All God offers, what God wants

By Dean Collins

If it isn’t essential why buy it?

We can come up with many reasons. It’s a treat. You’ve worked hard and you deserve a reward. You’ve saved well and created a little margin. So why not? We all like a bonus, an atta girl or atta boy for our achievements. And rewarding yourself from time to time can keep you motivated.

The problem is that treats often become normalized. Before we know it, we are regularly spending, just because we can. It may satisfy us in the moment, but eventually we realize we pay a price to manage and keep up with our stuff. And suddenly what once was satisfying no longer satisfies.

Satisfaction for everyone

Isaiah 55 is about satisfaction. These verses are rich with invitations perhaps surprising, because the invite list isn’t exclusive; it makes no special demands. These invitations are for everyone.

The first invitation comes to those who are thirsty, and who hasn’t been thirsty at some time or the other? The weather alone can bring on your thirst. Our bodies naturally cry out for water. Everyone who thirsts is welcome to come to the water offered by Isaiah.

The second invitation expands the invitation to everyone who is out of cash, broke, with no money at all. Some readers may have to think hard to remember when they were in that category. I can remember a few times as a child where the refrigerator and cupboards were pretty bare. I can also remember those college and early adult days where the balance in the checkbook (remember those?) was literally down to cents. But many today live this reality daily. And while that suggestion might remind us of the poverty-stricken masses in developing countries, I promise you there is a food desert near you, wherever you might live.

Food deserts aren’t just about grains and starches. Food deserts are places with limited access to healthy fruits and vegetables necessary for adequate nutrition. Food deserts are created when people must travel several miles to get their food, without their own car or access to public transportation. Isaiah invites them to come, buy, and eat even if there is no money.

The third invitation follows a question. It’s a fair question, but not an easy one: Why? Why questions can be tricky to answer, sometimes because they touch issues we really don’t know enough about to understand—or just don’t want to explain. “Why did Grandma have to die?” “Why is Daddy living somewhere else?” Isaiah’s why question is worth a couple minutes of introspection.

“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? “

The first half of the question is easier than the second. Bread represents the necessary, and we’ve already discussed how rewards of nonessentials can be helpful. Even God speaks of various rewards in Scripture. But the second part of the question gives us pause. “Why work for something that will never bring you satisfaction?”

Is this about just the extras in our shopping cart? Or can the question even apply to the work itself? Why do you labor at tasks that don’t matter or give joy? Are we working just for a paycheck? Can we find meaning in our work because it matters to someone else?

Calls to action

Isaiah follows his questions with calls to action: listen, delight, look, seek, call out. Each has a promise and a benefit available for those who are willing to adhere.

The first who heard these words were stunned at the possibility of the life being offered. The invitation to have a life, a full and meaningful life, after captivity and then back in Jerusalem, was hard to imagine, yet it was promised. It’s likewise difficult for us to imagine our future life in new Jerusalem or Heaven itself, but it’s offered and it’s coming.

We are to wait, but not passively. In fact, all of Scripture, and especially the gospel, demands that we actively accept the invitation to start the new things, the new kingdom of God even now. Now is the time to work on God’s will being accomplished on earth as it is in Heaven. It’s not just a line in a prayer, it’s a call to participate, to share, to see real transformation here and now.

To answer the invitation includes our extending the invitation. We must not hoard it or hide it. In social media language we are to repost it. But before we jump in, take a minute and hear the promises and clarity that Isaiah brings today. These excerpts remind us that God has much to offer us. And what he offers is always to be shared.

My thoughts are not your thoughts
My ways are not your ways
My ways and my thoughts are higher than yours
My word goes out like seed and does not come back empty handed
It accomplishes my purposes
It succeeds as I intended
Go out in joy
Be led in peace
My creation will join in praise
Instead of a thorn you will get a cypress
Instead of a briar you will get a myrtle
Your going and coming will make a name for the Lord.

In the end, all that we do, say, give, and share is not about making a name for ourselves. Our work and our very lives can and should be focused on making God’s name famous.

Lord we hear your invitation today to come to you. Your offer of provision and blessing is truly beyond our wildest dreams. Thank you for your kindness to us. Thank you for your promises that tell us our work and our lives can fully satisfy. Bless our work that we might refresh others even today. May our words and our love bring you glory today. Amen

Your time with God’s Word
Isaiah‬ ‭55:1-13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Photo by Kira auf der Heide on Unsplash