Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in richness.
Parallel Translations
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Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in richness.
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Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
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Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your gain for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
Cross-references (34)
Passages linked to Isaiah 55:2 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- John 6:48-58 I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that anyone may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. Yes, the bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews therefore contended with one another, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Jesus therefore said to them, “Most certainly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don’t have life in yourselves. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father; so he who feeds on me, he will also live because of me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven—not as our fathers ate the manna, and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.”
- Jeremiah 2:13 “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t hold water.
- Psalms 36:8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the abundance of your house. You will make them drink of the river of your pleasures.
- Psalms 22:26 The humble shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise Yahweh who seek after him. Let your hearts live forever.
- Romans 10:2-3 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the righteousness of God.
- Isaiah 51:7 “Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Don’t fear the reproach of men, and don’t be dismayed at their insults.
- Jeremiah 31:14 I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people will be satisfied with my goodness,” says Yahweh.
- Hebrews 13:9 Don’t be carried away by various and strange teachings, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not by food, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.
- Habakkuk 2:13 Behold, isn’t it of Yahweh of Armies that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity?
- Mark 7:14 He called all the multitude to himself, and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand.
- Hosea 8:7 For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain. The stalk will yield no head. If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up.
- Matthew 22:4 Again he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner. My cattle and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding feast!” ’
- Psalms 63:5 My soul shall be satisfied as with the richest food. My mouth shall praise you with joyful lips,
- Isaiah 51:1 “Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh. Look to the rock you were cut from, and to the quarry you were dug from.
- Psalms 34:11 Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of Yahweh.
- Proverbs 9:5 “Come, eat some of my bread, Drink some of the wine which I have mixed!
- Isaiah 1:19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good of the land;
- Isaiah 51:4 “Listen to me, my people; and hear me, my nation, for a law will go out from me, and I will establish my justice for a light to the peoples.
- Matthew 15:9 And in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine rules made by men.’ ”
- Romans 9:31 but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness.
- Isaiah 46:6 Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down— yes, they worship.
- Hosea 12:1 Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.
- Luke 15:23 Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let’s eat, and celebrate;
- Romans 10:17 So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
- Exodus 15:26 He said, “If you will diligently listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, and will do that which is right in his eyes, and will pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you, which I have put on the Egyptians; for I am Yahweh who heals you.”
- Deuteronomy 11:13 It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to my commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
- Proverbs 8:32 “Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, for blessed are those who keep my ways.
- Ecclesiastes 6:2 a man to whom God gives riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God gives him no power to eat of it, but an alien eats it. This is vanity, and it is an evil disease.
- Isaiah 25:6 In this mountain, Yahweh of Armies will make all peoples a feast of choice meat, a feast of choice wines, of choice meat full of marrow, of well refined choice wines.
- Philippians 3:4-7 though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If any other man thinks that he has confidence in the flesh, I yet more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ.
- Proverbs 1:33 But whoever listens to me will dwell securely, and will be at ease, without fear of harm.”
- Proverbs 7:23 Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn’t know that it will cost his life.
- Isaiah 44:20 He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”
- Luke 15:15-16 He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He wanted to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (17 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain He reproveth their ingratitude, which refuse those things that…
He reproveth their ingratitude, which refuse those things that God offereth willingly, and in the meantime spare neither cost nor labor to obtain those which are nothing profitable.
You shall be fed abundantly.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Isa 55:2 Wherefore do ye spend money for [that…
Isa 55:2 Wherefore do ye spend money for [that which is] not bread? and your labour for [that which] satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye [that which is] good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
Ver. 2. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread?] Heb., For not bread; for that which can no more feed you than those husks could the hungry prodigal. {Luk 15:16}
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“ Turpe est difficiles habere nugas:
Et stultus labor est ineptiarum. ” - Martial.
The saying of the Roman general to the soldier that kept the tents, when he should have been fighting in the field, Non amo nimium diligentes, I love not those that are too diligent, will be used of God, if, when he calleth us to the care of higher things, we busy ourselves only about matters of an inferior alloy. Surely, as Domitian the emperor spent his time in catching flies, and Artaxerxes in making hafts for knives, so do most men in trifles and lying vanities, neglecting the one thing necessary (with Martha), and preferring, as those Gergesites in the Gospel, haram domesticam arae Dominicae, a swine sty before a sanctuary. Between such and true believers there is as much difference as is between substantial merchants who deal in rich commodities, and those nugivenduli Agyrtae, who sell gaudes, rattles, and trangums; as is between spiders that catch flies, and eagles that hunt after hares and herons; as is between fowlers that follow after quails, and children that run after butterflies. Had men but tasted of God’s bread, they would never set such a price upon dove’s dung. Had they drunk of Christ’s wine, (which is beyond the best nectar or ambrosia), they would never thirst again after the world’s delights; {Joh 4:14} which are such as whereof a man may break his neck before his fast. {Ecc 1:8}
“ Clitorio quicunque sitim de fonte levarit,
Vina fugit, gaudetque meris abstemius undis. ”
- Ovid. Metam., lib. xv.
And your labour for that which satisfieth not.] The world is full of pomp and pleasure, {1Jn 2:15} and yet it satisfieth not, because it is full of nothing but of emptiness; the creature is now, ever since the fall, as the husk without the grain, the shell without the kernel; yea, "the world passeth away and the lusts thereof," {1Jn 2:17} for a man cannot make his heart long to delight in the same things, but ipsa etiam vota, post usum, fastidio sunt, we loathe after a while what we greatly lusted after, as Amnon did Tamar. Therefore "love not the world," {1Jn 2:15} "labour not for the meat that perisheth," {Joh 6:27} but hasten heavenward, saying, as that pilgrim did, who, travelling to Jerusalem, and by the way visiting many brave cities, with their rare monuments, and meeting with many friendly entertainments, would say eftsoons, I must not stay here, this is not Jerusalem.
Hearken diligently unto me.] Heb., Hearing, hear - i.e., Hear as for life, with utmost attention of body, intention of mind, and retention of memory.
And eat ye that which is good.] Not only hear the word of God, but eat it; turn it in succum et sanguinem, into juice and blood, digest it, incorporate it into your souls, {Jas 1:21} for it is the heavenly manna that hath all manner of good tastes in it, and properties with it. {2Ti 3:16}
And let your soul delight itself in fatness.] Talis est doctrina et gratis evangelica quae mentem saginat et impinguat, A good soul feedeth on the fat, and drinketh of the sweet, that is found in the precious promises. {Psa 36:8; Psa 63:5}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Money; all your time, and strength, and cost in…
Money; all your time, and strength, and cost in seeking it.
For that which is not bread; for those vain or foolish things which can never nourish or satisfy yea, such as worldly goods, or your own inventions, superstitions, and idolatries.
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Hearken diligently unto me; unto my doctrine and counsel.
Eat ye that which is good; that which is truly, and solidly, and everlastingly good, and not such things which though they be called and seem to be good, yet really are evil, and most pernicious to men.
In fatness; in this fat and most pleasant food of gospel enjoyments.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is…
Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread?.... Lavish away time, opportunities, and strength, in reading and hearing false doctrine, which is not bread, but chaff; is not wholesome, does not nourish, but is harmful and destructive; eats as does a canker, instead of feeding and refreshing; such as the vain philosophy of the Gentiles, the traditions of the Jews, and the errors and heresies of false teachers:
and your labour for that which satisfieth not? labouring to seek for happiness in worldly things, which is not to be had; or to obtain righteousness by the works of the law, which is not to be attained to in that way; all such labour is in vain, no satisfaction is enjoyed, nor peace and comfort had, nor any solid food; these are husks which swine eat:
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hearken diligently unto me; not the prophet, but the Lord himself. The Targum renders it,
"my Word;''
the essential Word, Christ Jesus, hearken to his doctrine, which is bread, and of a satisfying nature:
and eat ye that which is good; not the law, as the Jewish commentators; but the good word of God, the Gospel, which being found and eaten by faith, or mixed with faith by them that hear it, and so digested, is the joy and rejoicing of the heart:
and let your soul delight itself in fatness; in the goodness and fatness of the Lord's house, attending on the word and ordinances with spiritual pleasure and delight; and which is the way to become fat and flourishing in spiritual things; see Psa 36:8.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Money - All your time, and strength, and cost.…
Money - All your time, and strength, and cost. Not bread - For those things which can never nourish or satisfy you, such as worldly goods, or pleasures. Eat ye - That which is truly and solidly, and everlastingly good. In fatness - In this pleasant food of gospel-enjoyments.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 2. Wherefore do ye spend] Why should ye…
Verse 2. Wherefore do ye spend] Why should ye be so zealously attached to a doctrine from which your souls derive neither comfort nor nourishment?
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Isa 55:2-3. Wherefore do ye spend money — All…
Isa 55:2-3. Wherefore do ye spend money — All your time, and strength, and cost; for that which is not bread — For those things which can never nourish or satisfy you, such as worldly goods or pleasures. Hearken diligently unto me — Unto my doctrine and counsel; and eat ye that which is good — And not such things as, though they be called and seem to be good, yet really are evil and most pernicious to men. And let your soul delight itself, &c. — In this pleasant food of gospel enjoyments. Hear, and your soul shall live — Hearken attentively and obediently to my counsels, and your immortal souls shall not only be saved from perishing eternally, but shall be eternally blessed and happy. And I will make an everlasting covenant with you — That everlasting covenant of grace and peace which I made with Abraham and his seed. The sure mercies of David — Even that covenant which was made first with Abraham, and then with David, concerning those glorious and sure blessings which I have promised to my people; one, and the chief, of which was the giving Christ to die for their sins. David here seems to be put for Christ the son of David.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Wherefore do ye spend money - Margin, ‘Weigh.’ That…
Wherefore do ye spend money - Margin, ‘Weigh.’ That is, in Hebrew, ‘weigh silver.’ Before money was coined, the precious metals were weighed, and hence, to make a payment is represented as weighing out silver Gen 23:16.
For that which is not bread - The idea here is, that people are endeavoring to purchase happiness, and are disappointed. Bread is the support of life; it is therefore emblematic of whatever contributes to support and comfort. And in regard to the pursuit of happiness in the pleasures of life, and in ambition, vanity, and vice, people are as much disappointed, as he would be who should spend his money, and procure nothing that would sustain life.
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And your labor for that which satisfieth not - You toil, and expend the avails of your labor for that which does not produce satisfaction. What a striking description of the condition of the world! The immortal mind will not be satisfied with wealth, pleasure, or honor. It never has been. Where is the man who is satisfied with his wealth, and who says it is enough? Where is there one who is satisfied with pleasure, and vanity, and gaiety? There is a void in the heart which these things do not, cannot fill. There is a consciousness that the soul was made for higher and nobler purposes, and that nothing but God can meet its boundless desires. Where is the man who has ever been satisfied with ambition? Alexander wept on the throne of the world; and though Diocletian and Charles V descended voluntarily from the throne to private life, it was because there was nothing in royalty to satisfy the soul, and not because they found happiness enough there. There never was a more simple and true description of this whole world than in this expression of Isaiah, that people are spending their money and their labor for that which satisfieth not.
Hearken diligently unto me - The idea is, that by attending to his words and embracing his offers, they would find that without money or price which they were vainly seeking at so much expense and with so much toil.
And eat ... - The prophet here returns to the image in the former verse. They were invited to partake of that which would nourish the soul, and which would fill it with joy.
And let your soul delight itself in fatness - ‘Fatness in the Scriptures is used to denote the richest food Gen 27:28-39; Job 36:16; Psa 65:11, and hence, is an emblem of the rich and abundant blessings resulting from the favor of God Psa 36:9; Psa 63:5.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain not bread-- (Hab 2:13). "Bread of deceit" (Pro 20:17).…
not bread-- (Hab 2:13). "Bread of deceit" (Pro 20:17). Contrast this with the "bread of life" (Joh 6:32, Joh 6:35; also Luk 14:16-20).
satisfieth not-- (Ecc 1:8; Ecc 4:8).
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hearken . . . and eat--When two imperatives are joined, the second expresses the consequence of obeying the command in the first (Gen 42:18). By hearkening ye shall eat. So in Isa 55:1, "buy and eat." By buying, and so making it your own, ye shall eat, that is, experimentally enjoy it (Joh 6:53). Compare the invitation (Pro 9:5-6; Mat 22:4).
fatness-- (Psa 36:8; Psa 63:5).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 2. Wherefore do ye spend money — There is…
2. Wherefore do ye spend money — There is remonstrance here against earthliness: making much of that which is of the least importance.
Which is not bread — Food to spirit, soul, and body.
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Delight… in fatness — The Jewish idea of spiritual dainties. Psa_36:8; Psa_63:5.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 2. Whilst the religious life is a receiving without…
2. Whilst the religious life is a receiving without spending, the worldly life is a continual spending without lasting profit or satisfaction.
spend money] lit. “weigh silver.” your labour] your earnings (as ch. Isa_45:14).
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hearken diligently &c.] Or, if ye but hearken to me ye shall eat good, and your soul shall &c. (see Davidson’s Syntax, § 86 c; and § 132 b).
delight itself (ch. Isa_58:14, Isa_66:11) in fatness] the choicest and most nourishing food (cf. ch. Isa_25:6).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (2) Wherefore do ye spend money . . .—Here…
(2) Wherefore do ye spend money . . .—Here again the “bread” is that which sustains the true life of the soul. “Labour”-stands for the “earnings of labour.” Israel had given her money for that which was “not-bread,” she is called to accept the true bread for that which is “not-money,” scil., as the next verse shows, for the simple “hearing of faith.” “Fatness,” as in Isa_25:6, and the “fatted calf” of Luk_15:23, represents the exuberance of spiritual joy.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Wherefore do ye spend money? literally, wherefore do ye…
Wherefore do ye spend money? literally, wherefore do ye weigh silver?-silver being the ordinary currency, and money transactions, in default of a coinage, being by weight. (cf. Gen_23:16 Zec_11:12) For that which is not bread; i.e. "for that which has no real value which cannot sustain you, which will do you no good." The affections of the great mass of the Israelites were set on worldly things, on enriching themselves adding field to field, and house to house. (Isa_5:8) They did not care for spiritual blessings, much less "hunger and thirst" after them. That which satisfieth not. Worldly things can never satisfy the heart, not even the heart of the worldly. What fruit had ye then in those things," says St. Paul, "whereof ye are now ashamed?". (Rom_6:21) Hearken diligently unto me; rather, hearken, oh, hearken unto me. The phrase is one of earnest exhortation. It implies the strong disinclination of Israel to listen, and seeks to overcome it (compare the opening words of the next verse). Let your soul delight itself in fatness. (comp. Psa_36:8 Psa_63:5; and Isa_25:6) The spiritual blessings of the Messianic kingdom are richer dainties than any that this world has to offer. The soul that obtains them "delights" in them, and is satisfied with them. (Psa_17:15)
Ver. 2. The earthly objects of desire do not satisfy; the heavenly objects not only satisfy, but delight.
