Isaiah 55

The Lord Gives an Invitation, 1-13

55:1 “Hey, all who are thirsty, come to the water!
You who have no money, come!
Buy and eat!
Come! Buy wine and milk
without money and without cost!
55:2 Why pay money for something that will not nourish you?
Why spend your hard-earned money on something that will not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me and eat what is nourishing!
Enjoy fine food!

These words propel us forwards to Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jn 4:13f, and to his discourse when he miraculously fed 5,000 people, Jn 6:48-51.

Derek Thomas observes:

  1. Those to whom the call is issued are needy.  They have no money.  They have nothing to offer in return for the favour offered.  See Lk 14:21.
  2. The offer is genuine and heartfelt.  Isaiah does not shrink from declaring God’s elective purposes, Isa 43:1,20.  But, at the same time, God desires the salvation of all, Isa 45:22.
  3. Salvation is by grace alone.  The needy are urged to buy without money.  See Rom 3:24,28.
55:3 Pay attention and come to me!
Listen, so you can live!
Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you,
just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David.
55:4 Look, I made him a witness to nations,
a ruler and commander of nations.”
55:5 Look, you will summon nations you did not previously know;
nations that did not previously know you will run to you,
because of the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he bestows honor on you.
55:6 Seek the LORD while he makes himself available;
call to him while he is nearby!
55:7 The wicked need to abandon their lifestyle
and sinful people their plans.
They should return to the LORD, and he will show mercy to them,
and to their God, for he will freely forgive them.

Seek the Lord – ‘Two men please God – who serves him will all his heart because he knows him; who seeks him with all his heart because he knows him not.’ (Panin)

Let the wicked forsake his way – ‘Observe, before pardon can be sealed, he must forsake not this sin or that, but the whole law of sin. ‘Let the wicked forsake his way.’ A traveller may step from one path to another, and still go on the same way, leave a dirty, deep, rugged path, for one more smooth and even; so many finding some gross sins uneasy, and too toilsome to their awakened consciences, stop into a more cleanly path of civility; but alas! poor creatures, all they get is to go a little more easily and cleanly to hell, than their beastly neighbours.’ (William Gurnall)

He will freely pardon – ‘In agonies of conscience that arise from the greatness of thy sins, fly for refuge into the almighty power of God. Truly, sirs, when a man’s sins are displayed in all their bloody colours, and spread forth in their killing aggravations, and the eye of conscience awakened to behold them through the multiplying or magnifying glass of a temptation, they must needs surprise the creature with horror and amazement, till the soul can say with the prophet, for all this huge host, ‘There is yet more with me than against me.’ One Almighty is more than many mighties. All these mighty sins and devils make not any almighty sin, or an almighty devil. Oppose to all the hideous charges brought against thee by them, this only attribute.’ (Gurnall)

55:8 “Indeed, my plans are not like your plans,
and my deeds are not like your deeds,
55:9 for just as the sky is higher than the earth,
so my deeds are superior to your deeds
and my plans superior to your plans.
55:10  The rain and snow fall from the sky
and do not return,
but instead water the earth
and make it produce and yield crops,
and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.
55:11 In the same way, the promise that I make
does not return to me, having accomplished nothing.
No, it is realized as I desire
and is fulfilled as I intend.”

‘The prophet comes full circle from Isa 40:8, where he declared, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” Now we know that God’s promises not only last, they give us life.’ (Ortlund)

Verse 10f might well have been in the back of our Lord’s mind when he composed the Parable of the Sower.

“The promise that I make
does not return to me, having accomplished nothing.
No, it is realized as I desire
and is fulfilled as I intend.”

Andrew Murray (in the words of Jim Gordon):

‘pleaded for a use of the Bible that depended on openness to God and a receptiveness of heart to the transforming work of the Word of Scripture’

Murray himself wrote:

‘God’s Word only works its true blessing when the truth it brings to us has stirred the inner life, and reproduced itself in resolve, trust, love or adoration. When the heart has received the Word through the mind and has had its spiritual powers called out and exercised on it, the Word is no longer void, but it has done that whereunto God has sent it. It has become part of our life, and strengthened us for new purpose and effort.’

