Isaiah 55 - Bible Study in 5 Minutes

Isaiah 55 Short Summary:

God invites Judah to return to Him for rich blessings, pardon, and His everlasting covenant. God was putting together a plan to glorify Himself through Judah, a plan that no man could predict. His plan would give the earth cause to rejoice and would be sealed with an everlasting covenant.

Isaiah 55 Bible Study

TIMELINE:

• The prophetic ministry of Isaiah spanned the reigns of King Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.

• Isaiah’s ministry is thought to span from 739-681 BC.

KEY CHARACTERS:

• Isaiah – The son of Amoz (1:1). God commissioned Isaiah as His prophet to Judah.

• Citizens of Judah – This chapter is a prophecy about the future of Judah, and the people of the Messiah who would stem from Judah.

DEFINITIONS:

• Everlasting Covenant (55:3) - Several covenants between God and men are referred to as everlasting/eternal covenants in the Bible: (1) God’s promise to Noah not to flood the earth (Gen 9:16), (2) God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants (Gen 17), (3) God’s promises to Israel and her priests (Lev 24:8), (4) God’s promise to David to establish his throne forever (2 Sam 23:5), (5) God’s promises through Jesus in the New Covenant (Heb 13:20).

OUTLINE:

• THE LORD OFFERS BLESSINGS WITHOUT PRICE (55:1-13):

  • Judah was invited by God to partake of His free blessings.

  • He offered them “wine and milk without money and without price.”

  • God was ready to richly bless them. He advised them to turn away from things that would not satisfy them and come to Him for “good… and rich food.”

  • God would make an everlasting covenant with Judah as He had with their forefather David.

  • In the future, the pagan nations would see God’s blessing on Judah and flock to them.

  • Isaiah encouraged the people to “seek the Lord while He can be found; call upon Him while He is near” (55:7).

  • He encouraged the wicked to abandon their bad thoughts and unrighteousness and seek God’s forgiveness and abundant pardon (55:7).

  • Many in Judah and many in the pagan nations had wronged God repeatedly, but He still had compassion on them. Though few men would be so forgiving, God was!

  • God expressed this by saying, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares 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” (55:8-9).

  • God had put together a plan of pardon (Isaiah 53), and it was shockingly different than anyone could have guessed.

  • When God’s word was accomplished and His plan brought to fruition, the earth would rejoice, the mountains and hills would break out in song, and the trees would clap their hands (55:12).

APPLICATION:

• There is little question that God’s blessings described in this chapter relate to all of us and that they are speaking of God’s blessing on the world through Jesus, who was from Judah’s tribe. This is especially evident because this prophecy follows shortly after that of Isaiah 53.

• God offers us a blessing “without money and without price” (55:1) in that forgiveness through Jesus is free and abundant.

• All sinners need to do is return to the Lord and in Him they will find grace and abundant pardon (55:7).

• God has made an everlasting covenant of love with His people through Jesus (55:3).

• Foreign nations would run to the Judah, to the offspring of Jesse (Isa 11:1, 10), through whom God would be glorified (55:5).

• All men are invited to “seek the Lord” and call upon Him while He is near” (55:6; Acts 17:27).

• God’s plan, which included Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection, was beyond human imagination (55:8-9).

• Now the whole earth has reason to rejoice on account of God’s salvation (55:12).