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Man is so constituted as to desire a great variety of objects, often with extreme eagerness, but rarely to find in these objects, when they are attained, the satisfaction for which he looked. "Man never is, but always to be, blest," says one of our poets; and the fact is so nearly universal, that some tell us it is the pursuit of an object, not its attainment that gives us pleasure. Manifestly, the child"s objects do not satisfy the boy, or the boy"s the man; nor do the man"s objects at his entrance on the struggle of life generally appear very desirable as he nears the close. Most men"s history is a long series of disappointments. The boy desires freedom from restraint, and to have his time at his own disposal; but no sooner does he obtain his wish than time hangs heavy on his hands, and he does not know what to do with it. The best-loved amusement, does not please for long the pleasures of eating and drinking pall; drunkenness and excess are found to have attached to them an overplus of painful sensations; the praise of men, distinction, fame, when they have been enjoyed for a short time, appear worthless; wealth, comfort, ease, equally fail to satisfy. Men labour, as a general rule, during the greater part of their lives," for that which satisfieth not." Only a fortunate few learn early to set their affections on objects of a different character. Heavenly objects are satisfying. He that drinks of that water of life which Christ supplies, thirsts no more. (Joh_4:14) The heavenly things do not pass away they remain. The water that Christ gives us becomes, in us, "a well of water springing up into everlasting life". (Joh_4:14) God"s favourable regard, God"s peace, God"s blessing, are eternally objects of desire, and their possession is happiness. He who has them needs nothing more, desires nothing more, finds them sufficient for him. Nor is his state one of mere passive acquiescence his "soul is delighted with fatness" (ver. 2). He "enters into the joy of his Lord". (Mat_25:21)
Foolish investments.
"Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?" This is man"s great misery, that he has the "deceived heart " which leads him to false investments.
I SOUL-SATISFACTION. The soul is made for God, and there is no bread that will satisfy man but God himself. "I am the living Bread," says Christ. Bread of fortune, bread of gold, bread of aesthetic beauty, bread of worldly honour, these only satisfy the outward man, and leave "the hidden man of the heart" hungry and starven. Yet men spend their money that is, their time, strength, enthusiasm, and energy on sham bread.
II SOUL-ATTENTION. "Hearken diligently unto me." For God has spoken in nature, in conscience, by the prophets and by his own Son, the express Image of his Person.
1. God, who made the soul, knows all its mysterious depths and needs.
2. God, who redeemed the soul, knows that without pardon man knows no peace, and without life in God he knows no blessedness. The "delights" of a godly man attest the change in his nature he "joys in God, by whom he has received the atonement. W.M.S.
Vers. 2, 3. Wasted strength.
It has often been remarked of the criminal population that, if they would only give to honest and honourable pursuits the same patient attention, the same untiring energy, the same keen ingenuity, which they now devote to illegal schemes, they would soon rise to competence and honour. Perhaps the essence of this great mistake may be found in those who are very far removed from the criminal class; there are many in all vocations and positions of life who are wasting their strength on that which is unprofitable, who might be effecting great things for others or for themselves if they would only "labour for that which satisfies." This principle will apply to
I THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE. What immense pains were taken by the scribes of our Lord"s time in mastering the minute points of Old Testament Scripture! It ended in a barren and guilty formalism which called down the severest condemnations that came from the lips of Christ. If they had only spent their strength on gaining the heavenly wisdom with which those sacred pages are enriched, they would have been much better men, and would have received the Messiah in a very different spirit. We, too, may expend a vast amount of unprofitable labour on the Scriptures, trying to secure their sanction for our fancies or foibles, and leave untouched their springs of truth and power and life.
II THE WORK IN THE MASTER"S VINEYARD. We shall certainly not include in wasted strength or unsatisfying labour the energy spent in laying, the foundation, although the workman may not live to see the walls of the building use; this may be the most honourable, remunerative, profoundly satisfying work of a man"s life: this, indeed, was the work of the Saviour of mankind. But we shall include:
1. Labour which is merely superficial, which the wind of changing circumstance soon "driveth away.
2. The deliverance of one-sided truth a statement of doctrine which is so partial as to be practically false. This must issue in disappointment; it is building of "wood, hay, and stubble," which will be burned.
3. Irreverent activity, on which the blessing of God is not sought, and on which, consequently, it does not descend.
III THE PURSUIT OF PERSONAL WELL-BEING.
1. All men seek happiness; they give freely of their various resources to obtain it money, strength, ingenuity, patience; they endure hardship and even suffering in order to secure it.
2. A very large proportion of mankind is bitterly disappointed. What promised to be bread turns out to be chaff; what looked like satisfaction in the distance proves to be weariness and heartache in experience.
3. The disappointment is due to one fundamental mistakethey adopt a false method. They risk everything on some one object wealth, fame, power, pleasure, friendship which either eludes their grasp or proves unsatisfying and vain. They should become the active servants of God, listening when he speaks, accepting what he offers, going whither he directs. In the earnest, faithful service of a Divine Saviour is happiness of the truest kind blessedness, well-being, life; the pure, lasting satisfaction of the soul. C.
Vain expenditure on things.
Isa_44:20, "He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside." A very striking illustration of unsatisfying food is given by the Rev. H. Macmillan. "A strange plant, called the nardoo, grows in the deserts of Lento, Australia. Its seeds formed for months together almost the sole food of the party of explorers who, a few years ago, crossed the continent. When analyzed, the nardoo bread was ascertained to be destitute of certain nutritious elements indispensable to the support of a European, though an Australian savage might, for a while, find it beneficial as an alterative. And thus it happened that these poor, unfortunate Englishmen perished of starvation, even while feeding fully day by day upon food that served to satisfy their hunger." An old author, date 1600, says, "It is a thing that the Emperor Caligula is laughed at in all stories. There was a mighty navy provided, well manned and victualled, and every one expected that the whole country of Greece should have been invaded; and so it might have been; but the emperor had another design in hand, and employed his soldiers to gather a quantity of cockleshells and pebble-stones, and so returned home again. Just such another voyage doth almost every man make here in this world, were the particulars but truly cast up. J.A.
Alexander makes an important distinction. "Observe, too, that he does not seek to remedy the evils which arise from perverted and unsatisfied desire, by the extinction of the appetite itself of that immortal, inextinguishable craving, which can only cease by annihilation or by full fruition. This, indeed, is a distinctive mark of true religion, as opposed to other systems. Since the evils under which the human race is groaning may be clearly traced to the inordinate indulgence of desires after happiness, under the influence of "strong delusions" as to that which can afford it, we are not to wonder that when unassisted reason undertakes to do away with the effect, it should attempt the extirpation of the cause; and you will find, accordingly, that every system of religion or philosophy, distinct from Christianity, either indulges, under some disguise, that perversion of man"s natural desire after happiness which makes him wretched, or affects to cure it by destroying the desire itself." "While one voice cries to the. bewildered sinner, "Cease to hunger, cease to thirst;" and another from an opposite direction bids him "Eat and drink; for to-morrow we die;" the voice of God and of the gospel is, "Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?
