PREPARING THE WAY: “Delight in Rich Food”
Isaiah 55
March 23, 2025
In today’s text, the prophet Isaiah promises comfort and solace for our souls.
Isaiah claims that, whatever outward circumstances we may face,
in God’s Word, we discover rich food, holy manna, bread of life, that will quench our hunger.
We are to delight in the rich food of God’s Word because we will discover that God’s Word
shall not return empty, but will accomplish that which God purposes.
God’s Word will ultimately succeed in that which God intends.
And what God intends for us and for all people is life – life abundant, life eternal, life with God.
The context into which this scripture speaks is not life, however but death,
not the blessedness of God’s presence, but the fear of God’s absence,
not the order and wonder of God’s good creation, but the chaos and pain of human loss.
Hear the Word of God from Isaiah 55, offered to those longing for hope and comfort.
Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money,
come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labour for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
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.
See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. See,
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.
Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near;
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.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
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,
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.
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.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
“Ho”! Everyone who thirsts…”
This is the only time this uncommon word, “ho”, is used in Holy Scripture.
“Ho” is used as a unique calling for us to listen up, pay attention.
Ho, you there, are you thirsty? Does your soul long for peace?
Ho, you there, are you hungry? Do you feel unsatisfied, unfulfilled in life?
Ho, you there, do you live in fear or want? Seek the presence of God.
Come to the waters, the waters of life. Delight yourselves in the rich food of God’s Word.
Incline your ears and your hearts toward God, so that you may live.
Hunger, thirst, fearfulness, loneliness, dissatisfaction, longing…
all are very much a part of the human condition.
Holy Scripture often uses our bodily hunger, our bodily thirst as a metaphor
for the longing of our souls.
Psalm 42 – As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
(King James Version: As the hart panteth after the water brooks,
so panteth my soul after thee, O God.)
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me continually,
‘Where is your God?’
The psalmist has experienced the feeling of God’s absence,
and his friends and enemies are asking him questions:
Where is this God of yours? If your God is so good, why are all these terrible things happening?
Then the psalmist turns to his memory for help:
These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng,
and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.
In the midst of his unsettled, disquieted and cast down soul,
the psalmist remembers more settled times and trusts that God will again provide hope.
The psalmist trusts that he will once again sing songs of praise.
When Jesus was on the cross, in the midst of unspeakable pain and severe dehydration,
he cried out: “I thirst.” Gospel of John, chapter 19:
After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfil the scripture),
‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine
on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said,
‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
In order to fulfill the scripture?
The reference from the cross is Psalm 69, a psalm of lamentation.
In the Hebrew tradition, to call out one line of the psalm was to call the mind the entire psalm.
For Jesus to receive sour wine on the cross was to recall the whole of Psalm 69,
which includes these words:
Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.
I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God. Answer me, O Lord,
for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.
Do not hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress—make haste to answer me.
Draw near to me, redeem me, set me free because of my enemies.
You know the insults I receive, and my shame and dishonour; my foes are all known to you.
Insults have broken my heart, so that I am in despair.
I looked for pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
Jesus knew the pain and thirst of the human condition – thirst for relief, thirst for justice,
thirst for God’s presence in the midst of pain and travail.
Jesus knew loneliness and betrayal. He experienced shame and dishonor.
He knew the fear of rising waters; he knew the desperation of waiting for God’s help.
And he knew the psalms. Psalm 69 continues:
I am lowly and in pain; let your salvation, O God, protect me.
I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving…
Let the oppressed see it and be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive.
For the Lord hears the needy, and does not despise his own that are in bonds.
We all thirst from time to time.
Our souls long for that which is more than food. We long for that which will satisfy our souls.
When’s the last time you were truly thirsty? Bodily thirsty?
There was a certain overnight backpacking hike in Yellowstone Park in 1989,
the year after the three tremendous fires burned something like two thirds of the park.
We had carried in plenty of water for our first day on the trail,
knowing that we were camping next to the Yellowstone river
and would be able to refill our water bottles.
But that evening when we went down to the river to refill our bottles,
the water was gray with ash. The water was not good.
