Isaiah 35 Joy of the Redeemed
35 The desert and the parched land will be glad, (because of them) the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. 2 Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God.
3 Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; 4 say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.”
5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
8 And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. 9 No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, 10 and those the LORD has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. The Candle of Our advent wreath today is lit to remember John the Baptist and in our Gospel reading John, imprisoned by Herod, sends some of his own disciples to ask Jesus if he is the Messiah or whether they should be expecting someone else. John thought Jesus to be the Messiah but Jesus was not fulfilling his expectations, he isn’t busting him from jail and he is doing nothing to free his people from the occupying Roman Army.
As a response Jesus tells them to, ‘Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” Jesus alludes to two passages in Isaiah, one of which we read today.
So I ask you as we approach celebrating Jesus birth this Christmas, do you recognise who Jesus is or are you waiting for someone or something else to give meaning and fulfilment in life, has Jesus failed to meet your expectations, are you, like John unsure of whether Jesus is the long expected Saviour?
In our Advent and Christmas services we will be hearing a lot more from Isaiah because it was to him, perhaps more than any other prophet, that The Lord revealed details of the coming Messiah.
Up until now in his prophetic revelation, Isaiah has been building up a case concerning the spiritual state of the nation of Judah and the wider world. Israel had been called to be a rallying point to the nations and Jerusalem a city of universal truth and peace. All the bible promises that centred on Jerusalem and the temple of the Lord's presence, were their inheritance, but they squandered it. So, the Lord likens them to a badly wounded man with no health or strength, a harlot prostituting her wares with surrounding nations and a vineyard with no fruit. They were facing God's judgement.
If blessing, hope and meaning in life were no longer to be found in Judah, could the answer be found elsewhere? Isaiah casts his prophetic gaze wider and assesses the state of the surrounding nations, large and small. They too were in a similar or worse state, he concludes that the whole earth, trying to live independently of God, is in trouble. In fact, mankind’s sin has laid waste to the very earth itself. Sin ruins everything. It ruins relationships, it ruins lives and Isaiah tells us that creation itself is marred by man’s sin.
It isn’t all bad news though. Just as The Lord reveals the comprehensive failure of the nations to Isaiah, so He builds up a picture of the remedy to save the nations. The remedy would not be found in religion, philosophy or political alliance but in a person, a coming perfect King.
The promise of the coming King who would reunite and redeem the nation really was good news for Isaiah and The Lord's people. The Tribes of Israel, once united under King David had split into two warring kingdoms, led mostly by ruthless godless Kings and their sin was leading to their downfall. They had been unable to withstand the advances of the cruel Assyrian Empire, that had conquered the surrounding nations.
But what could happen if sin could be dealt with once and for all and its power over our lives, our relationships and the earth be reversed? Well this is what Isaiah is writing about in our passage today. It is the climax of the whole prophetic revelation of the first part of the Book of Isaiah and he uses poetic language.
Why poetry? Because poetry engages the heart and emotions in a way that straight prose cannot, he uses experiences of desert life to paint a picture of what will happen to us when we put our faith and trust in Jesus, that coming King, as Lord and redeemer of our lives. It would have been a great encouragement to the people, facing the harshness of desert life and the threat of invasion, but like John and his disciples, Isaiah’s contemporaries may have misjudged what the Redeemer would do for them.
Did any of you see David Attenborough Planet Earth on deserts a couple of weeks ago? Do you remember the time lapse film of the desert coming into bloom when the rains came? Well this is what Isaiah is thinking of and helps illustrate the overarching picture of transformation that will happen when the coming King redeems his people. The NIVs heading for this passage is the Joy of the Redeemed but did you notice that it is not just men and women that express joy, it is creation too. And you can’t miss the sense of joy and celebration in Isaiah’s voice as he declares:
V1 The desert and the parched land will be glad (because of them); the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendour of our God.”
Isaiah sees that the desert will rejoice and shout for joy as the ransomed of the Lord. Enter Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, redeemed and forgiven. He sees that at the time of mankind's salvation, the earth too will be saved: the curse of the fall is reversed: fear and sorrow give way to joy and gladness. This is rich imagery but it is recorded to show us that just as sin ruins everything, even the earth itself, so also God's plan for people's redemption will lead to the earth's restoration.
St Paul, reflecting on these words in Romans 8 says. “For creation itself will … be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”
From my first visit to the UAE in the Middle East I remember a conversation I had with a young Arab man in his mid-20s. I found the Emirates to be a very noble people and were undoubtedly wealthy and happy to tell you so. But this chap was different, he was interested in where I came from and why I was in the desert. At the end of our conversation he shook my hand and said it was really nice talking to me and that his name was “------“ which he told me meant “Prince of noble bearing” to which I was able to reply “and my name is Paul, which means “small and insignificant”. It made us both laugh but it showed me that in the Middle East names of people and places have very specific meanings.
In v2 Isaiah mentions Lebanon, known for its mighty cedar trees, it means “work of God”, Carmel is literally “garden land” and Biblically Sharon provides a standard of beauty. Where in the Bible do we have a beautiful garden made by God to reflect his glory and splendour?
God is recreating Eden from the desert, the curse of Man's fall is being reversed, burning sand and thirsty ground give way to pools and bubbling springs and the redeemed of the Lord will see His Glory and splendour and it is to them that Isaiah now turns his attention.
When Jesus redeems us, crippling fear can be transformed into boldness, not because he makes us physically fitter or stronger but because when we come to him, we find that he has also come close to us, he comes to us to save us. Maybe you can identify with feeble hands and unsteady knees that give way, in v3; here it is a paralysing fear in the face of adversity but he says to those with fearful hearts, ‘Be strong, do not fear; your God will come to save you.” We know that when we face fear and uncertainty we have a God that saves us, he may not take us out of our situation but we can know His presence with us and love for us.
