Isaiah 55-56

Isaiah 55-56

Chapter 55: Salvation if Free

                The Lord invites those who are thirsty to come and be richly fed.

“Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” (Isaiah 55:6) Don’t wait around to call upon the Lord to help you… call upon His help, while He is there.

The everlasting covenant is talked about in terms of the sure mercies of David. The wicked will be forgiven if they forsake their ways. The Lord’s thoughts are higher than men’s thoughts.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9) Simply put: we don’t understand the ways of God.

Sometimes we question why things happen in the world in our own lives and the lives of those around us. Why did God cause a natural disaster to occur, why did someone die before their time… etc. Everything has a reason, but we may not fully understand why. But an all knowing, all powerful God… does! “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments  and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33)

The Lord’s word shall make the earth fertile. Psalm-like image of the mountains and hills breaking forth in singing. Out of this fertile earth will come the word of the Lord, and He said: “…my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11)

One thing to keep in mind in verse 11, God said His “word”, and His word is not “a” book, it can be multiple books, like it was before the Bible was formed by MAN. Jesus even said: “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.” (Mark 13:31) Notice how it said “words”, if word was meant to be “a book”, like the Bible… then we are only talking about one book and not multiple books. This is why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes in an OPEN Cannon of Scriptures, where revelation is alive and not dead. Where God’s words are not limited to the one single book.

Chapter 56: Keep the Commandments

A call is made to be righteous, and not defile the Sabbath. The foreigner and the eunuch will not be separated from the Lord. The Lord will judge the “…greedy dogs… shepherds that cannot understand…” (Isaiah 56:11) I believe this is referring to the pastors of churches, which are built for gain. In the Spanish “Reina-Valera” version of the Bible it uses the word “pators” in place of Shepherds.