Last week our gospel lesson ended with that gracious invitation from the Lord Jesus, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart and you will find rest for your souls.” This week, the Old Testament lesson from the prophet Isaiah echoes that same invitation. But in the case of the prophet, the tone is more urgent. The passage in the Hebrew text begins with a cry, “Ha!” is perhaps the best rendering. “Ha! All you thirsty ones come to the waters, all the ones with no money, come buy and eat!” There is an exaltation but also an urgency to the prophet’s words, where Jesus was more gentle. You can almost imagine Jesus extending his invitation with a gentle but strong persistence, while Isaiah is jumping up and down and shouting it. In Isaiah’s case we have to be mindful of his context. Isaiah was the prophet who was tasked with calling the nation of Judah back in repentance after they had witnessed their brothers, the Northern Tribes of Israel carried off into exile. Like all of his fellow prophets he came with a clear message of repentance on his lips. But he also came with a message of redemption to proclaim. The story of Isaiah’s own calling as a prophet serves as an outline and introduction to his entire message. The Word of the Lord comes to Isaiah, He is in the Temple of the Lord and he has this powerful encounter with the Presence of Almighty God. And he has a moment of realization, “Woe to me, for I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips.” he says. And so the Lord sends a messenger, an angel to take a coal from the altar in the temple and touch it to Isaiah’s lips to purify and cleanse him. Then he can be sent to proclaim the message the Lord gives him. That experience of Isaiah’s models his message to the whole of God’s people. In the first part of the book he has been calling them to acknowledge that they are a people of unclean lips. Then, since chapter 40, he has been proclaiming to them that the Lord will send a messenger, the Lord’s servant, the Messiah-King, who will do for his people exactly what the cherubim did for Isaiah. He will extend God’s grace and mercy to them and make them clean by taking upon himself the iniquity of us all. But here, in our passage from chapter 55, Isaiah makes it quite clear, this will still require a response. It is one thing to be invited to the banquet, it is another to actually attend. And so Isaiah proclaims, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” What a picture of the human condition. How often do we find ourselves wrapped up in the drive to chase after something, only to gain it and realize it was not what we thought it was going to be? It doesn’t satisfy like we thought it would. It left us hungry, sometimes hungrier, even after consuming it. Addictions, media consumption, consumer spending, the unhealthy need to excel professionally, socially, academically - these all come from that same place, chasing after something to feed our appetites, ultimately something that will not satisfy them. And so the Lord goes on through Isaiah, Isaiah 55:3 “Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.” Here is the Lord’s invitation. What you are hungering for, what you desire, the satisfaction you are seeking, it can be found. Found in the Covenant of restoration. By linking the everlasting covenant to a steadfast love for David here, the Lord is making a clear connection to the work of His anointed Messiah, the Christ - the one he promised to King David. The one who would sit on his throne forever. The one that is revealed in the New Testament as our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Stop chasing after vain, fleeting things that don’t satisfy, come and be satisfied by Jesus. That is Isaiah’s invitation. Rooted in the sure foundation of his work in the King of all Kings, the Lord Jesus. You see, Isaiah was called into ministry during a very chaotic time in the life of Judah. He tells us that he received his call, “in the year that king Uzziah died”. That is hugely significant. You see, Uzziah was one of the better and more prosperous kings of Judah. He reigned for something like 30 years, which meant that there were many alive during Isaiah’s time who had never known any other king. There was stability, he had actually brought peace with the Northern tribes of Israel and together they had regained most of the ancient land that had not been held since Solomon’s time. Life was good under Uzziah… And then, he died. What is more, forces outside of Judah were conspiring to bring all that peace and prosperity crashing to an end. So, to Isaiah’s original audience, the death of Uzziah felt like the end of life as they knew it. To the average man or woman, they wondered how life could ever be the same. So, here too Isaiah’s word of hope speaks volumes. Not only have you been chasing after things that don’t satisfy, your hope has been in earthly things as well. Your hope has been in the earthly king of Judah, David’s descendent Uzziah. Isaiah here proclaims the deeper truth of God’s Covenant with David. Uzziah wasn’t the promised descendent that would reign forever. It felt like it for a lot of years. But, Isaiah declares, no- there is another. And as God declared then, Isaiah declares again here - and his kingdom will be an everlasting Kingdom. The peace and prosperity he brings will not be fleeting. The leadership he gives will not be shakable. Friends, I would never want to downplay the suffering and the loss of those who have been directly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. But as I look at the level of fear and the voices of doom that spell disaster for our world, our country, our economy - I think Isaiah’s invitation is as timely as ever. Because a lot of the fear and the doomsday mentality is borne out of hopes that are crumbling. They are borne out of a society that has been working very actively to cheat death and disease and believe that if we just research hard enough we can eliminate every threat to our health and wellbeing. We’ve effectively prolonged life a good 20 years longer than the norm just a century or so ago…so how far can we go? These fears, this mentality is borne out of a society that has experienced unprecedented economic prosperity never before known in the whole history of the world. But finally something has come along that threatens to topple the whole house of cards. And people are panicked. But the invitation of God, the invitation from the prophet Isaiah is as relevant and new today as it was in the 8th century BC. Don’t place your hope in things that are fleeting - even governments and economies will crumble and fall. Seek to be filled with things that satisfy. And seek the eternal, unchanging one who never fails or disappoints. That is God’s invitation to you and me, even today. But it requires this response, “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” And with this invitation to response, comes this picture of hope. A picture of the kingdom, the everlasting, unfailing, unshakable kingdom as it is revealed in God’s promised King Jesus, but as it will be experienced in the future when he brings about the restoration and redemption of all things. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, Isaiah 55:11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:12 “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Isaiah 55:13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”” (Isaiah 55:1–13 ESV) This is the Covenant work of God, begun in Christ, great David’s greater Son.