I SOUL-HUNGER CAN NEVER BE SATISFIED WITH THINGS. It is easy to confuse the soul"s hunger with the bodily cry for pleasure, the mental cry for knowledge, the society cry for place and wealth, or the aesthetic cry for the beautiful. Men readily enough mistake their own longings, their own unrest. There is much that we have not, and we think the craving is to get what others enjoy. Men need to have translated for them their own restlessness and desire. Augustine does it. "Man was made for God, and can find no rest till he finds rest in him." The hymn does it"My heart is pained, nor can it be At rest till it finds rest in thee.
Things can never rest and satisfy souls. Angels cannot feed on man"s broad. Things can satisfy some things in man his taste, his passions, his sentiments but not the man himself. They who have had the most of the good in things that this world can command have complained most deeply of the yawning and yearning of their unsatisfied souls. "If a man ask a fish, will ye give him a stone?" If a man wants love, what good is it to give him gold, or fame, or pleasure? The gains and honours and so-called "good" of this world are not only brief in their duration, but unsuited, in their very nature, even while they last, to satisfy the wants of an immortal spirit.
II SOUL-HUNGER CAN ONLY BE SATISFIED IN A PERSON. Therefore Jesus said, "I am the Bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." On Christ, as the Gift of God to us, our souls may "eat, and live for ever." There is in ver. 4 a first allusion to King David, but a further final allusion to Jesus. "He that hath the Son hath life." The points which may be illustrated and impressed are suggested in the following paragraph: "The prophet, speaking in the name of God, after calling men to come to him, to hear him that their souls may live, annexes to this gracious invitation the specific promises of a sure salvation a salvation not contingent or fortuitous, but one provided by a gracious constitution on the part of God himself; a salvation promised and confirmed by oath; a covenant of mercy, eternal in its origin and everlasting in its stipulations, comprehending in its wonderful provisions the essential requisite of an atonement, a priest and sacrifice, an all-sufficient Saviour; not a Saviour whose performance of his office should be partial, or contingent, or uncertain from the change of person, but the one, the only Saviour the same "yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," the Son of God, the Son of man, the Son of David." Soul-rest in the living personal Saviour finds expression in the familiar verse "I came to Jesus as I was, Weary, and worn, and sad; I found in him a Resting-place, And he has made me glad. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Wherefore do ye spend money
Isa_55:2-3
Wherefore do ye spend money
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Weighing money
In the first clause there is reference to the primitive custom of weighing instead of counting money, from which have arisen several of the most familiar denominations, such as the Hebrew shekel, the Greek talent, the French livre, and the English pound.
The essential idea is that of paying. (J. A. Alexander.)
The folly of man as a worker
I. HERE IS THE RECOGNITION OF THE FACT THAT MAN IS A VOLUNTARY WORKER. The appeal implies that he is free both in the expenditure of his money and the prosecution of his labour. Every part of the universe, works, but man only is a free worker. He works, not as material bodies work, by an outward force, nor as brutes, by blind impulses, but by his own deliberate purpose,--by choice and plan. There are at least four, considerations which bind, with indissoluble bonds, our faith to the doctrine of mans voluntary action.
1. It is not impossible for the Almighty to create a being that shall be wholly free in action.
2. There is an antecedent probability that He would create such a being. A creature endowed with this independency of action would of all creatures be most like Himself, most fitted to show forth His glory. And as He created the universe for the manifestation of Himself, would it not be probable that, having the power to do would it now look to you, says the philosophic Saxon, King Alfred, if there were any very powerful king, and he had no freemen in all his kingdom, but that all were slaves? Then, said I, it would be thought by me neither right not reasonable if men that were in a servile condition only, should attend upon him. Then, quoth he, it would be more unnatural if God, in all His kingdom, had no free creature under his power. Therefore,. He made two rational creatures, free angels and men, and gave them the great gift of freedom.
3. The mental constitution of man seems to provide for this freedom of action. Man is so formed that he always acts from purpose.
4. The consciousness of universal man attests the fact of human freedom.
II. HERE IS THE RECOGNITION OF THE FACT THAT MAN AS A VOLUNTARY WORKER SHOULD AIM AT THE ATTAINMENT OF MORALLY STRENGTHENING AND SATISFYING GOOD. What is the moral bread? Ask first what is the strength of the soul,--the moral stamina? Godliness. Where is the bread which both strengthens and satisfies the soul? Christ says, I am the Bread of life.
III. HERE IS THE RECOGNITION OF THE FACT THAT MAN, AS A VOLUNTARY WORKER, FREQUENTLY MISAPPLIES HIS POWER. He spends his money for that which is not bread, and his labour for that which satisfieth not. What is it to expend your property and labour in vain?
1. To strive after power as the chief end is to do so.
2. To strive after wealth as the chief end is to do so.
3. To strive after knowledge as the chief end is to do so. Neither scientific ideas, nor poetic creations, nor artistic embellishments are bread.
4. To strive after happiness as the chief end, is to do so. From this subject we may infer--
(1) The immense amount of waste human labour that is constantly going on in the world.
(2) The well-being of man consists not in the form of his labour, but in the principle that inspires and controls it.
(3) The exquisite fitness of Christianity to mans condition. (Homilist.)
Folly and Wisdom
I. A FOOLISH COURSE TO BE AVOIDED,
II. A WISE METHOD TO BE PURSUED. (R. W. Pritchard, Ph. D.)
Gods provision for mans need
What is mans way of meeting this great need? Spending money and labour for that which does not satisfy; in other words, using every means he can command, save the only right and true means, to satisfy the cravings of his immortal nature; a course that will prove fatal to his deathless interests if persisted in. But God meets him and--
I. CHALLENGES THIS FATAL ERROR. Wherefore do ye spend money, etc. The wherefore of the text implies three things on the part of God,--benign condescension; surprise; and gentle chiding. True life is impossible where the bread of life is not eaten.
1. Observation proves this.
2. Experience sustains the same truth.
3. History illustrates the same fact.
4. The Bible affirms the same doctrine.
II. MEN WHO SEEK THESE THINGS AS THE HIGHEST GOOD ARE IN A STATE OF CONSTANT HUNGER AND UNREST. It is not bread, it does not satisfy.
III. GODS PLAN OF MEETING THE SOULS TRUE WANTS. Three terms are used of similar import, and that are of first importance to us, if we would put ourselves into harmony with the plan of God in relation to our good, Hearken, hear, and incline your ear. These terms imply humility, docility and reverent attention.
1. God credits man with the capacity to receive and obey His communications.
2. God speaks to man, revealing His will, unfolding His way of meeting the deepest needs of our nature.
3. These Divine communications relate to our highest good. Eat ye that which is good.
4. These provisions are richly abundant. Let your soul delight itself in fatness. Delight and fatness are two very prolific words and supply the fancy with almost boundless range.
5. There is life through obedience to the Divine plan. Hear, and your soul shall live.
6. The blessings God offers are lasting as they are excellent. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, etc. An everlasting covenant points to Gods unchangeableness, and to His being ever ready to redeem all the pledges of His love and mercy. What should be the souls attitude towards God while He makes these rich communications? Hearken diligently, Incline your ear, Come unto him. How striking the order! The attention is first arrested, then absorbed, then the soul draws near to God with profound interest in the revelation, ready to take the offered grace. (J. Higgins.)