God honours his word

God honours his word.  As John Stott has written:

‘Behind every word is the person who speaks it, and the authority he possesses or lacks. God’s Word has power for the sole reason that it is God who speaks it. His Word is creative (“for he spoke and it was done,” Ps. 33:9), productive (“my word … shall not return to me empty but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,” Isa. 55:11), and redemptive (“it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe,” 1 Cor. 1:21). Still today God honors his Word. Whether we share it with a single individual or preach it to a congregation or broadcast it by radio or distribute it in print, through it he can put forth his saving power.’

(Christ the Cornerstone, chapter 6)

Bryan Chapell expands a similar thought:

Precisely how the Holy Spirit uses scriptural truth to convert souls and change lives we cannot say, but we must sense the dynamics that give us hope when we preach God’s Word. The Bible makes it clear that the Word is not merely powerful; it is without peer or dependence. The Word of God

  • creates: “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Gen. 1:3). “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” (Ps. 33:9).

  • controls: “He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. He hurls down his hail like pebbles.… He sends his word and melts them” (Ps. 147:15–18).

  • convicts: “Let the one who has my word speak it faithfully …” declares the LORD. “Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” (Jer. 23:28–29).

  • performs his purposes: “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth … 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” (Isa. 55:10–11).

  • overrides human weakness: While in prison the apostle Paul rejoiced that when others preach the Word with “false motives or true,” the work of God still moves forward (Phil. 1:18).

(Christ-Centred Preaching, chapter 1)

Preacher, beware!

55:10  The rain and snow fall from the sky
and do not return,
but instead water the earth
and make it produce and yield crops,
and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.
55:11 In the same way, the promise that I make
does not return to me, having accomplished nothing.
No, it is realized as I desire
and is fulfilled as I intend.”

In Urban Legends of the Old Testament: 40 Common Misconceptions, David A Croteau and Gary E. Yates summarise a popular (mis)understanding of this text.  It is thought by many to give assurance that our efforts to proclaim God’s word will always be effective, despite appearances, and despite any carelessness or insensitivity on our part.

This text also features strongly in the teaching of ‘health and prosperity’ and word/faith advocates.  The following is somewhat typical, in ascribing a (quasi-magical!) power not only to God’s words but to our own:

“My words will not return void.  That’s true – My words will not return void.  But, turn it around to you – your words will also not return void.  It shall accomplish that which you please – Your words will bring about what you have said.  What you want comes from your heart. It shall prosper in the thing whereto I send it – The words you speak are like seeds – they will be planted, and a tree will grow and prosper, and the tree will produce fruit.  The resulting prosperity will either result in producing good fruit or bad fruit, depending on what you speak.  Do you want good fruit or bad fruit in your life?”

The same writer urges:

‘Speak God’s word over your life.  Find scriptures that speak to your spirit – your heart.  We also should be saying and declaring what God has promised can happen in our life. After you find the bible verses that line up with what you want to happen in your life, then declare them daily.’

Croteau and Yates agree that other passages of Scripture do speak of the power of God’s word to overcome the inadequacies of the teacher:

‘Paul reminds us that God works through the “foolishness” of preaching (1 Cor 1:18–25). Hebrews 4:12 teaches us that God’s Word is like a piercing sword that is able to penetrate deeply into people’s hearts and minds. Paul reminds us that our task when proclaiming God’s Word is often to plant or water seeds that will later bear fruit in people’s lives (1 Cor 3:5–9). James 1:21 also states that the Word of God is the seed that produces faith leading to salvation.’

We can readily agree with Kevin A. Miller that ‘God’s Word has a power beyond my own skill level’:

‘God says, in effect: My word will never go forth and come back empty. It will always accomplish what I send it out to do. It’s unfailing. My word has an inherent power to change, shape, and affect things. It will always make an impact.’

