He, every one that thirsteth. Isaiah 55 The cries of the water-carriers F. Sessions. Public messages [Isaiah] would, as a matter of course, deliver publicly in the frequented streets and bazaars, and in khans, and in the temple area, frequently using the common cries of the forerunners of the nobles, the morning call of the temple watchmen, who had been waiting to proclaim the striking of the sun's first rays upon the pinnacles, the groans of the sabbals (or burden-bearers), the tumult of the buyers and sellers, and the sing-song invitation of the water-carriers, and purveyors of wine and cooling drinks, as his texts, — just such cries and invitations as one may hear to-day in Cairo, Jerusalem, or Damascus. Standing at a street corner he hears a voice, "All ye that arc thirsty, buy my cooling waters, and refresh your hearts," and he forthwith bursts out with his own competitive cry, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," etc. ( F. Sessions. ) Water, wine and milk F. Delitzsch, D. D. Hitzig, Hendewerk and Knobel understand water, wine and milk as the rich material enjoyments which the exiles have in prospect on returning to their fatherland, whereas they are now paying tribute in Babylon, and rendering personal service to their masters without deriving any benefit therefrom. But the prophet knows of a water even higher than natural water ( Isaiah 44:3 ; cf. 41:17), and a higher than the natural wine ( Isaiah 25:6 ); he knows of an eating and drinking surpassing mere material enjoyment ( Isaiah 65:13 ). As shown by the very fact that water is placed first, water, wine and milk are not the products of the Holy Land, but figures of spiritual revival, refreshing and nourishment ( 1 Peter 2:2 , ?? ??????? ?????? ???? ). ( F. Delitzsch, D. D. ) God eager for sinners God would have the attention of sinners; He calls for it. Are not sinners eager for God? Oh, no. It is God who is eager for sinners; and so He calleth Ho! Men pass by with their ears full of the world's tumult; and God calleth, again and again, "Ho! ho!" ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) The Gospel first addressed to human necessity J. Parker, D. D. A great appeal is addressed to those who are athirst. Thus the Lord accommodates His ministry to human necessity. When men are thirsting for water He does not offer them sublime visions of the future, or stately ideas concerning the economies and dominions of time. He would say to men, Let us, in the first place, supply your need; until your thirst is quenched your mind cannot be at rest; until your bodily necessities are supplied your imagination will be unable to exercise itself in high thoughts. The promises of God are addressed to our necessities for more than merely temporary reasons. There is a whole philosophy of government in such appeals. Only at certain points can we profess to understand God, and those points touch our need, our pain, our immediate desire; when we are quite sure that God gives us water for our bodily thirst we may begin at least to feel that there is a possibility that He may not neglect the more burning thirst of the soul. God approaches the spirit through the body. The God who grows corn for our hunger may also have bread for our spirits cry of weakness. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) Come! come! T. De Flirt Talmage, D. D. It is " Come — come." That is the most familiar word in the Bible! It seems to be a favourite word. The word "Come" occurs six hundred and forty two times in the Bible. It is "Come to the supper;" Come to the waters" "The Spirit and the Bride say, Come." Through all sorrows, through all trials: through all nights of darkness, through all calamities, through all temptations, it rings out, "Come! Come!, Come!" I remember, when I was a boy in the country, being envious of the old sexton who used to lay hold of the bell-rope, and start the bell that shook the meeting-house, calling the people for miles around to prayer. The poorest man, trudging along the turnpike-road, knew that the bell called him just as much as it called the rich farmer riding behind his prancing and capering pair. And so this Gospel bell calls to palaces and to huts, to robes and to rags, saying, "Whosoever will, let him come." When the sexton had struck one stroke, why did he not wind up the rope and stop? The people had all heard it. But no; he kept on ringing, until, besweated and exhausted, he sat down. When he began to ring there were none present. When he concluded ringing, the roads were full of waggons, and the church door was thronged with people who had come to worship God. And so we must keep on ringing this Gospel bell. Though, perhaps, few may now come, we will keep on ringing, until, after a while, men shall come as clouds, and as "doves to their windows." ( T. De Flirt Talmage, D. D. ) Spiritual Thirst; O. Sedgwick, B. D. In a man spiritually athirst there are seven qualities answerable to those in a man naturally athirst. 1. Emptiness. 2. Exquisite sense — a painful sense. 3. Peculiar cares and thoughts. All a man's thoughts, in such a condition, are for water to cool and refresh him ( Acts 2:37 ; Acts 16:30 ). 4. Impatience ( Exodus 17:3 ). 5. Vehemeney of desire. 6. Diligent endeavour. 7. Constant languishing. Delay doth but increase the thirst the more. Nothing will put an end to spiritual thirst but Jesus Christ. ( O. Sedgwick, B. D. ) The Jews in exile prosperous yet thirsting J. H. Jowett, M. A. Who are these thirsty souls, panting for a satisfaction which they have not yet found? They are the people of the hill country, now exiled to the plains. They have been bereft of the companionable apocalypse of the heights, and they are now immured in the unsuggestive monotony of the plains. I do not think you will. find a single helpful figure in the entire Bible borrowed from the plains. The plains lie prone as a speechless sphinx. The hill country is full of voices, loud in their intimations, prodigal in revelations. Its phenomena are the messengers of the infinite. There towers the rugged height, firm and immovable, standing sure and steadfast through the fickle and varied years. What is its suggestion? " Thy righteousness is like the great mountains." Yonder come the treasure-laden clouds, driving in from the great deep. They unburden their wealth upon the shoulders of Carmel, clothing it with a garment of rare and luxuriant beauty. What is their significance? "Thy mercy reached even unto the clouds." Here, on these bare, basaltic heights the tired and heated traveller rests in the cool and healing shadow of a friendly rock. What is the speech of the shadow "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." In the hill country all things are but the vestures and vehicles of larger things of spiritual import. T" he light, soft wind that stirs and breathes in the dawn — it is God who rides upon a cherub, yea, who "flies upon the wings of the wind." The gentle, mollifying rain falling upon the parched, bruised, broken stems of grass: "He shall come down like rain-upon the mown grass." The end of the drought; the unsealing of the springs among the hills; the gladsome sound of the river as it laughs and dances down the bare and rocky gorge: what is its significance? "Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures. ' It was an expressive, voiceful, suggestive land. Its features interpreted the face and character of God. Land and people were in communion, and their intercourse concerned the nearness and the favour and the providence of the Lord of hosts. But now the land and the people are divorced. The people are borne away into captivity. They leave the hill-country, so rich in interpreting speech, and they pass into the speechless monotony of the plains. Their environment is dumb. Their dwelling-place is no longer a sacrament: it is common, insignificant, speechless. They have passed from nature to art, and from art to artifice. They have left the shepherd and have met the merchant. They have left the work of the labourers in pastures and dressers of vineyards for a swift and feverish civilization. Now, take the people of the bracing, speaking, hill country, and immure them in this sweltering and superficial plain. In all the crowded interests by which they are engirt there is nothing suggestive of God. There was grandeur, but the grandeur had no voice. It was grandeur without revelation, and grandeur without revelation is never creative of awe. Where there is no awe, men