(7)
Scripture Reading: Isa. 55; Isa. 56 ; Isa. 42:6; 49:8; 54:10; Acts 13:34
In Isaiah 55 the most striking word is waters (v. 1). Water is also mentioned at the end of the first section of this book (12:3). This indicates that in the book of Isaiah, God always considers that He is our salvation as living water. In His salvation God gives Himself to us as our portion for our enjoyment.
We live by three things: air, water, and food. Air is for our breathing, water is for our drinking, and food is for our eating. Spiritually speaking, of these three things, water is the most crucial. Air actually contains water, and water conveys spiritual food. According to Revelation 22:1 and 2, the tree of life (food) grows in the river of water of life. Thus, water and food go together. Our eating should always be matched by our drinking.
Isaiah 55 indicates that we need to enjoy our God as the living water, even as the waters. The word waters here reveals that we may enjoy God not just in one aspect but in many aspects. The thought here is similar to that in John 7:38. In that verse the Lord Jesus says, "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water." These rivers are the many flows of the different aspects of the divine life, such as love, light, grace, power, strength, holiness, and righteousness.
The book of Isaiah shows us that our God may become our enjoyment through our continual drinking of Him. However, we are sinners, and in order to drink of God, we need a proper, adequate, and complete redemption. This redemption is found in chapter fifty-three, a chapter which reveals more of the dynamic redemption of Christ than any other chapter in the Bible. The dynamic redemption accomplished by Christ is the security not only to Israel but also to the seed (53:10), which is the church as the corporate Body of the resurrected Christ.
The record concerning this accomplished redemption in chapter fifty-three is followed in chapter fifty-five by the invitation to come to the waters and drink. The call here is like that at the end of the Bible: "The Spirit and the bride say, Come!...he who wills, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17). The waters in these two portions of the Word are our redeeming God, the very God who accomplished redemption for us through His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. As we will see, these waters are both the eternal covenant and the sure mercies shown to David (Isa. 55:3). God's way and God's thought (v. 8) are that we would come to drink of Him.
Let us now go on to see from chapters fifty-five and fifty-six that Christ as the Servant of Jehovah is an eternal covenant to Israel, even the sure mercies shown to David, in relation to Israel's prosperity.
Christ is not only the eternal covenant to Israel but even the sure mercies of David. As such, He is the center of the divine provisions to Israel (55:1-5).
"Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters,/And you who have no money;/Come, buy and eat;/Yes, come, buy wine and milk/Without money and without price" (v. 1). Those who have no money may nevertheless come and buy, but they buy without paying anything. Eventually, they receive a free drink. Here we see that God's thought is that we would come and drink of Him freely. Verses 2 and 3a continue: "Why do you spend money for what is not bread,/And the result of your labor for what does not satisfy?/Hear Me attentively, and eat what is good,/And let your soul delight itself in fatness./Incline your ear and come to Me;/Hear, so that your soul may live."
"I will make an eternal covenant with you,/Even the sure mercies shown to David" (v. 3b). Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God is the waters, and this Christ, who is the Servant of God, is also an eternal covenant with Israel (42:6; 49:8; 54:10), even the sure mercies shown to David. According to Paul's understanding in Acts 13:34 and 35 (see note 1 on verse 34 there), the sure mercies shown to David are Christ Himself in resurrection. Whereas Isaiah speaks of "the sure mercies," Acts 13:34 speaks of "the holy and faithful things." The Hebrew word for mercies (chesed) implies the notion of holiness. Thus, in Acts 13:34 Paul interprets the sure mercies as the holy and faithful things, and then he goes on to indicate that these things are the resurrected Christ.
In Christ as the sure mercies, God reaches us in His grace to be our enjoyment. The New Testament reveals that the incarnated God brings us grace (John 1:1, 14, 16-17). Grace is actually God Himself for our enjoyment. In order to receive this grace, we need to be in the right position. However, as sinners full of iniquities, we were not in such a position. Thus, there was the need for mercy, which reaches farther than grace and which brings us into the position to receive grace. Because our situation was miserable and could not match God's grace, Christ not only took the step of incarnation to bring God as grace to us, but He also took a further step of death and resurrection in order to become the sure mercies to us in resurrection. Through His death and resurrection, Christ, the embodiment of God's grace, became the sure mercies, and through these mercies we are now in the proper position to match God and to receive Him as grace. This is what Isaiah prophesied in chapter fifty-five, and this is what Paul meant in Acts 13.
Isaiah 55:4 says, "Behold, I have given him as a witness to the peoples,/A leader and a commander to the peoples." This indicates that Christ is not only the sure mercies shown to David but also the real Witness, Leader, and Commander. He is the universal Commander in Chief.
