Isaiah
55 begins with a word that goes out from the Lord’s mouth as an invitation to
the thirsty to come and buy food and drink that delights without money and without cost. It is a word for a recently released captive people returned to
Zion who suffer under the weight of harsh conditions while attempting to
rebuild a ruined country. As sure as the seasons, Isaiah tells them, God’s word
will water your work and even the mountains and hills will sing while the trees
and fields keep the beat. It is a word
that requires faith which is not the same as proof as the joy and peace will not come without difficulty. But without the word of hope the wicked will return
to their ways and the unrighteous to their thoughts which leads inevitably to
despair. To hope in the Lord, to trust the promise, is to anticipate the
everlasting sign which is not yet and at the same time already present which
means we sing the future song even while the fields are choked by thistles and
the hills covered with briers.
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