The Joyful State of Christ’s Kingdom.

We have, in this chapter, a beautiful and majestic picture of the flourishing condition of Christ’s kingdom, of the glorious future awaiting those who belong to the mountain of Zion, the redeemed of the Lord.

v. 1. The wilderness and the solitary place, the desert and the steppe, shall be glad for them, that is, what formerly was a moral wilderness would he totally changed; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose, the Oriental narcissus, or crocus, which rapidly covers the waste places of the steppes after the beginning of the rainy season, making the whole surface of the land appear like a carpet of flowers.

v. 2. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing, in an ecstasy of delight over the blessings of the Lord; the glory of Lebanon, with its mighty forests, shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel, the mountain famed for its beauty, and Sharon, the valley south of Carmel, famed for its luxurious vegetation, they shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God, namely, with the coming of the Messianic era. Therefore the prophet addresses words of cheer and comfort to the afflicted believers:

v. 3. Strengthen ye the weak hands, the reference being to the firm grasp with which the believers should hold to the hope of their calling, and confirm the feeble knees, so that they will stand upright, keeping their ground against all enemies.

v. 4. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, agitated and terrified by the dangers besetting them on every hand, Be strong, fear not; behold, your God will come with vengeance, to revenge His children upon their enemies, even God with a recompense, to punish every one according to his deserts; He will come and save you, for in punishing the enemies of His people the Lord delivers and saves those that are His

v. 5. Then the eyes of the blind, said of the spiritual blindness of natural man, shall be opened, to see the beauty of the Savior, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, so that those who have never understood the sweet message of salvation will heed and believe it.

v. 6. Then shall the lame man, who by reason of his self-righteousness was unable to walk the way of God’s commandments, leap as an hart, in eager willingness to do the Lord’s bidding, and the tongue of the dumb, of him who formerly knew nothing of the Gospel and therefore confessed nothing, sing, in hymns of thanksgiving to the God of his salvation; for in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desert, for the grace and mercy of God in the New Testament era flows in rich streams to those who thirst for His forgiveness. Cf Psa 65:9-10.

v. 7. And the parched ground shall become a pool, the mirage shall become a real lake, that is, the civic righteousness of men, their acts and works, which now only seem good, will then truly be good because flowing from the motive of faith in Christ, and the thirsty land springs of water, made fruitful by the power of love in the Word; in the habitation of dragons, in the dens of jackals, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes, an oasis of the Lord in the midst of a world filled with enmity toward Him.

v. 8. And an highway shall be there and a way, a causeway such as was used by armies, the valleys being filled up and all obstructions removed, and it shall be called The Way of Holiness, the holy way, where the saints of the Lord were found; the unclean shall not pass over it, only those consecrated by the Lord; but it shall be for those, such as have, by the grace of God, found the way of sanctification; the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein, that is, even the most unlearned will he able to follow the way of salvation as set forth in the Word of God.

v. 9. No lion shall be there, the lion being named as one of the fiercest representatives of the animal world, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon; it shall not be found there, every one who walks on this way being under the special protection of God; but the redeemed shall walk there, those who have accepted the redemption of God in Christ Jesus and rely upon it in firm faith.

v. 10. And the ransomed of the Lord, those whom the Messiah has delivered from the natural slavery of sin and from the consequent condemnation of death, shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, this joy being visible in their entire aspect, especially in the appearance of their faces; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away; for the Christian religion is the most cheerful religion, the absolute religion also for this reason, that it alone announces to sinners the full and free love of God in Christ Jesus. In this manner these two chapters are in the fullest sense of the word Messianic prophecies, finding their application wherever the kingdom of Christ is established. Cf Php_4:4 .

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

Isa 35:1-10

THE GLORY OF THE LAST TIMES. On the punishment of God’s enemies will follow the peace, prosperity, and glory of his Church. Previously, the Church is in affliction, waste, and desolate. Its enemies once removed, destroyed, swept out of the way, it rises instantly in all its beauty to a condition which words are poor to paint. The highest resources of the poetic art are called in to give some idea of the glory and happiness of the final Church of the redeemed.

Isa 35:1

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; rather, the wilderness, and the dry place, shall be glad. The Church, that has been long wasted and kept under by the wicked, shall, at their destruction, feel a sense of relief, and so of joy. The desert shall rejoice, and blossom. The first result of the joy shall be a putting forth of lovely products. Blossoms, beautiful as the rose or the narcissus (Kay), shall spring up all over the parched ground, and make it a parterre of flowers. The blossoms are either graces unknown in the time of affliction, or saintly characters of a new and high type.

Isa 35:2

It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; rather, with dancing and singing. Dancing and singing were the ordinary manifestations of religions joy (Exo 15:1, Exo 15:20, Exo 15:21; Jdg 11:34; Jdg 21:19-21; 2Sa 6:5, 2Sa 6:14, 2Sa 6:15; Psa 30:11, etc.), and would naturally follow the great deliverance of the Church from the power of its enemies. The clause is a touch of realism intruded into a prolonged metaphor or allegory, and is quite in the manner of Isaiah (comp. Isa 14:7; Isa 26:1; Isa 30:32, etc.). The glory of Lebanon the excellency of Carmel and Sharon; i.e. productiveness of all kinds, of abundant harvests, fruits, and flowers, and forest trees (comp. Isa 10:18, Isa 10:19, Isa 10:33, Isa 10:34; Isa 32:15)a resumption and prolongation of the metaphor in verse 1. They shall see the glory of the Lord. The culminating joy and delight and blessedness of the Church shall be the vision of Godeither the spiritual perception of his presence (Mat 5:8; Rom 1:20) or the actual beatific vision (1Co 13:12; Rev 21:11, Rev 21:23; Rev 22:4), the first during the probation period, the second in the state of final bliss.

Isa 35:3

Strengthen ye the weak hands. In the Church of the redeemed there will be “weak” brethren as well as strong, “feeble” as well as healthful (see 1Co 3:1; Gal 6:1; Heb 5:12-14). God, by the mouth of his prophet, calls on the strong to impart of their strength to their weaker brethren, uplifting their “weak hands,” as Aaron and Hur did those of Moses (Exo 17:12), and “confirming” or sustaining their “feeble knees.” So St. Paul: “We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves” (Rom 15:1).

Isa 35:4

Say to them that are of a fearful heart. There will be fearful and trembling hearts always, even among the saints of God. These are to be encouraged and assured that God Will come to their aid, will avenge them of their spiritual enemies, reward their efforts to serve him, and in the end “save” them. He will come and save you; rather, he will come himself to save yon. There is One alone who can save, and he must do it himself, and, to do it, he must “come” to us. The words were at once an announcement of the Incarnation, and a promise to every trembling, doubting hearta promise of direct Divine assistance, of the presence of God within us, of help potent to save. The predominant thought of the prophet appears to have been Messianic, and hence the burst of glorious prophecy which followsa burst of prophecy most inadequately expounded of the time of the return from the Captivity.

Isa 35:5, Isa 35:6

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened. In the literal sense, our Lord claims these prophecies to himself and his earthly career, when he says to the disciples of John the Baptist, “Go and show John those things which ye do hear and see, the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear” (Mat 11:4, Mat 11:5); but they have doubtless a further spiritual sense, in which they belong to the whole period of his mediatorial kingdom, and are correlative to former utterances of the prophet, in which the blinded eyes and deaf ears and stammering tongues of God’s people had been spoken of and made the subject of complaint (see Isa 6:10; Isa 29:10, etc.). Our Lord’s miracles of bodily healing, performed during the three years of his earthly ministry, were types and foreshadowings of those far more precious miracles of spiritual healing, which the great Physician is ever performing on the sick and infirm of his Church, by opening the eyes of their understandings, and unstopping the deaf ears of their hearts, and loosening the strings of their tongues to hymn his praise, and stirring their paralyzed spiritual natures to active exertions in his service. Doubtless Isaiah, or the Spirit which guided him, intended to point to both these classes of miracles, and not to one of them only, as characteristic of the Messiah’s kingdom.

Isa 35:6

For in the wilderness shall waters break out. The wilderness of humanity shall be renovated by a large effluence of God’s grace (comp. Isa 30:25; Isa 32:2; Isa 41:18; Isa 43:19; Joh 7:37, Joh 7:38).

Isa 35:7

The parched ground shall become, etc.; rather, the glistening sand. That hot glow of the parched desert soil, which produces the mirage, shall be replaced by a real lake of cool water. Illusive imitations of goodness shall give way to the display of genuine virtues and excellences. In the habitation of dragons; or, according to some, of jackalsthe driest and most desolate of all places. Shall be grass with reeds and rushes; i.e. “shall be a luxuriant vegetation, like that on the banks of the Nile” (comp. Isa 35:1, Isa 35:2).

Isa 35:8

And an highway shall be there, and a way (comp. Isa 30:21). There shall be a clear “way” marked out in which all shall be bound to walka “strait and narrow way” doubtless (Mat 7:14), but one not readily missed. The way shall be called The way of holiness. It shall be that path through the dangers and difficulties of life which holiness points out and requires. The unclean shall not pass over it. It is tempting to imagine that there is here a reference to the famous chinvat peretu of the Zoroastriansthe “bridge of the gatherer”along which all souls had to pass in order to reach the abode of the blessed, but which the souls of the wicked never succeeded in passing. The ‘bridge of the gatherer” is, however, in the other world, not in this world; but Isaiah’s “highway” is here. It is that right course of life, which “the unclean” do not follow, though they might do so if they chose, but which the righteous follow to their great gain and advantage. But it shall be for those; rather, as in the margin, but he shall be with them; God, i.e. shall be with those who seek to walk in the way, and not to err from it. He shall direct them, support them, sustain their footsteps. The wayfaring men; rather, they that walk in the waythat make up their minds to try to walk in it. Though fools; i.e. however simple and unlearned they may be”Ne simplicissimi quidem” (Rosenmller). Shall not err therein; shall not wander from the way through mere simplicity. It shall be easy to find, difficult to miss.

Isa 35:9

No lion shall be there. No great tyrannical power, like Assyria (Nah 2:11, Nah 2:12) or Babylon, shall arrest the energies of the Church, take it captive, or enslave it. No ravenous beast shall make it his prey. In proportion as the Church is holy (Isa 35:8) it shall be free from the molestation of bloody persecutors (see Isa 11:9). The redeemedthose whom God has purchased for his own (Exo 6:6; Hos 13:14)shall be free to walk there, untroubled by cruel enemies. There is an under-current of comparison between the blessedness of the last times and the existing troubles of Israel, still threatened by Sennacherib.

Isa 35:10

The ransomed of the Lord shall return. The blessedness of the last times would be incomplete to Jewish ideas without this crowning feature. There had already been a great dispersion of the faithful (Isa 1:7-9); there was to be a still greater one (Isa 11:11); Israel could not be content or happy until her “outcasts” were recalled, “the dispersed of Judah gathered together from the four corners of the earth” (Isa 11:12). The return here prophesied is again announced, in almost the same words, in Isa 51:11. With songs (see the comment on Isa 51:2). Everlasting joy upon their heads. Anointed, as it were, with “the oil of gladness” (Psa 45:7) forever and ever. Sorrow and sighing shall rise away (comp. Isa 25:8; Rev 7:17; Rev 21:4).

