Everyone Who Thirsts, Come to the Waters
Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you — the sure mercies of David.
Isaiah 55:1-3
Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters
The living God, in His sincere love for us, extends to us a great invitation. He says "everyone who thirsts, come to the waters". Speaking to a thirsting people He promises that we will find waters that will quench the inner dryness within us. And His invitation is free indeed! For there is but one condition: He writes only to those who are thirsty. Look into your heart and consider, are you thirsty for something more? Are you truly content with what you have found in the world thus far?
Living in a world that is oriented away from God, we have a tendency to occupy ourselves with things that don’t satisfy the depths of the human soul. We consume ourselves with endless streams of entertainment, we give ourselves to our jobs seeking to gain riches and the esteem of others, and we spoil ourselves with comfort and pleasures. And yet if we are honest with ourselves we will recognize that there is still something missing.
We find within ourselves a void, and instead of rightly filling that void with God as He so intended, we try to find substitutes. But God cannot be replaced. There is no substitute that we may find in this world that will ever compare to the Creator Himself.
Our issue is that we look to things of this world, hoping to find in them something that they were never intended to provide. God didn’t design us in such a way that these things would satisfy us. We are made by God to be filled with Him and to be in a great nearness with Him. Recognizing our hopeless condition, God lovingly speaks to us in His Word, urging us to come forth from ourselves and to give ourselves to Him, that we may find in Him true life, joy, and fulfillment.
And you who have no money, come, buy and eat
This gift of life that is offered to us by God is in His great mercy provided to us at no cost. It is a free gift that He provides to us, and we must simply receive it. Up until now it might have been your experience that in order to gain something you must first satisfy a long list of requirements (late nights at work for the promotion, for example). It is not so with what God offers us, though. There is no checklist or list of requirements that we must first complete. He simply says Come! Even now, come! His gift is provided to us at no cost.
This is not to say that the gift is cheap though, for it came at a truly great cost. To purchase our redemption Jesus Christ bore upon Himself the punishment of our sin. He did for us what we were incapable of doing. It is only because of the self sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus that this gift is free to us.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread?
We then find in this passage a question — "why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?" In other words, why do we spend ourselves for that which isn't food, for that which doesn't satisfy us? This question is something worth considering in our own lives. Why is it that we are so quick to turn aside to lifeless things of this world when something so much greater is provided to us in Christ Jesus?
May we be persuaded to no longer settle for these empty things. The Lord has provided such a great gift to us at an equally great cost to Himself. It would be such a shame if we saw that gift and then decided that we didn't want it. Friend, see the thought of God in purposing your redemption before the foundation of the world. See Him forming you in your mothers womb, with the desire that one day you would enter into the great provision He has made for you.
Listen carefully to Me
After asking us this question, God gives us a command. "Listen carefully to Me", He says, "and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance". We will find that it will take care and diligence to walk on this path that God sets before us. "Difficult is the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it", the Lord Jesus tells us (Matthew 7:14). Along this way of blessed communion with God we will find many distractions and temptations that will seek to divert our attention away from our Master. We will come across much food that, while looking attractive on the outside, will actually be rotten and poisonous. We must continue on in this path with great care, holding in our hearts the awareness that our Master is the only One who gives that which truly satisfies the soul.
Incline your ear, and come to Me
Oh, would we heed the call of our loving Master and incline our ear to Him! He desires to speak to us. He desires to lead us through the ways of life. May we turn our hearts to Him and come! If He seems to be distant and far off, it will only be because we have thus far ignored His call to come to Him. Oh, I pray that with a lowly heart you might come to Him. He will receive you.
Do not think that this coming to Him is a duty that we perform but once. Our coming to Him is a daily action, a daily determination that we must make. It would not be reasonable to set out on a race, and then to give up shortly before the finish line. Set your eyes upon Him who is our prize — the Lord Jesus. Heed the words of our brethren and "run with endurance the race that is set before you, looking unto Jesus" (Hebrews 12:1-2). Pursue Him now, with your whole heart. When you pass through the finish line you will surely find that this labor was not in vain.
Hear, and your soul shall live
See how our God promises life — true life. What other pursuit of ours could offer a better reward? Set your heart upon Him. Settle for nothing less than what He offers to us. See, through the eyes of faith, the blessedness of a life that is lived close to Him. He extends the invitation to us to come, and if we open our hearts to Him and say "yes", He will shepherd us along the way and lead us into this life of abundance.