THE PARADOX OF JOY
ISAIAH 55
Hear, everyone who thirsts; come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your earnings for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. 4 See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. 5 Now you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. 6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; 7 let the wicked forsake their way and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says 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 and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.12 For you shall go out in joy and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
This passage is thought to conclude what scholars call Second Isaiah (chapters 40-55), also known as the “Book of Comfort”. These were hard times for the Jews. They had been utterly defeated, their temple leveled, and their leaders exiled to a strange land. They were in a very dark place. The promises of God seemed far off if not impossible. They needed comfort. How could they be a light to the nations when their own nation was so badly fragmented? How could God allow his chosen people to suffer so? In that context, vs 12 — “you shall go out in joy and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” — seem hopelessly romantic. But it raises the very important question, “How do we get to joy when we are desolate?”
PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT IS IMPORTANT
The first verses are quite confusing unless we read them poetically. On the face of it, the words “…You who have no money, come, buy and eat…” don’t make any sense. How can we buy if we have no money. What is important, however, is food that nourishes the soul is not about money. Jesus called it the bread of life. It costs but it does not cost money. The question that must be asked of all of us is “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your earnings for that which does not satisfy? We all must decide how we will allocate our time, finances and energy. Isaiah’s advice is simple.
CHOOSE WISELY
Though the first few verses are confusing—calling the people without money to buy food— the reference is far more likely to be the concept that food for the spiritual life is not connected to money. Such food certainly has costs, but the costs are not primarily financial. When Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.” He was not referring to bread that could be bought. So, it is quite possible for Isaiah to implore the people to seek the bread that nourishes the soul in contrast to the food that feeds our bodies. It is always tempting to seek what nourishes our sense of safety, or our need for secular position and approval. Such efforts, while initially gratifying are not sustainable nor sustaining. Or, as I like to say, ‘You can live a long time on Doritos—but eventually you will die of malnutrition.”
Figuring out what really matters is one of the main tasks of any spiritual pilgrimage. So, Isaiah counsels: “Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live…Listen…,so that you might live.” Delighting in ‘rich food’ does not refer to creme puffs and hollandaise sauce, rather to the food that richly nourishes the soul. This is one of the countless biblical examples of metaphor trumping literalism.
As a matter of practical application, we believe that regard, mindfulness, inclusion and love are the elements of the spiritual life. These are the values that lead to connection with each other and with God. They last beyond our biology and are doable irrespective of our place in the world. The call to the exiles was to remember what matters. Their idea of what God must mean when he said they were the chosen people and that David would make their nation great was in shambles. But even in exile, they could be about what God was about. Political landscapes come and go. Families are irretrievably altered by divorce, unemployment, illness and death. It was and is hard to ‘hold to that which is good’ when we are in the pit—when the anchors of our lives are dislodged. The paradox is that it turns out that we often cannot learn God is with us until we think he isn’t.
RESTORATION OF THE DAVIDIC COVENANT
Next, God promises the restoration of the Davidic Covenant—which was the promise that through the line of David, a messiah would arise. The conventional understanding—pre-exile—was that Israel would become a great nation and a light to the world. It was an ancient version of the prosperity gospel. We will gain power and might. Through this power and might, we will be an example of a people rewarded for their faithfulness. But of course, such a vision did not include the defeat, devastation and exile that was a major part of their history. So, the promise that the Davidic Covenant was still alive was way outside of the box. It was the beginning of the concept that suffering could be redemptive. The ‘suffering servant’ passages turned the idea of secular power on its head and presaged a crucified messiah.
IT’S NOT FAIR
The most ordinary initial response to the pit—whatever pit we find ourselves in—is to say: “It’s not fair. How could God let such terrible things happen to good people (like us)?” These are the comments I imagine Isaiah was responding to when he says: “… my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says 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.” Reminiscent of God’s words to Job—”Where were you when I laid the foundation of the world?” We are told in no uncertain terms that God’s purposes are beyond human knowing. Just because we are in exile, grieving and finding it impossible to go on, does not mean God’s purposes are not being acted out. It just means we cannot see or understand them.
That said, we, like those ancient Jews, want and need explanations. We need to see fairness and justice (as we define the terms). When we cannot get them, it is easier to blame God (How could God allow such things?) or to blame ourselves (We have gone astray and deserve whatever happens to us). Both strategies deny God’s sovereignty and reveal our need to explain and know. Isaiah suggests such knowledge is impossible. We, and the ancient Jews are left with: “Live with what is. God is working his purposes out.”
Even if true, and I believe it is, this is a frustrating thing to hear when we are in the pit. We do not want to face that sometimes we are overwhelmed. Sometimes there is no rhyme or reason that we can discern. We are mortal creatures with limited view in a labyrinth of life. We cannot know what is around the corner—or why there is a chasm, a rock slide or a boulder in our path—and much less why some have smooth paths and others have paths that are nearly impassable. We just have to deal. And we don’t like it. Nor did the ancient Jews like it.
THE PARADOX OF JOY
The paradox of joy is that once we face our limitations and choose to live within them, the hardships of life are far more endurable. We may not be happy. Our circumstances may not change but living in right relationship with God allows us new freedom to live our lives. As Isaiah writes: “you shall go out in joy and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” This is poetry and most of us are far from song, but we will have the capacity to endure and live the life that we have. We do not have to burn our life energy seeking answers that are above our pay grade. The confidence that we can tend to life as it is leads to joy. It feeds the soul.
It is almost unimaginable when we are forced into exile, but it is possible to live in exile. That such a faith could emerge from the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple is one of the wonders of religious history. But it is a wonder that is possible every day we face what we do not like or understand.
We not only seek to live in humble acknowledgement of what we do not know, we live in the promise that God joins us in the journey. His steadfast love endures forever. Let it be so.