HOMILETICS

Isa 35:1-10

The glory of the Church not temporal greatness, but spiritual perfection

Amid the wealth of metaphor which Isaiah employs to depict the final prosperity, glory, and happiness of the Church, it is remarkable how little use is made of any images drawn from the conditions or circumstances of earthly grandeur. Images of natural beauty are principally employedthe shady forest, the spreading cedar tree, the rich luxuriance of arable and pasture land, the choice beauty of the most lovely among flowers, the placid lake, the pellucid rill, the gushing fountain. These raise no ideas of earthly greatness or temporal dominion. They point, by what may be called the laws of prophetic language, to two main features of spiritual life,

(1) abounding grace granted to the Church freely from abovea supply copious, unlimited, inexhaustible, such that the cry may be confidently raised, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat” (Isa 55:1); and

(2) abundant fruit borne by her members in their several stationsfruit of various kinds and of various degrees of excellency, but all “good fruit,” spontaneously brought forth from ungrudging hearts, hearts desirous of showing forth their love and gratitude to their Maker and Redeemer. Beyond these two main characteristic features of the Church of the redeemed, we descry furtherfirst, a power of working miracles (verses 5, 6), physical or spiritual, or both; and secondly, a gift of spiritual insight, whereby the redeemed are enabled to penetrate through the dense veil wherewith material things overlay the great realities that are behind them, and to discern through all the “glory and excellency” of the Most High (verse 2). q he redeemed seek for no external dominiontheir efforts are, primarily, to walk themselves in “the way of holiness”, (verse 8); secondarily, to “strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees’ of their brethren (verse 3); and, finally, to realize to themselves, by continual meditation and study of his works, the goodness and greatness, the “glory and excellency,” of their Lord and God.

HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON

Isa 35:1-10

Glories of the Messianic age.

This is a picture of the happy and glorious condition of Israel after the return from Captivity. Nature is beheld rejoicing with man; and the whole scene is suffused with the light of a universal spiritual joy.

I. THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE NATURAL WORLD. The desert will rejoice “like the narcissus,” the beautiful white flower found in abundance in spring-time in the Plain of Sharon. A ringing musical cry shall break out from those solitudes. The beauty of the most favored spots, of Carmel and Sharon, shall be diffused over the whole. In poetic pathos a feeling is lent to nature, which does not really exist in her. There is a deep truth, not of the reason, but of the heart, in this mood. Inanimate Nature is incapable either of joy or of sorrow, of exultation or depression. This our reason tells us. But we are all something more than cold rationalists in this matter. We take back from Nature impressions which we have first lent to her, and suppose we have borrowed them. This has been called the “pathetic fallacy,” and there is a truth in the fallacy better than that of syllogistic reasoning. To the lover Nature looks love, and whispers of love; to the desponding temper her expression is a frown, her tones are inspirations of lament; she wears a nuptial robe for the happy bridegroom, and a pall for the mourner; silent and morose to the eyes of him who is cast down in the sense of Divine wrath, it breaks forth into jubilant song for the ears of him whose heart overflows with the sense of the redeeming mercy of God. “There is not the least flower but seems to hold up its head, and look pleasantly, in the secret sense of the goodness of its heavenly Maker. This silent rhetoric, though we cannot hear, but only see it, {s so full and expressive, that David thought he spoke neither impropriety nor nonsense, in a strong line, when he said,’ even the valleys break forth into singing.'” It is a song of praise and thanksgiving, a song of joy and triumph in the “glory of Jehovah,” the manifestations of his creative and renewing powers, the liberal effusions of his goodness, even upon the lowest parts of the creation.

II. THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE HUMAN WORLD.

1. Weakness made strongunder the figure of the nerving up of languid hands and of tottering knees. Languor, dullness, the privation of power, are symptomatic of the absence of vital energy, alike in the physical and the moral sphere. People may be seemingly weak and impotent, not because they want the organs for action, but because the inspiration to action is wanting. A life without defined activity is hardly worth the name. In the fixed light of the eye, the prompt hand, the willing foot, we see signs of the Divine afflatus upon a man. The sails have caught the favoring breeze, while others lie becalmed. But there is always some part for the will. To him that hath shall be given; and the paradox is true, power comes to those who exert it.

2. Despair exchanged for confidence. Despair unfits alike for human and Divine service. Men are moved to duty by the hope of good or by the fear of evil. These motives cannot avail one who does not believe that his state can be either bettered or worsened. The man becomes careless of his happiness, indifferent to salvation. The biblical medicine for despair is the firm insistence on the message of salvation. God is comingis on the way, to requite, to redeem, to deliver. How careful should preachers be not to force men into a “preternatural melancholy,” by an unskillful handling of the Word of truth, by indiscreet severity, by dwelling too much on the dark themes of human depravity and predestination!

3. The removal of human infirmities and limitations. Blindness, deafness, lameness, dumbness, are symbolic of all obstructions in the soul to the entrance of light, and music, and power, and fluency. One great outflow of the Spirit sweeps all these hindrances to enjoyment and to activity away. Near to us is a God of infinite fullness; all about us is a world of beauty, strength, and joy; but we are “straitened in ourselves.” Life is full of illusions, which tempt us forward with all the power and promise of reality. These are like the mirage of the deserta seeming sheet of water in the distance, with its offer of refreshment to the pilgrim; in fact, an optical deception. But these illusions bear a certain relation to truth. For we cannot believe that the Almighty has planted a spring of error in the very mechanism of our fancy. Our minds were made for truth and tend towards truth, even through hallucinations. “The mirage shall become a lake.”

III. THE REFORMATION OF RELIGION. There will be a “raised way,” called “The Holy Way.” It will be exempt from all that is unclean; it will be so clear and straight, that even the simple-minded cannot go astray; a secure and peaceful way, undisturbed by the furious beasts of ravening and destruction. Its every stage will be marked with joy, as singing pilgrims pass along it; and the sighs of sorrow will die away in the distance. It is a picture of true evangelical religion, as it is revived among the peoples, from epoch to epoch, and of its blessed effects. True religion is an elevating thing; nobility of manner and refinement of taste go hand-in-hand with it. It is a holy thing; and distinction of characters and classes, of tastes and pursuits, must appear wherever it comes. Its doctrine is simple, intelligible, yet sublime. “Justification by faith” can be understood and received by the humblest mind, while the most powerful intellect must exert itself to rise to the serene height of the truth. It is a way of gentleness and peace, unvexed by the furious storms of controversy, sheltering timid souls. It is a way of freedom and of joy, and it leads to a fixed destinationa celestial place, an eternal kingdom, a city that cannot be removed, whose Builder and Maker is God.J.

HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM

Isa 35:3

Inspirations to energy.

“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.” It is not enough to be sorry for the woes of others. Sympathy may be a sort of mental “minor,” wherewith we simply soothe ourselves. We must be earnest and inspirational. Pity must be practical. “Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand!” We have plenty of critics and satirists; we want men who will help to save.

I. WE MAY STRENGTHEN BY OUR WORDS. “Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not.” Tell a sorrow to some persons, and they draw a picture of still darker possibilities, and so feed the already gloomy fancies of the mind. But it is possible to give “cheer,” insteadto record God’s great deliverances to ourselves, and tell of all his wondrous works. Thus we may put the brightness of hope into the sky, and help to chase the dark clouds away. “Say.” We have all the faculty of quickly telling bad news; let us tell the “good news” of God’s gracious kingdom.

II. WE CAN CHEER THE HEART. That is the center of life. We may not be able to lift the burden, but we may strengthen our brother’s hands by energizing his heart. It is wonderful what a few depressing influences will accomplish. Some are more sensitive than others, and are easily cast down. “Do not my words do good?” says God; for they reach at once to the inner man. Blessed angels of help are words that go to the heart. No man is so great but sympathy can cheer him; no man is so weak but he may be made heroic by holy inspirations!

III. WE CAN HELP THE PILGRIMAGE. The knees are feeble; for it is a “tiring” journey to many. They are very weary. Disappointments have multiplied; fountains have dried up in the desert; friends have died, and, like Naomi, they went out full, and are returning home empty. We are all pilgrims; and the statesman’s steps often tire as well as the poor student seeking after his first ideal. In the spiritual pilgrimage, too, we often faint and fail. The way is hard. We are disappointed with ourselves. It may be that some soul was just turning back when we strengthened the feeble knees by our own eager pressing forward, even when tired and faint. How much thus depends on our own Christ-like disposition! We cannot do all this if we are insolent, quarrelsome, or hard. The very duties the gospel enjoins manifest what a lofty ideal of character the gospel requires.W.M.S.

Isa 35:4

Tremor of spirit.

“Say to them that are of a fearful heart.” This implies that fear will be a necessary element in our life. All depends on the heart. Fear increases with experience.

I. THY GOD REIGNETH TO SALVATION. His power is in this direction. He is God. He is thy Godthe God of thy salvation.

1. It is an empire over sin. All its agencies and influences.

2. It is an empire over hearts. Because it is connected with the cross!

3. It is an empire over enemies. There is no Manichean universe of equally divided forces. The Lord is King.

II. THY GOD REIGNETH TO CONSOLATION. He is human as well as Divine.

1. He is Lord of circumstance.

2. He is Lord of condition. He can and does extend his pity to the weak and the poor.

3. He is Lord of dissolution. For death is in his hands.

III. THY GOD REIGNETH TO GLORIFICATION. All things make manifest:

1. His praise.

2. His perfections.

3. His permanence. “Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.’

IV. THY GOD REIGNETH TO SUBJUGATION. All enemies under his feet.

1. Power to control.

2. Power to educe good out of evil.

3. Power to raise and to cast down.

V. THY GOD REIGNETH TO ADORATION. His kingship will evoke the worshipping homage of all creation.

1. Angels adore him.

2. Saints adore him.

Heaven shall ring with the glad acclaim of a great multitude that no man can number. “Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever.”W.M.S.

HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON

Isa 35:1, Isa 35:2, Isa 35:5-7

Transformation by the truth.

Accepting these words as Messianic in their scope, we may treat them as descriptive of that most blessed transformation which is effected, in the individual man and in the nation, by the gospel When the truth of Christ is made efficacious by the Spirit of God, and has had time to work out its true results, there will be found

I. ILLUMINATION OF THE UNDERSTANDING. “The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.” Darkness of mind, deafness of soul, have prevailed; the spirit has been insensible to all that is most beautiful and harmonious, most precious, in the universe. But then shall things appear as they are. Men shall “see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.” In the Father, the Friend, the Sanctifier, the Refuge of the human soul, men will recognize him who is worthy of their trust, their love, their search.

II. GRATITUDE OF HEART. Instead of the “guilty silence,” so often and so long maintained by men under the reign of sin, “the tongue of the dumb will sing” psalms of grateful praise to the Divine Author of all being, to the bountiful Giver of every good and perfect gift. The mouth will be full of song because the heart will be full of thankful remembrances.

III. STRENGTH OF SOUL. “Then shall the lame leap as an hart.” Instead of the moral feebleness and incapacity which showed itself in painful spiritual inactivity, the soul will go forth, with all its renewed and regenerated powers, to do God’s work, to bear witness to his Name, to work in his vineyard.

IV. LOVELINESS AND FRUITFULNESS OF LIFE. “The desert shall blossom the rose; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel,” etc.

1. Instead of bareness and unsightlinessthe invariable product of sin in its final outworkingsthere shall be spiritual beauty. There shall be “the beauty of holiness,” “the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit;” all that is attractive and entrancing to the changed and cultivated judgment of the good and wise.

2. Instead of fruitlessness there shall be fertility. The desert shall “blossom abundantly.” Holy, devoted life will be spent in the service of a present Savior and for a sin-stricken world. We shall abound in help, in healing, in blessing.

V. PREVAILING JOY. The whole strain of the passage is jubilant, and it speaks of the desert “rejoicing with joy and singing.” Sin and sadness are most intimately associated; even if they are not so inseparably allied as to be always seen together, they are so essentially connected that when one appears the other is sure to follow. It is a guilty world that knows so much of disappointment, of regret, of grief, of shame. But when the truth of God has wrought its full effect on the human soul, the prevailing note, even of the earthly life, will be that of joy. The near presence of the heavenly Father, the close friendship of the Divine Redeemer, the happy service of love, the blessed work of doing good, the exulting hope of heavenly bliss,these are sources of joy which quicken and animate the soul, which make a holy human life radiant with a blessedness which anticipates the glory of the skies.C.

