You can read the other post below, but I need to follow through with my intent to fill you in on Isaiah. Basically, the passage hit me like a bolt out of the blue last week. I was meditating on Scripture, hoping to find the right one to communicate God's heart to the church. Isaiah 54:11-55:5 wouldn't be found on its own in many scholarly works, but it is a passage that discusses God's endowment. We in North America are generally interested in endowments or anything that sounds like a promise for our good. Often, our interests are shallow; we tend to think God's endowment rests in money, health, prosperity, and the like.
To read the passage, one might think that we had it right all along. After all, God promises to rebuild His people's lives with many precious stones (54:11-12) and to endow them with splendor (55:5). He promises children with connections to God and wisdom (54:13). There are also connections to nations, a new generation that the people do not yet know (55:3-4). There's even the promise that God's people will no longer have to fear the people around them (54:14-17) and the reminder that spending one's labor on foreign connections and delicacies (as Judah was doing at the time of the prophecy) is futile. It sounds like prosperity, success, money, and future to me.
Or does it? What about the people to whom it was originally written? What about how the prophet addresses the people in 54:11? They are afflicted, wracked by storms, disconsolate. They were homeless, city-less, protection-less, military-less, family-less, and status-less. They were slaves. They were mocked, beaten, tortured, threatened, raped, and pillaged. For a good idea about the emotions of the people in Babylon, read Psalm 137. People with that outlook on life don't care about prosperity, success, money, and future. If they had money, their captors would spend it. If they had health, they would only endure torture longer. As for prosperity, the Hebrew ideal was that of shalom, a deep sense of inner well-being and infiltrating peace. (That's a whole other post or blog or something.)
God's promise in the original passage was that of security. The promise of rebuilding with precious stones was one to make the people feel secure that they would be rebuilt; they would again have a place of their own. The home would be strong (note use of words like "walls," "stones," "pinnacles" or "battlements," and "foundation") and beautiful (hence, the precious stones). They would also receive the security of a future. Not the kind of future provided by money or health, but the kind of future provided by children (the rebirth of a nation) who would know the Lord (unlike their ancestors whose inattention to God put them in exile) and a shalom peace. Finally, God would give them the security of stability. They would no longer fear any attacker. To prove it, God reminded them that He created the attackers, implying that He could take care of them. Even, "No weapon forged to be used against you will succeed."
We might think that's the point, but did you notice the build there? The security promises are all well and good, but why the build? Why the promises? Why the security? Look at 55:1-2, the climax. "Come." Yes, that's it. That's the point. "Come." God will rebuild the city, give them a future, and even fight for them just so that they could come. It didn't matter if someone was in Forbes magazine or if they were penniless; God's invitation echoes through the corridors of time. "Come." Spending money and labor on things that don't satisfy (for Judah it was treaties, foreign friends, foreign gods, etc.; for us, you name it - nothing satisfies but Jesus) is ridiculous. Come to the Lord, who requires absolutely no money. After all, He made provision for the cost to be paid. How much truer is that for us in the Last Days (New Testament era) who don't have to have that provision made annually in Jerusalem? God took care of that in Jesus and now invites us to come. He says something interesting in 55:2 "Pay attention to me. Listen to me so you can live" (or something like that). Come to Jesus and live. Think Chris Rice's "Untitled Hymn." Everything we receive is intended to inspire us to come to Jesus, to free us up to come to Jesus, to empower us to come to Jesus.
This is the message of Isaiah 54:11-55:5: Come to Jesus and live life to the full.
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