The false and true in pleasure
I. THE FALSE.
1. The false is expensive. All false pleasure is sought from one or other of the following sources--sensual gratification, secular wealth, or popular fame--each very expensive. They cost what is infinitely more precious than gold--time, energy, moral peace, mental independency, and frequently health.
2. The false is not sustaining: it is not bread. Were it obtained, it would not strengthen. It does not give mental strength: sensuality enervates the intellect. The love of gain makes man a tactician, not a thinker. The breath of mammon is poison to a free intellect, and the love of fame fills the mind with the unhealthy sentiment of vanity; nor does it give spiritual strength--strength to resist temptation--to bear trials--to help humanity--toserve God--to face death. It destroys this.
3. The false is not satisfactory. Satisfieth not.
II. THE TRUE.
1. True pleasure consists in spiritual communications from God. Hearken diligently unto Me, etc. Three things are implied in this language:--
(1) That God has made spiritual communications to man. This is a fact. They are the substance of the Bible.
(2) That man has a capacity to appreciate these communications. A wonderful argument this for the native dignity of the soul.
(3) That to appreciate these communications requires the most diligent study. The Bible is a difficult book, challenging the concentration of intellectual power.
2. That the pleasure thus derived is of the highest conceivable description
(1) Essentially excellent--good.
(2) Abundantly sufficient--delights itself in fatness.
(3) Spiritually quickening--your soul shall live.
3. That the continuation of this, the highest pleasure, is guaranteed by the solemn assurance of God. And I will make an everlasting covenant with you. Here is a pledge of its perpetuity. If a promise is not fulfilled, it must be for one of three reasons: either that the author was insincere when it was made, or that he subsequently changed his mind, or lacked the necessary power to redeem the pledge. Neither of these suppositions is admissible; therefore, this true pleasure is everlasting. (Homilist.)
Food for the soul
1. Everything that has life must have food.
2. Man has the nature and wants of an animal. He also has a higher nature that takes hold of truth and God. He has, therefore, to care for a double life.
3. The text means that we put much into one side of life, hoping vainly for an equivalent of happiness on the other. The soul must have other food.
4. For this want there is a kind of borderland provision in Church forms But religion cannot tarry in this borderland.
5. So we rise to the truth that the soups life is in God. (H. W. Thomas, D. D.)
Foolish neglect and fruitless labour
1. All the good that Christ doth offer, and all the gracious terms upon which He doth offer are sometimes slighted and refused by sinners.
2. Sinners are earnestly labouring and trading for vain and unprofitable things, when the great things of Christ are offered to them.
3. All the cost which men lay out, and all the pains which men do take for salvation from anything besides Christ, or in any other way than Christs way, are utterly fruitless. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.)
The folly of pursuing that which does not satisfy
I. ALL OTHER THINGS BESIDES THOSE WHICH CHRIST DOTH OFFER, ARE VAIN AND UNPROFITABLE.
II. SINNERS DO LABORIOUSLY PURSUE THEM, when yet Christ doth offer unto them the chiefest good for their souls.
III. WHY SINNERS DO THIS.
IV. THE EXTREME FOLLY OF THIS. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.)
No bread"
The Hebrew term, for that which is not bread, reads more correctly, for that which is no-bread. It means that for which men spend their energies is no-bread, it is the negative of bread; it is the very opposite of bread. It is that which not only does not alleviate our hunger, but makes us more hungry! It does not fill our emptiness, but makes us more empty than ever. Not only does it fail to satisfy, but it makes us more dissatisfied! Just as salt water not only fails to quench the thirst, but aggravates it. (A. S. Gumbart.)
Hearken diligently unto Me
Hearkening and eating
Two thoughts are brought to our attention, as indicating the steps by which we bring ourselves into that blessed experience in which we may be conscious of having received the gift of God.
1. We must listen diligently. Hearken diligently unto Me. That is, hearken with intense desire and eagerness. In the third verse God says: Incline your ear, and come unto Me. This word incline is a strong word; it carries with it the idea of stretching the neck, as one anxiously, eagerly listening, or as a, hound in pursuing game.
2. The second thing is, Eat. Eat ye that which is good. (A. S. Gumbart.)
Gods call should be heeded
There are six arguments which I would make use of to persuade you to embrace this counsel.
1. Christ offers you the best things--better things than the world can afford you.
2. Christ offers unto you the things that are best for you.
3. You may have these earthly things upon better terms if you could close with the things which Christ doth offer.
4. Christ alone is a portion, infinitely better than all the world alone.
5. You will lose Christ, and all these things of the world too, by neglecting Christ, and preferring before Him these things of the world.
6. You cannot drive both these trades together. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.)
Hearkening
There are five things which that word doth denote.
1. A taking into our ears sounds, words, messages, reports, spoken unto us.
2. Sometimes to hear is the same with to understand.
3. Sometimes the same with to believe.
4. Sometimes to regard and approve.
5. Sometimes to obey, to follow what is said. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.)
Diligent hearkening to Christ
I. WHAT THIS DILIGENT HEARKENING TO CHRIST DOTH CONTAIN. In it He diligently hearkens to Christ.
1. Who doth carefully and regardfully observe Christ in His gracious offers.
2. Who seriously considers all the gracious offers of Christ.
3. Who judges highly of the offers of Christ.
4. Who obeys the voice of Christ.
II. HOW IT MAY APPEAR THAT JESUS CHRIST IS EARNEST AND IMPORTUNATE WITH SINNERS, diligently to hearken unto Him.
1. By the gradations of His dealings with sinners.
(1) He opens and proclaims the way of life and happiness to them Joh_14:6).
(2) He presents this salvation to them (Act_13:26).
(3) He encourages them to come from the certainty of allgood, from the graciousness of His own terms Come, and buy without money, and from the acceptance of their persons (Joh_6:37).
(4) He entreats them to hearken unto Him (2Co_5:20).
(5) He commands them authoritatively to obey His voice (1Jn_3:23).
(6) He allures them with all sorts of promises.
(7) He shows them the greatness and inevitableness of their danger, if they refuse to hearken (Joh_8:24; Heb_2:3).
(8) He expressly threatens a peremptory damnation, if sinners will not hearken (Mar_16:16).
(9) He furnishes ambassadors with all sorts of gifts, to enable them to deal, and treat, and woo, and work on sinners to hearken.
(10) He is content to pass by all the days of ignorance.
(11) He lets a light into their minds which shows them a personal and absolute need of Himself.
(12) He disproves, confutes and shames all the carnal arguments of sinners.
(13) He affects the hearts and wills of sinners by many strivings of His Spirit.
(14) He rouses the drowsy, careless sinner by outward special afflictions.
(15) He breaks up the consciences of sinners, so that the terms of God fall on them.
(16) He cuts off all their confidence in this distressed condition, so that no course shall ease or quiet or help.
(17) He takes the opportunity, and, in this broken condition, sends messengers of hope and mercy to the sinner (Act_9:10-11).
(18) He answers all the fears and doubts of sinners, both in respect of Himself (1Jn_2:1; Rev_3:20); and in respect of themselves--assuring them that neither the multitude of former sins nor abundance of present wants shall hinder mercy and salvation, if they will hearken and come.