Isa 35:3, Isa 35:4

The privilege of the strong.

In this strenuous and vigorous appeal we have

I. THE COMPREHENSIVE CHARACTER OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. In it are the weak as well as the strong. There is nothing whatever that is narrow about the Christian faith. It is not adapted to any particular class or character. In Jesus Christ there is neither male nor female, Greek nor Jew, cultivated nor uncultivated, bond nor free. And in him there is no favor reserved for any special disposition. It is not a gospel for those in particular who are most admired of menfor the strong, for the brave, for the wise, for the winning; it is a refuge for the weak, for the timid, for the unknown and the unbeloved. Those who are of no account at all amongst men, those whom human leaders would gladly leave out of their army as weakening rather than strengthening their forces,these are all welcome to flock to the standard and to fight under the banner of the heavenly Prince.

II. THE PRIVILEGE OF THE STRONG. Untaught by the truth of Christ, unchanged by his Spirit, it has been considered the privilege of the strong

(1) to despise the weak;

(2) to displace them and to enjoy their portion;

(3) to delight in playing the part of despot over them.

These have been the uses which the strong have made of their strength. But we have not so learned Christ. So far as we possess his Spirit and have any right to bear his Name, we shall count it our privilege:

1. To show them a genuine sympathy; remembering that often, if not always, their weakness reflects no discredit on them, and our strength no credit on ourselves.

2. To render them effectual succor; to grant them needful protection and guidance, to instill courage into their minds, to impart vigor to their souls, to make them partakers of our own strength. We shall say to them, speaking in more ways than one, “Be strong.”

III. THE MAIN SOURCE OF THEIR SUCCOR. The strong will help the weak:

1. By offering them the honor which is their due, instead of the disdain to which they have been accustomed. The former elevates, the latter crushes.

2. By their inspiriting example. Walking with them, working or struggling by their side, the fellowship which they afford imparts a constant access of strength to their soul.

3. By words of wise encouragement. And of these the best and the most effective will be those which bring out the nearness and the salvation of God. “Behold, your God will come and save you.” If we would do our very best to strengthen the weak, we must bring them into conscious relation to the Divine Source of all power. Let men realize that God is with them and for them, and they will be strong to do the bravest deeds and to endure the sharpest sufferings.C.

Isa 35:8, Isa 35:9

The way to Zion.

The outward incidents of the Jewish people have a singularly dose correspondence with the inward experiences of human souls in Christian times. The captivity in Egypt and also that in Babylon find their analogue in the state of spiritual bondage which is the constant penalty of sin. The way back to Jerusalem stands for our homeward pilgrimage as we travel to the city of the blessed. As here described, there are several features in which the one answers strikingly and instructively to the other.

I. THE HIGHWAY TO THE HEAVENLY CITY. In all his dealings with man God has been constructing a highway from bondage to spiritual freedom, from sin to holiness, from guilty selfishness to sacred service, from utter ruin to complete salvation, from earth to heaven. He was engaged in this beneficent, Divine procedure when he spake to us through the patriarchs, when he instituted the Law, when he gave to us his prophets. And he completed this “way” when he “sent forth his Son.” Jesus Christ had so much to do with preparing for us the highway to the heavenly city that we appropriately speak of him, as indeed he spoke of himself, as actually being the Way itself (Joh 14:6). He, the Truth, is the Way by which we have a knowledge of God and of his will. He, the Mediator, is the Way by which we ourselves come into close spiritual contact with God himself. He, the Propitiation, is the Way by which we ascend to forgiveness and reconciliation. He, the Life, is the Way by which we rise ‘into loving union with, and growing likeness to, and ultimate preparedness for, the Divine Father.

II. THREE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HEAVENWARD WAY.

1. Here is that which is paradoxical, but true withal; for this homeward way is characterized by breadth. It is the broad “highway,” the open road, along which all travelers are free to pass. There is no such exclusiveness about it as is often found in the ways we construct. It is for all classes of society, for all nations and races of mankind, for men who have lived all kinds of human lives, for men of all tempers and dispositions; the “King’s highway” has ample room for them all.

2. But it is also, strangely though not inconsistently, characterized by narrowness. “And a way,” i.e. a path, an elevated and narrow causeway along which only one or two can walk abreast. About this way of life there is a narrowness of its own (see Mat 7:13, Mat 7:14; Luk 13:24).

(1) Its gateway can only be entered by one at a time. Men do not enter into the kingdom of God in regiments or companies, but as separate and individual souls (see Gal 6:5).

(2) No man can enter in swollen with pride, or carrying his vices with him, or wrapped round with selfishness. It is “the way of holiness,” “the unclean shall not pass over it.”

3. It is also characterized by directness. A man, “though a fool, shall not err therein.” There is no serious difficulty here. Mysteries there are which are insoluble, but these can be left alonethey will keep for a future time. But what the will of God is in Jesus Christ, how he would have us order our life, what manner of men we ought to be in order to please him,this is as clear and plain as it could be. The little child, the man who is little better than “a fool,” need not miss his way in travelling to the heavenly city.

III. THE IMMUNITY AND THE COMMUNION OF THE WAY.

1. Immunity. “No lion shall be there.” Not that there is no adversary to be found in the way to Zion. The evil one himself, as a roaring lion, haunts the path of life. But there will be found no temptation which belongs peculiarly and especially to the heavenward way, as is the case with other paths. In the path of financial success is the lion of covetousness or avarice; in the path of fame is that of vanity; in the way of professional success is that of complacency, etc.; but in the way of holiness is no especial “lion” which frequents that road. It is morally and spiritually safe.

2. Communion. There is

(1) fellowship with the holy. “The redeemed shall walk there.” And there is also and above all

(2) fellowship with God himself; with the Divine Friend of man. “He shall be with them” (marginal reading); he shall be with themhe “Leader of faithful souls, and Guide of all who travel to the sky.” C.

Isa 35:10

Within the gates.

If the two preceding verses may be regarded as descriptive of the Christian pilgrimage, the text may appropriately be treated as pictorial of the heavenly city in which that journey ends. The language of this verse suggests to us

I. THE DISTINGUISHING FEATURE OF THOSE WHO ARE ADMITTED. They are “the ransomed of the Lord.” They were in spiritual bondage: they have been redeemed by a Divine Deliverer; they have been ransomed at a great price; they have been rescued from the power of their enemies (outward and inward) and walk in liberty, thankful for what they have escaped from, anticipating the more perfect freedom and the more excellent estate they are travelling toward.

II. THE SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CITY ITSELF. “Shall come to Zion.”

1. It is the very home of God. Jerusalem was “the city of God’it was the place on earth which he chose for his manifested presence. There, in a peculiar sense, he abode; there, as in no other city, be was approached and was worshipped; there, as nowhere else, men felt that they stood in his near presence and rejoiced in fellowship with him. The heavenly Zion is to be to all who shall be received within its gates the place where God is, the home of the living and reigning Savior. There we are to be “at home with the Lord.”

2. It is the place of perfect security and of transcendent beauty. The “mountains were round about Jerusalem,” and “beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, was Mount Zion.” The heavenly city, of which it is the earthly type, will prove a home of absolute security, into which no enemy will ever come, from which temptation and sin are safely barred (see Rev 21:27); and of surpassing beauty and glory (Rev 21:1, Rev 21:10, Rev 21:11, Rev 21:18, Rev 21:19, Rev 21:23). There shall be everything which will give pure and inexhaustible delight to all holy souls, to those in whom has been planted and nourished the appreciation of that which is really beautiful and glorious.

III. THE JOY WHICH WILL ATTEND ADMISSION. They “shall come to Zion with songs.” How transcendent must that moment be when the human soul is assured, by actual sight of the heavenly city, that immortal glory is his blest estate!

IV. THE FULL AND ABIDING BLESSEDNESS OF THE CELESTIAL HOME. “Everlasting joy sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Here are the two grand essentials of perfect blessedness.

1. The absence of all that mars. Here many a “goodly heritage” loses half its value to the possessor of it by reason of some one serious drawback; it is some bodily infirmity, or it is some grave anxiety, or it is some keen disappointment, or it is some irreparable loss which, though everything else be fair and fruitful, makes life seem to have as much of shadow as of sunshine. There, sorrow and sighing shall have fled away.

2. The presence of lasting and ever-growing joy. Here, with the constitution of our mind and with the fading of our faculty, pleasure palls, joys fade and disappear. After a few decades life becomes less and less valuable, until it is felt to be a burden that can ill be borne. There, it is an “everlasting song,” and instead of its strain becoming less tuneful or inspiriting, the enlarging and unfolding powers of our immortal manhood will make the heavenly life more musical and rapturous as the years and the centuries are left behind us.C.

HOMILIES BY R. TUCK

Isa 35:1, Isa 35:2

Changed circumstances following the return of Divine favor.

This, which is expressed in the figures of these verses, may be further illustrated by the experience of David. His “bones waxed old through his roaring all the day long,” while God hid his face from him. He sang again the old songs when God “restored unto him the joy of his salvation.” “In contrast to the ruin of Edom, the prophet now describes Israel’s triumphant march home through the blossoming wilderness” (Matthew Arnold). Two points may be dwelt on.

1. God’s favor often includes improved circumstances.

2. God’s favor brings such cheer as lifts us above circumstances.

I. GOD‘S FAVOR OFTEN INCLUDES IMPROVED CIRCUMSTANCES. The actual removal of our difficulties or hindrances; restored relationships; business prosperities, etc.;all such things being poetically represented by the bare, dry desert becoming a watered, flowery garden. In actual fact, the weariness and danger of the long desert route were graciously mitigated and relieved for the returning exiles. Cheyne resists the reference to the exiles; but the same point may be illustrated if the picture of the text be that of the condition of desolated Judaea when God’s favor rested on the remnant that remained there. The contrast may be between desolated Edom on which rested God’s frown, and refreshed and revived Judaea on which rested God’s favor. So when God’s curse is taken off Palestine, the old blossom and beauty will return to her. We cannot always be sure that God’s smile on our souls will be followed by improvement of our circumstances; but this great comfort we may takeGod oftentimes does in this way seal and complete his mercies to his people.

II. GOD‘S FAVOR BRINGS SUCH CHEER AS LIFTS US ABOVE CIRCUMSTANCES. It is very easy to say that we ought to rise above circumstances in our own strength. But we cannot do it; nobody ever really does it, however loud may be their boastings. The bond uniting body and mind, soul and life, is altogether too close and subtle to permit even the holiest man to cease to feel. What alone is possible is that God’s favor and grace may be such an inspiration and strength to a man’s spirit, or a man’s will, that he may be able to control his circumstances, and even change them through the new and masterful relation in which he stands to them. God’s favor and acceptance is man’s supreme uplifting. There is no cheer, no strength, like that which comes to the man who can say, “The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our Refuge.” That man, and that man alone, can do all things, and bear all things, and make life yield to him its best.R.T.

Isa 35:3

Cheer for the faint-hearted.

This term may well be applied either to the small remnant left in Judaea, or to the small company that represented the exiled nation on the return to Jerusalem. The cheer comes through the assurance of God’s direct and gracious relations with them. Faint-hearted ones can only be steadied by leaning on the Strong One for strength. The prayer of all such should be this, “O Lord, I am oppressed, undertake thou for me.” Introduction may include the reasons for faint-heartedness which these people had who are here addressed; and the corresponding reasons for faint-heartedness which now may press upon us. We have times, like those which Job knew, when everybody and everything seems to be against us; we have to suffer much through the wrong-doing of others; and the frailty of our bodies often makes us write bitter things against ourselves. Our hope is in God. He sends cheering assurances.

