Scripture Text (NRSV)

Isaiah 55:1-9
 

55:1 Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

55:2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.

55:3 Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

55:4 See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.

55:5 See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.

55:6 Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near;

55:7 let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.

55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

 

Comments:

Lovely, lovely Words - ministered to me so much during the midst of the national denominational conference I am on right now.

These words reminded me that some how we've always managed to miss the mind of God: 1) We spent money and labor on things that not fulfill nor essential; 2) We thought that somehow God is working within our ethnic/religious boundaries only; 3) We study the problems we encountered and plan for solutions and forget that God's ways and thoughts are always higher than ours anyway.

Let us be faithful in contextualize the "How" for ourselves, while at the same time, we should be open to the sovereignty of God, and recognize that He himself had already worked through all this stuff and readily provided for us too.

Coho, Midway City

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Coho, Midway City,

Your words seem to bring an ethnic music to the discussion. I'd like to know more about your ministry. Could you email me at rowell.michelle.r@usa.net ? Thanks.

Michelle

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I dearly love this passage, which speaks eloquently to me about God's providence and grace. I like to extend the reading all the way through verse 13, though - there are beautiful words of assurance and promise contained in verses 10-13.

RevMary

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The prophet calls the people to take nourishment in the covenant and promises of God. One imagines a flourishing community among those who feast on such rich food. But first they must turn from that which is not satisfying.

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In the RCL, Episcopal Edition, the reading for this Sunday is Exodus 3, the call of Moses. If Pharoah represents for us sin, evil, or Satan, then we see how God calls us out of slavery into freedom.

tom in ga

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Our pew Bibles are NIV; they don't have the "HO!" I wish they did. "HO!" is kind of like the hip-hop "YO!" or the order to a horse for it to move forward---the opposite of "WOE!" Cattlemen I used to work for would say of someone who lacked common sense: "He don't know GEE from HAW" (HO from WOE in this case.

Joe in TX

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