In Isaiah 40-55 a prophet referred to as Second Isaiah speaks, comforting the people of Israel in exile in Babylon and promising that their faithful God has not forgotten them. The prophet calls the people to listen, seek God, seek forgiveness, and live. God forgives their idolatry and neglect of the poor and calls them to be servants who make God known and bring forth justice among the nations.
In 540 B.C. God is about to do something new. In the victories of Persian king Cyrus over the Babyonians, Second Isaiah sees God making a road home through the wilderness from Babylon (Baghdad today) to their homeland.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “There are people so hungry that God cannot appear to them as anything but bread.” In chapter 55 Second Isaiah speaks for the Holy One, the creator, calling us to bring our every hunger and thirst to the banquet of life in creation. Come to the water, eat and drink for free in the abundance of creation, delight in the rich fare of God’s word. God is near and can be found.
Isaiah recalls God steadfast, sure love for David. The prophet declares the exiles will return home to Israel and be witnesses to their God’s faithfulness. God can be found in this change of world powers, so seek the Holy One in this moment.
God is God, forgiving in ways we are not. Pope Francis insists, “God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking God’s mercy” (Joy of the Gospel #3).
God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. Many of us cling to Isaiah’s word in the face of events beyond our understanding.
The prophetic poetry ends in pure promise: “My word shall not return to me empty.” The promise inspires the exiles’ journey home to become a people again.
Come to the water.
Thus says, the Holy One:
All you who are thirsty,
come to the water!
You who have no money,
come, receive grain and eat;
come, without paying and without cost, drink wine and milk!
Why spend your money
for what is not bread,
your wages for what fails to satisfy?
Listen carefully to me,
and you shall eat well,
you shall delight in rich fare.
Incline your ear and come to me —
listen, so that you may live.
I will renew with you
the everlasting covenant,
my steadfast love promised to David.
As I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander of nations,
so shall you summon a nation
you knew not and a nation
that knew you not will run to you,
Seek God while God may be found,
call upon the Holy One
while the Holy One is near.
Let the wicked forsake their way,
and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the
Holy One for mercy
to our God, who is abundantly forgiving.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways,
says the Holy One.
As high as the heavens
are above the earth
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.
For as rain and snow come
down from the heavens
and do not return there
until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower
and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
my word shall not return
to me empty,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for
which I sent it.
Isaiah 55.1-11
- What satisfies your hungers?
- In what ways has creation proved priceless in your experience?
- When have you prayed any of these words?
- What words of God have become seeds of commitment in you?
- What promise do you experience in the world of rain and snow, seeds and wheat?