1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in Love. But perfect Love drives out fear”
Note here I am talking about God's love for us and the observant will note that I left out the seemingly contradictory words of v4 “he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.’” but what is it that he comes to save us from? Isaiah’s contemporaries would think it would have been the Assyrians, John’s disciples - the Romans, but Jesus came to save us from greater enemies, sin, death and the power of evil.
He comes with vengeance; he comes to destroy the power of the things that injure us the most. He comes with divine retribution; we tend to think of this as a negative thing but it comes from the same Latin root meaning as the word “tribute”. When we pay tribute to someone, we praise them for their achievement, but to Isaiah paying a tribute was the price you paid to an enemy ruler to buy peace, (or the absence of invasion and war) but in Jesus, God himself comes to pay the price of peace with Him through the coming King; Jesus.
Secondly, when we come to Jesus, our perceptions, our sensitivities and even our bodies can be transformed by Him. I mentioned that this passage is the climax of the first part of Isaiah’s book, so themes like from previous chapters are echoed here. The blind eyes were those who were unable to see what God was doing in the world, those who turned a blind eye to injustice. The deaf were those who refused or failed to hear what God was saying, unable to understand his word. The lame were crippled by fear unable to see beyond the present.
I believe that Isaiah’s contemporaries and indeed many Christians and much of society today suffers from what I will call “Small Mind Syndrome”. Our vision of God is too small, we fail to believe that God can transform us, we have fixed ideas of who God is and what He is like: these often bear little similarity with the God of the Bible.
When Jesus comes into our life our whole life begins to be transformed. Our eyes are opened to see new possibilities, we start to see the world through new eyes, we become more aware of injustice and feel something of the Father's heart, we begin to see rather than just look. Our ears are opened, we begin to hear God's voice when we read the bible, that voice behind you, guiding you which way to turn, you begin to hear rather than just listen. Those who are weighed down with life's burdens find freedom from fear and worry and their spirits leap like deer and lives display joy. And the mute tongue, the timid and those who are lost for words speak with insight and wisdom.
Of course, these verses were fulfilled in the earthly ministry of Jesus, the blind did receive sight and the deaf hear but although we do hear of healings and other miracles today, they are what St Paul called signs and wonders and consequently not daily expectations. However, we do look forward to the day when we will not only enter Zion with gladness and joy but to a time when there will be no more crying, mourning, sickness and death, for the old order of things will pass away.
Thirdly, just as the desert is transformed when the rains come, so we are transformed when he pours his life- giving Spirit into our lives. Those barren, arid and fruitless areas of our lives can become vibrant and fruitful. We become more aware of destructive mindsets and bad habits that have become part of everyday life. But So, he sees:
V4 “Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.”
It’s a picture of lives blossoming, of vibrancy and luxuriant growth. “Old habits die hard” so they say, but my experience has been that when people allow God's Spirit to permeate their hearts, minds and lives, old habits die .. … Does this describe your life? Does the promise match the reality? What are the barren and arid areas of our lives that need to be transformed?
Fourth when we come to Jesus, God provides a way for us to come into His presence without fear but with Joy. Isaiah pictures a Highway to Zion, (the heavenly city), raised above the surrounding land and free from attack by lions. In earlier chapters Isaiah says that the covenant between man and God was broken and the highway is deserted, but here Isaiah sees a new highway and calls it the Way of Holiness and tells us that the unclean, the wicked fools will not travel there, as it will be for those who walk in that way, only the redeemed will walk there, and those the LORD has rescued will return.
Is holiness attainable? Is there hope for you and me, for The Lord never reduces his standards to match our weaknesses. How are we to ever meet the righteous requirements of God’s Law? Isaiah does not say; he simply leaves us to assume that its will be achieved when the people are redeemed. Later on in his prophecy Isaiah begins to see that it will be through that Coming King dying for his people, bearing their sin in his body.
Unlike me, this is the first occasion that Isaiah uses the expression “the redeem” in v9, up till now in the passage they have been referred to as “they” or “them”. The Hebrew word means to buy back, it was the price that you paid to a person to buy back a family member from their bondage, you paid a price that they themselves were unable to pay to release them from their obligation to that person. Isaiah also describes them as ransomed, which is the price you paid to a magistrate to have a friend released from prison when they were unable to pay the value of the fine for their crime.
These words point to the meaning of the cross. This is the heart of the Gospel of Jesus, everything that needs to be done to make it possible for us to come safely into God's presence has been done, but it was at great cost, Jesus paid the highest price, death on a cross, bearing the penalty of our sin himself, so that we don’t have to pay that penalty and can come to God with joy, not fear.
What do you and I need to do to know that Redemption and joy, nothing! St Paul says in Romans 4, “to him that does nothing but trusts God, who justifies the ungodly, that person’s faith is credited to him as righteousness”. We are saved by faith and faith alone, not by anything that we can do but as a gift by God, through his Grace towards us and on the basis that Jesus paid the costly price of our lives by his death, so that we might come through death and enter His life, with gladness and rejoicing.
Finally, as we approach Christmas, do you recognise who Jesus is or are you waiting for someone or something else to give meaning and fulfilment in life. What is at the top of your wish list this Christmas, iPhone, iPad or how about iBelieve, for the greatest Gift you can receive is Jesus, given by God, at great cost. But we have to accept that gift and then we can begin to know that freedom from fear, the transformation that comes from the presence of God's Holy Spirit in our lives and the joy and gladness that will overtake us as we join the highway to Zion and enter God's presence; redeemed and forgiven.