“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 labour on what does not satisfy?

While my wife and daughter and I were on holiday in Norfolk recently, we attended a Sunday morning service at a ‘New Frontiers’ church in Sheringham. The preacher had come over from another church in Norwich. It was Pentecost Sunday and he spoke on the above text. A fine sermon it was too. He began by explaining that what we read here in Isaiah 55 flows from what has happened earlier in Isaiah 53. It is because of the Cross that Jesus can satisfy our spiritual hunger and thirst. He had 3 points:

  1. An urgent invitation (He said that in the King James Version of the Bible, the opening word is ‘Ho!’ This is like someone shouting, ‘Oi’, he told us: This is important. It matters. You need to hear this);
  2. An amazing offer: everything is free to ”all” who will ”Come”. No-one has to pay in any way;
  3. An astounding rejection: ”Hey there! All who are thirsty,
        come to the water!
    Are you penniless?
        Come anyway—buy and eat!
    Come, buy your drinks, buy wine and milk.
        Buy without money—everything’s free!
    Why do you spend your money on junk food,
        your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?

In a footnote in his ‘Applied Old Testament commentary’ Tom Hale writes:

‘Notice that this invitation is given to the thirsty. In order to receive the spiritual blessings God desires to give to us, we must thirst for them (Matthew 5:3,6; 11:28). It’s hard to give spiritual blessings to someone who doesn’t want them; it’s hard to give good news, the Gospel, to someone who isn’t interested.’

In the original context, God was asking this of the exiles in Babylon, who were becoming complacent and comfortable in their life there. Did they really think Babylon could satisfy?

Do we?