(19) He advances instances how sinners have fared by hearkening and coming to Him, e.g the jailor, Mary Magdalene, Saul of Tarsus 1Ti_1:16).
(20) If none of these prevail with sinners to hearken, then doth Christ take His utter farewell of them with sighs and tears Luk_19:41-42).
2. By the qualities of His voice. It is--
(1) a plain voice, easy to be understood.
(2) A high voice (Joh_7:37).
(3) Long and patient (Rom_10:21).
(4) In season and out of season.
(5) Quick. To the ear, thence to the mind, thence to the conscience.
(6) Expostulating.
(7) Very pressing.
III. WHAT JESUS CHRIST IS SO IMPORTUNATE WITH SINNERS TO HEARKEN UNTO HIM. There are reasons for this:
1. In respect of sinners.
(1) Because of their dulness and slowness.
(2) Because sinners are careless.
(3) Because they are very unteachable.
(4) Because they are backward to hearken, and accept His gracious offers.
(5) Because they are very perverse and desperate (Zec_7:11-12; Act_7:51).
2. In respect of Christ Himself.
(1) Because He is Christ, full of compassion.
(2) Because He knows the condition of our souls:
(a) their worth,
(b) their lost condition,
(c) the wrath which will certainly befall disobedient souls,
(d) wherein real happiness lies,
(e) the difficulty of gaining souls,
(f) what power Satan hath with our souls. (O. Sedgwick, B. D.)
Eat ye that which is good
Feeding on the Word
I. Here is FOOD Eat ye that which is good.
1. How is it presented to us? Freely. There was a word about buying; but that was soon covered up with, Buy without money and without price. While it is thus presented freely as to any labour with which to procure it, it is also presented freely as to its quality, its highest quality. You are not permitted to drink freely of water, and then to purchase wine. The richest dainties of Gods house are as free as the bread He gives to hungry souls. The only limitation is no limitation at all: Ho, every one that thirsteth!
2. What is this food?
(1) The Word of God.
(2) Better still, the incarnate Word of God.
(3) The grace of God.
3. What is the nature of this food? It is in every sense of the word good. It is satisfying. It is pure; no harm can ever come by eating it. This heavenly food is good for you at any time, good for you living, good for you dying. All other foods that men seek after are unsubstantial; they can surfeit, but they cannot satisfy; they can cloy, but they cannot content; but the food that has come down from heaven, if a man does but take it into himself, shall be the best food he ever ate. Moreover, this food is described here as being fatness. Let thy soul delight itself in fatness. Within the Word of God, there are certain choicer truths; in Christ, there are certain choicer joys; in grace, there are certain choicer experiences than men at first realize.
II. Here is FEEDING. One of the most important words in our text is that little word eat. Food is of no use until it is eaten. You ought not to need any instruction on this point. We take a great many orphans into the Orphanage, and some of them are very ignorant, and we have to teach them a great many things; but we have no class for teaching them to eat. If men were hungry, they would know how to eat, if they had the bread. It is because men are not really hungry on account of sin that they come and ask us, What do you mean by the eating? Yet it may be that some are sincere in asking the question, so I will answer it.
1. To eat is to believe.
2. To eat is chiefly to appropriate.
3. The full process of eating includes digestion. How do I digest the Word of God? When I meditate upon it.
4. Feeding also means trusting yourself wholly to Christ.
III. WELCOME. What does the Lord say? Eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
1. Here is no stint. It is not said, Here is a pair of scales; here is a plate; here is a knife. The law allows so many ounces of meat to you, just so much, and you must not have half-an-ounce over. Nothing of the kind. You are just taken to the table, and the exhortation is, Eat to your hearts content.
2. As there is no stint, so there is no reserve. It is not said, Now you may eat those two things; but you must not touch that nice fat morsel over there; that is for the particular favourite, not for you. No, when God invites you to His table, you may have anything there is on the table.
3. So, too, there is no end to the feast. Keep on delighting yourself in fatness. You will never use it all up. I read of a country once, though I hardly believed the description of it; for it was said that the grass grew faster than the cows could eat it. Well, there is a country that I know of, where the grass grows faster than the sheep can eat it. You may eat all you will out of the Divine Word; but you will find that there is more left than you have taken; and it seems as if there were more after you had taken it, as if the grass grew deeper as you fed more ravenously upon it.,
IV. DELIGHT.
1. There is no peril in holy joy, in delighting yourself in Gods Word, and delighting yourself in Christ.
2. There will be no idleness or selfishness produced by this fat feeding.
3. May you also attain a sense of holy security!
4. Then, may you come into a state of perfect rest!
5. May you also come into a state of complete resignation to the will of God!
6. May you be filled with a happy expectancy. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The souls best food
I. THE REASON FOR THE EXHORTATION IN OUR TEXT: Eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
1. The exceeding bountifulness of God in Christ Jesus. The invitation here given IS in accordance with the character of the God who gives it.
2. The abundant provision that He has made for the supply of our needs. If any of you prepared a feast, it would be very grievous to you if your friends did not eat what you had provided. It is the very heart of God speaking in these words, and it is the provision of Gods grace claiming to be consumed.
Gods love pleading that what He has provided so bountifully should not be lost or wasted.
3. The Divine desire for fellowship. Almost always, when fellowship is spoken of in relation to God, expressions which concern eating are used. Fellowship begins, as it were, at the passover, at the eating of the lamb. In the tabernacle in the wilderness, the offerings were not all burnt upon the altar; many of them were partaken of by both the offerer and the priest, and by God as represented by the devouring flame. So, when Jesus instituted that blessed memorial supper, He said to His disciples, concerning the bread, Take,. eat; and, concerning the cup, Drink ye all of it. When, in the Revelation, He said to the angel of the church in Laodicea, Behold, I stand at the door, and knock. you know how He goes on to say, If any man hear My voice, and open, the door, I will come-in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. This appears to be Gods favourite image to express fellowship.
4. Our exceeding great necessities. You must eat, so eat ye that which is good. Your soul needs the best food, so let your soul delight itself in fatness, in the fat and dainty morsels which the great God, who understands us even better than we understand ourselves, has so bountifully provided for us.
5. Our extreme foolishness. What a stupid animal man must be to need to be told to eat, and be urged to eat that which is good! The little lamb, in the meadow, has scarcely come into the world before it finds out where its mothers milk is, and very soon it begins to crop the tender herbage, and to find food for itself. Most creatures, by what we call instinct, discover their own natural food; but here is man, so foolish, so mad, so much more wild than the wild asss colt, that he needs to be told to eat, spiritually. One part of human foolishness lies in the fact that we so often seek that which is not good for us, so that the Lord has to say to us, Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? Man is described in Scripture as feeding upon ashes. It is not only that we are willing to eat that which is evil, but that we are unwilling to eat that which is good. Many persons will hear that which is good, and will even assent to our declaration that it is good; yet they do not eat it. What is spiritual eating? It is the inward reception of the truth of God into the soul. To hear the truth is, as it were, to see the bread. To think upon the truth is, as it were, to cut the bread, and put it on the plate. But this will never nourish any man; he must take the bread into his inward parts, and digest and assimilate it. There is this folly even about Gods own children, that they do not eat that, which is good according to the lavish, inexhaustible fulness provided by God. Let your soul delight itself in fatness. How very few minutes in a day most of us spend in feeding our souls I
6. Our fears. There is many a child of God, who longs for spiritual food, but he is afraid that he would be guilty of presumption if he ate it; so, when there is a very fat piece that is just going into his mouth, he says, No, that cannot be for me, and he draws back from it. Just look at the text: Let your soul delight itself in fatness.