step with flippant tread. The exile felt the glamour, felt the power of the grandeur, but in .the glamour and grandeur forgot his God. His vision was more and more horizontal, and less and less vertical. Ambition waxed feverish, and aspiration waxed faint. The spirit of the conqueror infected the captive. The babble of Babylon entered into Israel. Success was enthroned in place of holiness, and the soul bowed down and worshipped it. The exile embraced the world, and shut out the infinite. Now, what was the issue of that Y The exile made money. His body revelled in conditions of ease. His carnal appetites delighted themselves in fatness. He climbed into positions of eminence and power. What else? "In the fulness of his sufficiency he was in straits.' The body luxuriated; the soul languished. He drenched the body with comforts; but he couldn't appease its tenant. "Soul, thou hast much goods laid up, eat, drink, and be merry! And still the soul cried out, "I thirst," and disturbed him like an unquiet ghost, he spent money and more money, but was never able to buy the appropriate bread. He plunged into increased labours, but his labours reaped only that "which satisfied not." The body toiled, the brain schemed, the eyes coveted, and still the soul cried out, "I thirst. Now, when there sits in the soul a hungry unrest and a feverish thirst, life will drop into faintness, weariness and despair. All things become stale, flat, and unprofitable. We "spend our money for that which is not bread, and we labour for that which satisfieth not.' "All is vanity and vexation of spirit." ( J. H. Jowett, M. A. ) The true imperialism J. H. Jowett, M. A. Has this no pertinency for our own day? Acquisition and expansion are the primary notes of modern life. And is there no thirst, no disquietude of spirit? Our novels and our poetry are full of the drooping leaf. Behind the droop there is the thirst. The literature only reflects the people. Business circles never abounded as they do to-day in faint and weary men. They get and spend, and spend and get, but through it all persists the inward thirst. England is thirsting for life. What we need is the infinitely gracious ministry of the Eternal Son of God. "He, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." I. There is to be THE DISCIPLINE OF THE EAR. There is to be a determined, resolute effort to listen to God. When I turn over the pages of the New Testament, and the Old Testament as well, I am greatly surprised at the emphasis with which is given the injunction to hear. " Hear, ye deaf. Every page sends out the cry of the herald — Hearken, listen, incline your ear. It is wonderful how often the Master repeated the injunction, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." That is not a kind of mild, kindly counsel, but an urgent, strenuous appeal to men and women in imminent peril. As though they were disinclined, or did it lazily and easily. He seems to say, Put work into hearing, make it a business, put some intenseness into it. The voices of the world are so clamorous, so fascinating, so easily enticing, that you are in great danger of being allured unless you set yourself resolutely to attend to God. "Hearken diligently unto Me;" put work into listening to Me, in the Parliament, in the Council House, on the Exchange, in the shop and the warehouse, and in the pulpit. There are many clamorous voices around you, those of Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, Mr. Pliable, Mr. Time-Server, Mr. Love-of-the-World. Then pull yourself together, says the Master and the prophet; engage yourself with such intenseness amidst all the bustling clamour, that you may catch the upward calling of your God. II. The discipline of the ear is accompanied by THE DISCIPLINE OF THE HEART. Listen and then yield. "Let the wicked forsake his way (and then something infinitely harder), "and the unrighteous man his thoughts." I find it a comparatively easy thing to forsake a way; but I find it almost insuperably difficult to forsake a thought. Hear the Highest and then uncompromisingly obey. You say impossible! Idleness creates the impossible, says Robert South. I think perhaps one of the great needs of our time in personal and national life, is that some nation should resolutely address itself to listen to the voice of God, and when she has resolutely listened and confidently heard, then to resolutely and deliberately attempt the impossible. Let her begin by forsaking her own wicked ways. Let her hearken diligently to the Divine voice and then definitely and unwaveringly follow in pursuit, even though the way lead apparently to an impassable height. Let her return to the Lord, and let there be no longer a democracy, an aristocracy, a plutocracy, but a Theocracy willing gladly to be counselled by Jehovah. III. "WHAT IS THE ISSUE OF THIS OBEDIENCE? Suppose the thirsty nation oppressed, turned herself to listen to Jehovah and began to interpret the voice Divine, and suppose she addressed herself with all the majesty of Divine power to the pursuit of the ideal discerned, what would happen? The issue of-such a demeanour is portrayed for us with wonderful prodigality in the chapter. 1. There is the assured promise of fuller life. "Hear, and your soul shall live." Hitherto life had been a thin existence, a mere surface glittering, a superficial movement. Now there shall be vitality, awakening and stirring in undreamed-of depths. Life shall be no longer confined to the channels of the appetites; life shall no longer be a mere matter of senses and sensations confined to the outer courts and corridors of the life, but you shall begin to live in the innermost self. The unused shall be aroused and exercised;, the unevolved shall be unpacked; benumbed instincts shall be liberated; buried powers of discernment shall come trooping from the grave; new intelligence shall be born, and the sea of iniquity shall ebb, and the sea shall give up its dead. Life shall be no longer scant and scrimpy. You shall delight yourself, not in leanness but in fatness, every tissue of yourself shall be fed, and the outer life shall bear all manner of fruit, and the leaves of the tree shall be for the healing of the nations. 2. Mark the succession, and we get an exceedingly pregnant suggestion. We have got a nation listening, we have got a nation doing, we have got a nation now living, with its powers evolved, and in active exercise. What next? "Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not." What is that'? It means that a true and glorified national life is to be followed by a true and glorified imperialism. "Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God.' That is the true imperialism — empire by moral and spiritual sovereignty, allurement of dominion by the fascinating radiance of a pure and satisfied life. "Gentiles shall come to the light, and kings to the brightness of the rising." It is empire not merely by the aid of Maxim guns, but by great heartening: Gospels proclaimed by a great redeemed, glorified people. This is to be the shining goal of true national ambition. The mission of the great people, according to this chapter, is to be this: We are to be witnesses to the people, leaders and commanders of the people, witnesses ceaselessly reiterating the truths of the heartening Gospel, proving in the power of our own redemption our fitness to be leaders of the people, going out as path-finders amongst the benighted peoples. "They shall be called" (I want no more glorious title for the country) "the restorer of paths to dwell in." 3. Now, mark further the issue. A true imperialism, I will not say is to be succeeded, but is to be accompanied by a splendid magnanimity. When the nation has hearkened diligently unto God, and follows determinedly in the pursuit of His will, all little-mindedness has to pass away in the great spacious ambitions. The pure and the exalted people are to share the spacious thought of God, and this I take to be the meaning of the word, "My thoughts are not your thoughts." "What are Thy thoughts like?" "As the heavens are higher than the earth. God's thoughts are lofty, spacious, broad; so our thoughts must be comprehensive, full of an all-inclusive sympathy which vibrates to the interest of each, as though each contained the welfare of the other. The truly imperial people are to share this largeness of idea and ideal and all inclusive sympathy. All parochial peddling and sterile individualism shall yield to a pregnant altruism, and mean patriotism is to be supplanted by a generous fructifying cosmopolitanism. The annexation of territory will be regarded as infinitely inferior to the salvation of the world. Influence shall not be measured by mileage, but by magnanimity. Empire will not be computed by so many leagues of earth, but by the multitude of redeemed and liberated souls. And the outskirts of sovereignty will not be contained by bristling guns, but "They shall call her walls salvation and her gates praise." 