Isaiah 55:1-13
An Invitation to the Thirsty
1 “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 labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a ruler and commander of the peoples.
5 Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations you do not know will come running to you,
because of the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendor.”
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 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.
12 You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
for an everlasting sign,
that will endure forever.”
When we look at the cross and those who were near the cross and watching Jesus carry it, then be nailed to it, and then to be hung from it, many things come to mind...One is that the Pharisees were looking at ways to get rid of Him...Soldiers would flog and torture Him before putting Him on the cross...The crowd was yelling to crucify Him...Pilate offered Him little or no justice...His disciples would flee Him...And Peter would deny Him...And still Judas would betray Him...
When we look at these things and those near the cross we see that we as people failed the One Person who could and would save us...This message and His death is a mystery and a difficult one to comprehend....Why did God save us in this fashion?...Why did God summons His Own Son to death?...
Were these people behaving like we would today?...I think so...If you believe in God, you must believe that He got it right...God sees the entire Eternal Picture...So we must trust in the LORD and believe that His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His Ways are not our ways...His Ways are higher than our ways...So God has given us and made the sign of the cross and Jesus’ resurrection from the cross an eternal one...An Eternal Sign an Everlasting Sign that will endure forever...