The Message, March 23, 2025: "Come to the Waters," Isaiah 55:1-9
Author: Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
March 25, 2025
“Come to the Waters”
A Message by Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
Isaiah 55:1-9
This is one of those occasions in
which we need to establish the context for the scripture passage that we just heard.
It is generally accepted by most
scholars that the Book of Isaiah is not actually ONE book … but THREE. It is a
trilogy. The passage that we just heard is the last chapter in the second book.
Any of you readers out there understand that you cannot possibly know what is
going on if you begin reading at the end of the second book.
So … please bear with me. Perhaps
you will want to take notes on the back of your bulletin insert.
The Hebrew people had a long and
tumultuous history. They bickered and fought with one another. They bickered
and fought with God. They would grumble and complain against God and their
leaders. For centuries they were a divided kingdom with Isreal in the north,
and Judah in the south.
As the First Book of Isaiah began,
the Northern Kingdom, Israel, had allied itself with the nation of Syria with
the plan to attack and conquer the Southern Kingdom, Judah. The prophet Isaiah
went to King Ahaz, the king of Judah, and told him to trust God. Judah, with
God’s help, would defeat the allied armies of Israel and Syria. However, King
Ahaz did not trust God and he planned to form an alliance with the Assyrians.
Isaiah, speaking on God’s behalf, warned Ahaz but Ahaz ignored Isaiah. Then
Isaiah went directly to the people, but they rejected Isaiah as well.
The broader context was that people
of Judah had long since lost their way, not just their king. They had forgotten
their heritage. They had been disobedient to God. They had corrupted the faith.
Isaiah was dismayed that the people had refused the sustaining waters of the
Pool at Shiloah that offered them the strength and support that was associated
with God’s covenant with King David.
Anyway … Ahaz, with the assistance
of the Assyrians, did indeed defeat the attack by the Northen Kingdom and
Syria. However, not long after, the Assyrians swept into Judah like a flood of
death and destruction and conquered Judah for themselves.
Are you getting all of this?
About two hundred years later, the
Babylonians conquered what was left of the Kingdom of Judah and took the people
away into exile.
The Second Book of Isaiah was
written during this era. Second Isaiah or Deutero-Isaiah is often referred to
as the “Book of Consolation.” God speaks to the exiled remnant through the
prophet and invites them to return. God calls them home.
Of course, the drama is not over. As
had been their practice throughout the generations, the people had grumbled and
had fallen away. They had turned away from Yahweh. They believed that Yahweh
had failed them, betrayed them, and allowed them to be defeated. They looked to
other gods, worshipped other gods. All of that has led us to the passage that
we read this morning.
God was inviting the people …
imploring the people … to return home. And the return was two-fold. Return to
their homeland, Judah, and return “home” to God, Yahweh.
“Hear, everyone who thirsts; come
to the waters.”
We all understand what it means to
be thirsty, but can you imagine thirst like that? Can you imagine the thirst
associated with being defeated, conquered, and hauled away into exile? Can you
imagine the “thirst” of losing your home, your property, your heritage? Can you
imagine the “thirst” of living as a slave in a foreign land? Can you imagine
the “thirst” of believing that your God had betrayed you … failed you?
It is not a thirst like the one that
we have after mowing the lawn or spending time in the garden on a hot summer
day. Theirs was a thirst that was deep in their souls. Theirs was the thirst of
dry and brittle bones. Theirs was a thirst of desolate and desperate spirits.
For a people that were parched and
desperate, the invitation to ‘come to the waters’ must have been an answer to
prayer. Or … it should have been.
Water figured prominently throughout
the Hebrew scriptures. The word occurs nearly six hundred times. From the
waters of Creation, to the Story of Noah, to the rescue of the Hebrew people at
the waters of the Sea of Reeds, to the waters of the Jordan River … water was
blessing, water was life. God had provided life-giving, life-sustaining water
to the people in the Exodus; water flowed forth from a rock, and God was
offering water to the people once more.
Of course, in Hebrew scripture and
rabbinic thought “living water” was also a metaphor for Torah, the Law of God.
“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.”
(Isaiah 55:3) Listen to me, incline your ear to me, and I will remind you of
the covenant that I made with David. I will remind you of the steadfast love
that I have for you. I have not forgotten you or forsaken you. I am right here
… come to me.
There is no price to be paid for the
water that God offers. The is no fee for the feast that God provides. The only
requirement is our hunger and our thirst. Our desire to see God, and hear God,
and be in relationship with God.
This water, this feast is offered to
all people. It is the most valuable, the most precious of all gifts, and it is
freely given to all.
God knows their history. In God’s
final words to Moses, God told him that the people would fall away. God told
Moses that the people would chase after other gods. And here in this Book of
Consolation, Isaiah offers Good News to the people. Even with everything that
you have done … we have done … God is here. God is calling. God is inviting us
“home.” The pain, and hunger and scarcity of exile will be replaced and
replenished by the abundance of God.
As the Assyrian flood water once
overflowed the banks and overwhelmed the people with death and destruction, now
God’s abundance overflows with life! God’s abundance overflows and all we have
to do is desire it … hunger and thirst after it.
And what the passage … the Promise
and Invitation of God … concludes with is the recognition that we do not get to
control God’s abundance. God’s abundance overflows and overwhelms any human
restrictions or boundaries that we might try to place upon it. God’s love, and
grace, and mercy, and justice cannot be contained or controlled by human
initiatives.
“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.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
It was human arrogance and inability
to trust God that has been the root of so many trials and tribulations
throughout history. Unless human beings can cast aside our pride, our
arrogance, our smug confidence, we will not recognize that we cannot see the
way that God sees, or think that way that God thinks.
One of the problems of being human
is that we see God’s vision through the lenses of our own eyes, and our own
desires. People and communities and nations believe that they have some special
insight into the ways and thoughts of God. They believe, therefore, that they
are the deserving beneficiaries or recipients of God’s special vision and care.
Which also leads them to believe that they have some ordained right or
privilege to determine those who do not merit God’s vision and care.
God’s abundance is for all people.
It is freely given without cost. God is calling us, inviting us. Come home.
Come to me.
Come to the waters … and quench your
thirst.
Come to the feast … and satisfy your
hunger.
Incline your ear to me … listen to
my Word, my Voice.
Choose wisely. Choose that which has
value. Choose that which offers life and enhances life. Choose that which
offers love and mercy to others. Choose that which brings you closer to God.
We are on a Godward journey. Let us
make our way home to God. Amen.
BACK