4. We have an exalted, glorified empire, and according to this prophet, there is to be nothing wavering or uncertain about the moral empire of such a people. For them a help-giving ministry,, will be inevitable. "As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, etc. The rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, the bringers of the spring time; and the nation truly imperial, and filled with the living Spirit of the living God, shall be the spring-time maker amongst the children of men, and the creator of gladness and music and song. The prophet himself bursts into song: "The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." That is to be the ministry of the nation. "Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree." The thorn with the sharp-piercing, pain-giving spikes: instead of that shall come up the fir tree — from which were made the musical instruments, and especially the framework of the harp; "instead of the thorn, the pain-making thing, shall come up the fir tree," the music-making thing; the glorified people shall move among the scattered peoples, and shall exercise the beautiful ministry of changing the creators of pain into the makers of melody and praise. "Instead of the briar," with its bitter, poisonous sting, "shall come up the myrtle tree, with its glossy leaves, and white flowers and grateful perfume. The redeemed and consecrated nation shall exult in a missionary enterprise which shall change the poisonous enmities and jealousies of the people into the perfume of sweet and gracious sentiments, and the chastened delights of a holy and blameless life. Is not this an ambition worthy of the English people of our own day? ( J. H. Jowett, M. A. ) The gracious invitation T. D. Witherspoon, D. D. I. THE INVITATION ITSELF. 1. The universality of the offer. 2. The freeness of the gift. "He that hath no money ' — he that is in spiritual bankruptcy. 3. The fulness of the blessings which this salvation contains. They are represented by the three terms, water, wine and milk. II. THE ENCOURAGEMENTS TO ACCEPT THE INVITATION. These are manifold and various. 1. There is, the contrast between the blessings offered and those for which men are now so laboriously toiling. 2. The character of Him through whom the blessings are to be obtained. 3. The present nearness of God to us and His abundant willingness to pardon. 4. The fact that God's "ways are not our ways, nor His thoughts our thoughts." He pardons like a God. 5. God's Word "shall not return unto Him void. There is profound encouragement in the thought that back of these agencies of the Gospel, which seem so weak as compared with those powers of depravity in the soul with which they must contend, lies the changeless purpose of Him who "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." 6. The profound interest felt by all holy beings everywhere in the salvation of the sinner. That profound sympathy with man in his efforts for salvation which our Lord so beautifully represents by the joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth, the inspired prophet; here represents by the joy of inanimate nature over this return of the sinner to Him who is the Fountain of life. 7. The beneficent results of the acceptance of this invitation. "Instead of the thorn," etc. Divine grace works a complete transformation in the heart into which it comes. It roots out the thorns and briars of selfishness, of pride, of avarice, of unbelief and every hurtful lust. It implants in their room all the graces that adorn the Christian character. ( T. D. Witherspoon, D. D. ) Gospel invitation without restriction J. R. Macduff, D. D. Man may erect his barriers around that fountain, God erects none. It is not, Come by laboured preparation — by penance and fasting, by pilgrimage and mortification, It is not, "Come" — but you must come by dogma and rubric, by sect and shibboleth. Neither is it, "Come" — but you must come with some golden or jewelled bucket to fetch up the water; you must come like Naaman of old, laden with, costly offerings, talents of silver and gold, and changes of raiment. But, "Come, just as you are, without money and without price;" without distinction, whether natural or spiritual, of class or rank or caste, birth or blood or pedigree. "Come," though you may have but. an earthen pitcher to draw with; "come," though you can only lave up the water in the rough palm of your hands. ( J. R. Macduff, D. D. ) "Come to the waters J. Trapp. The Lord even thirsteth to be thirsted after. ( J. Trapp. ) Man's misery and God's call G.A. Chadwick, D.D. I. SIN IS MISERY, FAILURE, KEEN AND URGENT WANT. Isaiah draws a picture which Orientals would appreciate far more vividly than we, whose utmost pain from thirst only means that on some holiday excursion we have felt the heat inconvenient, and have not; happened immediately upon a fountain. He speaks, not of one thirsty man, but of a number, evidently a caravan of travellers. No one who heard him would fail to think of the burnt and sandy plains, a little to the south, on which sometimes a whole company of travellers might wander from their way, and exhaust their provisions, and grow feeble and gaunt and desperate. The hot breeze whirls the burning sand around them. The simoom wind wails in the distance. Phantom waters gleam with a cruel mockery on this side or that. Their own fever creates illusions which distract them. The skeletons of others, lost like themselves, glare upon them. Their steps are feeble, and their tongues cleave to their mouths, when suddenly all that they could not find finds them, and a glad voice calls, "He, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters! This fountain is deep enough for all, and here, in our tents, is Oriental hospitality besides; buy and eat, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Our own countrymen, exploring the deserts of Australia even now, would understand it well. Many a brave man has sunk down there and died.. One band of early explorers survived to tell how in their extremity they climbed a hill and saw below them a rolling water, right into which with one consent; they rushed, and eagerly drank, only to find that it was salt as brine. O mockery, like the mockery of earthly pleasure when the heart is athirst! II. GOD CALLS THE DISAPPOINTED, the fevered, the men and women who have found the world desolate and dry; whose very wishes give them not their wish, who succeed perhaps, and are all the more unhappy because they know that success also is vanity; whose affection prospers, only to teach them that, after all, there are depths in every heart which resound to no human voice. You may not as yet feel any more than this burning, secret want; but this is enough, if only it leads you to the fountain. Does not the very word "come" imply the leaving of something, as well as approach to something else? And this purchasing is not entirely defined in the words, "Let the wicked man forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts," for much more than sin must be surrendered. St. Paul tells us of the price he himself paid when, having reckoned up his advantages, and how, as touching the righteousness that is by the law, he was blameless, he adds, "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ," etc. Yes, for Christ. For it is He who interprets this verse of Himself, though it is plainly spoken of Jehovah. He, on the great day of the feast, stood and cried, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink." Here, then, is the one test of earnestness: Will you, at the bidding of your God, renounce what has failed to quench your thirst, for the sake of the waters of life? ( G.A. Chadwick, D.D. ) The great proclamation A. Mallard, D. D. I. TO WHOM THIS OFFER IS MAKE. It is to every one thirsty and penniless. That is a melancholy combination, to be needing something infinitely, and to have not a farthing to get it with. But that is the condition in which we all stand, in regard of the highest and best things. 