What does it mean that the Word of God will not return void (Isaiah 55:11)?

Moreover, besides the thoughts and ways of God there is His word, by which He signifies what His thoughts and ways are. Verse 10 assures us of its beneficent effect. Just as the rain descending from heaven brings with it life and fertility in nature, making man's labour to be fruitful for his good, so the word of God acts in a spiritual way. Received into the heart it is fruitful in life and blessing; and not only that, but is full of power, never failing in the effect that God intends whether in grace or in judgment. This was exemplified in the Lord Jesus Himself. No word of His ever fell fruitless to the ground, for He was the Living Word. It is equally true of the written word of God. It is said of the blessed man of Psalm 1, that, "In His law doth He meditate day and night." Happy are we, now that we have "the word of His grace" (Acts 20:32), as well as the word of His law, if we do so likewise.

Now miracles are not wrought to prove ministry, even as no miracles were wrought by John the Baptist or the prophets amongst the Jews. The word, and the fruit which it bears, are the evidence of the reality of the ministry: the word by the truth itself, and the fruits by their character and power. There may be opposition and persecution, but that is nothing new; the Lord and the apostles encountered it, in spite of the mightiest miracles. God will accomplish His own purposes, and His word will not return to Him without prospering in that whereunto He sent it.

It is marvellous grace on the part of God that He should put His words into our mouths; but it is also a challenging matter. Peter refers to men speaking as "oracles of God"; and Isaiah says, "My word shall not return unto Me void". It does not say our word; it is God's own Word. We may be assured that if God has put His Word into our lips, and His Word is spoken, there will be results for His glory and for the blessing of the saints, for God has said it "shall not return unto Me void".

In verse 10 God likens His word to both rain and snow. They both come down from heaven; we have not to reach up for them, they are beyond our reach, but God graciously sends them down. It is not difficult to discern in this an application to the ministry of God's word for the nourishment of our souls. How imperative it is if we are to grow in our souls to be where this ministry can reach us. Just as the earth is dependent upon the rain and the snow, so are we dependent upon the ministry of the word of God. God first puts into the earth all the elements which are needed to produce the fruit, then He constantly waters it with rain and with snow, to cause it to bring forth fruit. As born of God we are capacitated to bring forth fruit for God, but we are as dependent upon the ministry of the word to do so as the earth is upon the rain and the snow. Neither the rain nor the snow give life, but apparently they are needed to stimulate it. How soon parched pasture will burst forth into life after a refreshing shower of rain! So it is with ourselves. It is important to remember that we need both the snow and the rain. Many noxious weeds, etc., are killed by the snow, while the earth itself is tempered by it. How many weeds there are in our sinful hearts which need constantly to come under the death-dealing power of the Word. "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin," Romans 6:11.

We see in verse 10 the threefold product of the watering; bud, seed, and bread. The bud would suggest the evidence of life, and would be seen in our walk and ways, and a life productive of the features of Christ. The seed would have provision for sowing in view; that is, truth in our hearts with which we can sow, whether it be by gospel preaching, teaching the young, or a word of ministry to the saints. Then last of all we have the thought of bread, which would suggest our souls being nourished by the Word of God. It is for this God gives these resources of rain and snow, for in verse 11 we read that He gives His word to accomplish that which is well pleasing to Him. Could we believe that God has no objective in view when He sends rain and snow, or that He has no objective in view when He gives to us His word? We have the assurance that it will not return to Him void, but we each have to ask ourselves, whether while it is productive in others, is it to be unproductive in me? Rather may we see to it that it is prosperous with us, and that it produces through us that which is well pleasing to God.

Yet Paul's work was not in vain. Nor was Luther's in so far as it was "in the Lord." Nor is ours today, subject always to the same qualification. Not one item of the work of the Lord done by any of us In the Lord will be found fruitless or in vain in the day when we enter the resurrection world with all the saints. Jeremiah; who was chosen of God to be His witness in the last decadent days of Judah's history, had a most heart-breaking experience as disaster after disaster and failure after failure rolled in upon him. No word of his seemed to prosper, yet the coming day will reveal that the Word of God put into his lips did prosper in the thing whereto the Lord sent it (see Isa. 55:11), and he will find that his work was not in vain. And then see what stability and unmoveableness marked him! What other Old Testament servant of God was made "a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land"? (Jer. 1:18).

The exhortation is based further upon the sad example of their fathers. The former prophets had cried unto them, in the name of the Lord of hosts, "Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the Lord." (v. 4.) And what was the consequence? Have any of the Lord's people found the path of disobedience to be a path of safety or blessing? No; that were impossible; and Zechariah recalls the fact to the people's mind that, while their fathers and the prophets who had spoken to them the word of the Lord had passed off the scene, the word of God had not failed. "But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of [margin, overtake] your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us." (v. 6.) We thus learn that the word of God never returns to Him void, that it must accomplish that which He pleases; heaven and earth may pass away, but His word will never perish; it will infallibly execute the mission on which it is sent. Woe therefore to him who neglects it, who walks according to his own will instead of by the light which it affords; for sooner or later he will have to confess, as these fathers did, that the word was sure, and that, if its warnings were despised, its threatenings would surely be accomplished. (Compare Joshua 23:14-19.)

His word, through the mouth of Peter, did not return void unto Him, but it did accomplish that which He pleased, and it did prosper in the thing whereto He sent it.

Israel then, having been found barren and unfruitful, the Lord came bringing that which would produce fruit, and this good seed He scattered broadcast, upon good and had soils alike. He had come to serve, and, as the Perfect Servant, He left the results of His work with Him who sent Him, according to the promise of Jehovah concerning His word of grace, "For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and returns not thither, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; so shall my word be that goes 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" (Isa. 55:10-11). In the strength of this assurance the Prophet of God sowed in the morn His seed, and in the evening withheld not His hand.

(Vv. 8–11). God’s thoughts and God’s ways are far above man’s legal thoughts and ways, even as the heavens are higher than the earth. God’s blessing, like the rain, comes down from heaven; as with the rain, so with His word, it accomplishes the end for which it is sent.

(Vv. 12, 13). His sowing of the good seed of His word of grace will bring forth a harvest of “joy” and “peace;” hush creation’s groan, secure blessing for man, and the everlasting glory of the name of the LORD.

16 Isaiah 55 is the call to repentance, but an invitation in grace, so that in principle whoever thirst can come. Promises are established in resurrection. Christ is witness to, and a leader of the various peoples. Pardon is abundant, for God's thoughts are above ours, and His Word is infallible in producing its results.