Buy Food Without Price
In Isaiah 55:1 God commands, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” But how can someone without money buy food? And what kind of food is priced for free? Here, Isaiah is foreshadowing the Gospel that will be ushered in by the coming Messiah.
Notice that the first invitation the Lord offers in this chapter is to everyone who thirsts to come to the waters. Earlier, in Isaiah 44:3, God says, “I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.” There is a connection between waters poured on a dry and thirsty land, and God’s Spirit also being poured out on the descendants of Israel. Jesus makes similar connections between a thirst-quenching water and spiritual life in a few places in the gospel of John: On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (John 7:37-39)
And this is also reflected in what Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14) The thirst described in Isaiah 55 (and later by Jesus), is a thirst that goes deeper than mere physical need, but a deeper spiritual need for a life-giving connection to the Creator of heaven and earth.
God continues in Isaiah 55:1 that “he who has no money, come, buy and eat!” The only way that the one without money can buy something, is if that something has already been paid for by another. Isaiah describes who provides for the food earlier in 25:6-8, “On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.” The Lord provides the feast for all peoples, all nationalities. And the food provided by God will provide everlasting life, death swallowed up forever, every tear dried. To take part in the feast costs no money and is freely provided.
God continues his thoughts in Isaiah 55:2, that even though this amazing free offer is open to all people, instead, we choose to use our money for other things. “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” God tells us we are using our money (our time, our resources, our lives) pursuing things that ultimately have no life-giving value. We chase after things that we think will feed us, but they leave our souls empty and unfulfilled. C. S. Lewis put it this way in his book The Weight of Glory: “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
Instead God pleads with us, “Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live” (Isaiah 55:2-3). God again offers us this free gift of food that will truly satisfy the yearnings of our hearts and our souls. And this offer is made through a Messiah to every nation: “I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you” (Isaiah 55:3-5).
God promises to make an everlasting covenant through the Messiah in order to call all people into a new nation. Not a nation based on lineage or ethnicity, but based on a covenant made with God. And the purpose God is doing all of this is to glorify us. What an offer that is being made!
Of course, that offer is available to all of us through Jesus Christ. Jesus himself said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” and, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:3,6). So come and eat! Buy wine and milk without money and without price. Delight yourself in the rich food that God offers freely to those inclined to listen.
