All Are Invited to an Eternal Feast

Having invited the poor sinners of the world to sit at his banquet, in verses 6-9 he sharpens the sense of urgency that they do so immediately. Verse 6 commands sinners to “seek the Lord while he may be found” and to “call to him while he is near.” To call on Christ for forgiveness is essential to our salvation, for “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom 10:13). But the real issue here is urgency: sinners must seek the Lord and call on his name “while he may be found.” This is a clear warning that the opportunity to come in from the cold and sit in God’s warm banqueting hall will not last forever. “Now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2). God will not always stand extending his hand of gracious invitation to sinners to enter his feast. There will come an end—either at the sinner’s death or at the second coming of Christ—and then it will be too late.

To accept this gracious invitation to the feast, the sinner must “abandon his way and . . . his thoughts” (Isa 55:7). The mind of the flesh is death, hostile to God (Rom 8:6). In order for a spiritual beggar to come in from the cold, he must repent, forsaking his wicked thoughts and corrupt lifestyle. And if we do, God will have compassion on us and will “freely forgive” (Isa 55:7). In verse 8 God asserts that his thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are his ways our ways. Actually, God says, “as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (v. 9). What an amazing assertion! I read once of an Argentinian chess grandmaster named Miguel Najdorf who in 1947 played forty-five games simultaneously while blindfolded (Hearst and Knott, Blindfold Chess, 25)! That was the most amazing mental achievement that I’ve ever heard of by a human being. But today God actively controls the events of the daily lives of seven billion people on earth, skillfully orchestrating their free decisions into his eternal plan. God’s mind is as far above ours as the stars are above the surface of the earth.

Verse 8 begins with the word For, making a connection with verse 7, and there are two ways to look at that connection: (1) We should forsake our wicked ways and thoughts (v. 7a), for God’s ways and thoughts are not evil like ours but are holy and exalted; or (2) God’s lavish forgiveness (v. 7b) is so astonishing that it soars above ours as far as heaven is above the earth. God is really, really good at forgiveness; we generally are not. Either way, we come away in awe at how lofty God is and how gracious to invite sinners like us to sit at his banqueting table!

Isaiah 55:10-13

The final section highlights the power of God’s word—his instruction, promises, and warnings—to produce the transformation needed for sinners like us. Again, verse 10 starts with the word For, meaning God is continuing his train of thought. The lavish pardon and the invitation to his feast he offers are communicated to us in his word. He compares his word to the “rain and the snow” that fall from heaven and do not return to it without watering the earth, making its plants sprout. In the same way, God sends forth his word by the power of the Holy Spirit. It makes a circular trip like the cycle of precipitation: “For from him and through him and [back] to him are all things” (Rom 11:36). And God is asserting that it will never return to him having accomplished nothing but will most certainly achieve what he sent it to do.

Because this is always true, we must realize that God is either showing mercy by the sending of his word or he is hardening sinners by that same word (Rom 9:18). That is the only way to see that God’s word never returns to him without results but always achieves the purpose for which he sent it. As the invitation to come to God’s banquet is published far and wide in this world, it is obvious that most people reject it (as the parable of the Wedding Feast of Matt 22 asserts). God wills to harden some by the invitation to sit at his table, and he also wills to show mercy to his elect. To some people, evangelists are the fragrance of Christ; to others they are the stench of death (2 Cor 2:15-16).

So Isaiah 55:12 may be speaking of the experience of missionaries and evangelists sent out to summon people to Christ’s banqueting table. They will go out with joy, and the Holy Spirit will peacefully guide them. But the ultimate end of the gospel is the joy of the redeemed in the new heaven and new earth. The language of verse 13 is of the complete removal of Adam’s curse: “Instead of the thornbush, a cypress will come up.” The curse on the earth will be gone forever, and those who feast in the kingdom of heaven will look on a perfected earth and will glorify God.

This chapter completes an amazing run of chapters in Isaiah. Isaiah 53 spoke so clearly of the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ for us sinners, Isaiah 54 proclaimed the need for Zion to expand because of the vast numbers of Gentiles who would enter, and Isaiah 55 calls sinners from every nation on earth to forsake sin while there’s still time and find a feast of grace and forgiveness in the kingdom of Christ.

So evangelists and missionaries should make full use of this chapter to call sinners to repentance and faith in Christ. Pastors should appeal to their congregations to feast on Christ and to stop glutting themselves on materialism, which does not satisfy. We should press on to an ever-greater seeking of Christ in daily quiet times, to “seek the Lord while he may be found” (Isa 55:6) early in the morning as Christ sought his Father while it was still dark (Mark 1:35). This chapter can also be used to convict and warn the “almost persuaded” person who is presuming on a future time when they will come to Christ. They may die before that day ever comes.

This chapter also should urge us to seek life, nourishment, and joy (water, milk, and wine) in the Word of God. Just as the plants need the rain, so our growing souls need God’s Word.

Finally, this chapter should cause us to be more diligent in evangelism, going out with joy and being peacefully guided (v. 12) to invite lost people into the banqueting hall in Christ.