I. WE HAVE THIS GOOD CHEERGOD LIVES. Even if we are as nearly shipwrecked as the Apostle Paul, and for days and nights together neither sun nor stars appear, the fact cannot be altered, the sun is there behind those clouds; they cannot blot him out. In our troublous and weary times men may bruise us sorely with their taunts, “Where is now thy God?” But taunts cannot push him from his place, and blot him from our sky. He is there, behind the cloud, if his time is not yet. We shall praise him.

II. WE HAVE THIS GOOD CHEERGOD IS FOR US. He is on our side. “Who shall harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?” “If God be for us, who can be against us?” We have a champion, a “Great Heart” pilgrim’s guide. “Greater is he who is with us than all that can be against us.” And if we are still placed under disabilities and burdens, we keep this confidenceseeing God is for us, he must know that it is better for us to let the burdens stay than to remove them. He could remove them; it is enough for us that he does not.

III. WE HAVE THIS GOOD CHEERGOD IS WITH US. His is not a grace and help which we may have on appeal merely; it is a grace and strength which are our constant possession. “The Lord of hosts is with us.” We are safely defended; we are wisely inspired; we possess all things”all are ours”for we have God.

IV. WE HAVE THIS GOOD CHEERGOD IS IN US. This is the deeper Christian view, and opens up the Pauline teaching, “I live, yet not I, Christ liveth in me;” and, we may even say, the teaching of our Lord himself. Cheer for the faint-hearted follows our response to this appeal, “Abide in me, and I in you.”R.T.

Isa 35:5, Isa 35:6

Pre-visions of the Great Physician.

These may be poetical figures, designed to present, in an impressive way, a time of great national joy; but we cannot fail to recognize in them foreshadowings of the miracles of healing and of grace that were wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ. The first and general meaning of the passage may be that, “so conspicuous and overpowering would be the interference of God on behalf of his people, those of the most obtuse intellect could not fail to perceive it. So joyous would be the event, that persons the most unlikely would participate in the exultation.” But, for spiritual readers, there must be a second and further meaning, for the language too well suits that time when “the blind saw, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, the deaf heard, and the dead were raised.” Reading the mission of Christ from this prophecy as a text, we note

I. CHRIST REMOVING MEN‘S DISABILITIES. All are typified in these failures of the senses of sight, hearing, walking, and speaking. Some of the human disabilities are hereditary, others are brought on by men’s own negligences or willfulnesses. But this is to be specially noticed, they are all the direct products and results of sin. And Christ only designed to impress on men the greatness of his work as Redeemer from sin, by showing them how vigorously he would deal with all sin’s consequences.

II. CHRIST GIVING LIFE TO THE DEAD. Death is the supreme, anti apparently resistless triumph of sin. Before it man stands utterly hopeless. But Christ does not. He speaks, and Lazarus comes forth, bound with the grave-clothes. He even submits himself to the worst that death can do, and then breaks the bars of his prison-house asunder. There is nothing he cannot do for us.

III. CHRIST REVEALING GOD‘S WORK IN SOULS. We only read our Lord’s life aright when we see it to be illustration of permanent spiritual facts. God is always coming and saving men. He has always been coming and saving men. Prophets, by their miracles (such as Elisha’s), in part illustrated God’s soul-saving work; but the “Lord Jesus gives the full, sublime, ever-suggestive illustration.” God gives life from the “death of trespasses and sins.” God removes the soul-disabilities which sin has brought in its train. This opens up the consideration of our Lord’s position as Mediator, doing, for God, his part of this great work in souls; and further of the mission of the Spirit, as Comforter, Inspirer, and Teacher. Verily God works wonders of grace in the souls of men.R.T.

Isa 35:8

The Lord’s highway.

Under the figure of deliverance from Assyria and Babylon the times of Messiah are foreshadowed. From the previous verses we get suggestions of his miracles of healing, and assurances that he will supply grace to men like abundant fountains in thirsty places. The figure of a “way” was even used by Christ himself. He said, “I am the Way”the way to the Father; the way of salvation; the way of holiness; the way to glory, “bringing many sons unto glory.” Spiritualizing the way described in this text, we may note

I. THE HIGHWAY OF SALVATION IS A RAISED WAY. A made way; one actually lifted up, leveled, prepared. This is the idea in the Hebrew word. We must distinguish between the ordinary Eastern path, a mere track in the sand or the soil, and the road carefully made for a royal progress, valleys raised, mountains leveled, stones removed. Such a road is Christ’s way of life and salvation for us. All hindrances are taken out of the way, and a plain path is laid before our feet. There are some points of view from which the way of life appears as a “strait gate” opening on to a narrow path. But from other points of view it is a broad, open road, which none can mistake. This may lead to consideration of the work of the Lord Jesus which was, as it were, the making of the way of life.

II. THE HIGHWAY OF SALVATION IS A HOLY WAY. There is no possibility of our treading it with the uncleanness of willful sin, kept sin, upon us. Sinners may tread it, but they must be penitent sinners. And a penitent man, so far as heart and purpose are concerned, is a holy man. Imperfect saints may tread it, but only if their heart is set on holiness. Only if they are “clean every whir,” but needing to “wash their feet.”

III. THE HIGHWAY OF SALVATION IS A SIMPLE WAY. “The wayfaring men, yea fools, shall not err therein.” The difficulties we make; they are not really in the way. The way of salvation seems to wise people full of mystery, yet it is grasped by the wayfaring, the fool, the child. None need miss the way, for it is thoroughly well fitted with directions and guide-posts. We may blind ourselves, and refuse to see them. We may put obstacles in our own path. The one great obstacle takes many forms. What we really want is to keep our willfulness; to make a way of our own; to get God to save us on our own terms. There is the highway open right before us, and we persist in looking this way and that, if so be we may find any way but Christ’s way of penitence and faith.R.T.

Isa 35:10

The return of the ransomed.

“Whoever is familiar with the bold and magnificent character of the prophetic style will not deem the liberation from the Captivity an event too trivial to be predicted in the language here employed.” “Minor and temporary deliverances are not only emblems of the great salvation, but preparatory to it.” “The first volume of Isaiah’s prophecy closes fitly with this transcendent picture, carrying the thoughts of men beyond any possible earthly fulfillment. The outward imagery probably had its starting-point in the processions of the pilgrims who came up to the temple singing psalms, like those known as the ‘songs of degrees,’ at their successive halting-places.” Very strange is the fascination which the “future” exercises on men. It is a “Will-o’-the-wisp” which is ever enticing men on.

“At first Time made nought but to-day

With its joys, its successes, and sorrow;

Then, to keep on good terms with the world,

He promised he’d make a to-morrow.”

No man is really satisfied. He is always hoping for something to happen in the future. And so he is lifted onwards towards the eternal, and in his very restlessness he reveals his immortality. Illustrate from the romance of the child, the ambition of the apprentice, the outlooking of the man, the persistent hopes of the Jewish race. This onlooking is peculiarly characteristic of the Christian, who has the “promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” The Christian’s best is in the eternal.

I. THE PEOPLE. “Ransomed of the Lord.” The word reminds us of the prisoner and the slave. It may properly be applied in a religious sense, because the Bible represents men as “in bondage,” and as “redeemed.” “Sold under sin.” “Ye were the servants of sin.” “Gave his life a ransom.”

1. Observe from what bondage we are ransomed. Describe the wretched condition of the slave. How much worse is the condition of the slaves of sin, drink, lust, evil passions, or selfish worldliness! There is a peculiar degradation and a certain final ruin involved in the supreme service of self. “Whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin.”

2. By whom were we ransomed? “Of the Lord.” It was a glorious day for England when she broke the fetters of the slave, and let the oppressed go free. It would be thought a great thing for a king to bend down and with his own hands release the slave. Yet God’s own Son, God himself “manifest,” is our Deliverer. When “there was no eye to pity, and no a,’m to save, his eye pitied and his arm brought salvation.” We sing, as Moses did, “The Lord is become my Salvation.”

3. At what price has the ransom been accomplished? “Not with corruptible things,” but with “the precious blood of Christ.” Illustrate the supreme efforts that are often made to raise a ransom price; but what is all the wealth in the world compared with Jesus, who was given for us? Surely such a ransom involves that some great blessedness is yet in store for us.

II. THE PLEDGE OF RETURN. “Shall return.” It is the word of the living God. Israel, while in captivity, may fully rest upon the Lord’s promises. There is a sense in which we may regard ourselves as the “ransomed of the Lord,” left for a while in the land of bondage until our home is ready; and while we wait we have comforting assurances in:

1. The work of Jesus: which is represented as being still carried on for us in the heavenly places.

2. The work of the Holy Ghost, who is our Seal, our Earnest, our Sanctifier, unto the day of redemption.

3. The promises of God, which are “exceeding great and precious promises,” and which are “yea and amen in Christ Jesus.”

III. THE RETURN. Picture the scene of the journey of the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem. “Songs and everlasting joy ‘they know.

1. Theirs is the joy of ransomed ones. Illustrate by the ecstasy of the freed bird, the liberated prisoner, the escaped slave.

2. Theirs is the joy of conquerors. Over sin and self and the world. Illustrate by the triumph of a general returning to his country.

3. Theirs is the joy of those who are going home. Illustrate by the schoolboy, or the traveler, nearing the time for home.

“As when the weary traveler gains

The height of some o’er-looking hill,

The sight his fainting spirit cheers,

He eyes his home, though distant still.”

IV. THE HOME. “Zion.” Our “Father’s house.” “Is it a place?” we often ask. We know little about it. God gives us only figures and pictures which appeal to imagination. The text gives two aspects of it.

1. “Sorrow and sighing flee away.” Sorrow comes out of

(1) separations;

(2) infirmities;

(3) death;

(4) sin. “There the weary are at rest.”

“The pilgrims enter the city like worn sky-birds to their nests.”

2. They obtain joy and gladness. This they have through

(1) exalted powers;

(2) established purity;

(3) intercourse with the loved ones of their human fellowship;

(4) nobler and higher service; and

(5) the vision, the presence, the smile, of Jesus. They are “ever with the Lord.”R.T.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Isa 35:1-2. The wilderness, &c. There can be no doubt of the connection of this chapter with that preceding. Comp. Isa 35:4 with Isa 35:8 in that chapter. The most joyful, prosperous, and glorious things are here predicted, concerning the state of the church after the judgment upon Edom, in such figurative terms as are familiar with our prophet, and are easily understood. We have had occasion heretofore to observe, that by the wilderness is generally meant the Gentile church; the present prophesy, therefore, is a full and clear prediction of the effects of evangelical grace upon the unfruitful desart of the Gentile world. Vitringa is of opinion, that some future and very glorious state of the church is here foretold. See Bishop Lowth’s 20th Prelection, a fine critique on this and the preceding chapter.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

4. OBVERSE OF THE JUDGMENT: ISRAELS REDEMPTION AND RETURN HOME

Isa 35:1-10

11The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them;

And the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

22It shall blossom abundantly,

And rejoice even with joy and singing:
The glory of Lebanon 3shall be given unto it,

The excellency of Carmel and Sharon,
They shall see the glory of the Lord,

And the excellency of our God.

3Strengthen ye the weak hands,

And confirm the feeble knees.

4Say to them that are of a 4 5 fearful heart,

Be strong, fear not:
Behold, your God 6will come with vengeance,

Even God with a recompense;

He will come and save you.

5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,

And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

6Then shall the lame man leap as an hart,

And the tongue of the dumb sing:
For in the wilderness shall waters break out,
And streams in the desert.

