Isaiah 35 Joy of the Redeemed

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.

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