Verse 5 says, "Behold, you will call a nation that you do not know,/And a nation that does not know you will run to you,/Because of Jehovah your God, even the Holy One of Israel,/For He has glorified you." For us to be glorified means that we are brought into God and that God becomes our expression.
In verses 6 through 13 we have the matters of seeking Jehovah and returning to Him and His word.
"Seek Jehovah while He may be found" (v. 6a). This is to come to the Lord in order to drink of Him. "Call upon Him while He is near" (v. 6b). This is the way to drink. We drink of the Lord by calling, "O Lord Jesus!"
"Let the wicked forsake his way,/And the evildoer, his thoughts;/And let him return to Jehovah, and He will have compassion on him;/And to our God, for He will pardon abundantly" (v. 7). The wicked one is the one who does not come to drink. In the sight of God, it is wickedness not to believe in the Lord Jesus. Whoever does not believe in Christ, God regards as sinful. Jehovah will have compassion on the one who returns to Him and will pardon him abundantly. Here pardon abundantly means that God forgives us not just in one way but in many ways.
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts,/And your ways are not My ways, declares Jehovah./For as the heavens are higher than the earth,/So are My ways higher than your ways,/And My thoughts higher than your thoughts" (vv. 8-9). We should give up our thought and take God's thought. We should also give up our way and take God's way. God's way is the way of calling, the way of drinking.
Verses 10 and 11 are a further definition of God's thoughts and ways. "For just as the rain comes down/And the snow from heaven,/And does not return there,/Until it waters the earth/And makes it bear and sprout forth,/That it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater;/So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;/It will not return to Me vainly,/But it will accomplish what I delight in,/And it will prosper in the matter to which I have sent it." We need to eat the word and drink of the water in the word so that we may be filled, renewed, strengthened, and transformed into His image for the building up of the Body of Christ. This is what God has sent His word to do.
"You will go out with rejoicing,/And you will be led forth in peace;/The mountains and the hills/Will break forth before you with a ringing shout,/And all the trees of the field will clap their hands./In place of the thorn bush, the fir tree will come up;/In place of the brier, the myrtle will come up;/And it will be to Jehovah as a name,/As an eternal sign that will not be cut off" (vv. 12-13). What God is doing regarding us will become both a name to God and an eternal sign. Here name signifies a memorial, and sign indicates strong proof. What God is doing by sending forth His word will be a memorial and also a sign which will never be cut off. God has sent forth His word to water us, to sanctify us, to transform us, and to conform us to His image that the Body of Christ may be built up. To God, this will be an eternal memorial and an eternal sign.
In 56:1-8 we have the matter of preserving justice and doing righteousness for prosperity and Jehovah's acceptance.
"Thus says Jehovah,/Preserve justice and do righteousness, /For My salvation is about to come/And My righteousness is about to be revealed./Blessed is the man who does this,/And the son of man who takes hold of it,/Who keeps from profaning the Sabbath/And keeps his hand from doing any evil" (vv. 1-2). In its Old Testament usage, the word justice means the verdict of God's judgment. This justice enables one to be righteous. If Christ had not died on the cross for us, we would have been condemned in the heavenly court. But because Christ died a vicarious death for us, God reckons that we also have died, and then He pronounces the verdict that, instead of being condemned, we are released. This is a matter of justice, and through it we are justified, that is, made righteous.
Verse 1a speaks of preserving justice and doing righteousness. From this we see that we first have justice and then righteousness. Verse 1b goes on to speak of God's salvation. Justice plus righteousness equals salvation. As the result of Christ's death on the cross for us, God's verdict concerning us is the justice which causes us to be justified, to be made righteous. This is God's salvation coming to us.
In verses 2, 4, and 6, Isaiah speaks of keeping the Sabbath. The real meaning of keeping the Sabbath is to cease from our work, to stop our doing, to get ourselves "fired," in order to enjoy what God has done. To believe in the Lord Jesus is to keep the Sabbath. On the day we were saved, we were fired and replaced with Christ. Hence, that day was a real Sabbath, a day of rest, to us. "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20). This is the keeping of the Sabbath. Our whole Christian life should be such a Sabbath rest. This extended Sabbath becomes a feast in which we cease from our doing and are replaced with Christ.
In Isaiah 56:8 we have the declaration of the Lord Jehovah, who gathers the outcasts of Israel. He declares, "Yet will I gather others to Him besides those gathered to Him already." This reveals that God will gather more people to Christ. First, He gathered the Jews, and then He began to gather the Gentiles from such places as Asia Minor and Macedonia. Today He continues to gather people to Christ from throughout the earth.
Chapter fifty-six concludes with Jehovah's rebuking of the blind watchmen and the self-seeking shepherds (vv. 9-12).
