{"id":7587,"date":"2016-05-15T00:05:52","date_gmt":"2016-05-15T07:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7587"},"modified":"2016-05-14T10:35:09","modified_gmt":"2016-05-14T17:35:09","slug":"no-cost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2016\/05\/15\/no-cost\/","title":{"rendered":"No Cost"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cHo! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters;
\nAnd you who have no money come, buy and eat.
\nCome, buy wine and milk
\nWithout money and without cost. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do you spend money for what is not bread,
\nAnd your wages for what does not satisfy?
\nListen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
\nAnd delight yourself in abundance. <\/p>\n

\u201cIncline your ear and come to Me.
\nListen, that you may live;
\nAnd I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
\nAccording to the faithful mercies shown to David. <\/p>\n

\u201cBehold, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
\nA leader and commander for the peoples.
\n\u201cBehold, you will call a nation you do not know,
\nAnd a nation which knows you not will run to you,
\nBecause of the LORD your God, even the Holy One of Israel;
\nFor He has glorified you.\u201d (Isaiah 55:1-5)
\n<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Israelites knew the cost of everything and the value of nothing. They had trusted in fantasies that could not save. Although Isaiah began his prophetic message with warnings about the coming judgment, later, he explained that God\u2019s judgment was not the end of the line for them. <\/p>\n

A parent might explain to his child that though certain privileges have been taken away, a change in behavior or attitude could lead to their restoration. The child is not left devastated, with no hope or understanding of how to restore the relationship or to get things back to the way they were. <\/p>\n

So, God, being the ideal Father, let his people know that the judgment they faced was not the end to their relationship with him. Instead, they have the means to make it even better than it was before. A nation that had lost sight of God, would, thanks to God\u2019s punishment, find him. Following Israel\u2019s seventy year captivity in Babylon, they never again felt a temptation to turn to other gods. From that time on, the Israelites remained faithful to their belief in one, and only one God. God\u2019s commitment to them remained unbroken, however, regardless of their behavior. God had been merciful to David despite his sins. Therefore, God would be merciful to Israel, too.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHo! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost. \u201cWhy do you spend money for what is not bread, And … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7587"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7587"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7589,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7587\/revisions\/7589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}