Come, Listen, Look

Isaiah 55:1-5

“Hey, you gotta come check out my new place!” my friend told me, excitedly. He’d just bought a new house out in Hanover. Huge back-yard, big bedrooms for the kids, a beautiful porch and patio, and a two-story shed out back he was planning on converting into a man cave with music and darts and, of course, a couple of disc golf baskets. He was extending an invitation to come to his new place, to listen to the plans he had to build it up and make it great, and to look with my own eyes at what he had and what he was envisioning. Come, listen, look! It’s an invitation to be a part of something, and to share in the joy making dreams come true.

Isaiah 55:1-5 contains three sets of repeated words. These words: Come! Listen! Look! Isaiah is extending an invitation to God’s people to remember the potential to which God calls them. Why would such an invitation be necessary? So, keep in mind that a lot has happened in the Jewish community during the latter half of the 6th century B.C.E. Many of the Israelites in the northern kingdom of Judah have been devastated by attacks from the Babylonian army and now live in exile in a foreign land, surrounded by worshippers of foreign gods. The loss of their native land left many tempted to doubt the power and ability of Israel’s God to “secure [their] safety and security.”[1] It’s also important to note that their exile did not mean they were economically devastated. They were still able to ply their trades and many of the Jewish exiles were still able to prosper in this foreign land, but their prosperity was credited to the benevolence of other gods.[2] They have a new home filled with new potential and a new threat to their religious identity and faithfulness to their God.

So Isaiah steps in, a prophet, a dreamer, sent by God to remind people that the promises of God aren’t null and void and that faithfulness to God should not depend on what human beings are in power. Human beings and empires often create their own gods to justify their own power, gods which endorse military might and monetary wealth. “Come,” Isaiah says, “even if you don’t have money, money is not your God, and your God sets a feast for all.” It’s an invitation that echoes that of Jesus in the midst of the Roman Empire, “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom of God!” Money and wealth, which Jesus often called “Mammon”—the name of an idol, a man-made god of the economy—these things are not your God.

“Come if you’re thirsty,” Isaiah says. He is distinguishing the invitation to participate in God’s Kingdom from the invitation to participate in a kingdom where money rules. He drives the point home by repeating the invitation and adding, “come, even if you don’t have money, and get food.” Other gods might require payment, might tempt you to find your worth in wealth, but not the God of Israel. The economy might belong to the man-made gods, but the earth belongs to the LORD, the God of Israel. “Why spend your money on what isn’t food, your earnings for what doesn’t satisfy?” is just another way of saying “Why would you locate your value and worth in anything other than the love of the one who made you?” This is where the temptation to turn from God begins, when other gods are given credit for prosperity.

How might Isaiah’s invitation be worded today where so many, under the guise of “Christianity”, are tempted to proclaim a “Gospel of Prosperity”? A while ago I preached about the difference between the God, Yahweh, and the idol, Have It Your Way. “Babylon was a ‘Have It Your Way’ type of empire,” I said. What about us? What sort of things do we value? What things keep you from valuing yourself and your neighbor? Think about the conversations over minimum wage and job creation that split our country. Are those who are making decisions ultimately concerned with the well-being and value of people? Or are they more committed to the well-being and value of the economy? There are churches whose pastors make millions of dollars, own private jets, and live in 10,000 square foot mansions. “Come,” says Isaiah…maybe better translated, “Come on!” Money did not create the heavens and the earth, but it has enslaved them.

“Listen,” he says next. “Listen carefully to the LORD and eat what is good; enjoy the richest of feasts.” Many commentators liken this to the invitation of Lady Wisdom from Proverbs 9. Listen to verses 4-6 in the Common English translation “’Whoever is naïve turn aside here,’ she says to those who lack sense. ‘Come, eat my food, and drink the wine I have mixed. Abandon your simplistic ways and live; walk in the way of understanding.” Compare that to what Isaiah says, “Listen and come to the LORD; listen and you will live.” Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra, a Rabbi of the 10th century A.D., wrote this about Isaiah’s and Lady Wisdom’s words, “wisdom is demanded by the soul as food is by the body.”