1. "Every one that thirsteth." That means desire. But it means need also. And what is every man but a great bundle of yearnings and necessities? There are thirsts which infallibly point to their true objects. If a man is hungry, he knows that it is food that he wants. We have social instincts; we need love; we need friendship; we need somebody to lean upon; we thirst for some breast to rest our heads upon, for hands to clasp ours; and we know where the creatures and the objects are that will satisfy these desires. And there are higher thirsts of the spirit, and a man knows where and how to gratify the impulse that drives him to seek aider some forms of knowledge and wisdom. But besides all these there come in a whole set of other thirsts that do not in themselves carry the intimation of the place where they can be. slaked. And so you get men restless, dissatisfied, feeling that there is something wanting, yet not knowing what. You remember the old story in the "Arabian Nights," of the man who had a grand palace, and lived in it quite contentedly, until somebody told him that he needed a roc's egg hanging from. the roof to make it complete, and he did not know where to get that, and was miserable accordingly. We build our houses, we fancy that we are satisfied; and then there comes the stinging thought that it is not all complete yet, and we go groping in the dark, to find out what it is. Do you know what it is that you want? It is God! Nothing else, nothing less. There are dormant thirsts. It is no proof of superiority that a savage has fewer wants than you and I have, for the want is the open mouth into which supply comes. And it is no proof that you have not, deep in your nature, desires which unless they are awakened and settled, you will never be blessed, that these desires are all unconscious to yourselves. And yet there are no desires — that is to say, consciousness of necessities — so dormant but that their being ungratified makes a man restless. You do not want forgiveness, but you will never be happy till you get it. You do not want to be good and true and holy men, but you will never be blessed till you are. You do not want God, but you will be restless till you find Him. 2. "And he that hath no money." Who has any? Notice that the persons represented in our text as penniless are, in the next verse, remonstrated with for spending "money." So then the penniless man had some pence away in some corner of his pocket which he could spend. He had the money that would buy shams, "that which is not bread," but he had no money for the true thing. Which, being translated out of parable into fact, is simply this, that our efforts may win, and do win, for us the lower satisfactions which meet the transitory and superficial necessities, but that no effort of ours can secure for us the loftier blessings which slake the diviner thirsts of immortal souls. II. IN WHAT IT CONSISTS. They tell an old story about the rejoicings at the coronation of some great king, when there was set up in the market-place a triple fountain, from each of whose three lips flowed a different kind of rare liquor which any man who chose to bring a pitcher might fill from, at his choice. Notice my text, "come ye to the waters"... "buy wine and milk. The great fountain is set up in the market-place of the world, and every man may come; and whichever of this glorious trinity of effluents he needs most, there his lip ,may glue itself and there it may drink, be it "water that refreshes, or "wine that gladdens, or "milk" that nourishes. They are all contained in this one great gift that flows out from the deep heart of God to the thirsty lips of parched humanity. And what does that mean? We may say salvation; or we may use many other words to define the nature of the gifts. I venture to take a shorter one, and say, it means Christ. He is the all-sufficient supply of every thirst of every human soul. III. HOW DO WE GET THE GIFTS? The paradox of' my text needs little explanation. "Buy without money and without price.' The contradiction on the surface is but intended to make emphatic this blessed truth theft the only conditions are a sense of need and a willingness to take — nothing else and nothing more. ( A. Mallard, D. D. ) Soul thirst Homilist. Men know what bodily hunger is, some have felt it to an agony, but there is a soul hunger far more distressing than this. It is depicted on the countenances of those whose bodies fare sumptuously every day. Men also know what bodily thirst is. But there is a soul thirst infinitely worse than that which was ever felt by the most parched of Oriental travellers. That all unregenerate souls are thirsting, with more or less intensity, for that which they have not, will neither be debated nor denied. Christianity is a provision for such, and as a provision it is marked by three things. I. IT IS EFFICACIOUS. It is "water." The Gospel is to the thirsty soul what the cool refreshing stream is to a thirsty body. It satisfies — 1. The guilty conscience, 2. The longing heart, 3. The worshipping spirit of man. All who have truly received the Gospel give this testimony. II. IT IS GRATUITOUS. "Without money and without price." Water is one of the freest things in the world. It is a ubiquitous element; it not only floats in the cloud, descends in the showers, and rolls in the rivers, but bubbles up at our feet and oozes out in all the things around us. III. IT IS UNRESTRICTED. "Ho, every one that thirsteth." The Gospel is not for any type of mind, any class of character, any condition of society, any tribe of men. Like the light of heaven, it is for all. ( Homilist. ) The spiritual appetite and its gratification Lira of Faith. I. The spiritual appetite. 1. It results from the constitution of our nature. We cannot go deeper than nature. We cannot go behind or beyond it, for nature is what has been born (Latin natura ), born out of God's thought by God's power. When we speak of nature we must pass in thought from her to her parent God, and find a sufficient answer to all questions and difficulties by saying: "God has so willed it, therefore it is as it is." All the strong basal instincts of human nature must be traced back to the make of our moral being as it was planned by almighty wisdom, and wrought by infinite power. We hunger and thirst, because our physical nature has been so created that it must needs go out of itself for its supplies of nutriment. Similarly, God made our souls for Himself. Deep within us, lie has put necessities and desires, that crave for satisfaction from the Unseen, Eternal, and Divine. 2. It produces pain. There are many sources of pain; but perhaps primarily God has instituted it to compel us to take measures for our health and salvation. The pain of hunger and thirst in designed to force us to take food, without which the body would become exhausted and die. So, in the moral sphere, we should be thankful when we are discontented with ourselves, when in self-abhorrence we cry out for God's unsullied righteousness, when we go about smitten with infinite unrest. 3. It is universal. As we have never me

Benson Commentary Isaiah 55:1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Isaiah 55:1 . Ho, every one — Not only Jews, but Gentiles; that thirsteth — For the grace of God, and the blessings of the gospel; that desires them sincerely and earnestly, is active and diligent in the pursuit of them, and cannot be satisfied without enjoying them; come ye to the waters — Where you may drink and be refreshed: come and partake of the graces and comforts of God’s Spirit, frequently compared to water in the Scriptures, and here designed by the other metaphorical expressions which occur in the next clause. And he that hath no money — Even those who are most poor in the world, and those who are most worthless and wicked, if they do but thirst, shall be welcome. Come ye, buy and eat — That is, come and receive that which is freely offered to you, and which you shall as freely partake of, and enjoy as your own, as if you had bought and paid the full price for it. Buy wine and milk — Here put for all sorts of provisions, which are also to be understood of spiritual and gospel blessings, as is evident from the following words: as if he had said, These blessings shall not only refresh you, as water refreshes the thirsty, but they shall cheer you like wine, and nourish you like milk. Isaiah 55:2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Isaiah 55:2-3 . Wherefore do ye spend money — All your time, and strength, and cost; for that which is not bread — For those things which can never nourish or satisfy you, such as worldly goods or pleasures. Hearken diligently unto me — Unto my doctrine and counsel; and eat ye that which is good — And not such things as, though they be called and seem to be good, yet really are evil and most pernicious to men. And let your soul delight itself, &c. — In this pleasant food of gospel enjoyments. Hear, and your soul shall live — Hearken attentively and obediently to my counsels, and your immortal souls shall not only be saved from perishing eternally, but shall be eternally blessed and happy. And I will make an everlasting covenant with you — That everlasting covenant of grace and peace which I made with Abraham and his seed. The sure mercies of David — Even that covenant which was made first with Abraham, and then with David, concerning those glorious and sure blessings which I have promised to my people; one, and the chief, of which was the giving Christ to die for their sins. David here seems to be put for Christ the son of David. Isaiah 55:3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Isaiah 55:4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Isaiah 55:4-5 . Behold, I have given him — I have already appointed, and will, in due time, actually give the David last mentioned, even Christ, for a witness — To declare the will of God concerning the duty and salvation of men; to bear witness to the truth, John 18:37 ; to confirm God’s promises, and, among others, those which respect the calling of the Gentiles; to be a witness of both parts of that covenant made between God and men; to the people — Not only to my people of Israel, but to all people, Gentiles no less than Jews, as is evident from the following verse, from Isaiah 49:6 , and divers other places; a leader and commander to the people — A sovereign prince, to give them laws and exact their obedience, and in case thereof to give them protection and rewards. Behold thou — O Messiah, of whom he spake Isaiah 55:4 , and to whom he now suddenly turns his speech; shalt call — Namely, to thyself, and to the knowledge of thy truth, and thereby unto an acquaintance and fellowship with God; a nation that thou knowest not — Or, rather, didst not know, namely, with that special knowledge which implies approbation. And nations that knew not thee — That had but little knowledge of the living and true God, and no knowledge of the Messiah; shall run unto thee — Upon thy call, shall readily and speedily come to thee, to receive instructions from thee, and to follow thee whithersoever thou shalt lead them; because of the Lord thy God — Because the Lord shall, by many evident and unquestionable tokens, manifest himself to be thy God, and thee to be his Son and faithful servant. And for the Holy One of Israel — Because the God of Israel, the only true God, will highly honour thee by his singular presence with thee; by his almighty power accompanying thy word, and making it effectual for the conversion of an innumerable company, both of Jews and Gentiles; and by confirming thy word with illustrious signs and miracles, and particularly by thy resurrection and glorious ascension. These, and other similar considerations, were the arguments which convinced the Gentiles that Christ was the true Messiah, and that the religion which he taught was the true religion. Isaiah 55:5 Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee. Isaiah 55:6 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Isaiah 55:6-7 . Seek ye the Lord, &c. — Having discoursed of the office and work of Christ, and showed that he should call people and nations to himself and to God, the prophet now endeavours to persuade the people to hearken to his call, and to seek the Lord; that is, to labour to get the knowledge of God’s will, and to obtain his grace and favour, neither of which could be obtained save in and through Christ. And this exhortation is general, like that Isaiah 55:1 , intended for all nations, both Jews and Gentiles, implying that both of them had lost the favour and knowledge of God, and were gone astray from him. While he may be found — In this day of grace, while he offers mercy and reconciliation, which he will not always do: see Proverbs 1:24 , &c. Luke 19:44 ; 2 Corinthians 6:2 . Call upon him while he is near — Near to you by his gracious presence and his offers in his ordinances, and ready and desirous to receive you to mercy upon the following conditions. Let the wicked — Any wicked man, either Jew or Gentile; forsake his way — His evil or wicked way; his sinful course or manner of life; called his way, as being natural, customary, and dear to him, and in opposition to God’s good way. Let him cease to do evil, Isaiah 1:16 . Observe well, reader, men’s seeking God in the use of outward means, and even the calling upon him in prayer, will do them no lasting good, unless this be attended with the reformation of their lives; and the unrighteous man his thoughts — The sinful desires, intentions, and purposes of his mind. Thus he strikes at the root of all sinful actions, and shows that the heart must be changed as well as the outward conduct. And let him return unto the Lord — As he departed from God by sin, so let him return to him by sincere repentance and faith, productive of new obedience. By this he signifies, that a mere abstinence from wicked courses is not sufficient, without the exercise of the contrary graces and virtues. And to our God — To the God of Israel, who is, and has shown himself to be, a most merciful and gracious God; for he will abundantly pardon — He uses so many words and arguments to encourage and lead them to repentance, because the persons here principally addressed had been guilty of idolatry, apostacy, and many other acts of gross wickedness, which he knew, when they came to themselves, and to have a serious sense of their sins, and of the just and holy nature and law of God, would be an insupportable burden to their awakened consciences, and would make them ready to conclude that God would not pardon such horrible delinquencies; in consequence of which they would rather be driven from God, than induced to draw near to him. Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. Isaiah 55:8 . For my thoughts are not your thoughts, &c. — My disposition and way differ vastly from yours. If any man injure you, especially if he do it greatly and frequently, you are slow and backward to forgive him. But I am ready to forgive all true penitents, how many, and great, and numberless soever their sins be; and my promises of mercy and pardon shall be infallibly made good to them: and therefore you need not fear to come to me, or question but you shall find mercy and acceptance with me. Isaiah 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. Isaiah 55:10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: Isaiah 55:10-11 . For as the rain cometh down — To water and refresh the earth, and render it fruitful; and the snow from heaven — Which, in its season, contributes to the fertility of the earth, as well as the rain; and returneth not thither — Namely, without effect, or immediately: it is not drawn up again as soon as it comes down, but abides for a convenient time upon the earth, until it do that work for which it is sent. That it may give seed and bread, &c. — That it may bring forth store of bread-corn, both for men’s present supplies, and for seed for the next year. So shall my word be — My promises concerning the pardon of the greatest sinners, and the redemption and salvation of mankind. It shall not return unto me void — Without success. It is an allusion to an ambassador who returns without despatching the business for which he was sent. It shall accomplish that which I please — It shall have the desired effect; and it shall prosper, &c. — It shall certainly be fulfilled in the manner before expressed. Isaiah 55:12-13 For, or therefore: you shall go out with joy — Ye shall be released from your bondage, because God hath promised, and will effect it. He alludes to their going out of Egypt, or to their release from Babylon, which deliverances were emblematical of the redemption of mankind, by Christ, from the power of sin and Satan. And be led forth — Or led onward, as Bishop Lowth renders ?????? , be conducted by the gracious and powerful presence of God, as the Israelites were in the wilderness; in peace — Safely and triumphantly, without fear of being retaken and brought back into slavery by your enemies. The mountains and the hills shall break forth, &c. — There shall be a great and general rejoicing at your deliverance. For “these are highly poetical images, to express a happy state, attended with joy and exultation.” Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree — “These likewise are general poetical images, expressing a great and happy change for the better: the wilderness turned into a paradise, Lebanon into Carmel; the desert of the Gentiles watered with the heavenly snow and rain, which fail not to have their due effect, and becoming fruitful in piety and righteousness: or, as the Chaldee gives the moral sense of the emblem, ‘instead of the wicked shall arise the just, and instead of sinners, such as fear to sin.’” — Bishop Lowth. In other words, The church shall be delivered from pernicious men and things, and replenished with sincere and serious believers, and with all sorts of divine graces and blessings. And it shall be to the Lord for a name — This wonderful change shall bring much honour to that God by whom it is wrought. For an everlasting sign — For a monument, or evident and glorious token of God’s infinite power, faithfulness, and love to his people, unto all succeeding generations; that shall not be cut off — Which shall never be abolished, but shall always live and flourish in the minds and mouths of men. Isaiah 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Isaiah 55:12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Isaiah 55:13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Isaiah 55:1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. BOOK 4 THE RESTORATION WE have now reached the summit of our prophecy. It has been a long, steep ascent, and we have had very much to seek out on the way, and to extricate and solve and load ourselves with. But although a long extent of the prophecy, if we measure it by chapters, still lies before us, the end is in sight; every difficulty has been surmounted which kept us from seeing how we were to get to it, and the rest of the way may be said to be downhill. To drop the figure-the Servant, his vicarious suffering and atonement for the sins of the people, form for our prophet the solution of the spiritual problem of the nation’s restoration, and what he has now to do is but to fill in the details of this. We saw that the problem of Israel’s deliverance from Exile, their Return, and their Restoration to their position in their own land as the Chief Servant of God to humanity, was really a double problem-political and spiritual. The solution of the political side of it was Cyrus. As soon as the prophet had been able to make it certain that Cyrus was moving down upon Babylon, with a commission from God to take the city, and irresistible in the power with which Jehovah had invested him, the political difficulties in the way of Israel’s Return were as good as removed; and so the prophet gave, in the end of chapter 48, his great call to his countrymen to depart. But all through chapters 40-48, while addressing himself to the solution of the political problems of Israel’s deliverance, the prophet had given hints that there were moral and spiritual difficulties as well. In spite of their punishment for more than half a century, the mass of the people were not worthy of a return. Many were idolaters; many were worldly; the orthodox had their own wrong views of how salvation should come; { Isaiah 45:9 ff.} the pious were without either light or faith. { Isaiah 50:10 } The nation, in short, had not that inward "righteousness," which could alone justify God in vindicating them before the. world, in establishing their outward righteousness, their salvation and reinstatement in their lofty place and calling as His people. These moral difficulties come upon the prophet with greater force after he has, with the close of chapter 48, finished his solution of the political ones. To these moral difficulties he addresses himself in 49-53, and the Servant and his Service are his solution of them:-the Servant as a Prophet and a Covenant of the People in chapter 49 and in Isaiah 50:4 ff.: the Servant as an example to the people, chapter 50 ff.; and finally the Servant as a full expiation for the people’s sins in Isaiah 52:13-15 ; Isaiah 53:1-12 . It is the Servant who is to "raise up the land, and to bring back the heirs to the desolate heritages," and rouse the Israel who are not willing to leave Babylon," saying to the bound, Go forth; and to them that sit in darkness, Show yourselves". { Isaiah 49:8-9 } It is he who is "to sustain the weary" and to comfort the pious in Israel, who, though pious, have no light as they walk on their way back. { Isaiah 50:4 ; Isaiah 50:10 } It is the Servant finally who is to achieve the main problem of all and "make many righteous". { Isaiah 53:11 } The hope of restoration, the certainty of the people’s redemption, the certainty of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the certainty of the growth of the people to a great multitude, are, therefore, all woven by the prophet through and through with his studies of the Servant’s work in Isaiah 49:1 ., and Isaiah 52:13-15 ; Isaiah 53:1-12 , -woven so closely and so naturally that, as we have already seen, we cannot take any part of chapters 49-53 and say that it is of different authorship from the rest. Thus in chapter 49 we have the road to Jerusalem pictured in Isaiah 49:9-13 , immediately upon the back of the Servant’s call to go forth in Isaiah 49:9 . We have then the assurance of Zion being rebuilt and thronged by her children in Isaiah 49:14-23 , and another affirmation of the certainty of redemption in Isaiah 49:24-26 . In Isaiah 50:1-3 this is repeated. In 51- Isaiah 52:1-12 the petty people is assured that it shall grow innumerable again; new affirmations are made of its ransom and return, ending with the beautiful prospect of the feet of the heralds of deliverance on the mountains of Judah { Isaiah 52:7 b} and a renewed call to leave Babylon ( Isaiah 52:11-12 ). We shall treat all these passages in our twenty-first chapter. And as they started naturally from the Servant’s work in Isaiah 49:1-9 a-and his example in Isaiah 50:4-11 , so upon his final and crowning work in chapter 53 there follow as naturally chapter 54 (the prospect of the seed Isaiah 53:10 promised he should see), and chapter 55 (a new call to come forth). These two, with the little pre-exilic prophecy, Isaiah 56:1-8 , we shall treat in our twenty-second chapter. Then come the series of difficult small prophecies with pre-exilic traces in them, from Isaiah 56:9 through Isaiah 59:1-21 . They will occupy our twenty-third chapter. In chapter 60 Zion is at last not only in sight, but radiant in the rising of her new day of glory. In chapters 61 and 62 the prophet, having reached Zion, "looks back," as Dillmann well remarks, "upon what has become his task, and in connection with that makes clear once more the high goal of all his working and striving." In Isaiah 63:1-6 the Divine Deliver is hailed. We shall take Isaiah 60:1-22 - Isaiah 63:6 together in our twenty-fourth chapter. Chapter 63:7-64 is an Intercessory Prayer for the restoration of all Israel. It is answered in chapter 65, and the lesson of this answer, that Israel must be judged, and that all cannot be saved, is enforced in chapter 66. Chaps. 