Isaiah 55 - True Refreshment
- Chad Werkhoven
- Jul 30
- 4 min read
The LORD offers you refreshment no vacation can ever provide.
Isaiah 55:1–13 (NIV)
55 “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.
2 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.
3 Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a ruler and commander of the peoples.
5 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.”
6 Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7 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.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
12 You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the LORD's renown,
for an everlasting sign,
that will endure forever.”
Canons of Dordt
Point 4 - Irresistible Grace
Article 8: The Earnest Call of the Gospel
Nevertheless, all who are called through the gospel are called earnestly.
For urgently and most genuinely God makes known in the Word what is pleasing to him:
that those who are called
should come to God.
God also earnestly promises rest for their souls and eternal life to all who do come and believe.
Summary
Today's chapter would be a good one to share with a friend who's concluded that the Old Testament portrays a God filled with nothing but wrath and anger, for the invitation the LORD gives here through the Old Testament prophet Isaiah is filled with warmth and compassion. It's a good passage for us to be reading in the heat of summer for a host of reasons.
First, we experience physical thirst more often during these hot months, making it easier to understand how parched we are spiritually, and how we long for refreshment that we can't afford on our own but which our Father generously pours out upon us. It's also around this time of year that fatigue from our labor sets in, and we crave the satisfaction that our work never seems to provide, which God here promises to supply.
Our Father's warm invitation comes in the form of a command repeated five times: Come. The rest and rejuvenation God offers requires obedience to further imperatives as well. You must listen (a command repeated three times as such, and then also as give ear) that you may live. You must also seek the LORD, call on Him, forsake wicked ways and thoughts, turn to the LORD that He may have mercy and pardon.
Obedience to these instructions truly leads to lasting spiritual (and even physical) refreshment, yet it also lays a new mandate upon you (it seems new only in that sin had separated you from these instructions originally conveyed to Adam): you must now go out in joy and be led forth in peace, fulfilling your restored purpose of proclaiming the LORD's everlasting renown.
Dig Deeper
It's verse 11 that brings us to Isaiah 55 today, in which the LORD indicates that His word goes out from His mouth, never returning empty but accomplishing what He desires and achieving the purpose for which He sent it. It's not just a command that extends out from the LORD, but one that comes back with results after having been sent out.
Notice that God's warm and compassionate invitation to come goes out to all who are thirsty and who have no money. But it's pretty obvious that many - maybe even most - people who hear this invitation refuse to listen, give ear, seek the LORD and turn to the LORD. It's almost as if God's announcement of saving grace just impotently bounces off of them.
But the gospel always accomplishes what it's Sender intended, and returns back to Him having accomplished its task. Those who scorn God's earnest compassionate call to refreshment are further cemented in their rebellion by it. Sadly God's call echoes their rejection back to Him.
But those to whose hearts have been softened by God's Spirit, this invitation for spiritual water, wine, milk and bread becomes irresistible. In these cases the Gospel call accomplishes what our Father desires: returning His children to Him, as the mountains and hills burst into song and all the trees of the field clap their hands celebrating that LORD's sovereign grace is stronger that we are.
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who will have mercy and freely pardon all those who turn to Him;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for the spiritual refreshment He provides, and pray that you will continue to give ear and come to Him, that you may live;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Luke 24
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