Following the Ways of God—Lectionary Reflection for Lent 3C (Isaiah 55:1-9)
Isaiah
55:1-9 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
55 Hear, everyone 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 price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread
and your earnings for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
4 See, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
5 Now you shall call nations that you do not know,
and nations that do not know you shall run to you,
because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake their way
and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
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In
Isaiah
55, we hear an invitation shared with exiles to embrace God’s abundance. If
you thirst, then come to the waters. Even if you don’t have money, still come,
buy, and eat (apparently on God’s dime). The prophet suggests that we buy wine
and milk even if we don’t have any money. That sure sounds like some kind of
welfare program. Then there is a reminder that it is best to first address
primary needs like bread because otherwise one labors for things that do not
satisfy. The prophet speaks here primarily to people living in exile. They may
have been the Jewish elite, but they didn’t have full control over their lives.
They may have struggled to make ends meet. So, this offer of food and drink
without cost would be welcomed.
As we ponder this message, we might
be pondering a further question: What is sufficient? What truly satisfies? Elon
Musk is the richest person in the world, worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Yet he is worried he might not get his full fifty-six billion dollar pay
package from Tesla (even as he is rummaging through the government, seeking to
fire people who make a pittance in comparison).
Having invited the exiles (and
other readers) to partake in this bounty without cost (grace?), the Prophet tells
the readers to listen carefully, eat what is good, and delight in rich food. In
other words, embrace God’s abundance! However, there is more to the story. While
we are invited to eat what is good (no meager servings), we are also asked to
listen carefully to the prophet so that we might live. That is because God is
making an everlasting covenant with them (us) that is rooted in God’s steadfast
love for David. While David is mentioned here, Margaret Barker notes that “Here
Deutero-Isaiah shows clearly what has been implicit in all his teaching: that
the eternal covenant with the royal house, with all its mythology, hopes, and
traditions, has been transferred to the whole people” [Barker, Margaret. Eerdmans
Commentary on the Bible: Isaiah (Kindle, p. 196). Eerdmans].
This word to David comes to a
people whose last Davidic king had been taken into exile and likely is dead.
There is no heir apparent. That ship seems to have sailed and yet there is this
promise that God will provide a leader and commander for the peoples, such that
nations that do not know this messianic figure will run to him “because of the
Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.” Ron Allen and
Clark Williamson note that the prophet is telling the people that their
situation had come about because of the injustice of their kings, which meant
that God couldn’t ignore their injustice. Nevertheless, God has remained
faithful to Israel, ready to make an everlasting covenant with the nation. Thus,
“Now this everlasting covenant is broadened to make explicit its intent, that
the children of Abraham be a blessing to the Gentiles. All those ‘nations that
do not know you’ shall be included, and the light to the nations will be
composed of all of God’s faithful” [Preaching the Old Testament, p. 63].
Thus, we return to that promise first made to Abram (Genesis 12:1-4).
The
promises have been made. The possibilities were revealed. There is a fine
banquet laid out for us (perhaps at that envisioned rebuilt temple in
Jerusalem). Even if we are poor (perhaps especially if we are poor), we have a
place at the Table. So, are we ready and willing to listen and then come and
eat and drink at God’s banquet table?
Maybe
you are thinking that this sounds way too good to be true. Nevertheless, Second
Isaiah encourages us to “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him
while he is near” (Is. 55:6). Jesus echoes this word in Luke 10, where he tells
the Seventy, who he was sending out two by two on a mission trip, to tell the
people that “The Kingdom of God has come near to you” (Luke 10:9). And, as we
read in Matthew, let us seek first the kingdom or realm of God and God’s
righteousness, then “all these things will be given to you as well” (Matt.6:33).
As we
hear this call to seek God while God is near us, Second Isaiah lets the reader
know that seeking God requires the wicked to “forsake their way.” That is the
wicked will need to repent and change course, leaving behind the old ways that have
led them astray. For the people of Israel, this requires remembering the wicked
ways of former leaders (kings). In a poetic parallel, the unrighteous (unjust)
are told to let go of their wicked thoughts. Why do this? So, they might return
to God who seeks to have mercy on them and offer them an abundant pardon. This
is a word of hope for people who have struggled to make sense of their
situation. It might prove to be a word of hope for contemporary people who feel
as if they are exiles due to the situation they find themselves in. Maybe this
will also be heard as a call to change one’s ways (repentance). I think this is
something we can all affirm, and Lent is a time to do just that. It is worth
asking how we have been complicit in the events that have led to our current sense
of exile.
The reading
(not the chapter) ends with a call to the people to take stock of they are in
relationship to God. Second Isaiah, speaking on behalf of God, tells the people
that God’s thoughts “are not your thoughts.” The same is true of their (our)
ways, they are not the same as God’s ways. That is because God’s “ways are higher
than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” We’re simply not on the
same plane as God. Unfortunately, too often we think we have it all figured
out. That rarely works out.
It
might be worth attending to the remainder of the chapter, which brings Second
Isaiah to a close. These verses remind us that God is the one who provides the
rain and snow that waters the earth so that the seeds might sprout, thus the
people have food to eat. Not only that but God’s word goes out and will not
return empty. Rather, “it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in
the thing for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:10-11). Those of us who embrace the
idea of an open future might find this to be a hopeful message. While the
future may not be determined, and God might not know how things will work out,
the promise here is that God will be faithful to the promise such that God’s
Word will accomplish its purpose. In other words, God will remain faithful to
the eternal covenant. As an expression of this, Deutero-Isaiah concludes by
telling the reader/hearer:
12 For
you shall go out in joy
and be led back in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall burst into song,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle,
and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial,
for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. (Isa.55:12-13).
The message here is that the path forward shall involve
going out in joy and returning in peace, such that “the mountains and the hills
before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap
their hands.” Nature itself will join in the celebration as the people leave
exile and return home so they can share in the promise of God’s abundance. Then
as the cypress replaces the thorn bush and the myrtle tree the brier, an everlasting
sign will arise that “shall not cut off.” Allen and Williamson write concerning
these final verses: “Living in harmony with all living things was a reality in
Eden, a hope for Isaiah, who proclaimed a time ‘when they would not hurt or
destroy on all my holy mountain’ (11:9), and a promise for Second Isaiah, for
whom all creation will return to a state of well-being in the event of
redemption” [Preaching the Old Testament, p. 63].
As we
continue this Lenten journey, might we remember that God’s ways and thoughts
are higher than ours, and heed the call to leave behind wicked and unjust ways,
embracing the way of God, which leads to blessings for the nations and all
creation?
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