63:7-66 will therefore form our twenty-fifth and closing chapter. Thus our course is clear, and we can overtake it rapidly. It is, to a large extent, a series of spectacles, interrupted by exhortations upon duty; things, in fact, to see and to hear, not to argue about. There are few great doctrinal questions, except what we have already sufficiently discussed; our study, for instance, of the term righteousness, we shall find has covered for us a large part of the ground in advance. And the only difficult literary question is that of the pre-exilic and post-exilic pieces, which are alleged to form so large a part of chapters 56-59 and 63-66. , Isaiah 55:1-13 , Isaiah 56:1-8 CHAPTER XXII ON THE EVE OF RETURN Isaiah 54:1-17 , Isaiah 55:1-13 , Isaiah 56:1-8 ONE of the difficult problems of our prophecy is the relation and grouping of chapters 54-59. It is among them that the unity of "Second Isaiah," which up to this point we have seen no reason to doubt, gives way. Isaiah 56:9-12 is evidently pre-exilic, and so is Isaiah 59:1-21 . But in chapters 54, 55, and Isaiah 56:1-8 we have three addresses, evidently dating from the Eve of the Return. We shall, therefore, treat them together. I. THE BRIDE THE CITY ( Isaiah 54:1-17 ) We have already seen why there is no reason for the theory that chapter 54 may have followed immediately on Isaiah 52:12 . And from Calvin to Ewald and Dillmann, critics have all felt a close connection between Isaiah 52:13-15 ; Isaiah 53:1-12 and chapter 54. "After having spoken of the death of Christ," says Calvin, "the prophet passes on with good reason to the Church: that we may feel more deeply in ourselves what is the value and efficacy of His death." Similar in substance, if not in language, is the opinion of the latest critics, who understand that in chapter 54 the prophet intends to picture that full redemption which the Servant’s work, culminating in chapter 53, could alone effect. Two key-words of chapter 53 had been "a seed" and "many." It is "the seed" and the "many" whom chapter 54 reveals. Again, there may be, in Isaiah 54:17 , a reference to the earlier picture of the Servant in chapter 50, especially Isaiah 50:8 . But this last is uncertain; and, as a point on the other side there are the two different meanings as well as the two different agents, of "righteousness" in Isaiah 53:11 , "My Servant shall make many righteous," and in Isaiah 54:17 , "their righteousness which is of Me, saith Jehovah." In the former, righteousness is the inward justification; in the letter, it is the external historical vindication. In chapter 54 the people of God are represented under the double figure, with which the Book of Revelation has made us familiar, of Bride and City. To imagine a Nation or a Land as the spouse of her God is a habit natural to the religious instinct at all times; the land deriving her fruitfulness, the nation her standing and prestige, from her connection with the Deity. But in ancient times this figure of wedlock was more natural than it is among us, in so far as the human man and wife did not then occupy that relation of equality, to which it has been the progress of civilisation to approximate; but the husband was the lord of his wife, -as much her Baal as the god was the Baal of the people, -her law-giver, in part her owner, and with full authority over the origin and subsistence of the bond between them. Marriage thus conceived was a figure for religion almost universal among the Semites. But as in the case of so many other religious ideas common to the Hebrews and their heathen kin, this one, when adopted by the prophets of Jehovah, underwent a thorough moral reformation. Indeed, if one were asked to point out a supreme instance of the operation of that unique conscience of the religion of Jehovah, which was spoken of before, one would have little difficulty in selecting its treatment of the idea of religious marriage. By the neighbours of Israel, the marriage of a god to his people was conceived with a grossness of feeling and illustrated by a foulness of ritual, which thoroughly demoralised the people, affording, as they did, to licentiousness the example and sanction of religion. So debased had the idea become, and so full of temptation to the Hebrews were the forms in which it was illustrated among their neighbours, that the religion of Israel might justly have been praised for achieving a great moral victory in excluding the figure altogether from its system. But the prophets of Jehovah dared the heavier task of retaining the idea of religious marriage, and won the diviner triumph of purifying and elevating it. It was, indeed, a new creation. Every physical suggestion was banished, and the relation was conceived as purely moral. Yet it was never refined to a mere form or abstraction. The prophets fearlessly expressed it in the warmest and most familiar terms of the love of man and woman. With a stern and absolute interpretation before them in the Divine law, of the relations of a husband to his wife, they borrowed from that only so far as to do justice to the Almighty’s initiative and authority in His relation with mortals; and they laid far more emphasis on the instinctive and spontaneous affections, by which Jehovah and Israel had been drawn together. Thus, among a people naturally averse to think or to speak of God as loving men, this close relation to Him of marriage was expressed with a warmth, a tenderness, and a delicacy, that exceeded even the two other fond forms in which the Divine grace was conveyed, -of a father’s and of a mother’s love. In this new creation of the marriage bond between God and His church, three prophets had a large share, -Hosea, Ezekiel, and the author of "Second Isaiah." To Hosea and Ezekiel it fell to speak chiefly of unpleasant aspects of the question, -the unfaithfulness of the wife and her divorce; but even then, the moral strength and purity of the Hebrew religion, its Divine vehemence and glow, were only the more evident for the unpromising character of the materials with which it dealt. To our prophet, on the contrary, it fell to speak of the winning back of the wife, and he has done so with wonderful delicacy and tenderness. Our prophet, it is true, has not one, but two, deep feelings about the love of God: it passes through him as the love of a mother, as well as the love of a husband. But while he lets us see the former only twice or thrice, the latter may be felt as the almost continual under-current of his prophecy, and often breaks to hearing, now in a sudden, single ripple of a phrase, and now in a long tide of marriage music. His lips open for Jehovah on the language of wooing, - "speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem"; and though his masculine figure for Israel as the Servant keeps his affection hidden for a time, this emerges again when the subject of Service is exhausted, till Israel, where she is not Jehovah’s Servant, is Jehovah’s Bride. In the series of passages on Zion, from chapter 49 to chapter 53, the City is the Mother of His children, the Wife who though put away has never been divorced. In chapter 62 she is called Hephzi-Bah, My-delight-is-in-her , and Beulah, or Married , -"for Jehovah delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a youth marrieth a maiden, thy sons shall marry thee; and with the joy of a bridegroom over a bride, thy God shall joy over thee." But it is in the chapter now before us that the relation is expressed with greatest tenderness and wealth of affection. "Be not afraid, for thou shalt not be shamed; and be not confounded, for thou shalt not be put to the blush: for the shame of thy youth thou shalt forget, and the reproach of thy widowhood thou shalt not remember again. For thy Maker is thy Husband, Jehovah of Hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy of Israel, God of the whole earth is He called. For as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit thou art called of Jehovah, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In an egre of anger I hid My face a moment from thee, but with grace everlasting will I have mercy upon thee, saith thy Redeemer Jehovah." In this eighth verse we pass from the figure of clear through flood and storm in Isaiah 54:11 . "Afflicted, Storm-beaten, Uncomforted, Lo, I am setting in dark metal" (antimony, used by women for painting round the eyes, so as to set forth their brilliance more) "thy stones," (that they may shine from this setting like women’s eyes,)" and I will found thee in sapphires": as heaven’s own foundation vault is blue, so shall the ground stones be of the new Jerusalem. "And I will set rubies for thy pinnacles, and thy gates shall be sparkling stones, and all thy borders stones of delight, -stones of joy, jewels." The rest of the chapter paints the righteousness of Zion as her external security and splendour. II. A LAST CALL TO THE BUSY ( Isaiah 55:1-13 ). The second address upon the Eve of Return is chapter 55. Its pure gospel and clear music render detailed exposition, except on a single point, superfluous. One can but stand and listen to those great calls to repentance and obedience, which issue from it. What can be added to them or said about them? Let one take heed rather to let them speak to one’s own heart! A little exploration, however, will be of advantage among the circumstances from which they shoot. The commercial character of the opening figures of chapter 55 arrests the attention. We saw that Babylon was the centre of the world’s trade, and that it was in Babylon that the Jews first formed those