No. 49. >> Isaiah 55:1 through 3 speaks words of invitation. To whom are they spoken? And to what are people invited? >>DR. DANIEL L. GARD: Let's take a look at that text. Let me read it to you. Isaiah 55:1 through 3: 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. Why spend money on what is not bread? And your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen to me and eat what is good. And your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me. Hear me that your soul will live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David. To look at this text we see first it's in the context of the coming of the suffering servant, the Lord, the Messiah. Where he would perform that all sufficient work on the cross where he was wounded for us and risen for us. Because of what Messiah has done, the offer of this passage can be made. Now, what doesn't come across in most English translations, including the one I just read, which was from it happens the NIV, is the opening particle, which is often translated, when it is translated, as ho. In other words, pay attention. It's a particle that is sometimes used in funeral laments. But it is an emphatic particles that in other words might say: Hey, listen to this. And so it is a section that begins with the particle which -- to which Isaiah calls our attention. Now, interestingly, he begins by saying: Who is to pay attention? Well, it is everyone. In other words, this is a universal invitation. There's no human being that's exempt. It applies to all of us. It is available to all who need it. And in fact, all do need it. Who are those who need it? Those who thirst according to Verse 1. Now, thirst indicates this kind of intense desire. But also it indicates a very intense need. It calls attention to the futility of life to really satisfy the innermost needs of a human being. This is something of an invitation to those who are experiencing, if you will, the dryness of the world. Are looking for something more and something in which they can experience the salvation of God. The verb come is used three times. And it's used to highlight God's offer of salvation. And a life that is truly satisfying and meaningful. God says to come. In other words, he's saying: I have what you need. And I want you to have it. Such an invitation, first of all, stresses that the needy one is not at a place of blessing or relief and he must then come to that place. It is not a matter of a decision to come. But rather, the power of the call itself to come. We'll talk about this later. But we see it, for example, in the ministry of Jesus. Where Lazarus had died. And Jesus goes to the tomb of his friend, Lazarus. Who had been dead for three days. And says to Lazarus: Young man, come forth. And this dead body, Lazarus, who had no power to rise up of himself, he was dead, he had been dead for days, and yet, the Word of Jesus conveyed the power for him to come. Thus, the Gospel invitation is one of power. So that when we speak the word come as does Isaiah, the call itself gives the power for those who are dead to rise up and to come. To come to where? To the waters. This is emblematic of salvation. And that blessing. And the fact that the only salvation of God that exists is that which is revealed in the person.and work of Christ. Isaiah goes onto say: And you who have no money, come. Buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. To a certain extent that's an oxymoron, isn't it? If you have no money, then you're to come and to buy. God's offer, though, is not one of cash. God's offer is absolutely free. Neither money, nor power, nor position, nor prestige, nor your bank account can purchase that which God has to offer. Indeed, all of us in this regard are without money. And yet, we are invited to come. In Verse 2 Isaiah said: Why do you spend money on that which is not bread? And your wages for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and delight yourself in abundance. By means of a question, the Lord calls upon us to see the futility and the -- of the efforts of people to find happiness, to find salvation apart from that free gift that he gives to us in Christ. Why do you spend money? Now, that word literally means to weigh. It's referring to the counting out and weighing of silver or gold as the price to be paid for something. Why do you spend money? In other words, why do you weigh out your work for that which is not bread? Literally the Hebrew says that: ***lo heim. Not bread. It's emphatic and it's dramatic. Because bread is an emblem or symbol of the support of life. Or whatever is not bread then is futility. The apostle Paul warns us against the same futility in a context that stresses the importance of the Word in Ephesians 4:17. And your wages for that which does not satisfy. Wages is literally toil or labor. Our wages that we typically earn as a result of our toil and labor. And in every regard we are quite accustomed to thinking of having to labor and toil in order to be able to weigh out silver or gold to purchase that which we need. Here, this offer, is for that which is a different kind of bread. Not one in which we labor and earn our wages in order to purchase. But rather, one that comes from the free and good hand of God. Listen carefully to me, he says, and eat what is good. And delight yourself in abundance. That which God offers, the salvation, has no limitation to it. That which God offers in Christ. That which the prophet Isaiah speaks of is a salvation that is over and above all that we might possibly need. We as Lutherans often speak of the Word and the sacraments. And by sacraments we mean baptism and the Lord's Supper. And it's too easy sometimes to think of those as God parcelling out his grace in each of the means of salvation. That in some people's minds, it's as if you get a third of that grace in baptism, you get a third of it in the Word, you get a third of it in the Lord's Supper. In fact, all of God's grace is poured out completely, 100%, wholly in all the means of grace. The so that what God offers to us and gives to us through those means of grace is not a parceling out of this bread that satisfies. It is an overabundance of that bread that satisfies. So that the Christian life is one that is surrounded by an overwhelming grace of God. Isaiah continues: Incline your ear and come to me. Listen that you may live. And I will make an everlasting covenant with you according to the faithful mercies shown to David. In this short section then Isaiah speaks, again, of this everlasting covenant. That which God gives. That which is worked by the suffering servant. That which is poured out upon the world and upon all. It is not only abundant. It's everlasting. It's everlasting according to all the faithful mercies that he showed to David. This Christ, you see, is the new David. He is the David. God promised to the David that reigned over Israel a thousand years before the incarnation that his throne would last forever. And yet, as we read through the history of Israel, we see that David died. His son, Solomon, died. His son, Rehoboam, died. Every king, every descendant of David. Did, in fact, reign. And the throne was never taken from the house of David. But none of them reigned forever. And that's because God had established a human kingship in David. But at the same time had never surrendered his own divine eternal kingship. Throughout the history of Israel, throughout the time of Isaiah, throughout the time preceding him and the time to come after Isaiah, God was always still the true king. There was always identified a human king. Even during that intertestamental period when Israel lived under the rule of foreign empires. There was still known to be one who would be the son of David, the eternal king. It's in the personal Jesus that the everlasting covenant of David comes to fulfillment. Because in him were remerged the eternal kingship of God himself and the human house of David. The Lord Christ was eternally God. And thus, eternally king. But he was also the child of Mary, a descendent of David. And thus, bore in his humanness the Davidic kingship. And in this divine nature, the divine kingship. And in him there is the eternal king. The faithful mercies. The everlasting covenant that was shown to David. And it's the to this that we are invited. Who is invited? The entire world. When we preach, we do not preach a message of salvation that is limited. We do not preach a message of salvation that even depends upon the faith of the one who is now hearing the message. We preach this: That Gods was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Your task as preacher, whether from a text from Isaiah or any other passage from Scripture, is not for you to create faith in the part of people. You are to create faith through the Word. Or more properly said, the Holy Spirit will create faith through the Word. That takes the pressure off of you as preacher. Your task is to proclaim that which God has done in Christ. And that is the salvation of the world. So that every human being who hears that message knows that they are included in the atonement of Christ. That God was, indeed, in this servant. And in this servant, he reconciled the world to himself.