Read the Bible in 2011 ◊ Week 10: Friday
“Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters;And you who have no money come, buy and eat
Come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without cost.”
Friday’s Bible reading is Isaiah 51–55. There are many familiar passages here, some have become song lyrics, and there are many verses quoted in the New Testament.
The last and most well-known of the four Servant songs in Isaiah is found in Isaiah 52:13–53:12. The others are in Isaiah 42:1–9, Isaiah 49:1–13, and Isaiah 50:4–9.1 This section of Isaiah is rich. At Bible Gateway click on the gear icon 
to change the settings and look at the cross-references and footnotes on Isaiah 50–55 to see all the places in the New Testament that refer to these chapters. I’m only going to write about one passage in this post, and I’ll do a separate one on Isaiah 52:13–53:12.
And you who have no money come, buy and eat.
Come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without cost.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And delight your soul in richness.
Incline your ear and come to Me.
Listen, that your soul may live;
And I will cut an everlasting covenant with you,
According to the faithful lovingkindnesses of David.”
Alec Motyer writes,
“The great invitation now goes out to everyone without exception. The servant was given a double task, one part of which was to ‘be my salvation to the ends of the earth’ (49:6). The terms in which that invitation is now extended indicates how completely the Servant has done his work.”2
Derek Kidner titles Isaiah 55:1–13, Grace abounding, and writes this about the first three verses.
“The fourfold come is as wide as human need (note the stress on unsatisfied longing in vv. 1, 2, as in, e.g., Ec. 1:3; Jn. 4:13) and as narrow a single individual (note the intertwined singulars and plurals in v. 1, more evident in AV, RV). The Bible closes with an echo of it (cf. Rev. 22:17), and Jesus made the same identification of come . . . and eat . . . with come to me, in Jn. 6:35. The paradox of buy . . . without money throws into relief the twin facts of sure possession and total dependence which are inplied in grace.”3
In his gospel, John twice records Jesus referring to living water. First, when He is talking with the Samaritan woman.
Then on the last day of the Feast of Booths (or Tabernacles) Jesus gives the invitation of Isaiah 55:1 (cf. Isaiah 48:3).
Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”John MacArthur explains why Jesus’ timing of these words was significant:
“He stands in Jerusalem and at the top of His voice He yells, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.”…
“Now there was one particular ceremony connected with the feast that is really a very fascinating and it was the major ceremony. It had been taken from original scriptural injunction and then had been added to by the Pharisees and the rabbis. By the time of Jesus, this is the ceremony that went on. The worshipers, that is all the people who came for the ceremony, and it happened every day…they all marched to the temple with all these branches, they did it every day during the Feast of Tabernacles…they held them out like this and formed a great round roof over the altar…And at the same time that this was going on, the priest had in his hand a golden pitcher which held about two pints of water. It was empty. And he would go down to the pool of Siloam and he would scoop out two pints of water, fill his pitcher, walk back through what is called the water gate back to the temple and he would carry this water toward all these people who had their branches over the altar. And in the time when he came through the water gate, the people all recited Isaiah 12:3 which says, “With joy shall he draw water from the wells of salvation.” And here he came symbolically with the water.
“The water was then carried into the temple. He moved underneath the roof and poured the water out near the altar. Now while this was being done, the whole congregation of Israel was gathered around they were singing the Hallel, Psalm 113 to 118. They were singing it praising God…they were led in singing by the Levite choir accompanied by people playing flutes. It was a big deal. All these people with all their trees and this ceremony of the pitcher and singing and flutes and the whole deal. This was the key big ceremony in the Feast of Tabernacles.
“Now get the picture. I can see the strategy of the moment. It says in 37, “In the last day that great day of the feast.” Timing is the key here. The whole dramatic ceremony became even more dramatic on the last day because the last day the whole group with all their boughs and branches was marching around the altar and they marched around it seven times…coming to a climax and then the water was poured. Why do you think they marched seven times? That’s how many times Israel marched around the walls of Jericho. And so they were symbolically remembering Jericho, all a part of the wilderness wanderings. And then the water was poured out.
“…I believe it is at that moment against that background that Jesus Christ stood up somewhere and His voice rang out like thunder and He said, “If any man thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink.”4
Are you thirsty? Are you parched and dry in your mind and heart and soul?
And you who have no money come, buy and eat.
Come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without cost.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And delight your soul in richness.
Incline your ear and come to Me.
Listen, that your soul may live;
And I will cut an everlasting covenant with you,
According to the faithful lovingkindnesses of David.”
In the last chapter of the Bible, Jesus gives this promise:
Silvesterzug Laterne: Bk muc. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Fountain of Water: FreeFoto.com. Cropped. This site has now been deleted.
1Commentators I’ve read begin the first two Servant songs in Isaiah 42:1 and 49:1, but stop at different places. I’ve linked to the longest passages I’ve seen included in the first and second Servant songs.
2Alec Motyer, Isaiah By The Day: A New Devotional Translation (Christian Focus Publications Ltd, Scotland, U.K.: 2011) 266.
3Derek Kidner, “Isaiah,” The New Bible Commentary: Revised, D. Guthrie, J. A. Motyer, eds., A. M. Stibbs, D. J. Wiseman, contributing eds., (Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove IL: 1970) 619.
4John MacArthur, Copyright 1970, Grace to You. All rights reserved. Used by permission. This Grace to You sermon, “Reactions to the Claims of Jesus,” originally appeared here. I’ve linked to the Internet Archive, because this sermon is no longer on the site. You can find a more recent sermon at Grace to You on John 7:37–52, given by Dr. MacArthur on, February 23, 2014, “The Glorious Gospel Invitation.”
I’m using Michael Coley’s Bible reading plan (one page PDF to print) to read through the Bible in 2023. Each day my posts are on different books because he divides Bible readings into seven categories, one for each day of the week: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Gospels. There’s more information on his plan and other ones at Read the Bible in 2023.
Copyright ©2011–2023 Iwana Carpenter
Kindling for Candles 