Stilling Waves Bible Isaiah 55

Isaiah 55

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Translation

World English Bible (WEB), a modern translation.

Before you read

This chapter closes the second large section of Isaiah, the part addressed to exiles longing for home. It opens like a street vendor's cry, except that everything on offer is free: water, wine, milk, and bread for those with no money. God extends to the people the lasting covenant once promised to David, calls them to seek him while he is near, and assures them that his word, like rain, never falls without effect. The chapter ends with the exiles going out in joy while the hills sing. Notice how the invitation in verse 5 reaches beyond Israel, to nations they do not yet know.

1“Hey! Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

2Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in richness.

3Turn your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul will live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

4Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples.

5Behold, you shall call a nation that you don’t know; and a nation that didn’t know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you.”

6Seek the LORD while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.

7Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, to our God, for he will freely pardon.

8“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,” says the LORD.

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

10For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it grow and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

11so is my word that goes out of my mouth: it will not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper in the thing I sent it to do.

12For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills will break out before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands.

13Instead of the thorn the cypress tree will come up; and instead of the brier the myrtle tree will come up. It will make a name for the LORD, for an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.”

Meditate

Isaiah 55 meditation and reflection

Why spend your strength on what never satisfies? God invites the thirsty and the penniless to his table. Name your deepest hunger, and receive what he freely offers.

In the King James Version: Isaiah 55:1

Read it slowly, then sit with the prompt. Free: stillingwaves.com/bible/isaiah/55/
Scripture: World English Bible (public domain).Scripture: King James Version (1769 text), public domain outside the United Kingdom; in the United Kingdom under Crown patent.

Sit with this: a guided reflection

Verses 8 and 9 are often read as a general statement that God is beyond us, and they are that. But look at what comes just before: an invitation to the wicked to turn back, and a promise that God will pardon freely. His thoughts are higher than ours partly in this, that he forgives more readily than we would. Then let verses 10 and 11 slow you down. Rain and snow do their work quietly, soaking in long before anything sprouts. God's word works in that unhurried way too. Where do you find it hard to believe that his mercy is wider than your own? What has he spoken into your life that has not yet visibly grown? Can you trust the hidden soaking? Ask him for patience, and for a share in the joy of verse 12.

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A journal for this chapter

For men: When You Still Believe but Stopped Meeting Him on Purpose