Isaiah 55:1–9 – "Grace and Hope" – J. P. Kang
Discussion Questions:
1. Reflect on a time when you were (or are) depleted, running on empty, or burned out. What happened so that your life moved back toward health and balance?
2. The invitation (vv. 1–3a) and promise (vv. 3b–5) offer valuable, even priceless, things to those who are depleted—"without money and without cost" (v. 1b). What can we say about God’s "business model"? What is the cost of discipleship for us who receive God’s grace?
3. God offers to God’s people an eternal covenant that realizes the hesed ("faithful love") that was promised to David (v. 3b). In what ways is Jesus the ultimate fulfillment of God’s hesed?
4. Verses 6–7 make the connection that forgiveness is available where God is present. How do we access this gift? How important are humility, repentance, and wisdom (compare vv. 8–9) to this transaction?
5. Proverbs includes the saying “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life” (13:12). How do the experiences and memories of fulfilled desire sustain us in a seemingly hopeless present? How can God’s grace and life be experienced in hard seasons of waiting?
Presby 