Bible Verse of the Day Sunday August 20th, 2023

 Isaiah 55:1-3 Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fares. Give ear and come to me; listen, that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.

A university professor was preparing to pass out the final exam for his class. He instructed them to leave the papers face down on their desk until he told them to start. When we turned them over, someone filled in every answer on the test! The bottom of the last page said this concludes your final exam, and all of you scored an A+. You passed this exam because the one who created it has taken it on your behalf. Any preparation you did for this exam was not necessary, you have all have just experienced grace. Our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus, took and passed our life's final exam that we could never pass.

Verse 1 calls on all people to come to God, to listen to what He has to say, and to enter into real life. Satan takes away a great price from us for what is only an allusion, not reality, and we will soon crumble like dust. On the other hand, God's gift is free and leads to a solid relationship with Him that will never end but last for eternity. This call from God to "come" occurs four times in these verses.

This call is not an invitation to everyone but everyone who thirsts. If one is not thirsty for the offer from God, one will never come to the waters of Christ, the living waters. Two times in Isaiah, we see the Holy Spirit represented by water. Jesus extended a similar invitation during His earthly ministry for all to receive this water.

God speaks to us like He has always spoken to people, His Holy Word. (Hebrews 1:1-2; John 1:14). If we do not immerse ourselves in His word daily, we will most likely miss what He is trying to say to us. It is not that he is not speaking to us, it is that we are not listening.

The sole qualification is thirst and hunger for God’s Word, which means desire and need. We all have this great need and yearning, none of us carry within our natural self that which is sufficient. We are all dependent upon external things for life and well-being. Our thirst and hunger for God’s Word though is often misunderstood. Many are driven by this hunger and thirst for many fountains and find what they drank incapable of satisfying them. God’s Offer is for all and recognizing that our hunger and thirst is for Christ is the only prerequisite.