7And the 7parched ground shall become a pool,

And the thirsty land springs of water:

8In the habitation of dragons, where each lay,

Shall be 9grass with reeds and rushes.

8And an highway shall be there, and a way,

And it shall be called The way of holiness;
The unclean shall not pass over it; 10but it shall be for those:

The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

9No lion shall be there,

Nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon,

It shall not be found there;
But 11the redeemed shall walk there:

10And 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.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isa 35:1. [The Author, like the LXX., translates the futures of this verse, (and also of Isa 35:2) as imperatives. But, as J. A. Alex. says, there is no sufficient reason for departing from the strict sense of the future.Tr.]. The abnormal form must not be regarded as an error in copying, as has been done by Lowth, Eichhorn, Hitzig, Umbreit, Olsh. (Gram.). Nor can the ending be treated as a suffix, as is done by Gesenius, Rosenm., Maurer, Drechsler, who regard it as put for with reference to the felicitous revolution of all things that is announced in the present chapter. Such a reference would be harsh, and a departure from the analogy of the construction of verbs of rejoicing. It is better (with Aben Ezra, Kimchi. Ewald, ( 91, b), Knobel, Delitzsch) to explain the form as an assimilation of the in to the following : as in Num 3:49 stands for and as, according to Wetstein (excursus in Delitzsch, p. 688), at the present day even in Arabic n becomes m before a labial. In Greek also occurs for . On the recurrence of , , in Isaiah, see list.

Isa 35:2. see list. The inf. again only Psa 132:16. and see list.

Isa 35:3. The words are manifestly borrowed from Job 4:3-4. By a comparison of the Hebrew original it is seen that the first clause quite agrees with the words of Job; but the second combines elements of the two following clauses in Job, and is substituted for . But the two expressions and (or ) occur only in these two places.

Isa 35:4. Drechsler, Delitzsch, as some Rabbins before them, take as acc. modalis (Drechsler: Rchens kommt er, i.e., as much to do vengeance, as also in vengeance, in exhibition of vengeance). But no example can be cited of designating the object of coming by the accusative, or of the use of adverbially as denoting the manner of appearance, like the use of , ,, etc. The parallel passages that re cited (Isa 13:9; Isa 30:27; Isa 40:10) prove only that can be joined to as its predicate, something that is not doubted. The accents indeed favor this connection here, but they are not binding. In an entirely similar sentence as to structure (Jer. 23:19; 30:33) they make such a distribution as I think is also the correct one here. With most expositors, therefore, I take as first clause, which incontestibly is grammatically possible (comp. e.g. Isa 17:14; Gen 12:19), and as the second. Thus by , as it were with the index finger, the Prophet points to God as He draws near, and then with the following words explains His coming. Vengeance, says he (comp. on Isa 34:8), comes, divine recompense. is in apposition with . denotes not merely the author, but also the manner of the recompense; it is such as God only can visit, viz., as just in principle as it is complete in execution. The expression therefore recalls the terror of God, Gen 35:5; Psa 80:11; Psa 104:16, etc. emphasizes the coming of the Lord for a positive object.The form stands for as Pro 20:22 for . The abbreviated (Jussive) form denotes that the clause is to be construed as marking intention: that he may save you.

Isa 35:5. , see list.

Isa 35:6. to spring (Psa 18:30) and only here in Isaiah. comp. Isa 33:23., see list.

Isa 35:7. and (Ecc 12:6), see list. again only Deu 8:15; Psa 107:33.Both as to sense and grammar it gives a harsh construction to take in apposition with , and to refer the suffix to . What need is there of saying that the of the jackal is also its ? Nor would I, with Drechsler refer the suffix in to : for is a place of repose (comp. Isa 65:10; Jer 1:6; Pro 24:15). is manifestly to be referred to Israel. It is true that in what precedes there is no word to which the suffix may be grammatically referred. But we know the great liberty of the Hebrew, in which verbal and nominal endings, as also suffixes are referred to ideal notions or such as are implied in the context (comp. on Isa 33:4). It is in this case to be referred to some feminine notion of the authors mind, such as Zion or daughter of Zion. The following words, too, are an echo of Isa 34:13 b ( ). Hence the latter passage seems to me to indicate what must be the explanation of the present, and that we must here also take in the sense of . This interchange, indeed, does not occur in any other than the passages named. But grammatically it is not impossible (comp. and and , and , Ewald, 149, e) and the sense demands it in Isa 34:13. For the ostrich does not eat grass. Hence I construe in this place as and in apposition with .

Isa 35:8. The before might be taken in a causal sense (Ewald, 333, a). But it seems to me more suitable to regard the clause as the negative correlative of , and to translate accordingly by but (Ewald, 354, a, p. 843). Note here, too, what freedom the Prophet takes with the gender of the words. The fem. after is immediately followed by the masculines and , is most commonly masculine (fem. only Deu 1:22; Psa 1:6; Psa 119:33; Ezr 8:2). But it is incredible that this interchange of gender is conditioned by the double gender of , for that would not justify such interchange in one and the same passage. But relates ,i.e., to the notion which is here in an exceptional way represented by the other word. is part, absolutum, and prepositive conditional clause. In respect to the sense comp. Isa 42:16. again only Isa 19:11.

Isa 35:9. only here in Isaiah.The 3 pers. fem. in is to be referred , for this 3 pers. fem. involves an ideal plural (comp. on Isa 34:13) again only Isa 51:10; Isa 62:12; Psa 107:2; [but also, see list].

Isa 35:10. , , , see list. comp. Isa 22:13; Isa 51:3; Isa 51:11; Isa 61:3.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. As in all sections of Isaiahs prophecies, so here the perspective closes with a glorious future (comp. 11 and 12; Isa 23:15-18; Isaiah 27; Isa 33:13-24). As exile is the sum of all terrors for the Israelite, so exiles end, return to Zion to everlasting, blessed residence there is the acme and sum of all felicity. Thus here the prospect of joyful return home is presented to Israel in contrast with the frightful judgments that (34) are to come upon the heathen, and at the same time as a transition and prelude to chapters 4066.

The desert through which the way lies shall flourish like Carmel and Sharon (Isa 35:1-2). There all the weary and languishing shall receive new strength (Isa 35:3). The fearful and timid shall gain fresh courage at the prospect of the vengeance and deliverance from their God (Isa 35:4). The blind shall see; the deaf hear (Isa 35:5), the lame walk, the dumb speak; springs shall well up in the desert (Isa 35:6); the mirage shall become reality, the lair of the jackal will become a place of grass and water fitted for an encampment (Isa 35:7). A highway will appear that shall be a holy way. For as, on the one hand, nothing unclean shall go on it, so, on the other, the simple ones of Israel will not lose their way on it (Isa 35:8). No ravenous beast shall render it insecure. Only the redeemed of the Lord shall travel it (Isa 35:9). They shall return on it to Zion with joy. Then shall everlasting joy go in there, and sorrow and sighing flee away (Isa 35:10).

2. The wildernessof our God.

Isa 35:1-2. These verses, as it were, prepare the theatre in general for the return of Israel. This return is to be through the desert. There is not a word to intimate that the Prophet has a definite desert in view. The march of Israel through the Arabian desert when returning from the Egyptian captivity, is as much the type for all home returns of Israel, as that first captivity is the type for all that follow. For so says Isa 11:16 : And there shall be an highway for the remnant of her people, which shall be left from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. The Nile and Euphrates shall be made passable by dividing their beds into seven small streams (Isa 11:15), and the desert, (according to Jer 31:21), by setting up signs and way marks, and preparing the road. Especially in Isa 43:19 sq.; Isa 48:21 it is promised that those returning home shall enjoy abundance of water in the desert. Thus then our passage sees in the wilderness the chief territory for the march of the home-returning Israelites. The desert shall conform to the blessed people that wander through it. It will change its nature. Hitherto a place of curse, abode of demons (Isa 34:14), it will become a place of blessing, a paradise. The principle of a higher, spiritual, eternal life, the principle of glorification will become operative in it. This idea of the glorification of nature is peculiar to Isaiah (see Isa 4:2; Isa 6:3; Isa 11:7 sqq.). translated rose, occurs only here and Son 2:1. It is variously translated rose, lily, narcissus, crocus. That it denotes some sort of bulbous plant appears from (Num 11:5) which means onion. is often used to form quadraliterals, comp. ,, Gesen.,Thes., p. 436. Some suppose that the meadow-saffron, colchicum autumnale is meant, because the Syriac translates the word chamzaloito (see Gesen.,Comm. in loc.). But it seems impossible that such a poisonous weed could be meant here and Son 2:1. If a bulbous plant is meant, it may (distinguished from , the lilium candidum, the of the Greeks), be the lilium bulbiferum, the fire lily (comp. Plin.Hist. nat. XXI.5, 11, est et rubens lilium, quod Graecivocant). In fact the LXX., translate it here by . But it might even be the narcissus, the miraculous flower, at the sight of which gods and men wonder, that raises itself out of the earth with a hundred heads, whose fragrance rejoices heaven, sea and earth (Viktor Hehn,Kulturpflanzen, u. Hausthiere, Berlin, 1870, p. 164). Arnold (Herz.,R.- Encycl., XI. p. 25) holds this view. [The translation rose is true to the poetry if not to the botany.Barnes, J. A. Alexander]. But however this may be, the meaning is, that the entire steppe, covered with the bloom of this flower, shall appear like one single individual flower of the sort. Lebanon, (see list) Sharon (ibid.) and Carmel appear united, Isa 33:9, as types of the most glorious vegetation must be referred to the gloriously adorned meadows. For just because they are honored with beholding the glory of God, they must themselves appear in adornment to suit.

3. Strengthenthe desert.

Isa 35:3-6. The Prophet Isa 35:3 addresses his own word of encouragement to the returning ones, and then Isa 35:4 prescribes to them the words with which they are to reassure any that are dismayed (see on Isa 32:4 where the word is used for hurry in judging), to whom the undertaking may seem too bold and daring. The words be strong, fear not are evidently borrowed from Deu 31:6 (comp. 2Ch 32:7). How can Israel fear since the Lord their God hastens to them to visit vengeance on the enemy and to redeem His people!

What is said Isa 35:5-6 of opening eyes, ears and tongues, and of the free use of members before crippled, we will need to understand as much in a spiritual as in a corporeal sense. For the hasty of heart, Isa 35:4, proves that also spirit and spiritual defects on the part of the returning Israelites are still to be removed. And is the specific technical term for opening the eyes generally (only once of the ears Isa 42:20) and for opening the spiritual eyes in particular (Isa 37:17; Isa 42:7). [As Henderson justly says, there is no proof whatever that Christ refers John the Baptist to this prophecy (Mat 11:5; Luk 7:22): He employs none of the formulas which He uniformly uses when directing attention to the Old Testament (e.g., in Mat 9:16; Mat 11:10; Mat 12:17; Mat 13:14), but simply appeals to His miracles in proof of His Messiahship: the language is similar, but the subjects differ. To the question, whether this prediction is in no sense applicable to our Saviours miracles, we may reply with Calvin, that though they are not directly mentioned, they were really an emblem and example of the great change which is here described. So, too, the spiritual cures effected by the gospel, although not specifically signified by these words, are included in the glorious revolution which they do describe.J. A. Alexander].

The clause Isa 35:6 b. gives a reason, not specially for the healing of the dumb, lame, etc., but in general for the exhortation to be of good cheer that is given to those returning, and to rejoice that is given to the desert itself from Isa 35:1 onwards. Abundance of water shall be given in the desert. This explains why the desert is to flourish and rejoice, and those that journey through it should be of good cheer. to break out (comp. at Isa 48:21) stands in the well-known metonymic sense as elsewhere (see list). But this verse forms at the same time the transition to what follows, viz.: the more particular description of the road, by which the redeemed shall return.

