Isaiah 55:1-5

B. WORD OF THE LORD IS BOND AND BOUNDS OF COVENANT, CHAPTER 55
1. EVIDENCE

TEXT: Isaiah 55:1-5

1

Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price.

2

Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

3

Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

4

Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples.

5

Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not; and a nation that knew not thee shall run unto thee, because of Jehovah thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.

QUERIES

a.

Why offer water, wine and milk for no money?

b.

What are the sure mercies of David?

c.

Who is going to call the unknown nation?

PARAPHRASE

Attention, Come to the water of life everyone who is thirsting for righteousness; it will be given to you freely. You may obtain refreshment, joy and nourishment and you will need no money because it will come to you by the grace of God. Why do my people spend all their lives trying to buy satisfaction for their souls from that which can never satisfy? Listen to Me and obey My word and you will be filled with goodness and your soul will be satisfied. Pay attention to what I am saying to you, Zion, be obedient, and you shall have eternal life for I am preparing to make an eternal covenant with you which shall prove My faithfulness and fulfill all the promises I made to your forefather, David. Look! I have promised My Servant for a herald of good news to the whole world; He will be the King and the Prophet I promised. And you, Zion, will call to share the kingdom of God with you a people which you formerly considered outside the kingdom of God. Yes, people from Gentile nations will hasten to make themselves members of Zion motivated by the glorious redemption of Jehovah through the Holy One of Israel. That will result in the glory of God being manifested in Zion!

COMMENTS

Isaiah 55:1-2 FAVOR: Redemption has been predicted and explained as occurring in the Suffering Servant (ch. 53). The invitation has been extended for participation in that redemption through covenant relationship (ch. 54). Now the bond and bounds of that covenant relationship is declared to be in the word of Jehovah which is faithful and powerful. All who realize their need of the substance of life are invited to come and receive freely. In Palestine where water-wells were few and far between and where water had to be purchased for money, this would be an exceptionally arresting figure of speech! Water, wine and milk are used throughout the O.T. as figures of spiritual blessings. The same elements are used in the N.T. by Christ and His apostles to portray the blessings of God's grace. The point of these verses is that God's provision of redemption through the Servant shall be by grace. Peter makes it plain that the O.T. prophets predicted salvation by grace (1 Peter 1:10-12). Paul's treatise to the Romans declares that justification before God is by faith. Paul, of course, knows that our salvation is by grace (Ephesians 2:1-10), but it is faith that gives us access into that grace (Romans 5:2). And Paul said the O.T. prophets (and the O.T. law) bore witness to salvation by grace through faith (Romans 3:21-26). Water is figurative for salvation (cf. Isaiah 12:3; Isaiah 35:7; Isaiah 41:17-18; Isaiah 49:10; Psalms 42:1; Psalms 36:9; Jeremiah 2:13; Jeremiah 17:13; Ezekiel 47:1-12; Zechariah 13:1; Zechariah 14:8; John 4:7-26; John 7:37-38, etc.). Wine is figurative for exhilaration and enjoyment (cf. Isaiah 26:6-9, etc.). Milk is figurative for nourishment (cf. Isaiah 7:22; Isaiah 60:16; Joel 3:18; 1 Corinthians 3:2; Hebrews 5:12; 1 Peter 2:2, etc.). It was not astonishing to the Jews that Jehovah would be gracious to them. What was astonishing to many was that He would grant them mercy without their having earned it. Most of them rationalized that they earned whatever graciousness God would shower upon them. Actually the Law was intended to teach Israel that she could never, by human merit, earn her justification before the Holy One of Israel. Israel should have known from the Law that her salvation rested in the unmerited favor of Jehovah. But Israel for the most part, was too wrapped up in her self-righteousness. She was spending herself, exhausting herself in trying to earn righteousness through keeping laws and traditions. That is a vain quest! Attempting to attain justification before God by human goodness is frustratingly impossible and only compounds the human dilemma of guilt. The only solution that will satisfy the human soul is faith in the vicarious, substitutionary atoning death of Jesus Christ. That solution cannot be reasoned out; it cannot be explained by anything within the human experience, because it is supra-human; it is supernatural. It can only be believed. Believed, of course, on the basis of the historical verification and validation of its efficacy by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The resurrection is the only fact that makes the cross of Christ (His atoning death) believable! This is predicted in ch. 53 (see our comments there). The exhortation of the prophet here is for Zion (true believers) to focus its attention on the promises of God that they may have salvation by grace. All attempts to be saved any other way will fail!