II. THE BENEFITS OF OBEYING THE COMMAND OF THE TEXT.
1. The pleasure of it. Let your soul delight itself in fatness.
2. The great preserving power of good spiritual food. It helps to keep us out of temptation.
3. Spiritual food comforts mourners. The analogy of this will be found in Neh_8:9-10. It was of this that Mary sang, He hath filled the hungry with good things.
4. It revives the fainting ones.
5. Spiritual eating is also a great strength for service.
6. It fits us to feed others. Ezekiel had to go and speak to the house of Israel in the name of the Lord; do you remember his preparation for that task,--the college to which he went? He saw a hand, which held a roll of a book, and a voice said to him, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel. He cannel; preach till he has eaten the roll. I believe that, in the courts of law, young men have to eat themselves into the profession; beside all other qualifications, they must eat a certain number of dinners before they can be fully certificated. It is a strange regulation with regard to earthly courts, hut it is a right and proper thing in the courts of heaven.
7. It is the best mode of fellowship. Feed on the Word of God; especially feed on the Incarnate Word; otherwise, you cannot possibly enter into true spiritual fellowship with God.
8. Feeding upon the Word is the best way of promoting praise. You know how the 103 rd Psalm begins: Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Then, a little further on, the psalmist says, Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. A hungry soul cannot sing well; the soul that best sings the praises of God is the one that has delighted itself with the fatness of the Divine provision. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fatness
Fatness in the Scriptures is used to denote the richest food (Gen_27:28-39; Job_36:16; Psa_65:11), and hence is an emblem of the rich and abundant blessings resulting from the favour of God (Psa_36:8; Psa_63:5). (A. Barnes, D. D.)
The path of life
Professor George Adam Smith talks about what he considers the greatest pathos of our life on earth--it is the fact that so many million souls are unconsciously starving right within reach of the food they need. They have only to stretch out their hands and take the bread of life, but their hands are glued to their sides.
An unsuitable diet
Some German women have fallen into the habit of naschen, i.e of nibbling comfits and cakes all day long. They carry cornets of bon-bons in their pockets, and nibble at them continually. No one wonders that they suffer greatly from disordered digestions, and become sallow, and irritable, and old before their time. And does not plain common-sense teach us that, when people feed their souls upon a diet of novels, or of gossip, or of frivolities of every kind, they must necessarily suffer from languor of spiritual life, debility of spiritual digestion, failure of vitality, and a creeping moral paralysis. (Mrs. H. W. Smith.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain Isa 55:1 - Isa 55:13.
Isaiah
THE CALL TO THE THIRSTY
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Isa 55:1 - Isa 55:13.
The call to partake of the blessings of the Messianic salvation worthily follows the great prophecy of the suffering Servant. No doubt the immediate application of this chapter is to the exiled nation, who in it are summoned from their vain attempts to find satisfaction in the material prosperity realised in exile, and to make the only true blessedness their own by obedience to God’s voice. But if ever the prophet spoke to the world he does so here. It is no unwarranted spiritualising of his invitation which hears in it the voice which invites all mankind to share the blessings of the gospel feast.
The glorious words need little exposition. What we have to do is to see that they do not fall on our ears in vain. They may be roughly divided into two sections-the invitation to the feast, with the promises to the obedient Israel {Isa 55:1 - Isa 55:5}, and the summons to the necessary preparation for the feast, namely, repentance, with the reason for its necessity, and the encouragements to it in the might of God’s faithful promises {Isa 55:6 - Isa 55:13}.
I. Whose voice sounds so beseechingly and welcoming in this great call, which rings out to all thirsty souls? If we note the ‘Me’ and ‘I’ which follow, we shall hear God Himself thus taking the office of summoner to His own feast. By whatever media the gospel call reaches us, it is in reality God’s own voice to our hearts, and that makes the responsibility of hearing more tremendous, and the folly of refusing more inexcusable.
Who are invited? There are but two conditions expressed in Isa 55:1, and these are fulfilled in every soul. All are summoned who are thirsty and penniless. If we have in our souls desires that all the broken cisterns of earth can never slake-and we all have these-and if we have nothing by which we can procure what will still the gnawing hunger and burning thirst of our souls-and none of us has-then we are included in the call. Universal as are the craving for blessedness and the powerlessness to satisfy it, are the adaptation and destination of the gospel.
What is offered? Water, wine, milk-all the beverages of a simple civilisation, differing in their operation, but all precious to a thirsty palate. Water revives, wine gladdens and inspirits, milk nourishes. All that any man needs or desires is to be found in Christ. We shall not understand the nature of the feast unless we remember that He Himself is the ‘gift of God.’ What these three draughts mean is best perceived when we listen to Him saying, in a plain quotation of this call, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.’ Nothing short of Himself can satisfy the thirst of one soul, much less of all the thirsty. Like the flow from the magic fountain of the legend, Jesus becomes to each what each most desires.
How does He become ours? The paradox of buying with what is not money is meant, by its very appearance of contradiction, to put in strongest fashion that the possession of Him depends on nothing in us but the sense of need and the willingness to accept. We buy Christ when we part with self, which is all that we have, in order to win Him. We must be full of conscious emptiness and desire, if we are to be filled with His fulness. Jesus interpreted the meaning of ‘come to the waters’ when He said, ‘He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.’ Faith is coming, faith is drinking, faith is buying.
The universal call, with is clear setting forth of blessing and conditions of possessing, is followed by a pleading remonstrance as to the folly of lavishing effort and money on what is not bread. It is strange that men will cheerfully take more pains to continue thirsty than to accept the satisfaction which God provides. They toil and continue unsatisfied. Experience does not teach them, and all the while the one real good is waiting to be theirs for nothing.
‘‘Tis heaven alone that is given away;
‘Tis only God may be had for the asking.’
Christ goes a-begging, and we spend our strength in vain toil to acquire what we turn away from when it is offered us in Him. When the great Father offers bread for nothing, we will not have it, but we are ready to give any price for a stone. It is not the wickedness, but the folly, of unbelief, which is the marvel.
The contrast between the heavy price at which men buy hunger, and the easy rate at which they may have full satisfaction, is further set forth by the call to ‘incline the ear,’ which is all that is needed in order that life and nourishment which delights the soul may be ours. ‘Hearken, and eat’ is equivalent to ‘Hearken, and ye shall eat.’ The real ‘good’ for man is only to be found in listening to and obeying the divine voice, whether it sound in invitation, promise, or command. The true life of the soul lies in that listening receptiveness which takes for one’s own God’s great gift of Christ, and yields glad obedience to His every word.
The exiled Israel was promised an ‘everlasting covenant’ as the result of their acceptance of the invitation; and we know whose blood it is that has sealed the new covenant, which abides as long as Christ’s fulness and men’s need shall last. That covenant, of which we seldom hear in Isaiah, but which fills a prominent place in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, is further explained as being ‘the sure mercies of David.’ This phrase and its context are difficult, but the general meaning is clear. The great promises of God’s unfailing mercy, made to the historical founder of the royal house, shall be transferred and continued, with inviolable faithfulness, to those who drink of the gift of God.