4. And the parchedflee away.

Isa 35:7-10. [ it is now agreed denotes the illusive appearance often witnessed both at sea and land, called in English looming, in Italian fata morgana, and in French mirage. In the deserts of Arabia and Africa, the appearance presented is precisely that of an extended sheet of water, tending not only to mislead the traveller, but to aggravate his thirst by disappointment. More deceitful than mirage (or serab) is an Arabian proverb. The word (which occurs again in the Old Testament only Isa 49:10) adds a beautiful stroke to the description, not only by its local propriety, but by its strict agreement with the context. Comp. J. A. Alex., and Barnes,in loc.Herz.,R.-Encycl. XXI., p. 607. Curtius, Isa 7:5; Isa 7:3-4.Tr.].

This torture shall not be experienced by the returning Israelites. Instead of the mocking atmospheric illusion there shall be an actual lake, and the dry region shall become a region of bubbling () springs. Where before was only the lair of jackals, there Israel will bivouac as in a place where now is a green spot hedged in for cane and reed. The Prophet has in mind his own description Isa 34:13 b.

On and see Text and Gram. By the construction defended there we see that the Prophet explains why a former lair of jackals has now become fit for a resting place. It has become a fence enclosure for reed and cane. Once dry, it is now moist; so much so that plants requiring great moisture grow there. Wherever the moisture extends these plants grow. Their station, therefore, being sharply defined, may be called really a septum, a hedge. But this is a natural fence, not artificial; depending on organic life, not on stone walls. It is well remarked by Gesenius (Thes. p. 512) that the meanings of and hang together. For the nomadic extends exactly as far as there is . So also the Greek (by which the LXX. generally translate ) is at once fodder, grass and fence, court (comp. hortus and chors, cors, cohors). We may then in the text take as having the additional notion of the natural hedge, the district of vegetation. cane see Isa 19:6. , properly the papyrus reed (see on Isa 18:2) stands here for rushes generally (Job 8:11). Isa 35:8. The Lords care extends further: He will make in the desert an embanked highway, a causeway; an impossible construction for men! (= see list) is . . The expression a highway and a way is plainly a hendiadys. This way shall be holy. The Lord built it and destined it to lead to His house. It is a pilgrim way. Hence nothing unclean, neither unclean person nor thing, may come up on it; it belongs only to them, i. e., the Israelites, which notion here, as well as in (see Text and Gram.), must be regarded as ideally present. Another advantage of this via sacra is that even the simple-minded (Thumbe), cannot go astray on it. For whoever goes on it is a sanctified one, under Gods protection and care. is in contrast with : an unclean person will not cross the way, but as regards him who goes, i.e., who has once entered on the way,even fools will not go astray. All that can make unclean or occasion danger will remain at a distance from the holy way. (Comp. comm. on Isa 43:20), Instead of that, redeemed, and only they shall journey on it. Hence the way will be a, or rather the way of salvation. Isa 35:10, which is identical with Isa 51:11, defines the goal of the travellers and the success of their journey.

The ransomed of the Lord will return home. The idea in all its modifications plays a great part in Isaiah and Jeremiah. Comp. on Isa 7:3; Isa 10:20-22; Jer 3:1; Jer 31:22. Joy and peace as the promised blessings (Deu 28:2; Deu 28:15) the redeemed shall receive, but sorrow and sighing shall flee. [On their headsmay be an expression denoting that joy is manifest in the face and aspect. Gesenius, Barnes.]

Footnotes:

[1]Be glad desertrejoice steppe, etc.

[2]Bloom, bloom let it.

[3]is given.

[4]Hob. tasty.

[5]disconcerted

[6]vengeance comes, recompense of God! He conies that He may save you,

[7]mirage.

[8]In the habitation of jackals is their encampment, an enclosure for reeds and rushes.

[9]Or, a court for reeds, etc.

[10]Or, for he shall be with them.

[11]redeemed ones.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. On Isa 34:1-4. Because Rev 6:12-17 has express reference to this passage, some would conclude that the Prophet here has in view only that special event of the worlds judgment (the opening of the sixth seal). But that is not justified. For other passages of the New Testament that do not specially relate to the opening of the sixth seal are based on this passage (Mat 24:29; 2Pe 3:7 sqq.; Rev 14:11; Rev 19:11 sqq.). It appears from this that the present passage is, as it were, a magazine from which New Testament prophecy has drawn its material for more than one event of fulfilment.

2. On Isa 34:16. The word of God can bear the closest scrutiny. Indeed it desires and demands it. If men would only examine the Scriptures diligently and with an unclouded mind and love of truth, whether these things are so, as did the Bereans (Act 17:11; Joh 5:39)!

3. On Isa 35:3. The Christian church is the true Lazaretto in which may be found a crowd of weary, sick, lame and wretched people. Therefore, Christ is the Physician Himself (Mat 9:12) who binds up and heals those suffering from neglect (Eze 34:16; Isa 61:1). And His word cures all (Wis 16:12). His servants, too, are commissioned officially to admonish the rude, to comfort the timid, to bear the weak, and be patient with all (1Th 5:14). Therefore, whoever feels weak, let him betake himself to this Bethania; there he will find counsel for his soul, Cramer.

4. [On Isa 35:8-9. They who enter the path that leads to life, find there no cause of alarm. Their fears subside; their apprehensions of punishment on account of their sins die away, and they walk that path with security and confidence. There is nothing in that way to alarm them; and though there are many foesfitly represented by lions and wild beastslying about the way, yet no one is permitted to go up thereon. This is a most beautiful image of the safety of the people of God, and of their freedom from all enemies that could annoy them. The path here referred to is appropriately designed only for the redeemed of the Lord. It is not for the profane, the polluted, the hypocrite. It is not for those who live for this world, or for those who love pleasure more than they love God. The church should not be entered except by those, who have evidence that they are redeemed. None should make a profession of religion who have no evidence that they belong to the redeemed, and who are not disposed to walk in the way of holiness. But for all such it is a highway on which they are to travel. It is made by leveling hills and elevating valleys; across the sandy desert and through the wilderness of this world, infested with the enemies of God and His people. It is made straight and plain, so that none need err; it is defended from enemies, so that all may be safe; because He, their Leader and Redeemer, shall go with them and guard that way. Barnes in loc.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

DISCOURSE: 912
GLORIOUS PROSPECTS OF THE GOSPEL CHURCH

Isa 35:1-2. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose; it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God,

AS the planting of the Jews in Canaan was accompanied with the slaughter of the Canaanites, so in every age the establishment of Gods Church on earth is represented as immediately connected with, and in a measure consequent upon, the judgments inflicted on her enemies. This appears, as in many other places, so especially from the words of our text; which are a continuation of the prophecy contained in the preceding chapter, or rather, a transition from one part of the subject to another part of the same subject. In the foregoing chapter, the destruction of the Edomites was predicted, as introductory to the enlargement of the Redeemers kingdom. But the devastation of their country by Nebuchadnezzar did not by any means correspond with the strong expressions used to describe it; nor did the reformation under Hezekiah at all answer to the exalted terms in which the prosperity of Zion is set forth. The true sense of the passage must be found in events yet future. Edom is here considered as a type of all the Churchs enemies, which at some future period will be fearfully destroyed; and then will the Church be enlarged and prosper, in a way that has never yet been seen upon earth. For them, that is, for those judgments before spoken of, will the wilderness and the solitary place be glad, because they will open a way for the accomplishment of Gods gracious designs towards his Church and people.

The words, as thus explained, lead us naturally to contemplate,

I.

The state of persons and places unenlightened by the Gospel

Whatever advantages any place may possess, it is, if destitute of the Gospel, a dreary wilderness
[Let us suppose a place in point of beauty and fertility like Paradise itself; let it be the seat of arts and sciences, the emporium of commerce, the centre of civilized and polished society; let it abound with every thing that can amuse the mind, or gratify the taste; still, What is it without the Gospel? What does it afford that can nourish an immortal soul? No heavenly manna is found there: no wells of salvation are open to the thirsty traveller; none are at hand to point out the way to life: its only produce is thorns and briers, which entangle, and impede, and wound us, every step we take; and on every side are snares and temptations, which, like noxious animals, lie in wait for us, ever ready to accomplish our eternal ruin. The cities of Athens and of Rome must in this respect be viewed on a level with the most desolate spots upon the globe: for, whatever they might furnish for the edification or comfort of the carnal mind, they would afford no nutriment to him who was perishing for lack of spiritual food.]
The same observations we must make in relation to the souls of men
[Whatever strength of intellect a man may possess, or however deeply he may be versed in every branch of human learning; whatever amiable qualities he may have to distinquish him from others; yea, whatever actual enjoyment he may receive from the riches, the honours, the pleasures of the world; yet is his soul a wilderness, a solitude, a desert: God is not there: the fruits of the Spirit are not found there: no heavenly consolations are ever tasted by him: he is without a track, with a guide, without a shelter in the day of trouble, and without any other prospect than that of falling a prey to enemies, or perishing with hunger. The unenlightened soul is compared by Jeremiah, not to a desert merely, but to a heath in a desert, where no good ever comes [Note: Jer 17:5-6.]. O that those who fancy themselves rich and increased with goods, and in need of nothing, were made sensible, how wretched they are, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked [Note: Rev 3:17.]!]

Let us turn from this humiliating contemplation, to consider,

II.

The state to which they are brought by the Gospel

Beautiful is the description given by the prophet of the change that is wrought by the Gospel of Christ. The souls of men assume altogether a new aspect. In them is found,
The beauty of the rose
[Where there was but lately no appearance of life, now there arise a holy desire after God, a delight in heavenly exercises, a love to all the people of the Lord, and an ambition to resemble God in righteousness and true holiness. First, but a blossom appears; but gradually the rising foliage bursts from its confinement, and expands itself to the eyes of all, diffusing fragrance all around it. The believer, blessed in himself, makes the very place of his residence a blessing; according to that description given of him by the Prophet Ezekiel; I will make them, and the places round about my hill, a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessings [Note: Eze 34:26.]. Thus by the power of his Gospel the Lord comforts Zion! he comforts all her waste places; he makes her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord: joy and gladness are found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody [Note: Isa 51:3.].]

The stability of the cedar
[The woods of Lebanon were proverbially grand: its cedars and its pines grew up to heaven, and defied all the storms with which they could be assailed. This was the glory of Lebanon: and this glory shall be given to all who are rooted and grounded in the Lord. Weak as the beginnings of grace are in the believers soul, he shall shoot forth his roots as Lebanon, and become a tree of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that HE may be glorified [Note: Isa 61:3.]. Storms and tempests will beat upon him; but they shall only cause him to take deeper root, and to evince more clearly, in the sight of all men, that Gods strength is perfected in his peoples weakness [Note: 2Co 12:9.]. In like manner shall the Church at large be kept;, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.]

The fruitfulness of the richest pastures
[Carmel and Sharon were famous for their pasturage and flocks: such excellency shall be seen wherever the Gospel is preached with life and power, How precious are the ordinances made! What pastures are laid open in the word of God! How strengthening and refreshing does that feast become, which the Lord Jesus Christ has prepared for us at his table! The souls, thus richly fed, grow up as calves of the stall: the trees, thus watered by the river of God, abound in all manner of fruits, even in the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God. Contemplate every fruit of the Spirit [Note: Gal 5:22-23.]; and that is what is produced by every plant which Gods right hand hath planted.]

