Personal invitations can be special. You are on the guest list! Someone wants you to spend time with them. Somebody is thinking of you. Other invitations come because of business contacts or because you have earned a reward of some kind. Then there are also invitations that are sent out of the kindness and generosity of a benevolent person. You don’t know them; you didn’t do anything to deserve the recognition; but the offer is yours. Sometimes you even feel like it is too good to be true. If this invitation is extraordinarily special, you may even choose to frame it for posterity or put it in a place where you can show it to your friends, but it still remains only the invitation. It is only in accepting the invitation and experiencing the event that the reality can become part of your life.
When Isaiah wrote to the Israelites who were in exile in Babylon, he extended to them an invitation from God Himself. It included 3 clear opportunities through which they would find satisfaction, life and forgiveness. How could they ignore or refuse to respond to such kindness and immense mercy? How could they turn away from a God Who continued to reach out to them with hope and a future? Isn’t it amazing that this invitation isn’t limited to God’s chosen people so long ago, but is repeated throughout the New Testament? God says, “Come. Come if you are thirsty. Listen. Listen and be satisfied. Seek. Seek and you will be given mercy.”
It’s an open invitation. No date. No time. No place. No limit. No exceptions. The question is: Have you accepted it? Are you enjoying and experiencing what God has offered to you? Is there someone who needs to hear about this invitation through you?
