The Book of Isaiah

Hebrew Study

Explanation

After the smoking desolation of Edom, Isaiah turns to a desert of a very different kind, one that bursts into life. "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad... and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose." The barren land will flower "abundantly" and even break into "joy and singing," clothed with "the glory of Lebanon" and "the excellency of Carmel and Sharon," because "they shall see the glory of the LORD." Then the prophet turns to the weak and frightened people of God with a pastor's word of encouragement: "Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not." And the reason they can be strong is the greatest promise of all: "behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you." The vengeance of chapter 34 and the salvation of chapter 35 are two sides of the same coming, God comes to judge the oppressor and to rescue His own.

Gospel Focus

"He will come and save you." This is the heartbeat of the whole Bible, the promise that God would come in person to rescue His people, and it was fulfilled when "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). The child was named Jesus, "for he shall save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21), the very name meaning "the LORD saves." And notice how this promise strengthens the weak: "Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees... Be strong, fear not." The writer of Hebrews takes up these exact words to encourage struggling believers, "lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees" (Hebrews 12:12). When your hands hang weak and your heart is fearful, the cure is not to look inward for more resolve but to look up at the God who came and saved you and is coming again. He blossoms deserts; He can revive your dry and weary soul. "Be strong, fear not," for the God who promised to come has come in Christ, and He will come again to bring you home.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Now come the signs of God's arrival, and they are miracles of healing: "the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing." Every category of infirmity, blindness, deafness, lameness, muteness, is reversed, and not just cured but turned to joy, the lame leaping, the mute singing. And the same life-giving power floods the land: "in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert." The "parched ground" becomes "a pool," the "thirsty land springs of water," and the old "habitation of dragons" grows lush with "reeds and rushes." The picture is of a world made new by the coming of God, bodies healed and creation itself revived, the exact opposite of the un-creation that fell on Edom.

Gospel Focus

These verses came true in the ministry of Jesus Christ, and He said so Himself. When John the Baptist sent to ask, "Art thou he that should come?", Jesus pointed straight to Isaiah 35: "the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk... the deaf hear... and the poor have the gospel preached to them" (Matthew 11:4-5). The signs Isaiah promised for the coming of God were the very signs Jesus performed, proof that in Him, God had come to save. He opened blind eyes, unstopped deaf ears, made the lame leap and the mute sing, exactly as written. And the water breaking out in the desert points to the deeper thirst He satisfies: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink" (John 7:37), for He gives "a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14). The healings were real, and they were also signs of a greater healing, the opening of blind hearts, the loosing of tongues to sing His praise, the springs of living water in souls once dry as the desert. The God who blossoms wildernesses is still in the business of reviving dead and thirsty lives. Come to Him and drink.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Through the blossoming desert God builds a road: "an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness." It is a set-apart road, and it has clear rules and comforts. "The unclean shall not pass over it", it is for a cleansed people. It is so plainly marked that "the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein", no sincere traveler can get lost on it. It is perfectly safe: "No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast", nothing that devours can touch the pilgrims. And who walks this road? "the redeemed shall walk there." The chapter ends with one of the most beautiful pictures of homecoming in all the Bible: "the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." The redeemed march home singing, crowned with joy that never ends, while sorrow itself runs away.

Gospel Focus

"The way of holiness" is a portrait of the road of salvation, and it points to Jesus, who said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). It is a highway of holiness, because those who walk it are being made holy, "without which no man shall see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14). It is marked so plainly that even "fools" cannot lose the way, God's salvation is not reserved for the clever; the humblest sinner who trusts Christ walks it safely. And it is guarded from every "ravenous beast," for those on it are kept by the power of God. Best of all is where it leads. "The ransomed of the LORD shall return... to Zion with songs and everlasting joy... and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." This is the final homecoming of the redeemed, echoed at the end of the Bible: "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying" (Revelation 21:4). We are the ransomed, bought "with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:19), walking the way of holiness home. Whatever sorrow and sighing weigh on you now, they have an expiration date. On that road they "shall flee away," and the joy that meets us at Zion is "everlasting." Set your feet on the way of holiness, and walk home singing.