Isaiah 55:6 - Meaning and Application

Here we have more about the covenant of grace made with us in Jesus Christ. It shows both what God requires and what he promises, and it gives strong reasons for trusting this covenant with our whole hearts. This gracious revelation of God’s kindness to people is not limited to Jews or Gentiles, or to the Old Testament or the New Testament, and certainly not just to the captives in Babylon. The commands and promises are for all who thirst for happiness (Isaiah 55:1). And who does not? Hear this and live.

First, God offers pardon, peace, and full blessing to poor sinners, if they will come on the terms of the gospel (Isaiah 55:6, Isaiah 55:7). He says they must pray, and their prayers will be heard and answered: “Seek the Lord while he may be found. Seek him whom you have left by turning away from him, and whom you have lost by pushing him away. Call on him now while he is near, and within reach.” The duty is clear. We must seek the Lord, ask him for direction, and look to him as our guide and highest good. We should seek reconciliation with him, want to know him, and desire happiness in his favor. We must also call on him in prayer, asking to be reconciled, and then asking for everything else we need.

The reason for this urgent call is also clear: “while he may be found,” and “while he is near.” This means God is near now, and he will be found by those who seek him. His patience is still waiting, his word is still calling, and his Spirit is still urging us. We should make use of these chances now, because now is the accepted time. But a time is coming when he will be far off and not found. His patience will end, and his Spirit will no longer strive with a hardened heart. That can happen even in this life, and it certainly will happen at death and judgment, when the door is shut (Luke 16:26; Luke 13:25, Luke 13:26). Mercy is offered now, but then judgment without mercy will come.

They must also repent and turn from sin, and then their sins will be forgiven (Isaiah 55:7). This is a call to the unconverted, the wicked, and the unrighteous. It is sent to those who live in open, serious sins, and also to those who neglect plain duties. God gives full assurance that penitent sinners will find him ready to forgive. Repentance has two parts. First, it means turning away from sin and leaving it behind with hate and disgust, never to return to it. The wicked person must forsake his evil path, because it is a false path that leads away from happiness and toward destruction. He must not take one more step on it. There must also be a change in the mind. The unrighteous person must forsake his thoughts. True repentance reaches the root, cleanses the heart, changes our judgments about people and things, and drives out corrupt ideas and empty excuses. It is not enough to stop bad actions. We must also reject bad thoughts.

Second, repentance means returning to the Lord, as our God and rightful ruler, the one we have rebelled against. It means returning to him as the source of life and living water, which we had exchanged for broken cisterns. If we do this, God will have mercy on us. He will not treat us as our sins deserve, but will show compassion. Misery is what mercy looks on with pity. Our sin has truly made us miserable (Ezekiel 16:5, Ezekiel 16:6), and repentance makes us feel that misery and grieve over ourselves (Jeremiah 31:18). That puts us in a place where pity is fitting, and God has tender mercies. He will also abundantly pardon. The phrase means he will multiply forgiveness, just as we have multiplied offenses. Even if our sins have been very many and very great, and even if we have often turned back and are still prone to sin, God will keep forgiving those who return to him sincerely, even backsliding children.

Second, God gives strong reasons to accept this offer and trust our souls to it. Wherever we look, we find enough to confirm its truth and worth. If we look up to heaven, we see that God’s purposes are high and beyond us, and his thoughts and ways are far above ours (Isaiah 55:8, Isaiah 55:9). The wicked are told to leave their evil ways and thoughts and return to God, so that their ways and thoughts may agree with his. God says, in effect, “My thoughts and ways are not like yours. Yours are concerned only with earthly things, but mine are above them as the heavens are above the earth.” If we want to prove ourselves true repenters, our affections must also be set on things above.

This also comforts us when we trust God’s promise to forgive sin after repentance. Sinners may fear that God will not be reconciled to them, because they found it hard to be reconciled to someone who has offended them so often and so badly. But God says his thoughts in this matter are not like ours. They are as far above ours as heaven is above earth. This is true in many matters, but especially in reconciliation. We often think God is quick to take offense and slow to forgive, and that if he forgives once, he will not forgive again. Peter thought forgiving seven times was a great deal (Matthew 18:21). A small debt can seem large to us, but God meets returning sinners with pardoning mercy. He forgives freely, and he gives without scolding. We forgive but cannot forget, but when God forgives sin, he remembers it no more. In this way, God calls sinners back by leading them to think well of him, as in Jeremiah 31:20.

