isn’t it? Listen, why? “…that you may live.”
Oh. Yeah. Life is a pretty important thing.
Folks, hey. We’re supposed to be the Isaiahs around here. Not just the professional preachers. If you’re a Christian by spiritual birth and indwelling then you’re supposed to be an Isaiah.
Only God can give life, and His invitation is perpetual. “HO!” “Listen!” “Come!” “Live!”
TIME MARCHES ON…
We go now to the New Testament. The Gospel of John. Chapter 7. The Jewish Feast of Booths is at hand and Jesus makes a quiet entrance and goes to the Temple to teach.
The Pharisees are amazed at His teaching yet they reject Him once more, even sending the Temple guard to seize Him but it doesn’t happen because His teaching even wows the officers so they go back empty-handed (vss 44-46).
But let’s back up and talk about the Feast of Booths for a minute.
It’s one of the Fall feasts and usually occurs in October. It is a seven day feast, wherein celebrants move out of their homes and live for those seven days in temporary structures; tents or booths. It is also called the Feast of Tabernacles, because it symbolizes the wandering of the Children of Israel in the wilderness who lived in tents and worshiped in a portable Temple.
Each day of the feast the High Priest would lead a large, joyful procession from the Temple Mount to the Pool of Siloam. There he would fill a water pitcher from the pool and then lead the procession back to the Temple Mount where he would pour the water over the altar.
This was to invoke God’s blessing on them in bringing the ‘early’ rains so that crops would come up the following Spring and famine be avoided.
On the final day of the feast the High Priest, as he came back with the water and approached the southern gate of the temple, called the Water gate because of this ceremony, would issue three loud blasts from a trumpet and the other priests in unison would quote Isaiah 12:3 “Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation”.
It is in this setting that Jesus stood. John doesn’t say exactly where but I’ll bet it was very near the Water gate. And John writes, “…and cried out, saying…”
When I read this I wonder if Jesus was thinking about Isaiah at that moment. Did He get the people’s attention with ‘HO!’?
Remember who was really speaking in Isaiah 55? The prophets mouth, but whose words? Remember the capital ‘M’?
And now here He stands in the flesh, over 700 years later, making the same offer to any individual who will incline their ear and come.
"Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’ ” (John 7:37,38,)
And John doesn’t give us a chance to use our imaginations about what this ‘living water’ is. In verse 39 he tells us plainly that Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit who would come to indwell all who believe; that is, all who incline their ear and come and take freely and without cost.
IT’S NOT OUR SECRET TO KEEP
Church, there is nothing in the wording of the Bible, anywhere, to indicate that we have been given some secret to keep. And God help us… at what point did we begin thinking it was ok to put a price on what only God can give and which He gives freely and graciously?
“HO! Clean up your act and you will be acceptable to us!”
No, no. Listen. We’re the Isaiahs now. And we’re not supposed to be shouting out blanket invitations to join our happy club. We’re just the mouths but the words are supposed to be God’s; and His words are “HO!” “Every one” “Come” “Eat” “Freely” “No cost” “Listen” “Live”.
The Old Testament High Priest could not have known it, but in blowing the trumpet blast he was typifying that day that is coming very soon,
“When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more,
And the morning breaks eternal, bright and fair;
When the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore…” J.M. Black
And who, because of you, will be there?
There are people out there with ears, Christians. I’m not suggesting you go stand on a street corner and shout “HO!”
But get their attention somehow. Anyway you can.
I was recently told of a Christian woman who has an atheist friend who is dying. When she was asked if she was going to try to get the good news of Jesus across to her friend her response was that she didn’t want to ‘hit her over the head with it’.
What? What?
She’s dying! Hit her over the head with it! Get her attention! Tell her that when the role is called up yonder you want her to be there with you!
Folks, they’re not all in the hospital. They’re not all experiencing kidney failure or being eaten by cancer, but they’re all dying. And we have such a wonderful, gracious offer to make them if they will incline their ear.
Come. Eat. Listen. Live. Forever.
Get…their…attention.