Unutterable joy as the result of all
[The expressions in our text fitly characterize the state of those who are brought out of darkness into the marvellous light of the Gospel: they are glad, and rejoice, and blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. Let any one who has ever beheld a desert brought by cultivation to a fruitful field, and seen it standing so thick with corn as to laugh and sing; let him contemplate it awhile; and he will have a faint image, though a very faint one, of a wilderness place or person that is made to blossom as the rose. O that we might behold the picture realised in this place, and that every one amongst us might have the image of it in his own soul!]

But it is necessary that we should draw your attention to,

III.

That particular view of the Gospel by which these effects are wrought

It is not by a mutilated and perverted Gospel that these effects are produced, but by a simple exhibition of Christ crucified, and of the perfections of God as united and harmonizing in the work of Redemption.

To this it is uniformly ascribed in the word of God
[Look at the prophets, and you will find it is the glory of the Lord that they speak of, as revealed to men by the Gospel, and as seen by men in order to their conversion [Note: Psa 102:16. Isa 60:1-2; Isa 40:5 and Psa 97:6. Hab 2:14.] Look at the Apostles, and the same truth is attested by them all; insomuch that they all determined to know nothing in their ministrations, but Jesus Christ and him crucified: the one object which they sought by all possible means to attain, was, so to preach, that God might shine into his peoples hearts, to give them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ [Note: 2Co 4:6.]: and till they saw Christ formed in them, they were satisfied with no change however great, no profession however confident [Note: Gal 4:19.]. The commission given to them all, was to say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God [Note: Isa 40:9.]! and this they all fulfilled, saying to their people from time to time, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world [Note: Joh 1:29.]!]

To this also must the effect be traced in the experience of all
[Who that hears a perverted Gospel, is ever brought effectually to God by it? We may represent the Gospel as a kind of remedial law, that supersedes the necessity of perfect obedience, and requires only sincere obedience in its stead; or we may represent the Gospel as proposing a salvation partly by Christs righteousness, and partly by our own; but we shall never see such effects produced as are described in our text. Let this matter be scrutinized; and the more it is scrutinized, the more the truth of it will be confirmed. It is notorious, that in some persons, and some places, a great change is wrought: and it will be found to be owing to this one thing, that Christ is preached, and he is received into the heart as All in all [Note: Col 3:11.]. The people are made to see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God; and therefore do they rejoice, and consecrate themselves to the service of their God and Saviour. Hence also is their stability; for they would rather die a thousand deaths, than renounce their hope in Him; and hence also their fertility, for they think they can never do enough for him, who has done and suffered such things for them. And this is expressly declared by the Apostle: We, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord [Note: 2Co 3:18.].]

Observe,
1.

What encouragement is here for those who minister in holy things

[Ministers, especially when invited to labour among un-enlightened heathens, are apt to draw back, under an idea that they can never hope to reap a crop in such a soil. But if God has promised that the wilderness shall rejoice and blossom as the rose, why should we despond? Is not his word as quick and powerful as ever? and can he not, by whomsoever, or to whomsoever it is delivered, make it sharper than any two-edged sword, so that it shall be the power of God to the salvation of men? Only let his Spirit be poured out from on high, and the wilderness shall be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest [Note: Isa 32:15.]. Though the corn be but an handful, and cast on the summit of a barren mountain, its produce shall be great, and your harvest sure [Note: Psa 72:16. Here would be the place to enlarge, if it were a Mission or a Visitation Sermon.].]

2.

What encouragement also for those who are dejected on account of the state of their own souls

[When all your grounds of dejection are stated, they amount to no more than this, that your hearts are a very desert. But Gods hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor is his ear heavy that he cannot hear. Possibly you may feel additional ground of despondency, because you have backslidden from the Lord, and therefore fear that he will give you up to final impenitence. If so, then plead with him that promise which is made to persons in your very condition; and rest assured, that he will fulfil it to you, if you trust in him [Note: Hos 14:4-7.]. You may wait long, as the husbandman does, for the fruit of your labour; but you shall not wait in vain [Note: Jam 5:7-8.].]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

CONTENTS

This chapter is as . full of blessed promises to God’s church, as the former was full of threatenings to God’s enemies. Under the richest similitudes, is set forth the auspicious era of Christ’s reign: every verse in it is full gospel.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Under the figure of a barren land, and a wilderness, is set forth the ruined state of man’s nature by the fall; than which, nothing can be more forlorn. The prophet represents it as most desolate. But by the coming of Christ, who ariseth as the sun, with healing in his wings, fruitfulness, gladness, and joy, take place of the barrenness and poverty. The Hebrew expression is very strong, it shall flourishing flourish, or blossoming blossom. I do not presume to say so, and speak decidedly upon the passage, but I humbly conceive, that a flourishing flourish means the graces of the Church shall be so much in Christ, and from Christ, in the union and oneness between him and his people; that the blossoming blossom will be unceasingly kept up, and remain alive in him; as the branch in the vine. And if the Hebrew expression be supposed to imply this, the Reader will observe, that there is more in it, than in all the most flourishing circumstances of a church or people, where the source and cause is not from within in Jesus, but from without, from any other auspicious circumstances. Col 3:3-4 ; Joh 15:4-5 . I only detain the Reader to remark, with what holy joy ought we of the Gentile Church, to read this blessed scripture, which hath a peculiar reference to the poor wilderness state of the heathen world! Son 8:5 ; Act 11:18 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The Mirage and the Pool

Isa 35:7

‘The mirage shall become a pool.’ The illusory shall become the substantial. The life of disappointments shall become a life of satisfaction.

I. What some men have experienced in the sandy desert others have suffered in the common life. Humanity is mocked by a mirage more inviting and enticing than the semblance of the desert. There is the illusory in life, the mirage which allures with its promise of satisfying pools, and then mocks us with its leagues of desolating sand.

Disappointments abound: is it possible for us to attain to satisfaction? Is it possible to get away from semblance to realities? Can life become satisfying, and not a cruel procession of bitter chagrins? A disappointing life means an undiscovered God! The world presents the mirage: God offers the pool. ‘The mirage shall become a pool.’ The life of disappointments shall become the life of satisfaction.

II. It is a heartening thing for the preacher to be able to say to himself and to his hearers that these pools of God have been found. Some of the pools have been named, and their very names are full of soft and cool refreshment. Here is one of the pools of the Lord, around which the pilgrims are gathered. What is its name? The ‘wells of salvation ‘!

But here is another band of pilgrims gathered round about another of the waters of the Lord. What do they call it? ‘The river of God’s pleasures.’ And the real import is even sweeter than the phrase conveys, for its inner meaning bears this suggestion, ‘God’s delicacies’. The pilgrims appear to lack the multitudinous and riotous revelries of life; but they have its finest distillations of joy. It is not always the man who owns the countryside who owns the landscape. He owns the estate; his almost penniless cottager, with the refined and purified spirit, owns the glory of the landscape. Which of them drinks of the river of ‘God’s delicacies’?

Here is yet another band of desert pilgrims gathered round about the refreshing waters of the Lord. They call it ‘the river of peace’.

III. What is the testimony of the pilgrims who have been to the Lord’s pools? Here is a strain from the pilgrim’s song: ‘My soul is satisfied as with marrow’. Here is another pilgrim witness: ‘He satisfieth the longing soul’.

J. H. Jowett, Apostolic Optimism, p. 144.

Reference. XXXV. 7, 8. J. Wordsworth, The One Religion, Bampton Lectures, 1881, p. 181.

The Highway of Holiness

Isa 35:8-10

Consider some of the characteristics of the life of holiness to which the Prophet here calls our attention, and the conditions which are attached to the right of way.

I. ‘The unclean shall not pass over it.’ Until we are washed and cleansed from our ‘old sins’ we are not in a position to pass over the King’s highway of holiness. We must pass through the gate before we can pass along the way, and that gate is the Cross, where the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses from all sin.

II. The highway of holiness is the path of ‘fellowship with the Divine’. When Christ was here on earth He ever moved along this way, and He is still to be found there by those who pass it. We may put it thus: Fellowship with Christ is the privilege of those who are wholly consecrated to the Lord, whose supreme desire is to be holy as He is holy; and just in so far as this privilege is actually realized, the soul is more and more completely sanctified by contact with the Divine.

III. ‘It is the way of right direction.’ How often in life it seems as if we scarcely know which way to turn; we want to do the right thing, but we hardly know which is the right thing to do. But here is the promise if we are on the King’s highway of holiness, ‘Though we are fools we shall not err’. The reason why we make such great mistakes as we sometimes do is surely that we get off the King’s highway of holiness. We allow ourselves to aim at some other object, and to be guided by some lower desire.

IV. It is the only way of right direction to those who are ‘wayfaring men’. ‘The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.’ Do we not sometimes err because we have so little of the wayfaring man about us? We are called to use the world as not abusing it; surely it is the abuse of the world when we allow it to take the place of heaven.

There is a quaint old Latin proverb which tells us ‘The penniless travellers shall sing before the robbers’. No wonder; for what can the robbers take from them? And many a Christian might sing defiance of all enemies even of the great robber himself if only we made over our all to its proper Owner, and regarded it as a sacred trust to be used for Him.

V. It is also ‘the way of safety’. ‘No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon. It shall not be found there.’ If you ask for an explanation of this mysterious safety, I point you to the words which follow. It is the way of the redeemed. ‘The redeemed shall walk there.’ Why has Satan no power to do us harm? Because we have been redeemed out of his power. Jesus Christ gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity And now that He has redeemed us, we are in a position to claim exemption and immunity, not from Satan’s attacks, but from his tyrannous power over us.

VI. It is ‘a way of joy’. There is no real happiness out of the highway of holiness. Who are the happy Christians? They who follow the Lord fully. Who are the miserable Christians? Those who aim at compromise, who lead a halfhearted life; for the lion can tear and wound them, if not utterly destroy them, as they stray from time to time from the highway of holiness; nor can they enjoy fellowship, for they do not walk in the light; nor can they be sure of right direction, for ‘he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth’.

VII. ‘It is the way that leads home.’ We are on the King’s highway, and every step brings us a little nearer to that home where our own Father lives, and where we shall receive such a welcome as only a Father can give.

W. Hay M. H. Aitken, The Highway of Holiness, p. 1.

References. XXXV. 8. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii. No. 1912. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Lessons for Daily Life, p. 63. J. E. Cumming, The Blessed Life, p. 34. XXXV. 9, 10. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah, p. 229. XXXV. 10. J. Parker, Studies in Texts, vol. i. p. 191. XXXVI. 5. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi. No. 646. XXXVII. 14. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah, p. 242. XXXVII. 14-21; 33-38. Ibid. p. 235. XXXVII. 23. Newman Smyth, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. 1893, p. 168. XXXVII. 31. J. H. Newman, Sermons Bearing on Subjects of the Day, p. 203. XXXVII. 36. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. ii. p. 301. XXXVIII. 1. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. liii. No. 3021. H. Grey Graham, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxiv. 1903, p. 136. J. W. Colenso, Village Sermons, p. 1. H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. iii. p. 311. J. Hamilton Thom, Laws of Life (2nd Series), p. 16. J. Fraser, The Relations of Religion and Science Considered and the Principles of Voluntaryism and Endowment Compared, p. 18. XXXVIII. 1, 2. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon-Sketches (2nd Series), p. 30. XXXVIII. 1, 2-4. W. D. Ross, The Sword Bathed in Heaven, p. 57. XXXVIII. 1-5. E. M. Goulburn, Occasional Sermons, p. 403.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Contrasts In Providence

Isa 34 , Isa 35

These chapters are part of the summing-up of the first section of Isaiah’s double volume. They are the epilogue of the first volume. Hezekiah was closing his sovereignty, apparently; whether anything may occur to extend the reign will presently be seen. The Egyptian alliance, and the attack of Sennacherib upon Israel, are matters that have fallen back a long way, if not in time-distance, yet in sense of victory and deliverance. These are two wonderful chapters, and great use is made of them by Jeremiah and by Zephaniah. This use of the Bible by the Bible is of great consequence; not only is it interesting as a literary incident, but it is full of suggestion as to the range and certainty and usefulness of inspiration. The thirty-fourth chapter stands in wondrous contrast to the thirty-fifth. We shall have to pass through night to enter into day; we shall have to listen to such a storm as never burst on land and sea, before we come into the garden of delight, the paradise of Christ, the restored and immortal Eden. The styles of the two chapters are such as hardly any one man could command. It would seem as if each chapter required a whole genius to itself. It will be wonderful if the same hand should be cunning enough to write the storm, and write the hymn: to create the wilderness, and create the land of blossoming and joy.

