I’m going to pick up today where I left off in my previous post. We were going through MacLaren’s Commentary on Isaiah 55:1, which 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.” In MacLaren’s Commentary he explains:

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

We were talking about the 1^st point:

1) Who the offer is made to

MacLaren had explained that people have some thirsts that they know the object of. And that people also have a spiritual thirst, or desire that they do not know the object of is actually God.

Next, MacLaren says that there are dormant thirsts also…unconscious thirsts…thirsts we are not aware of. He says that the business of preachers is to get people to realize they want things they do not wish…or in other words, they are longing for things they are not aware of…and that “for the perfection of their natures, the cherishing of noble longings and thirstings is needful, and that to be without this sense of need is to be without one of the loftiest prerogatives of humanity.”

MacLaren says that some people do not “wish” forgiveness or holiness and they do not want God. I think he is talking about the spiritual condition a person is in before they are saved. They are walking around in spiritual darkness…blind…unaware of their sinful condition, their need for forgiveness, and not consciously longing for holiness. But remember that although we are born in a sinful condition, we are still created in the image of God. As humans, we still have that need of God and a want for Him even if it is dormant…even if we are not consciously aware of it. People will not be truly at rest until they are reconciled to God.

MacLaren says, “And yet there is no desire – that is to say, consciousness of necessities – so dormant but that its being un-gratified makes a man restless.” So even though we are not consciously aware of our need for these things, we will be restless until we get them. He says a person might not be wishing for forgiveness, but that they will not be at rest until they have it. He says, “Until your earthly life is like the life of Jesus Christ in heaven, though in an inferior degree, whilst it is on earth, you will never be at rest. You are thirsty enough after these things to be ill at ease without them…but until you get these things that you do not desire (or have a dormant desire for), be sure of this: that you will be tortured with vain unrest, and will find that the satisfactions which you do seek turn to ashes in your mouth.”

Proverbs 20:17 (KJV) says, “Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.” MacLaren says that the “bread of deceit” represents things that promise nourishment but don’t really give it. Instead, they break the teeth of those who try to chew it. We will talk about this more as we look at Isaiah 55:2 which talks about “that which is not bread.” The idea of bread of deceit goes along with the imagery we have been using. Envision the fountain of living water and people wandering in spiritual darkness. See that they have a desire for something, but they do not know what. They are spiritually blind and do not know that what they long for is God. And they have dormant desires for forgiveness, holiness, and the things of God – dormant in the sense of temporarily inactive as if in a deep sleep. And although those desires are dormant, the fact that they are not satisfied causes a restlessness within the person. They are eating things that are not really bread…but bread of deceit…and so they continue on hungry and restless and groping in darkness. That is their condition spiritually. They might be able to find a measure of happiness in worldly things…but this imagery describes the condition of their soul. There will always be that restlessness until a person is reconciled to God. As you spend time thinking about the condition a person is in when they are separated from God, you will see why it is called a lamentable and miserable condition. People have “parched lips and swollen tongues, and raging desire that earth can give nothing to fill.”

Earlier MacLaren explain that this offer of salvation is being made to everyone who is penniless and thirsty. And they are invited to buy wine and milk without money and without price. But in Isaiah 55:2 they are reprimanded for spending money “on that which is not bread” and their “labor on that which does not satisfy?” So MacLaren clarifies that they had money that they could buy earthly things with… he calls these “lower, earthly satisfactions.” But they were penniless in regards to spiritual things. He says, “our efforts may and do win for us the lower satisfactions which meet our transitory and superficial necessities, but that no effort of ours can secure for us the loftier blessings which slake the diviner thirsts of immortal souls.”

2) Next MacLaren explains what the offer consists of.

The offer consists of salvation. MacLaren explains that it is really an offer of Christ. “[Christ], and not merely some truth about Him and His work; He Himself, in the fulness of His being, in the all-sufficiency of His love, in the reality of His presence, in the power of His sacrifice, in the daily derivation, into the heart that waits upon Him, of His life and His spirit, He is the all-sufficient supply of every thirst of every human soul. Do we want happiness? Christ gives us His joy, abiding and full, and not as the world gives. Do we want love? He gathers us to His heart, in which ‘there is no variableness, neither shadow cast by turning,’ and binds us to Himself by bonds that death, the separator, vainly attempts to untie, and which no unworthiness, ingratitude or coldness of ours will ever be able to unloose. Do we want wisdom? He will dwell with us as our light. Do our hearts yearn for companionship? With Him we shall never be solitary. Do we long for a bright hope which shall light up the dark future, and spread a rainbow span over the great gorge and gulf of death? Jesus Christ spans the void, and gives us unfailing and undeceiving hope. For everything that you and I need here or yonder, in heart, in will, in practical life, Jesus Christ Himself is the all-sufficient supply.”

MacLaren quotes a hymn by Charles Wesley called, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” by Charles Wesley – Learning to Live by Faith, that says, “Thou of life the fountain art, freely let me take of Thee.” Wesley uses the imagery of healing waters in verse 3 when he says,

Plenteous grace with thee is found,
grace to cover all my sin;
let the healing streams abound;
make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art;
freely let me take of thee;
spring thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity.

3) Lastly, MacLaren explains how we obtain the gifts that have been offered.

He says, “The paradox of my text needs little explanation, ‘Buy without money and without price.’ The contradiction on the surface is but intended to make emphatic this blessed truth, which I pray may reach your memories and hearts, that the only conditions are a sense of need, and a willingness to take — nothing less and nothing more.” We must acknowledge that we are not able to save ourselves and must be willing to put ourselves under obligations to “God’s unhelped and undeserved love for all.”

He says, “Jesus Christ comes into the market-place of the world with His hands full of the gifts which His pierced hands have bought, that He may give them away. He says, ‘Will you take them’?”

MacLaren says that people struggle with the simplicity of this offer of salvation. He says we want to be told that we have to do some great thing to be saved – something hard, strenuous, and complicated. He quotes the hymn “Rock of Ages” and says we struggle to say, “Nothing in my heart I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.” But that is what is required. Believe and be saved. We must rely completely on God for our salvation, not on any of our own works. There is nothing complicated or great for us to do, we must simply trust in Him. Another really pretty hymn that talks about this and would be really helpful to listen to is called “Only Trust Him” by John H. Stockton – Learning to Live by Faith. The first verse says, “Come, ev’ry soul by sin oppressed— there’s mercy with the Lord, and He will surely give you rest by trusting in His Word. Refrain: Only trust Him, only trust Him, only trust Him now; He will save you, He will save you, He will save you now.”

MacLaren concludes by reminding us of Jesus’ words in the New Testament. He says, “Jesus Christ catches up the ‘comes’ of my text [Isa. 55:1], and He says, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.’ Brethren, I lay it on your hearts and consciences to answer Him – never mind about me – to answer Him: ‘Sir, give me this water that I thirst not’.”

Envision yourself drinking of that fountain of living water and feeling the refreshing waters of God nourishing your soul.

Links: https://biblehub.com/commentaries/maclaren/isaiah/55.htm