Isaiah 54-55 Restoration and Redemption

Something I have loved about reading through Scripture as a story is that we can see just that....the story.  The very intentional storyline and the underlying connectivity of it all.  Passages read in isolation can be meaningful but when you make connections to the greater Story, it sheds even brighter light and reveals even greater depth.  What an amazing Storyweaver we have.

Isaiah 54 gives a beautiful description of the restoration that would come to Israel.  Throughout this chapter, Isaiah depicts Israel as a barren woman and a wife separated from her husband.  She has experienced shame, grief, abandonment, rejection, discomfort and affliction.  This was the state of Israel as Babylon destroyed her, carrying her children off to exile, leaving her to ruin.  But in these verses we read God's promise to restore Israel...to enlarge and strengthen her, to establish her in righteousness, to protect her and ultimately, to redeem her. His intense and unending love for people who have continually rejected Him is overwhelming.  He speaks of great compassion, everlasting kindness, and unfailing love.

Does this storyline sound familiar?  Aren't we also barren apart from Christ?  Haven't we also experienced shame, grief, abandonment, rejection, discomfort and affliction?  Our spiritual brokenness is not unlike Israel's physical destitution during the exile.  And yet, just as God promised to restore Israel, he has promised to restore us as well.  To strengthen us, to establish us in righteousness and ultimately, to redeem us.  In Christ, these promises are ours.  Which leads perfectly to the next chapter.

In chapter 55, we read God's incredible invitation for all people to experience redemption and restoration.  It's an invitation to anyone who will receive it.  He promises to those who thirst and those who are hungry, to come and eat what is good....to delight in the richest of fare.  Not with physical food but with the deepest fulfillment of our hearts.  He calls us to abandon all pursuits that leave us empty and to be filled with that which satisfies.  He invites us to incline our ears to Him, to listen to Him so that we may live. He asks us to seek Him, call upon Him, return to Him.  He promises to abundantly pardon.  And ultimately, He asks us to trust Him.  His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are so high above our ways.  He is the sovereign king whose Word accomplishes every purpose He sets forth.

Verse one says that this invitation comes without money and without cost.  Oh, there is a cost.  But it is not ours to pay.   Redemption is free and these promises are ours because the cost has already been paid.  And what a high price it was.  It cost Jesus everything.  His life and His blood for our sin and our penalty.  His love and His grace cover our guilt and our shame.  His death and His resurrection end our separation and our death.  He alone promises joy, peace, life, restoration and redemption.

This is the story He has written and is writing.  He invites you to come.

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.  Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?  Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare."  Is. 55:1-2