All are invited to partake of God’s salvation provided through Christ.
All the world’s wealth and pleasure cannot satisfy the soul,
but God’s eternal salvation brings true life and peace.
It is man’s wisdom, therefore, to seek Christ while He may be found,
forsaking sin and dislodging all preconceived notions contrary to God’s truth, for God will then abundantly pardon.
Isaiah 1
1 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.
2 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.
3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
5 Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.
6 ¶ Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 ¶ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goeth 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.
12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
Isaiah 1 – J. Vernon McGee
Isaiah 55 – The Free Offer of Pardoning Grace
The Prince of Life, Isaiah 55:4. Four times in the New Testament the title Prince of Life is applied to our Lord, and always in connection with His Resurrection. See Acts 3:14-15; 5:31; Hebrews 2:9-10; 12:2, where the words prince, author, and captain, are various translations of the same Greek word. He leads out of death into life; out of defeat into victory; out of suffering into perfection; out of the sorrow and pain of discipline into the triumph of the sons of light.
The everlasting covenant, Isaiah 55:3. David’s sin could not cancel the sure mercies of God. See II Samuel 7:14-16 and II Samuel 23:5. God will never go back on that covenant which includes us! See Hebrews 8. God’s mercies in Christ are sure. Listen! Come! Hear! We are not only forever safe, but we are provided against all want.
God’s abundant provision is described under several terms: waters, wine, milk, wholesome and satisfying bread, the good, fatness, Isaiah 55:1-2. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ, Ephesians 1:3. And because God’s thoughts and ways are not as ours, the result is the transformation of thorns into firs and briars into myrtles. —Through the Bible Day by Day
Isaiah 55:13—Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree.
Here are the substitutions of grace. It would have been much to root up the thorn, and to cut up the briar, so that the soil should be rid of weeds; but God does more. He substitutes fir-trees for thorns, and myrtles for briars; and He does this for his Name’s sake, and as a sign for evermore.
He will do this in your character.—There are thorns and briars there; you must confess it to your cost. Now, do not be satisfied with their extermination, but seek that God should substitute their opposites; so that the site of some old evil maybe commemorated by the growth of some fair grace. Where the thorn of cynicism and sarcasm grew, there the graceful and sprightly fir of forbearance; where the briar of malice and envy, there the sensitive delicate myrtle of charity. This is the triumph of grace in the believer’s heart.
He will do this in your home.—You have a thorn in that husband, or a briar in that child. Once you used to look for relief in death. You almost questioned whether you might not hasten yourself out of such terrible and perpetual suffering. It seemed as though you were being scourged with thorns. But God will do much better than this. He is able to transform those trying dispositions. That husband will become your evergreen fir-tree: that child your myrtle.
He will do this in your trials.—There are briars besetting every path that call for earnest care. Many beside Paul have thorns in the flesh. But His grace is sufficient to change our biggest curse into our greatest blessing. Look for this. Ask God to transform the conditions of your life which have cost you excruciating anguish, into sources of benediction. —Our Daily Homily