Isaiah 55:3-5 FIDELITY: Next, the prophet calls upon Zion to give its attention to the promise of Jehovah that He is going to verify His fidelity in a future covenant relationship which will be everlasting. The future covenant will not become obsolete like the old covenant which has a stated termination (cf. Jeremiah 3:15-18; Jeremiah 31:31-34, etc.), or fulfillment. The future covenant will be eternal; it will bring into being the sure mercies of David (the promise of an eternal king to sit upon David's throne for ever) (cf. 2 Samuel 7). This is fulfilled, according to the inspired apostle Paul, in the atoning work of Jesus Christ. What God promised to the fathers. He fulfilled by raising Jesus Christ from the dead and proclaiming through Jesus the forgiveness of sins (cf. Acts 13:32-40). The atonement is the promise (Isaiah 53), and God's faithfulness to keep His promise of atonement through Jesus was verified once and for all by raising Jesus from the dead! The empirically demonstrated everlasting life of Jesus validates God's non-empirical promise to remove our guilt, if we believe and accept God's covenant terms. The forgiveness of our sins is not based on our feelings, but upon empirical verification of the faithfulness and sovereignty of God, the Son. When we acknowledge and trust in that verified faithfulness, then we may have a legitimate experiential feeling of guiltlessness.

Inasmuch as the apostle Paul quoted (or paraphrased) Isaiah 55:3 in Acts 13:34, and plainly indicates it was fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we must look upon this whole chapter of Isaiah as messianic. Therefore, the him of Isaiah 55:4 is the Messiah (the Servant) who has been given as a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples. The Hebrew word translated leader is nagiyd which means prince and is the same word used in Daniel 9:25-26 (see our comments there). The word metsaveh is Hebrew for commander and comes from mitsvah or commandment. Thus the one to be given for a witness to the nations will be a ruler and a commandment-giver (cf. Isaiah 54:13). This probably refers to the twofold messianic office of King-Prophet. In Isaiah 53, the Servant makes intercession and thus becomes the Messiah-Priest. Zion must be apprised of the fact that Jehovah's future eternal covenant will be validated by The One who is Prophet-Priest-and-King. Furthermore, Jehovah's covenant will be secured by this One for all peoples!

Since the Servant comes through Zion, she will be given the privilege of calling nations she formerly knew not in covenant relationship. Nations that knew not Zion in covenant relationship shall, when the Prophet-King-Priest comes, run to her because Jehovah is who He is and will have verified that His covenant is universal through the work of the Messiah (cf. Isaiah 2:3-4; Isaiah 19:16-25; Isaiah 45:14; Isaiah 45:22-25; Isaiah 49:12; Isaiah 60:3-6; Isaiah 66:18; Zechariah 8:20-23; Luke 24:47). It was in the same Jewish synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia where Paul quoted Isaiah 55:3 that he also told the recalcitrant Jews that the covenant of the Lord was for the Gentiles to whom he would thenceforth go and preach (Acts 13:42-52).

QUIZ

1.

What is the main point of verses one and two?

2.

How do men have access to the grace of God?

3.

How much does the O.T. say about the grace of God?

4.

What is the only thing that makes the atoning aspect of the death of Christ believable?

5.

How do we know this context points to the Messiah?

6.

How did Jehovah establish the faithfulness of His promises?

7.

In what sense will Zion call a nation it does not know?