(The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching, chapter 201)

However, we go seriously astray if we use this as an excuse for laziness or carelessness in handling Scripture or insensitivity in communicating with one’s hearers.  This Scripture assures us that God’s promises hold firm, but does not give us some kind of blanket assurance that whenever we put God’s word out there, it will have its intended effect, regardless of how we do it.

Furthermore, although God’s word can indeed accomplish far more than we ask or think, we should never treat it as some kind of magical charm.

According to Croteau and Yates, the message of this passage, in context, is that God will be faithful to his promises of forgiveness and salvation:

‘The message in Isa 55:1–13 that concludes chapters 40–55 invites Israel to receive God’s offer of forgiveness and salvation. The Lord would take the initiative to redeem his people from exile and give the Servant as the sacrifice for their sins, but the people would have to respond to what God was doing on their behalf. They might not fully understand how the Lord would bring about their restoration, but they could trust him to fulfill his promises. The banquet of blessings was prepared, but the people had to choose to come to the table and freely eat and drink of the blessings that the Lord would provide for them (vv. 1–5). They needed to seek the Lord and turn from their sinful ways to receive forgiveness of their sins, recognizing that their thoughts and ways were not the same as the Lord’s (vv. 6–9). The promise concerning the reliability of God’s word in verses 10–11 serves to motivate the people’s response, because the word of God guaranteed that he would forgive their sins and bless them if they truly turned to him.1 God’s word is as effective in accomplishing what it has promised as the rain and snow in nourishing the earth so that it is able to produce seed and crops for food. Shalom M. Paul explains the imagery in this way: “The Lord’s word is compared to precipitation, which soaks the earth and makes it bloom. Just as rain and snow do not return to the sky until they quench the earth’s thirst . . . so too the Lord’s promise to redeem Israel shall come to pass.” Those who responded in faith would know the “joy” and “peace” of the abundant blessings that God had in store for his people in the place of the sorrow and suffering of exile (vv. 12–13).’

55:12 Indeed you will go out with joy;
you will be led along in peace;
the mountains and hills will give a joyful shout before you,
and all the trees in the field will clap their hands.
55:13 Evergreens will grow in place of thorn bushes,
firs will grow in place of nettles;
they will be a monument to the LORD,
a permanent reminder that will remain.

‘I passed by a plot of land which some landowner had been enclosing, as those rascals always will filch every morsel of green grass. But I noticed that the enclosers had only fenced it in, but had not dug it up, nor plowed it, nor planted it. And though they had cut down the gorse, it was coming up again. Of course it would, for it was still a meadow, and a bit of fence or rail could not alter it. The gorse would come peeping up, and before long the enclosure would be as wild as the heath outside.

‘But this is not God’s way of working. When God encloses a heart that has laid open to sin, does he cut down the thorns and the briars and then plant fir trees? No-he changes the soil so that from the ground itself, from its own vitality, the fir tree and the myrtle spontaneously start up. This is a most wonderful result. If a man remains at heart the same godless man, you can mend his habits, make him go to church, clothe him, keep him away from alcohol, and teach him not to talk filthily, and then say, “He’s now a respectable man.” But if these outward respectabilities and rightnesses are only skin deep, you have done nothing. At least, what you have done is nothing to be proud of. But suppose this man can be so changed that just as freely as he was accustomed to curse he now delights to pray, and just as heartily as he hated religion he now finds pleasure in it, and just as earnestly as he sinned he now delights to be obedient to the Lord. This is a wonder, a miracle which man cannot accomplish, a marvel which only the grace of God can work and which gives God his highest glory.’ (Spurgeon)

Goldingay (UBCS) says that the word ‘for’ occurs four times in vv8-13 (but is not always translated in the NIV).  Three assertions emerge:

  1. The Lord’s way of doing things is very different from the people’s, v8f
  2. The Lord’s plan will certainly succeed, v10f.
  3. The listeners can experience joy and peace, v12f.