Easter Season · Year B
A Sixth Reading Easter Vigil
March 28, 2027
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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Commentary
Commentary on Isaiah 55:1-11 Working Preacher
The Vigil of Easter commentary on God's word that will not return empty, read as promise in the silence between Good Friday and Easter.
Isaiah 55 - An Invitation to Receive the Glory Enduring Word · David Guzik
David Guzik's verse-by-verse study of the free invitation to come, buy, and eat without money.
Isaiah 55:1-9 Center for Excellence in Preaching
A Reformed preaching commentary that recovers the exile context so the invitation lands with a hungry, decimated people.
Isaiah 55:1 Commentaries BibleHub
Classic commentaries (Barnes, Matthew Henry, Gill, and others) gathered verse by verse on the great invitation.
Isaiah 55:1 Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary StudyLight
A large library of expositors stacked verse by verse for a fifth voice on the passage.
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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