The Spurgeon sermon I referenced in my previous post is called “Man’s Thoughts and God’s Thoughts” and the verse he is preaching on is Isaiah 55:1. I was going to write today about imagery we can use from that sermon, but then I was reading through Alexander MacLaren’s commentary on that verse and there is a lot of imagery in there so I will write about his commentary first and we can look at Spurgeon’s sermon another time.

The King James Version of Isaiah 55:1, which MacLaren uses in his commentary says, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”

And the NIV says, “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.”

MacLaren titles this passage “The Call to the Thirsty” and “God’s Proclamation.” He begins by explaining that “the meaning of the word preach is ‘proclaim like a herald’; or, what is perhaps more familiar to most of us, like a town-crier; with a loud voice, clearly and plainly delivering the message.” This verse is the proclamation of God’s offer of free and full salvation through Christ. MacLaren says, “Suppose there was an advertisement in to-morrow morning’s papers that any one that liked to go to a certain place might get a fortune for going, what a queue of waiting suppliants there would be at the door!” So imagine that you see a commercial on tv or online that says, “Go to such and such an address tomorrow and someone will be giving out a fortune to anyone who shows up!” Think about how people would hurry to that place. In this verse, God is offering more than an earthly fortune to people. God is saying, “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.” What does this mean?

MacLaren explains: 1) Who the offer is made to 2) What the offer consists of and 3) How we obtain the offered gifts

1) Who the offer is made to: MacLaren explains, “It is to every one thirsty and penniless. That is a melancholy combination, to be needing something infinitely, and to have not a farthing to get it with. But that is the condition in which we all stand, in regard to the highest and best things. This invitation of my text is as universal as if it had stopped with its third word. ‘Ho, every one’ would have been no broader than is the offer as it stands. For the characteristics named are those which belong, necessarily and universally, to human experience. If my text had said, ‘Ho, every one that breathes human breath,’ it would not have more completely covered the whole race, and enfolded thee and me, and all our brethren, in the amplitude of its promise, than it does when it sets up as the sole qualifications thirst and penury – that we infinitely need, and that we are absolutely unable to acquire, the blessings that it offers.”

He says that “Everyone who thirsteth” means everyone who desires. But that it also means everyone who needs. He says, “And what is every man but a great bundle of yearnings and necessities? None of us carry within ourselves that which suffices for ourselves. We are all dependent upon external things for being and for wellbeing.”

In my post The Doxology – Learning to Live by Faith, I talked about how God is the fountain from whom all of our blessings flow. God is self-sufficient. He has within Himself everything to sustain Himself. And then streams of blessings flow to us from Him. That is what MacLaren is talking about here when he says that every man is a great bundle of yearnings and necessities, but that we do not carry within ourselves the things that would suffice for us, or in other words would sustain us. We get everything we need from God. “In Him we live, and move, and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)

Then remember how we’ve talked about that God created the earth as a habitation for man and created man to have communion with God. In the Garden of Eden before the Fall of mankind, God walked in the Garden with Adam and Eve…they knew Him and talked with Him. After the Fall, mankind’s spiritual understanding was darkened…corrupted…limited. People were born in a sinful condition, separated off from God. They did not know as much about God and did not see their need for Him. But God had a plan of salvation for mankind. A plan to rescue us “from the dominion of darkness” and bring us into “the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14 NIV) And it is this plan of salvation that God is proclaiming in Isaiah 55:1.

What MacLaren is explaining in his commentary is that we are created with a need for God…a longing for Him…a thirst for Him. But because our spiritual understandings are darkened, we do not know where to go to quench our thirsts. It is the Holy Spirit who must make us aware of our sin and our need of a Savior. And in this verse, God is making that proclamation telling His people where to go for salvation. He says, “Come to Me.”

So we have the image of a fountain of water and thirsty people wandering in darkness. MacLaren explains that there are some thirsts we know the object of…we know what we are thirsting after. But one that we do not know the object of. He says, “there are thirsts which infallibly point to their true objects. If a man is hungry he knows that it is food that he wants.” When we feel that feeling of hunger in our stomachs, we know that eating food will satisfy it. He calls these the desires of the animal life – hunger and thirst. He says that there are also nobler desires for which we know the object. When people desire knowledge, they know to read a book. When people desire friendship, they know how to find a friend. So we have many desires that we know what the object is that will satisfy it. Hunger (desire) – food (object), knowledge – instruction, friendship – friend.

Then MacLaren says that there are other desires that we do not know the object of. He says, “But besides all these [desires], besides sense, besides affection, besides emotions, besides the intellectual spur of which we are all more or less conscious, there come in a whole set of other thirsts that do not in themselves carry the intimation (or hint) of the place where they can be slaked.” And this leaves men restless…feeling there is something they do not have, yet not knowing what it is. So people go groping in the dark trying to find where the thing is that they don’t have. He says, “We have thirsts that some of us know not where to satisfy; and so we have parched lips and swollen tongues, and raging desire that earth can give nothing to fill.”

MacLaren asks, “My brother, do you know what it is that you want? It is God. Nothing else, nothing less. ‘My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God.’ The man that knows what it is of which he is in such sore need, is blessed.” He says, “Understand your thirst. Interpret your desires aright… Oh, that we all knew what these yearnings of our hearts mean!”

So keep working with that imagery of the fountain and thirsty people wandering around restlessly in the darkness. Then Jesus says, “Come to Me”…the Holy Spirit opens their spiritual eyes and they see the fountain of living water. They repent and believe…they drink of the living water…their spiritual thirst is satisfied…and their restlessness is calmed and they find comfort in knowing that they are at peace with God. They rejoice in their salvation. They exclaim, “Amazing Grace!” That’s what John Newton is talking about in the first verse of Amazing Grace when he says, “Amazing grace – how sweet the sound – that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.” Note how he says, “was blind but now I see’.” When you are singing that part, envision the light shining into the darkness…that moment when you went from restless wandering…to drinking of the living water…and your heart rejoiced in God’s love and grace to you.

I think I will stop here for today and continue writing about this in my next post.

Links: Isaiah 55 MacLaren Expositions Of Holy Scripture