Scripture Sunday: Invitation to the Thirsty

by Ashtyn Adams

Isaiah 55:1-5 (NIV)
1 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. 2 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 fare. 3 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. 4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a ruler and commander of the peoples. 5 Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations you do not know will come running to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.

Walter Bruggeman has said that the task of the prophet is “to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us.” Here in Deutero-Isaiah, the Israelites who have been exiled are given a vision of hope, Isaiah is evoking a reality far different from what they know. In the previous chapter, God says, in one of my favorite verses, “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you… My unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed” (Isaiah 54:7-10). This is the climax of the second book of Isaiah, that God’s anger towards injustice and the consequences of it are momentary, but God’s compassion, love, and faithfulness are everlasting, something we can never be separated from. Isaiah 55 then flows into the specifics of that love. God’s invitation into divine care is one that freely gives water, food, and rest. ​

If we listen to the voice of the Israelites as exile is occurring in Lamentations, we can better understand just how radical this message from Isaiah truly is. The Israelites cry out: “We have become orphans, fatherless; our mothers are like widows. We must pay for the water we drink; the wood we get must be bought. With a yoke on our necks we are hard driven; we are weary; we are given no rest” (Lamentations 5:3-5 NRSV). When I was discussing this passage with Creation Justice Ministries’ theological coordinator, Derrick Weston, he pointed out how a good portion of our country would read this and say, “Well of course you have to pay for water, of course you have to pay for your wood, being the equivalent of your energy, and you are supposed to be tired and weary at the end of the day.” The American response to this passage would in sum be to quit whining, to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. I can hear my own family laugh at the absurdity of this Israelite complaint, and who would disagree with Isaiah’s words despite fully affirming Scripture as “inspired.” This was the job of the urban court prophet though, to remind God’s people of their corrupt moral state, that while few are guilty, all are responsible for striving towards this expansive vision God has for us. ​

Isaiah’s vision is especially pertinent to us since August is national water equality month. The privatization of water has deprived communities of accessing their local water sources and created unequal distribution leading to global water scarcity. Water is currently a privilege and not a right despite it being indispensable to a life of dignity and wellness. The grief of Lamentations likewise expresses a grief present in our freshwater crisis today. Not only must we pay for water but we also must put our health at risk as our water sources are often polluted by industrial effluents, chemicals and pesticides, and agricultural runoff. Developing countries and poorer communities are also disproportionately affected by these limitations and dangers. When water is an economic asset, there is simply no concern for the marginalized, and therefore it is a biblically backward idea. God alone owns water, and God wills it to be maximized for the common good. ​

God alone owns water, and God wills it to be maximized for the common good.

In Isaiah, God offers free food and drink without discrimination or price tag. Jesus likewise tells his followers, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Water is essential to life. We need clean, fresh water to affirm the bountiful life of Christ, but our economic approach leaves us with a shortage of it. Christiana Zenner in her book Just Water has pointed out how water ownership is only acceptable from the isolated perspective of commoditization. It does not take into account the value of love, ethics, or natural resources. No matter the consumer demand for the product, water, there cannot be an indefinite supply. Earth does not adhere to the rules of capitalism, evidenced by the fact that 1.8 billion will face absolute water scarcity by 2025. Now more than ever, we must amplify Isaiah’s vision. It is an ideal worth striving for; a just society would have readily available clean water. ​

Verse two asks, “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?” It should make us highly suspect and question the point of being interested in things other than the necessities. Our focus is obscured and we are paying the price in ways we are only beginning to comprehend. What we call normal the Israelites would rightly identify as oppressive, as antithetical to the divine intention for creation. Isaiah offers an invitation to the thirsty, an invitation to us and our disenfranchised neighbors. Let us accept the invitation, come to the God who provides, and then incarnate God’s love to one another: drinking, eating, and receiving rest in our bodies, in our souls, and in the land. ​

Resources 
​Books:
Brueggemann, Walter. The Prophetic Imagination. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2018.
Christiana, Zenner. Just Water: Theology, Ethics, and the Global Water Crisis. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2014.

Websites:

https://nationalwaterqualitymonth.org/

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Ashtyn Adams is a Seminary Intern at Creation Justice Ministries. Ashtyn earned her B.A. in Religion from Pepperdine University and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Divinity at Duke University.

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