And ye shall be redeemed without money (Isaiah 55)

Okay, I am getting back to Isaiah chapter 55! I have been doing a terrible job of making these posts regularly, and while I'm pretty sure there's almost nobody reading these as I post them (maybe not even Steve Wells, who I send links to every time I publish), there's also the principle that I fully intended these to be a form of spiritual discipline for myself, and I wanted them to be close to daily. Run-on sentences aside, I've been having a lot of health problems lately, and I've been letting it distract me from regular Bible studies, which isn't good. I need to be in the Bible more often, and a nice fluffy, positive chapter like this one is a good refresher, so let's get into it.

Verse one, as the SAB notes, seems to be talking about a cashless society, perhaps. People without money are urged to buy food, milk, and wine without price. While this is a prophecy of some time in the future, it's not clear whether we're talking about the afterlife, or the end times, or perhaps just a time in Israel's history when food and drink will be plentiful enough it is given away. However, the very next verse talks about money again, and seems to warn against spending one's money and/or labor on things that don't satisfy, which doesn't sound much like advice for a person in a cashless society. So the larger context is a bit confusing, perhaps. It may be that verse one is describing the future, and in light of that future, verse two admonishes the listeners in the present to be wise. Verses three and four talk about the covenant of David, and how "he" will be a witness to the people of the world. It's not clear whether this unnamed witness is the Messiah or perhaps the nation of Israel itself, but nations that Israel have never heard of will call on Israel because of "him". The reader is urged to seek God, and God will pardon unrighteousness. In verses eight and nine, God says that his thoughts and ways are different from those of humans, and that they are much higher. The SAB takes issue with this, supplying a few choice passages from the Bible that it feels counter such a claim. The thing about it though, is that (as far as I can see) this simply indicates that the SAB doesn't understand these passages, which is sort of the point. If you don't understand something, that doesn't automatically make that thing stupid or wrong. While I certainly get why the passage about the bear mauling is troublesome, why would a story about a donkey that was made able to talk be an indication of the supposed poor morals of God? I think that actually there is a common thread running through the three passages anyway, and that is that proper spirituality is important. I'm sure I've talked about it before, but I really feel that when God touches on this topic, it's not for selfish reasons, like he needs people to follow him, but that actually, people need God in a funny way, because he is truth. Anyway, pretty much the rest of the chapter is an odd metaphor for the value of God's word. It contains the funny verse about trees clapping their hands, which I was sure the SAB would mark as absurd, but for some reason it's left without note.