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Pre-Lent · Sexagesima Sunday

Isaiah 55:10-13

Invitation to the Thirsty

Landscape with the Parable of the Sower, Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Landscape with the Parable of the Sower, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1557Timken Museum of Art, San Diego
A whole valley, a river, a town, and down in the corner a man walking a furrow throwing seed.As the rain and the snow come down and water the earth, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be.Pieter Bruegel the ElderBruegel put the subject of his pictures in the corner and the world in the middle, which is usually the point of them.Timken Museum of Art, San DiegoThe Timken Museum of Art in San Diego.Timken Museum of Art, San Diego

Overview & Insights

“Seek the Lord while he may be found, call on him while he is near.” (Isaiah 55:6)

An Invitation to Sing: Once again a return to a focus on Ms Jerusalem follows the servant passage, as happened after 49:1–6 and 50:4–11. There were hints there that Ms Jerusalem’s restoration was the correlate of Ms Babylon’s humiliation in chapter 47. Chapter 54 is the systematic exposition of that theme. The prophet takes up five images of Ms Jerusalem which once again resume the themes of the people’s prayers (we are like a childless and abandoned woman, the victim of angry abuse—literally, we are a battered and insecure city) before coming to a striking conclusion.

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Take it further: Isaiah 55:10-13

Commentary

Background & Word Study

The Church Fathers

Questions preachers ask

What does Isaiah 55 invite?

The chapter calls the thirsty to come to the Lord for free grace, and here urges seeking him while he is near, for his thoughts and ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:8–9). Mercy is held out to all who turn.

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