Yesterday it rained outside almost all day. In a modern American context, that rain is a good thing (lawns and gardens) and a minor nuisance (hair and umbrellas). But for God’s people in Isaiah’s day, the rain was only positive. The blessings brought by the rain parallel the value of God’s Word:
KJV Isaiah 55:10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Here are some helpful thoughts from my class notes on these verses:
NOTES:The point of vv. 10-11 is that God’s words/promises are purposeful (they have a design), effectual (they possess the power to accomplish what they pronounce), and therefore infallible (they cannot fail to accomplish their pronouncements). Job 37:10-13 describes God as sending ice and rain “by His guidance, that they may do whatever He commands them on the face of the whole earth. He causes it to come, whether for correction, or for His land, or for mercy.” YHWH uses this very precipitation illustration in Is. 55 to describe the purposefulness, effectualness, and infallibility of everything He pronounces and promises. However amazing or improbable or unimaginable or unlikely it may sound to you or me, if God said it, He will do it just like He said it.1
- Layton Talbert, handout on Isaiah 55. [↩]