mercantile habits, which have become, next to religion, or in place of religion, their national character. Born to be priests, the Jews drew down their splendid powers of attention, pertinacity, and imagination from God upon the world, till they equally appear to have been born traders. They laboured and prospered exceedingly, gathering property and settling in comfort. They drank of the streams of Babylon, no longer made bitter by their tears, and ceased to think upon Zion. But, of all men, exiles can least forget that there is that which money can never buy. Money and his work can do much for the banished man, -feed him, clothe him, even make for him a kind of second home, and in time, by the payment of taxes, a kind of second citizenship; but they can never bring him to the true climate of his heart, nor win for him his real life. And of all exiles the Jew, however free and prosperous in his banishment he might be, was least able to find his life among the good things-the water, the wine, and the milk-of a strange country. For home to Israel meant not only home, but duty, righteousness, and God. ( Isaiah 1:1-31 ; Isaiah 2:1-22 ; Isaiah 3:1-26 ; Isaiah 4:1-6 ; Isaiah 5:1-30 ; Isaiah 6:1-13 ; Isaiah 7:1-25 ; Isaiah 8:1-22 ; Isaiah 9:1-21 ; Isaiah 10:1-34 ; Isaiah 11:1-16 ; Isaiah 12:1-6 ; Isaiah 13:1-22 ; Isaiah 14:1-32 ; Isaiah 15:1-9 ; Isaiah 16:1-14 ; Isaiah 17:1-14 ; Isaiah 18:1-7 ; Isaiah 19:1-25 ; Isaiah 20:1-6 ; Isaiah 21:1-17 ; Isaiah 22:1-25 ; Isaiah 23:1-18 ; Isaiah 24:1-23 ; Isaiah 25:1-12 ; Isaiah 26:1-21 ; Isaiah 27:1-13 ; Isaiah 28:1-29 ; Isaiah 29:1-24 ; Isaiah 30:1-33 ; Isaiah 31:1-9 ; Isaiah 32:1-20 ; Isaiah 33:1-24 ; Isaiah 34:1-17 ; Isaiah 35:1-10 ; Isaiah 36:1-22 ; Isaiah 37:1-38 ; Isaiah 38:1-22 ; Isaiah 39:1-8 ) God had created the heart of this people to hunger for His word, and in His word they could alone find the "fatness of their soul." Success and comfort shall never satisfy the soul which God has created for obedience. The simplicity of the obedience that is here asked from Israel, the emphasis that is laid upon mere obedience as ringing in full satisfaction, is impressive: "hearken diligently, and eat that which is good; incline your ear and come unto Me, hear and your soul shall live." It suggests the number of plausible reasons, which may be offered for every worldly and material life, and to which there is no answer save the call of God’s own voice to obedience and surrender. To obedience God then promises influence. In place of being a mere trafficker with the nations, or, at best, their purveyor and moneylender, the Jew, if he obeys God, shall be the priest and prophet of the peoples. This is illustrated in Isaiah 55:4-6 , the only hard passage in the chapter. God will make His people like David; whether the historical David or the ideal David described by Jeremiah and Ezekiel is uncertain. God will conclude an everlasting "covenant" with them, equivalent to the sure favours showered on him. As God set him for a witness (that is, a prophet) to "the peoples, a prince and a leader to the peoples," so (in phrases that recall some used by David of himself in the eighteenth Psalm) shall they as prophets and kings influence strange nations-"calling a nation thou knowest not, and nations that have not known thee shall run unto thee." The effect of the unconscious influence, which obedience to God, and surrender to Him as His instrument, are sure to work, could not be more grandly stated. But we ought not to let another point escape our attention, for it has its contribution to make to the main question of the Servant. As explained in the note to a sentence above, it is uncertain whether David is the historical king of’ that name, or the Messiah still to come. In either case, be is an individual, whose functions and qualities are transferred to the people, and that is the point demanding attention. If our prophecy can thus so easily speak of God’s purpose of service to the Gentiles passing from the individual to the nation, why should it not also be able to speak of the opposite process, the transference of the service from the nation to the single Servant? When the nation were unworthy and unredeemed, could not the prophet as easily think of the relegation of their office to aft individual, as he now promises to their obedience that that office shall be restored to them? The next verses urgently repeat calls to repentance. And then comes a passage which is grandly meant to make us feel the contrast of its scenery with the toil, the money-getting and the money-spending from which the chapter started. From all that sordid, barren, human strife in the markets of Babylon, we are led out to look at the boundless heavens, and are told that "as they are higher than the earth, so are God’s ways higher than our ways, and God’s reckonings than our reckonings" we are led out to see the gentle fall of rain and snow that so easily "maketh the earth to bring forth and bud, and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater," and are told that it is a symbol of God’s word, which we were called from our vain labours to obey; we are led out "to the mountains and to the hills breaking before you into singing," and to the free, wild natural trees, tossing their unlopped branches; we are led to see even the desert change, for "instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the nettle shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to Jehovah for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." Thus does the prophet, in his own fashion, lead the starved worldly heart, that has sought in vain its fulness from its toil, through scenes of Nature, to that free omnipotent Grace, of which Nature’s processes are the splendid sacraments. III. PROSELYTES AND EUNUCHS { Isaiah 56:1-8 } The opening verse of this small prophecy, "My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed," attaches it very closely to the preceding prophecy. If chapter 55 expounds the grace and faithfulness of God in the Return of His people, and asks from them only faith as the price of such benefits, Isaiah 56:1-8 adds the demand that those who are to return shall keep the law, and extends their blessings to foreigners and others, who though technically disqualified from the privileges of the born and legitimate Israelite, had attached themselves to Jehovah and His Law. Such a prophecy was very necessary. The dispersion of Israel had already begun to accomplish its missionary purpose; pious souls in many lands had felt the spiritual power of this disfigured people, and had chosen for Jehovah’s sake to follow its uncertain fortunes. It was indispensable that these Gentile converts should be comforted against the withdrawal of Israel from Babylon, for they said, "Jehovah will surely separate me from His people," as well as against the time when it might become necessary to purge the restored community from heathen constituents. { Nehemiah 13:1-31 } Again, all the male Jews could hardly have escaped the disqualification, which the cruel custom of the East inflicted on some, at least, of every body of captives. It is almost certain that Daniel and his companions were eunuchs, and if they, then perhaps many more. But the Book of Deuteronomy had declared mutilation of this kind to be a bar against entrance to the assembly of the Lord. It is not one of the least interesting of the spiritual results of the Exile, that its necessities compelled the abrogation of the letter of such a law. With a freedom that foreshadows Christ’s own expansion of the ancient strictness, and in words that would not be out of place in the Sermon on the Mount, this prophecy ensures to pious men, whom cruelty had deprived of the two things dearest to the heart of an Israelite, -a present place, and a perpetuation through his posterity, in the community of God, -that in the new temple a monument and a name should be given, "better" and more enduring "than sons or daughters." This prophecy is further noteworthy as the first instance of the strong emphasis which "Second Isaiah" lays upon the keeping of the Sabbath, and as, first calling the temple the "House of Prayer." Both of these characteristics are due, of course, to the Exile, the necessities of which prevented almost every religious act save that of keeping fasts and Sabbaths and serving God in prayer. On our prophet’s teaching about the Sabbath there will be more to say in the next chapter. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.