Come, All You Who Are Thirsty...

 

“Come, everyone who is thirsty,
come to the water;
and you without silver,
come, buy, and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without silver and without cost!” Isaiah 55:1

 

Isaiah 55 begins with a call to the desolate, a call to those who were in great despair, who in a physical sense, had little more than the clothes on their backs. It is a prophecy with a dual fulfillment, with the first fulfillment serving as a precursor to the ultimate fulfillment. In this instance, the first fulfillment was around 150 years in the future when, by a decree of King Cyrus, the Nation of Judah, returns to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple of God, and later the walls around Jerusalem (Ezra and Nehemiah). But its ultimate fulfillment is a spiritual fulfillment and it finds that fulfillment in the heart of the repentant Sinner. Isaiah begins; “Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the water”. In reading this, my mind is drawn to John 4 and to the encounter Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at Jacobs well. She came to draw water from a physical well, Jesus directed her to draw from the spiritual well for living water. 

 

Isaiah goes on to write; “and you without silver, come buy, and eat!Come buy wine and milk without silver and without cost!” Moving back to John 4, we see that, similar to the recipients of Isaiah’s message, the only thing The Woman At The Well brought to the table was a bankrupt soul. She was completely desolate. Here she is desolate, with a bankrupt soul, yet at the same time her spiritual mouth was parched with thirst, tongue dry and sticking to the roof of her mouth. In a spiritual sense, her stomach was completely void of any nutrition with an unquenchable hunger and deep rumblings that come with an empty stomach. Just as Isaiah does here in chapter 55, Jesus directs her attention to… well He had directed her attention to Himself. He was and is the Living Water, He was and is the Bread of Life. Spiritually, His Blood the wine, His Body the bread. She brought nothing to the table but a bankrupt soul, He laid before her an incredible feast, which He paid for in full, on the cross. 

 

What was true of her, what was true in the returning exiles, is also true of us. All that we bring to the table is a bankrupt soul, empty pockets spiritually, parched mouths, and spiritually empty stomachs. Jesus says, Come to a feast I have prepared for you. I know what it is you bring to the table, bankrupt souls, facing a debt you have no hope of repaying. That insurmountable debt you owe, you owe to Me, and I Myself have paid the debt, with My Own Blood, with My Own Body, broken for you. Come, drink and thirst no more. Come eat and be satisfied. 

 

Have you drawn from the well of living water that is Jesus Christ? If not, why not do so today?