Hope for the future….
‘For the waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and stream in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.’ Isaiah 35:6a-7
[by Knight Lightness]
Isaiah 35:1-10
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OBSERVE:
Isaiah’s oracle is a word of hope for Israel. Once again, there are debates about the time and context of this prophecy. For traditional interpreters, Isaiah is a unified work, written by one man who began to prophesy in the mid-8th century in Judah. If some of his prophecies seem to relate to events that are many years later than his likely lifespan, this is to be explained as the product of divine inspiration.
On the other hand, interpreters who accept the historical-critical method believe that there are three Isaiahs:
- The Isaiah whose ministry began in 742 B.C. and continued through 689 B.C. at the very latest. According to this theory, his work was comprised of Isaiah 1-23 and 28-33. He prophesied during a time when Assyria threatened Israel and Judah, and eventually conquered Israel (721 B. C). Although Judah (the Southern Kingdom) was invaded in 701 B.C., it retained its political integrity and autonomy.
- Second Isaiah, an anonymous prophet, is credited with the oracles included in chapters 34-35 and 40-55, dating from around 540 B. C. after the Babylonian conquest of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. These oracles provide hope that God hasn’t forgotten his people, and will bring them back from exile.
- Third Isaiah, these interpreters would say, includes chapters 24-27 and 56-66, dating from after 537 B .C., and the beginning of the return of the exiles to Judah.
Each reader of Scripture must determine for him/herself what they believe concerning these contending theories. What ultimately matters is that the church has declared that the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God, and that they convey God’s truth to us.
Isaiah paints a picture in this oracle of a highway that passes through an arid desert. Other than the references to Lebanon, Carmel and Sharon, which are used merely to describe the beauty of a blossoming land, there are no geographical points. We don’t know exactly where this highway might be, except that it leads back from exile. (As we consider this description of return from exile, we are reminded that there were several deportations in the history of Israel and Judah. There were those that occurred when Assyria conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. There were also two major deportations by the Babylonians — one when they conquered Jerusalem in 598 B.C., and the other after Jerusalem is utterly destroyed in 587 B.C.)
What Isaiah wishes to depict is that:
The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.
It will blossom abundantly,
and rejoice even with joy and singing.
Lebanon’s glory will be given to it,
the excellence of Carmel and Sharon.
The wilderness, which was so forbidding to the exiles, will become like a garden for those who return.
Therefore Isaiah urges the exiles to:
Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
Tell those who have a fearful heart, “Be strong.
Don’t be afraid.”
Isaiah’s metaphor of the highway is a kind of two-way street. On the one hand, God is coming to vindicate his people:
Behold, your God will come with vengeance, God’s retribution.
He will come and save you.
On the other hand, it seems that God’s coming will truly prepare his people for a journey that lies ahead of them. Those who are infirm will be healed, and there will be water for the thirsty travelers:
Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
Then the lame man will leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute will sing;
for waters will break out in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert.
The burning sand will become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water.
Grass with reeds and rushes will be in the habitation of jackals, where they lay.
The prophet then describes the highway itself, and gives it a name:
A highway will be there, a road,
and it will be called The Holy Way.
The unclean shall not pass over it,
but it will be for those who walk in the Way.
And he further declares that there will be no obstruction or threat from Wicked fools or lion or ravenous animal on this road, but that those who have been bought back from their exile will travel safely. He says:
The redeemed will walk there.
The Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return,
and come with singing to Zion;
and everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
APPLY:
The imagery of exile can apply to our lives at many levels. When we have turned away from God, or when we feel distant from God because of tragedy or other circumstances, we can feel that we are in exile.
Isaiah 35 suggests hope for all who have ever felt exiled from God, from home, from hope. God is the one who builds a highway through the deserts of our lives so that we may return to him. The blind, the lame, the mute, those with feeble knees will be enabled to walk this highway called the Holy Way.
What makes this description of the highway more poignant is Jesus’ description of himself in John 14:
I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).
And the language Isaiah uses describing the exiles as redeemed and ransomed reminds us of the language of the New Testament concerning the redemption of sinners from bondage to sin:
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children (Galatians 4:4-5).
Jesus himself speaks of his own ministry as the act of purchasing the freedom of those who are in bondage:
the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28).
RESPOND:
When I was in a church young-adult group in college, there was one guy who always requested the same old song during our sing-along time:
You gotta walk that lonesome valley
And you gotta walk, walk it by yourself
Nobody else can walk it for you
You gotta walk, walk it by yourself.
That was the only refrain that seemed to stick with me, and it seemed pretty discouraging. The guy who requested the song had experienced some tough knocks in his life. He lived in a tiny room in a boarding house, and was often seen at the church’s food pantry.
I wonder if he heard any hope in the second stanza of the song:
Jesus walked this lonesome valley
And he had to walk it by Himself
Nobody else could walk it for Him
He had to walk, walk it by Himself.
Still, even that stanza seems to be rather hopeless, unless we recognize that Jesus walked this lonesome valley for us! When Isaiah describes The Holy Way, it is full of hope for the hopeless — the feeble knees, the blind, the lame, the mute. And all of us who have experienced exile from God have been redeemed and ransomed:
Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return,
and come with singing to Zion;
and everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Our Lord, thank you that you have prepared the Holy Way for us that we might return to you, and that You are the way the truth and the life! Lead us back to you with singing and joy. Amen.
PHOTOS:
“Hope for the future….” by Knight Lightness is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.
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