If we look down to the earth, we see that God’s word is powerful and effective there, and it always accomplishes what he intends (Isaiah 55:10, Isaiah 55:11).

Here we see, first, how powerful God’s word is in the natural world. He tells the snow to fall on the earth, and he decides when it will come, how much will fall, and how long it will stay. He also directs the light rain and the heavy rain of his strength (Job 37:6). At his command, they come down from heaven and do whatever he appoints them to do across the earth, whether for discipline, for the good of his land, or for mercy (Isaiah 55:12, Isaiah 55:13).

God’s word does not return empty, without reaching its purpose. It waters the earth, and so the earth becomes fruitful. In this way, he makes the ground bring forth and bud, because the crops depend on the dew from heaven. The earth gives bread to the eater, meaning present food for the owner and his family, and it also gives seed to the sower, so there will be food again next year. A farmer must both eat and sow, or he will soon run out of what he has.

In the same way, God’s word is just as effective in his rule over providence and grace. It is as powerful in the mouths of the prophets as it is in the hand of providence. It will not return to him empty, as if it could not do what he sent it to do, or as if some greater power could stop it. No, it will accomplish what he wants, because it speaks his will, and he works all things according to that will. It will succeed in the purpose for which he sent it.

This assures us, first, that all of God’s promises will be fully kept in their proper time, and not a single part of them will fail (1 Kings 8:56). These promises of mercy and grace will work in believers’ souls as truly as rain works on the earth, making it fruitful. Second, the word of God will always have an effect suited to the way it is received. If it does not become a message that gives life, it will become a message that brings death. If it does not convict the conscience and soften the heart, it will harden them instead. If it does not prepare a person for heaven, it will prepare that person for hell (Isaiah 6:9). In one way or another, it will do its work.

This also shows that Christ’s coming into the world, like dew from heaven (Hosea 14:5), will not be wasted. If Israel is not gathered, he will still be honored in the conversion of the Gentiles. So when the Jews reject the offer, grace must be offered to the Gentiles, so the wedding hall may be filled with guests and the gospel may not return empty.

If we look especially at the church, we see the great things God has done, and will do, for it (Isaiah 55:12, Isaiah 55:13). “You shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace.” This first points to the Jews’ release and return from Babylon. They will leave captivity and be led back toward their own land. God will go before them just as surely, though not as visibly, as he went before their fathers in the pillar of cloud and fire. They will go out not with fear, but with triumph, and not with any regret to leave Babylon or any dread of being brought back. Their journey home through the mountains will be pleasant, and the lands they pass through will wish them well.

The hills and their people will seem to break into singing with joy. And if the people themselves were silent, the trees of the field would still clap their hands in praise. When they return to their own land, it will be ready to welcome them. They expected to find it covered in thorns and briers, but instead it will be planted with fir trees and myrtle trees. Though the land had lain desolate, it had kept its sabbaths (Leviticus 26:34), and when that time was over, it would be better than before, like land after a sabbatical year. All this will bring great honor to God and make his name known.

But this points beyond that. It will be an everlasting sign that the redemption of the Jews from Babylon confirmed the promises that point to gospel times. The way God carried out those prophecies would be a pledge and a sure sign that all the other promises would also be fulfilled, because it would show that he is faithful to keep his word. It also serves as a picture of the blessings promised in the gospel.

First, gospel grace sets free those who were in bondage to sin and Satan. They go out and are led forth. Christ makes them free, and then they are truly free. Second, it fills with joy those who were sad and low in spirit. Jacob will rejoice, and Israel will be glad (Psalm 14:7). Even the earth and the lower parts of creation share in the joy of this salvation (Psalm 94:11, Psalm 94:12). Third, it changes people’s character. Those who were like thorns and briers, useful for nothing except burning, and even harmful and troublesome, become graceful and useful like fir trees and myrtle trees. Thorns and briers came in with sin and were part of the curse (Genesis 3:18). The planting of pleasant trees in their place shows the removal of the curse of the law and the coming of gospel blessings.

The church’s enemies were like thorns and briers, but God will instead raise up friends who will protect and honor her. Or this may also mean that the world itself grows better. Instead of a generation of thorns and briers, there will be a generation of fir trees and myrtles, with children wiser and better than their parents. In all of this, God will be glorified. It will be for him a name, meaning that he will be made known and praised by it, and his people will be encouraged. It will be an everlasting sign of God’s favor toward them, assuring them that, though it may seem hidden for a time, it will never be taken away. The covenant of grace, that is, God’s saving promise, is an everlasting covenant, and its present blessings are signs of blessings that last forever.