Ibn Ezra suggests that there is a metaphor within Isaiah’s words, that the “food and drink without price”, are “soul food”. “Food and drink without price” represent the wisdom of God which provides us with freedom from the man-made gods which exploit our labor for the benefit of the wealthy. To be clear, this is not God’s way of saying that we shouldn’t work to earn money to buy food to provide for our families. God is simply saying, “Listen carefully, I don’t want your work to cost you your relationship with me. I don’t want your pursuit of money to cause you to view your neighbor, and his/her hunger, as a threat to your well-being.”

I was approached in a parking lot a few months back by a man looking for a few dollars to put gas in his car. He had an elaborate story about children and food, a story which I am sure many of you have heard before. I legitimately did not have any cash on me, but I’m not sure I would have given him any, even if I did. Too many people take advantage of generosity to buy that which isn’t food, and spend money on drugs which do not satisfy—they might help us escape from life, but they do not let us truly live. It’s a shame that this abuse has caused me to look on all who ask for money or help with a sense of skepticism. I told this man that if he met me at the 7-11 on the corner I would fill his tank with gas, that way, I at least knew where my money was going. Had he been after loose change to spend willy-nilly, he wouldn’t have shown up, but he did, and his children were in the back seat. Genuine generosity prevents us from being exploited, whereas simply throwing money at problems (an idol sacrifice) is almost a guarantee that we are being used by foreign gods. Likewise, when we give our money to the hunger offering, we know we are giving to a cause over which we have prayed and through which our God is able to prepare a table at which those with no money can eat.

We are tempted to anxiety, even anger, by people on food stamps whom we feel abuse the system and exhort our tax dollars to remain…I think “lazy” is the popular term. I am sure there are many who do abuse the system, but that is nothing compared to the multitude who depend on it. This is how our relationship with God is threatened. Isaiah knows and God knows the temptation to anger that exists in a kingdom where prosperity belongs to other gods. That anger and anxiety belongs to those gods, too. But if we strive to serve the God who sets a feast for those who have no money, that anger melts, even becomes joy, and we are no longer capable of being exploited because of our genuine generosity. “Listen carefully to me and eat what is good; enjoy the richest of feasts.” God knows this generosity will be and is being exploited, and still, as we read last week, “God prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies.” And then, God invites our enemies to dine there, too. Food, wisdom, grace…whether literal or metaphorical one thing is certain: this feast is for ALL.

“Look,” Isaiah concludes, “I made David a witness to the peoples, a prince and commander to the peoples.” Now, Isaiah says, God is extending the covenant made with David to all peoples, “to you.” At this point in Israel’s history, David’s kingship is over, his kingdom demolished, and the temple he built has been destroyed. But God had made a covenant with David; promises of blessing, security, and peace. “Look,” Isaiah says, “you have not been ruined by the defeat of the royal house of David, by the destruction of the temple, because God’s covenant is not with those things, but with you.” God’s covenant is for all. Remember back to its first pronouncement to Abraham: “I will make of you a great nation…all the families of the earth will be blessed because of you.” This was a promise that extended to Ishmael as well as Israel. A promise that rescued Jews from captivity in Egypt and carried them through the wilderness. A promise that outlived the people’s unfaithfulness and forgetfulness. A promise that still lives today and invites us to come, listen, and look.

Every time we gather at the Lord’s Table, we come by God’s invitation, we listen to and remember the story of God’s promises, faithfully kept from creation, through the flood, through Moses, through the Judges and Kings and Prophets, and ultimately through Jesus Christ, and we look, we taste and see that the LORD is good. “Look, we are calling a kingdom together that you don’t know.” This is the Kingdom of God. “Hey, you gotta come check this place out!” No wonder Isaiah was excited to share this with us, just like my friend. This place, this kingdom has so much potential. Come to this table, listen to the plans it holds for you, look and see the future to which it sends you. You are invited to be a part of something truly great, and to share in the joy of making God’s will a reality. May you be the echo of Isaiah’s “Come, Listen, Look.” An echo that ripples as you “Go, Proclaim, and Reveal.” Amen.

[1] Hanson, Paul D. “Isaiah 40-66” from Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. 2.

[2] Ibid