Listen carefully to me and eat what is good. Isaiah 55:2
This passage seems quite strange, until you note that the prophet Isaiah was talking to the Jewish people in exile in Babylon. The prophet invited the Israelites to come to a lavish meal and receive a
renewal of covenantal blessings. Of course, the danger for the exiles was that of becoming obligated to their captors and present benefactors and adapting to the bread of Babylon. Being assimilated into a foreign way of life and forgetting their roots was a real temptation. Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann notes, "Whoever feeds, owns." Food, he says, comes with a price. "Eat royal bread and think royal thoughts." Isaiah reminded the Israelites that who fed them and what they ate were no small matter. Why should they continue with food that did not nourish? The Israelites were a people of different bread, another way, a bread that came as a gift.
~ Woody Berry
Let us pray
Help us, dear God, to feed upon that which is good, that we might be faithful and true. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment