That Which Cannot Satisfy

Isaiah asked this very interesting question: “Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread?” I think what he is saying is that we spend too much money for things which aren’t really needed or which don’t actually provide nourishment.  Obviously we need to spend money for more than just bread specifically, but taking bread a symbol for the necessities of life I think we can understand this as a rebuke for wasting our money on the unnecessary things of this world.  As the world bombards us with  online sales and constant pressure to continually make large and small purchases (whether we have the money or not) so we can stay caught up with the latest trends, Isaiah’s call is for us to seek only that which is really important.  He continued by saying: “[Wherefore do ye spend] your labour for that which satisfieth not?”  This seems to be a reference to the way that we spend our time—so much of it is on things that really have no value.  If this was a problem in Isaiah’s day, then surely in our day it is ten-fold worse.  We only have to look at the countless wasted hours that people spend staring at pictures of other people’s lives on social media or playing mind-numbing video games or watching pointless television shows or, now, walking around with their phones pretending that Pokémon is in front of them.  The Lord’s call through the words of Isaiah to us is to do that which is of most worth with our time and energy: “Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you….  Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:2-3, 6). 

                 It’s been said that the best things in life are free, and Isaiah suggested that we need nothing of the things of the world in order to come unto the Lord: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1).  Jacob seemed to be paraphrasing these thoughts from Isaiah when he said, “Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy.  Hearken diligently unto me, and remember the words which I have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel, and feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted, and let your soul delight in fatness” (2 Nephi 9:51).  I think that’s one of the great challenges we face today—putting the things of God first in our lives and not falling prey to the entrapments of the world that will take our time and money and leave us completely unsatisfied.  As the Preacher said, “vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?” (Ecclesiastes 1:2-3) 

                Ultimately the promise of the Lord through Isaiah—if we will indeed seek Him and call upon Him—is this: “For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands” (Isaiah 55:12).  Real satisfaction and fulfilment comes as we draw near to the Lord and become like Him; but the world’s counterfeit ways that it wants us to use our time and money will leave us as Isaiah described elsewhere: “It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite” (Isaiah 29:8).