This parallel between the great King and the whole mass of the true Israel is further set forth in Isa 55:4 - Isa 55:5. Each begins with ‘Behold,’ and the similar form indicates similarity in contents. The son of Jesse was in some degree God’s witness to the heathen nations, as is expressed in several psalms; and, what he was imperfectly, the ransomed Israel would be to the world. The office of the Christian Church is to draw nations that it knew not, to follow in the blessed path, in which it has found satisfaction and the dawnings of a more than natural glory transfiguring it. They who have themselves drunk of the unfailing fountain in Christ are thereby fitted and called to cry to others, ‘Come ye to the waters.’ Experience of Christ’s preciousness, and of the rest of soul which comes from partaking of His salvation, impels and obliges to call others to share the bliss.
II. The second part of the chapter begins with an urgent call to repentance, based upon the difference between God’s ways and man’s, and on the certainty that the divine promises will be fulfilled. The summons in Isa 55:6 - Isa 55:7 is first couched in most general terms, which are then more closely defined. To ‘seek the Lord’ is to direct conduct and heart to obtain possession of God as one’s own. Of that seeking, the chief element is calling upon Him; since such is His desire to be found of us that it only needs our asking in order to receive. As surely as the mother hears her child’s cry, so surely does He catch the faintest voice addressed to Him. But, men being what they are, a change of ways and of their root in thoughts is indispensable. Seeking which is not accompanied by forsaking self and an evil past is no genuine seeking, and will end in no finding. But this forsaking is only one side of true repentance; the other is return to God, as is expressed in the New Testament word for it, which implies a change of mind, purpose, and conduct. The faces which were turned earthward and averted from God are to be turned God-ward and diverted from earth. Whosoever thus seeks may be confident of finding and of abundant pardon. The belief in God’s loving forgivingness is the strongest motive to repentance, and the most melting argument to listen to the call to seek Him. But there is another motive of a more awful kind; namely, the consideration that the period of mercy is limited, and that a time may come, and that soon, when God no longer ‘may be found’ nor ‘is near.’
The need for such a radical change in conduct and mind is further enforced, in Isa 55:8 - Isa 55:9, by the emphatic statement of present discord between the exiled Israel and God. Mark that the deepest seat of the discord is first dealt with, and then the manifestation of it in active life. Mark also that the order of comparison is inverted in the two successive clauses in Isa 55:8. God’s thoughts have not entered into Israel’s mind and become theirs. The ‘thinkings’ not being regulated according to God’s truth, nor the desires and sentiments brought into accord with His will and mind, a contrariety of ‘ways’ must follow, and the paths which men choose for themselves cannot run parallel with God’s, nor be pleasing to Him. Therefore the stringent urgency of the call to forsake ‘the crooked, wandering ways in which we live,’ and to come back to the path of righteousness which is traced by God for our feet.
But divergence which necessitates repentance is not the only relation between our ways and God’s. There is elevation, transcendency, like that of the eternal heavens, high, boundless, the home of light, the storehouse of beneficent influences which fertilise. If we think of the dreary, flat plains where the exiles were, and the magnificent sweep of the sky over them, we shall feel the beauty of the figure. If ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts’ was all that was to be said, repentance would be of little use, and there would be little to encourage to it; but if God’s thoughts of love and ways of blessing arch themselves above our low lives as the sky bends, pitying and bestowing, above squalor, barrenness, and darkness, then penitence is not in vain, and the low earth may be visited with gifts from the highest heaven.
The certainty that such gifts will be bestowed is the last thought of this magnificent summons. The prophet dilates on that assurance to the end of the chapter. He seems to catch fire, as it were, from the introduction of that grand figure of the lofty heavens domed above the flat earth. In effect, what he says is: They are high and inaccessible, but think what pours down from them, and how all fertility depends on their gifts of rain and snow, and how the moisture which they drop is turned into ‘seed to the sower, and bread to the eater.’ Thinking of that continuous benefaction and miracle, we should see in it a symbol of the better gifts from the higher heavens. So does God’s word come down from His throne. So does it turn barrenness into nodding harvest. So does it quicken undreamed of powers of fruitfulness in human nature and among the forces of the world. So does it supply nourishment for hungry souls, and germs which shall bear fruit in coming years. No complicated machinery nor the most careful culture can work what the gentle dropping rain effects. There is mightier force in it than in many thunder-clouds. The gospel does with ease and in silence what nothing else can do. It makes barren souls fruitful in all good works, and in all happiness worthy of men. Therefore the summons to drink of the springing fountain and to turn from evil ways and thoughts is recommended by the assurance that God’s word is faithful, and all His promises firm.
The final verses {Isa 55:12 - Isa 55:13} give the glowing picture of the return from exile amid the jubilation of a transformed world, as the strongest motive to the obedient hearkening to God’s voice, to which the chapter has summoned, and as the great instance of God’s keeping His word.
The flight from Egypt was ‘in haste’ {Deu 16:3}; but this shall be a triumphal exodus, without conflict or alarms. All nature shall participate in the joy. Mountains and hills shall raise the shrill note of rejoicing, and the trees wave their branches, as if clapping hands in delight. This is more than mere poetic rhetoric. A redeemed humanity implies a glorified world. Nature has been involved in the consequences of sin, and will share in the results of redemption, and have some humble reflected light from ‘the liberty of the glory of the sons of God.’
The fulfilment of this final promise is not yet. All earlier returns of the exiled Israel from the Babylon of their bondage to God and the city of God, such as the historical one which the prophet foretold, and the spiritual one which is repeated age by age in the history of the Christian Church and of single penitent souls, point on to that last triumphant day when ‘the ransomed of the Lord shall return,’ and the world be transfigured to match the glory that they inherit. That fair world without poison or offence, and the nations of the saved who inhabit its peaceful spaces, shall be, in the fullest stretch of the words, ‘to the Lord for a name, and for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.’ The redemption of man and his establishing amid the felicities of a state correspondent to His God-given glory shall be to all eternity and to all possible creations the highest evidence of what God is, and His token to all beings.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh continues speaking to the people of Jerusalem.
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Why do you weigh out ... bread, and why do you labor ... satisfy?
Yahweh asks these questions to rebuke the people. He speaks of the people seeking happiness apart from Yahweh as if they were purchasing things to eat that were not food and working for things that could not satisfy them. AT: "You should not weigh out silver ... bread, and you should not labor ... satisfy" (See: Rhetorical Question and Metaphor)
weigh out silver
This refers to counting silver coins in order to pay someone for something. AT: "pay money" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
for what is not bread
Here the word "bread" represents food in general. It is implied that the people were buying things to eat that were not really food. AT: "for things to eat that are not really food" (See: Synecdoche and Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
eat what is good, and delight yourselves in fatness
The people trusting Yahweh for blessing and happiness is spoken of as if they are eating good food that is making them happy. (See: Metaphor)
in fatness
The word "fatness" refers to meat that has plenty of fat on it and is an idiom for fine food. AT: "with the best foods" (See: Idiom)
translationWords
silver
bread
labor
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 55:2 Listen to me . . . eat what…
55:2 Listen to me . . . eat what is good: Responding positively to God satisfies one’s spiritual, social, and physical being (see 1:19; 58:13-14; Prov 4:10).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.