A reading from the prophet Isaiah (55:1-11)
Thus says the Lord:
‘O you who are thirsty, come to the water!
You who have no money, come buy and eat!
Come buy wine and milk without money, free!
Why spend money on what cannot nourish
and your earnings on what fails to satisfy?
Listen carefully to me:
have good things to eat and rich food to enjoy.
Pay attention, come to me; listen, and you will live.
I shall make an everlasting covenant with you –
the mercies of my steadfast love for David.
Look, I have put him as a witness to peoples,
a leader and lawgiver to peoples.
Look, you will summon a nation unknown to you;
nations unknown to you will hurry to you
for the sake of the Lord your God
because the Holy One of Israel has made you glorious.
Seek the Lord while he is to be found,
call to him while he is near.
Let the wicked abandon their ways
and the sinful their thoughts.
Let them turn back to the Lord
that he may have mercy on them,
to our God, for he is rich in forgiveness.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts
and your ways are not my ways – declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are high above earth
so are my ways above your ways,
my thoughts above your thoughts.
For as the rain and the snow come down from the sky
and do not return before watering the earth,
fertilising it and making it germinate
to provide seed for the sower and food to eat,
so it is with the word that goes forth from my mouth:
it does not return to me unfulfilled
or before carrying out my purpose
and achieving what it was sent to do.
The new life promised to the beloved wife is offered to the children too. Just as the thirsty people leaving Egypt received water from the rock, so the thirsty ones now leaving Babylon are offered water. Just as the people in the desert were given the bread called manna, so those leaving Babylon are challenged: ‘why spend money on what is not bread (belo’ lehem)?’ Even lacking money they are urged to ‘buy and eat’, for no-one is to miss out in God’s new world.
The solemn promise of an ‘everlasting covenant’ (berit ‘olam) takes further the ‘covenant of peace’ already promised (Isaiah 54). The ‘mercies’ of God’s love for David are the model. They are to be a witness, a leader, a lawgiver. Nations are then brought forward: the single nation Persia, by whom the people will be freed; and the many nations unknown who will be attracted to the Lord who has made his people ‘glorious’.
The passage ends with what seem sapiential additions. ‘Seek the Lord while he is near.’ Let the wicked turn back to the Lord, who once more is described as merciful and forgiving. The ‘thoughts’ (mahshebot), and the ‘ways’ (derakim), of God are different. The ‘word’ (dabar) of God is compared to the rain and snow which water the earth and achieve their purpose. We are urged to overcome our limited horizons to enter the horizon of God.
God’s promises are fulfilled in the journey of the people into freedom, in the passage from the night of salvation to the light of new life, and in the emergence from death to life of the Lord Jesus Christ. ‘Come and have breakfast!’ says the Risen Jesus (John 21:12). On this night the free gift of water is present in Baptism, and freely-given bread in the Eucharist.
Isaiah 12
This canticle, with its words ‘joyfully you will draw water from the springs of salvation’, echoes the invitation of Isaiah 55. It is inspired by the song in Exodus 15 addressing God in a similar way as ‘my strength’, ‘my song’, ‘my salvation’.
The canticle continues with multiple imperatives. The deeds of the Lord must be made known ‘among the peoples’. Over the ‘whole earth’ God’s ‘glorious deeds’ are proclaimed.