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 opens with a public cry, the kind a street trader uses to stop passers-by — except that here nothing is for sale. Three questions press on the reader: who may come, what is on offer, and how anyone with no money can buy.
Isaiah 55 does not stand alone. It is the third step in a sequence.
Isaiah 53 predicts the atoning work of Christ; Isaiah 54, the resulting blessing of Israel; Isaiah 55, grace flowing out to the Gentiles.
The word "everyone" is not decoration. Once God shows mercy to Israel, nothing holds that mercy back from anyone else.
If God, in the restoration of Israel, acts "with great mercies" as foretold in the previous chapter (verse 7), what is to hinder the same grace flowing out to a needy and sinful world? So in chapter 55 we have the invitation of free grace proclaimed to "everyone" — Jew and Gentile alike.
Many readers stumble here, wondering whether their longing is deep enough to count. That worry misreads the invitation.
Thirst is a craving that only the right drink can satisfy. The thirst of an anxious soul is really for God and His Christ, though the person could probably not put it in those words. The point is not the measure of your anxiety, but the fact of your being "thirsty" or willing at all. If so, hear the word of the Lord: "To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment… Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price" (Rev. 21:6; 22:17). What lovely words! "I will give… without payment." That is God's side. "Let him take… without price." That is your side. God gives; all you have to do is take what He gives.
Two reasons stand behind "without money" — one on God's side, one on ours. Both rule out payment.
Man is needy, and admits it, yet imagines he must bring God something in return before he can get what he needs. If you, my reader, belong to this mistaken group, may God open your eyes to see His way of salvation. His grace provides it, not your works of any kind. There are two good reasons for this. First, God is too rich to sell salvation; and second, man is too poor to buy it. So you must get it as a gift, if you are to get it at all.
If nothing is paid, the command to buy seems strange. It is chosen for what buying implies about the buyer.
Why "buy"? Because it assumes a person is in earnest. When someone goes into a shop to "buy" something, his very presence there shows he really wanted it. Otherwise he would not have taken the trouble to walk in. Buying implies direct dealing between two parties. This is exactly what God wants. He wishes you brought into His own presence in real desire to have salvation — the water of life — Christ. You come. What then? You find it is all a gift.
"Without price" does not mean the blessing was cheap. It means the bill went elsewhere.
If someone owns his poverty as a bankrupt sinner, and comes to Christ in true soul thirst and need, he finds he can buy divine righteousness without money or price. The reason is that the Saviour paid the great price of it in full at Calvary.
The verse names wine and milk. Each meets a different need in the soul.
In Scripture wine speaks of joy and gladness. Here God invites the poor to buy the wine that makes glad the heart of God and man. But how can we buy if we have no money? All that God asks from us is faith in Himself, and in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Coming to Him in faith we receive the blessings of the gospel. One of them is "joy in the Holy Spirit." Another divine blessing is "milk," which nourishes us, sustains us and helps us grow in the things of God — "the pure spiritual milk" (1 Peter 2:2).
The invitation does not stop at the gifts.
Three times over in Isaiah 55:1 the cry is to "come" for the blessings of God. But in verse 3 the Lord says, "Incline your ear, and come to me." It is good to come for blessing that God has provided. How very wonderful that we can come to the Lord Himself, the source of all the blessing. Coming to Him, having heard His voice, we receive life, for He says, "Come to me… that your soul may live."
- Cost paid. The invitation follows Isaiah 53: the Saviour paid the whole price at Calvary, so the counter charges you nothing.
- Price removed. God is too rich to sell salvation and man too poor to buy it, so it can only come as a gift.
- Thirst owned. Thirst is the whole qualification — not how strong your longing is, only that you want it.
- Doors opened. "Everyone" carries the offer past Israel to a needy world, Jew and Gentile alike.
- Life given. Water, wine and milk answer thirst, joy and growth — but the last "come" points past the gifts to the Giver, so that your soul may live.
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.
God interrupts the free invitation of the previous verse with a question. Before He offers His food, He asks them to look at what they are already buying — and at what it gives them back.
Verse 1 speaks to the person with no money at all. Verse 2 turns to a different listener: the one who has money and buys what is worthless. One writer draws out what "bread" stands for here:
There were not only the poor who had no money. God offered them His blessings. There were also the rich, who had money and spent it on what was not bread. In Scripture, bread is what is needed to keep life going. And the usual bent of the rich is to seek things that destroy the soul instead of things that feed it.
The second half of the question is about effort, not only cash. The work itself does not satisfy. One writer explains why:
As long as anyone's heart seeks rest, satisfaction, or happiness in this world, it will find only disappointment... The heart of man is too large for this world to fill. Its capacities are too vast for everything under the heavens to satisfy... But suppose a man reached every object he desired and held it all — what would he gain? Only a deeper sense that all is empty. Earthly good has no power to fill the aching emptiness inside. Every worldly pleasure, amusement and indulgence leaves the soul more thirsty than ever.
If nothing bought will satisfy, what is the craving for? One writer names what the thirsty soul is after, even when it cannot put that into words:
The thirsty are invited. And are you not among that number? You certainly are, if you have not yet found Jesus. Our verses say that "your labor," whatever it is, "does not satisfy." Thirst is a craving that only the right drink can satisfy. Now the thirst of an anxious soul is really for God and His Christ, though very likely it could not put it in so many words.
The verse is not only about pleasure and profit. People can spend money and effort on religious things that still leave the soul unfed:
Don't many of the religious books of today bear clear marks of a famine of the word of God? After reading pages of them we have sometimes said, "There is no ministry of Christ here. Where is food for souls?" ... We say it to warn Christian writers and readers. They should not waste their time, energy and money on what neither honours the Lord nor feeds souls.
The remedy God gives is to listen closely and eat what is good. One writer sets what that "good" is against the kind of blessing Israel might have expected:
What better could be known than "life" above the life of nature, received through faith in the divine Word — with Jehovah's favour enjoyed as well? This was not blessing in the city and in the field, or in the cattle and in the flock, in the basket and in the kneading bowl. It was not even being made the head rather than the tail. Old Testament believers knew this blessing and had it by grace, though far from the fullness we now have through and in Christ.
The good food comes with a condition — hearing:
Only those who listen closely to the Lord know what is good for the soul. Only those who hear His word will delight their souls in His rich provision.
"Eat what is good" raises a question: where is that food found? The answer is not a thing but a Person:
But where, you may ask again, are we to find the needed and suited portion for the soul? Let the Spirit of Truth answer... Christ Himself is the life and food of the soul. "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst" (John 6:35). Here, and here alone, the soul of man will find eternal rest. He is the only perfect and permanent good of the soul... Christ not only fills, but overflows the soul that is occupied with Him alone.
- Diagnosis — "Bread" is what keeps life going. The verse finds people paying good money for what cannot keep a soul alive.
- Evidence — The heart is too large for the world to fill, so every pleasure leaves it thirstier than before.
- Meaning — The thirst itself points somewhere. It is really a thirst for God and His Christ.
- Warning — Religious activity can be "not bread" too, if there is no ministry of Christ in it and souls go unfed.
- Cure — Listen closely and eat what is good: life and God's favour, found in Christ Himself. He does not just fill the soul; He overflows it.