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Isaiah 55 – Living Like We Believe God’s Promises
There is not a single promise that God has made. We sometimes live as if there were promises that God has made. But let me reiterate and emphasize again that God has made no promises at all to us and we better start living like we believe it!
Confused? Upset? Disagree?
Well then, let me clear everything up by doing something very simple and yet very essential. Let me finish the sentences.
There is not a single promise that God has made…THAT HE WILL NOT KEEP.
We sometimes live as if there were promises that God has made…THAT HE WILL NOT KEEP.
And finally, we better start living like we believe it…that there is not a single promise THAT GOD WILL NOT KEEP.
Finishing those sentences makes all the difference, doesn’t it? And yet “finishing” is what promises are all about. A promise not finished is simply not yet complete. A promise not finished is a promise waiting to be fulfilled. A promise is about the future, not the present. Too often we live in the present only. Think…if we are only living in the present, we are not living in the promises. Promises are about the future. Sometimes living with promises not yet fulfilled can make us confused and upset us.
My incomplete sentences represent God’s promises. Yes, some promises God has made to us He has finished keeping – God brought a Savior into the world. Some promises God keeps every day – He forgives me when I ask. But it is the promises that we are still waiting on that sometimes can confuse us, or upset us when we are waiting. Let’s remember that some promises are just like a sentence waiting to be finished. Once the sentence is finished, everything makes perfect sense. But too often we try to “interrupt” God.
Let’s focus on only one promise of God because every promise that matters is connected to that one promise – the promise that God will keep His promises.
The word “promise” literally means to send forth a word. Notice this sending forth of a “promise” in Isaiah 55:
(1) “…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.
- Water and bread represent life. That is a promise of grace given those who have need and have no means to acquire.
(2) “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy?
- So many live without God’s promises and live an empty life. They live as if God has not made any promises.
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And delight yourself in abundance. (3) “Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you…. (7) Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. (8) “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. (9) “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.
- Many unfortunately interpret those last two verses as meaning that God’s thoughts and ways are beyond our understanding. No, that is not the meaning. Context – the contrast in the context is that the ways and thoughts of man in v.7 are wickedness and unrighteousness. God’s ways and thoughts are holy – and one of the most holy aspects of God’s ways and thoughts is that God keep His promises.
- But notice very carefully what God says next about the promise of His promises.
(10) “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; (11) So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.
- Which way does rain fall – up or down? As surely as rain falls down and not up, God promises to keep His promises! Guaranteed!
“For God has promised”….to keep His promises. Thank God! Please don’t think I am saying “thank God” in a nonchalant, vain manner. No. Thank God, because I cannot survive without Him and His promises. I cannot survive without the promise that God will keep His promises. People living without God might think you and me weak for thinking we need God. And they are right. I freely admit I am weak and in need of God and His promises. I need to believe and know that God will keep His promises. Those who are in denial of their own frailties, I pity. They are thirsty and hungry and don’t even know it. They are living as if God has not made any promises. So yes, thank God we realize that we need the Almighty to survive spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, and every other word ending in “a-l-l-y!” In fact, I guess we could look at all those words and remember that God is my a-l-l-y, my ally – my friend – in spirit and all other aspects of my life. And what a friend He is. In fact He is a faithful friend. The Promise Keeper.
God promises to keep His promises. Focus on that. No, do more than that. Live, survive and thrive on that promise. God promises to keep His promises, guaranteed.
Thank God! “For He has promised!” And there is not a single promise that God has made that He will not keep! And we better start living like we believe it.
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