We strained it and boiled it, but it was still not very good.
We used it for cooking and cleaning that night, as best we could,
then we boiled some water to carry on the hike the next day.
The following day happened to be one of the warmest of the entire summer.
We were at a lower elevation, and it grew to be extremely hot.
We only had 8 or 10 miles to hike down the canyon to Gardiner, Montana,
but that was a long way on a hot day with not enough clean water.
About halfway through the hike, we ran out of the water we had boiled the night before.
Though we were hiking near the river, it was a gray mess, not very appetizing.
With only a few miles left, we became genuinely concerned about a few members of our party.
Dehydration was quickly becoming debilitating, and could have become dangerous
in that wilderness.
All of us were thirsty, verging on desperation. A few of our group began to stumble.
If we had been further in the backcountry, if the little town of Gardiner was not almost in sight,
if the Yellowstone River had not been near, as unappetizing as it was,
we would have been in a world of hurt.
Have you ever felt yourself verging on the edge of desperation?
Have you ever felt yourself longing for relief? Afraid that help is nowhere to be found?
Uncertain of God’s presence or that God cares at all?
Government employees and their families have been going through tough times
over these past months. What must it be like to be fired unexpectedly,
and not know whether your twenty year career job will be restored or not?
Mothers and children in Gaza have been going through tough times.
I cannot imagine the desperate thirst for security and safety in Gaza right now.
Mothers lead their children through streets of nothing but rubble,
trying to find daily bread and water, seeking a safe place to sleep.
Then the ceasefire breaks and more missiles fall, and hundreds, if not thousands,
more women and children die, and the hospitals have been turned to rubble,
and the world remains mostly silent.
Is the world not thirsty for peace? Is our world not hungering for an end to the violence?
Such situations are not new in Israel or in world history.
In 587 bce, Jerusalem was utterly destroyed by the powerful Babylonian empire.
Jerusalem was turned to nothing but rubble,
and all the leaders were carried off into exile to Babylon, today’s Baghdad.
Then, fifty years later, Cyrus of Persia, of today’s Iran, defeated the Babylonians,
and Cyrus sent the exiles home to Jerusalem.
There, the exiles helped lead a tremendous rebuilding project.
The walls of the city, the Temple, and the people themselves began to rebuild,
began to find renewal and transformation.
In that context, the prophet whom scholars call Deutero-Isaiah wrote Isaiah 40-55.
In the midst of tremendous uncertainty and unforeseen challenges,
the people needed a message of hope; they needed an invitation to lean into God’s blessings.
When we find ourselves at the low points in life, Holy Scripture helps.
The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans 5:1-5
Since we have been justified by faith, we can have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ…
And not only that, we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
Psalm 121 – I lift mine eyes unto the hills, from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Jim Norman’s grandson read that passage recently at Jim’s memorial service.
The passage held great meaning for them both.
Psalm 46 – God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea…
Be still and know that I am God.
On a hillside in Galilee, Jesus spoke words of blessing to the crowds (Beatitudes, Matthew 5):
All you who hunger and thirst for righteousness, you shall be filled,
the meek shall inherit the earth.
Listen to me, that you may live! the prophet declares.
The everlasting covenant with God has not come to an end.
Even though you may be in a terrible situation.
Even though your old life is gone and it does not seem like it will possibly get better,
God has not forgotten you. God has not left you orphaned.
The covenantal promises still stand, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Psalm 23 – The Lord is our shepherd, we shall not want.
Even though we walk through the darkest valley, we will fear no evil;
for God is with us; God’s rod and staff—they comfort us.
Philippians 4:4-7 – Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice…
Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God,
which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
And, in closing, Isaiah 55 – 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,
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.
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.
God has promised to quench our thirst, to assuage the hunger of our souls.
Ho! You there! You who thirst, come to the waters!
Ho! You who may feel no hope for the future, come,
delight yourselves in the rich food of God’s Word!!
God’s Word shall not return empty;
God’s Word shall accomplish that gift of life which God intends.
So be it. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Todd Speed
Decatur Presbyterian Church
Decatur, Georgia
