“And thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water,
whose waters fail not.”
Isaiah 58:9b If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
There are a few prerequisites for us to get to that desired goal. Verse 9b tells us that we need to put off the yoke of sin, stop judging others, and speaking empty words.
In verse 10 we are told to draw out our souls to the hungry. Who are the hungry? I see two groups of ‘hungry’. One group is made up of those who have not received the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and so they try to fill that hungry spot with lots of things: jobs, money, wealth and position. The other group of hungry are those who have a relationship with Christ and that “hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matt. 5:6) We are to give out the gospel to a lost and dying world and to feed each other with the Word of God. Matthew 4:4 tells us “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” We are to be feeding each other spiritually with God’s Word. God commands us to edify one another in love (Eph 4:16), to help each other to grow in our Christian walks with the Lord. We are to “satisfy the afflicted soul” by helping others through difficulties and struggles.
This leads to a promise: “then shall their light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon day:” As we draw together in unity to spread the gospel and edify one another, God will lift our light up out of obscurity and brighten it as the noon day sun! (hmm… let your light so shine before men… a city set on a hill cannot be hid…)
That brings us to the promises of verses 11 and 12.
The Lord will guide us continually. (vs.11) How great is that!! He promises to never leave us or forsake us, to guide us continually. He will satisfy our souls even in drought and make us strong!
So that… we will be like a well watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters fail not… watered with the water of the Word of God whose waters fail not. What a tremendous promise!!
It actually gets better! Verse 12 says that our ‘spiritual children’ will build the old waste places, it will bring revival, and we will be called “the repairer of the breach” but I like this one even more, ‘The restorer of paths to dwell in“.
Paths to dwell in. That path which leads to life eternal, that’s the one to dwell in, to LIVE in. That narrow way he asked us to hike with Jesus. Not that broad way that leads to destruction.