In the first instance “the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations” ( Isa 34:2 ). A singular word is that “indignation” in this connection. It has in it the sense of boiling. It is not a passing wrath; a cloud without substance that frowns, and vanishes. Here the judgment of the Lord boils like a cauldron, and nations are thrown into it as trifles. All things, great and small, that have set themselves against the Lord of heaven, are thrown into the cauldron that they may perish in the fury of the Lord’s indignation. Nor is this the work of man. Statesmanship, diplomacy, and all craft, bearing upon war and delighting in it, must stand back, whilst the Lord himself claims the entire responsibility of the marvellous action. He will speak for himself; he shall speak of his own sword, and he shall say “My sword shall be bathed in heaven:” not the sword of some king or captain of war, but “My sword” long, heavy, keen, tempered in heaven; a sword that no man can handle, no human fingers grasp. We read of the Greeks dipping their swords in order to give the steel due temper. Here is a sword that is dipped: but it is dipped in heaven; the secret of the tank in which it is plunged is on high. The moral is obvious namely, that the sword is not one of vengeance or bloodthirstiness, not a sword that longs for carnage merely for the sake of declaring victory and triumphing over the foe, but the sword is “bathed in heaven” in righteousness, in truth, in equity; it is not only a symbol of war, it is a symbol of moral judgment. When God’s own sword, heaven-bathed, strikes a man or a nation, it is righteousness that affirms itself, it is goodness that declares the range of its sovereignty.

As for the whole structure of things, down it must come in the day of judgment.

“And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree” ( Isa 34:4 ).

“The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness” ( Isa 34:6 ).

The Lord returns not from war other than as conqueror. His is not a blood-sprinkled sword, but a sword drunk with blood. To-day, that is within the range of this chapter, God “hath a sacrifice in Bozrah [the Metropolis of Edom], and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea,” not hid under its Greek designation, but still the ancient hostile Edom that stumbling-block in the way of heaven, that early curse in history, that marvel amounting to a mystery in the whole tragedy of human life. The figure glows with energy. The Lord is in Edom; he is in the very London of Edom, yea, in the very Bozrah, and at night his sword will be drunk with blood. Call these, if you please, emblematic representations of a great truth, still the great truth itself remains, and that great truth is, that the Lord has a day of judgment, a day of vengeance, a day of retribution. That is the permanent lesson. Dismiss all Hebrew redundance of terms, all Oriental imagery, and you still have left this fact, that there are times in human history when God stands forth with sword in hand as a man of war. That can never be rationally denied, or can never encounter any denial that is sustained by confirmation. Nations have been smitten, thrones have been torn, kings that have no right to reign, or have forfeited their original right, have been dethroned and blown away into undiscoverable wildernesses, yea, have been lost in time’s oblivion; and meaner men, men of our own stature and range of influence, who have been unfaithful to the genius of stewardship, have been put down, burned, crushed, destroyed, removed, so that the very place where once they stood can no longer be identified: God hath swept their footprints out of a universe which they defiled by their presence. To realise this is to be chastened; is to be quickened into a sense of responsibility; is to be elevated by that sacred wonder which easily learns how to pray.

The prophet having said all this may have been afraid that he would be considered as a madman. What he declared might have been regarded as a poetic paroxysm, an intellectual violence in which the prophet did in metaphor and symbol what he would have done, could his passions have claimed all their desire, in bold and literal realisation. So in another tone he says,

“Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read” ( Isa 34:16 ).

This is not the ebullition of a moment; this is the writing of God from time’s first day; nay, earlier than that, for all that arose on the little theatre of time began in the infinite ranges of eternity: the sin was all foreseen, the sinner was fore-redeemed, the Lamb was slain from before the foundation of the world. Isaiah, therefore, would not have it that what he was speaking was the rhetoric of a moment, a sudden passion that had no relation to history or prophecy; he would insist upon it that every word, though tipped with fire, was a Bible word, a word long written, that had about it the mystery and solemnity of eternity. The judgments of the Lord are not accidents. He is not suddenly awakened so as to pursue a new moral policy in his universe. “Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and read:” from the beginning sin was hated, sin was punished, hell was provided for retribution. Whatever transpires within the theatre of the universe can bring no surprise to the infinite mind, for by the necessity of its infiniteness all was foreseen. The prophet thus comes away from the whirlwind of his excitement to stand upon the rock of revelation, and there he abides, and declares that the ruin that is to be wrought is not a ruin that is without spirit or reason or judgment. “He hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line” ( Isa 34:17 ). Ruin is measured out. Chaos has a geometric form to the eye that created it. There is nothing of mere tumult, or uproar, or indiscriminateness, in the scattering of divine criticism and judgment and penalty: even our ruin is meted out, our destruction is a calculation, our hell is a measured territory.

Who can live in that thirty-fourth chapter? Who can abide in the city once so fair, but now handed over to the cormorant and the bittern? a city and land in which men shall call for the nobles, but none shall be there; thorns growing in palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses where soldiers lived; dragons inhabiting the old places that were sacred, and owls holding court where wise men used to think and rule: “There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow; there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate:” it shall not be a solitary vulture alighting upon a shattered rock and flying off again, but “vultures” one, two; vulture and mate shall abide there, and build their house there, and make their home there, and the whole place shall be filled with their black images. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Or strip the imagery, and there remains after the last symbol has gone the terrific yet beneficent fact that the Lord reigneth and God is judge of all.

Could the man who wrote that chapter of light and darkness, storm and ruin, write in any other style? He proceeds to contrast himself with himself, for no sooner is the ruin measured out than he begins:

“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God” ( Isa 35:1-2 ).

The first promise is that of summer beauty: “The rose the glory of Lebanon the excellency of Carmel and Sharon.” Why, these are summer words! How the wind has changed! It blows no longer from the cruel north-east, it comes up from the south and the south-west, and comes like a blessing; every breath is a gospel, every breeze a new assurance of divine clemency and divine approach. Is there anything corresponding to this in Christian experience? When a man passes out of the black night of sin, and the agonies of penitence, contrition, heartbreak for evil done is there any summer feeling in the soul when all is over, any celestial warmth, any outgoing of affection and triumph, and faith, and confidence, and praise? Is there any stirring that might be as the flutter of budding wings? Let those testify who know. Did Christ ever come into the heart without bringing summer with him, without making the heart conscious of a vitalising energy, so that the heart felt itself growing, felt itself to be not unfitly imaged by a garden in springtime? Has Christ ever come into the heart without abolishing death? That black figure has always had to vanish when he came near. Death might call himself winter, but he had to go; death might assume various poetical disguises, but he had to withdraw himself, for he is ghastly even in poetry. Who has received Christ into the heart, and has not been instantly conscious of immortality? who has not stood above the affairs of time and space and all sense, and crushed the enemy under his feet, and has called for help to come from every quarter to swell his song of praise? Those who have not been in the masonry of this experience have called it ecstasy. There is no reason why they should call it by any other name, because they cannot rise above the level of their folly. It is for those who have lived long years with Christ, and have felt that the love becomes more glowing with the passing decades, to say whether it is mere rapture, or whether it is a sacred and rational joy.

Then there comes a sense of restored and augmented faculty:

“Then 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” ( Isa 35:5 ).

The next promise is that of substantial blessing:

And the parched ground shall become a pool” ( Isa 35:7 ).

Then the prophet sees a great highway; and the way is called

“The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools [the very simplest minds], shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there” ( Isa 35:8-9 ).

It is a well-kept way, broad, plentifully supplied with sunshine, margined with all fairest flowers and most fruitful trees; and the whole avenue, stretching heavenward, shall be filled with the ransomed of the Lord, bought, but not with money, redeemed, but not with price, and they shall come to Zion with songs. The song must always have a place in human history. The fool tries to sing his sorrow away, but there is no reason in the music, so the song is a failure. But this music is to be the last expression of a long process of discipline and chastening and purification. Isaiah is said to be in his old age; yet he opens his old eyes and sees panorama after panorama of progress and glory and light, and see how the old man turns his ear, for he says, What music is this? what sound of music and dancing do I hear? He is no sullen, sour-hearted elder brother when they tell him that the world was lost and is found, dead and is alive again; he says, I will enter and join the glad festival: this is the world’s jubilee! We want old men of that temper; not pessimists, not persons who discourage us, not aged ones who sigh away the enthusiasm of youth, but brave, grand old soldiers who say, Well, we have had our day, we cannot go out cur-selves, for we should only now go to failure because of physical infirmity; but boys, youths, maidens, not one of you must stop at home: go away: fight the Lord’s battles; and when you come back you will bring a song with you, for the Lord is with you, and the Omnipotent is the surety of your success.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XXVII

THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH

The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.

Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.

In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.

In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.

In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.

The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.

In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.

In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.

In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.

In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).

The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7

In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:

1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.

2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.

3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:

According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .

In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.

In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.

In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”

In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”

The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.

The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.

In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”

In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”

Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .

The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”

So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?

In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”

The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”

The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14

For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23

QUESTIONS

1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?

2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?

3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?

4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?

5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?

6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?

7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?

8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?

9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?

10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?

11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?

12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?

13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?

14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?

15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?

16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?

17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?

18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?

19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?

20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?

21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?

22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?

23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?

24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?

25. Where is the great invitation and promise?

26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?

27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?

28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?

29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?

30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?

31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

XVII

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PAST 9

Isaiah 34-39

Isaiah 34-35 form an appendix to the preceding parts of the book, setting forth the storm of God’s wrath upon the whole world, and the face of nature in its sweetest forms and brightest colors, after the storm is over.

They constitute the counterparts to one great picture. The first part contains a denunciation of divine vengeance against the enemies of God’s people and the second, a description of the glorious state of things after the execution of these judgments is finished. The awful picture, with its dark lurid hues, prepares the way for the soft and lovely portraiture of the blessed condition which follows.

This section opens with a call to all nations and people, the earth and the fulness thereof, the world and all things therein, to hear the prophet’s message concerning Jehovah’s indignation, which shows that the judgments to follow embrace the whole world.

There are three distinct paragraphs in Isa 34 . In Isa 34:1-7 we have announcement of the final judgment upon the whole world, including Edom as the leader. In Isa 34:8-15 we have the details of the judgment upon Edom as the ideal representative of the world. In Isa 34:16-17 the prophet appeals to the written word.

The allegorical view of the use of the word, “Edom,” in this chapter is in no way inconsistent with the existence of a basis of historical fact, therefore we adopt this view for the following reasons:

1. The invitation shows that the message to be delivered was on universal interest arid application, yet the language is parabolical in kind.

2. The allegorical character of Isa 35 is undeniable, but the two chapters are linked together by the very phraseology’. As the Zion of Isa 35 is the ideal “city of God,” so the Edom of Isa 34 must include all who hate and persecute the mystical Zion.

3. The names, “Edom and Bozrah,” occur in another allegorical passage (Isa 63:1-6 ).

4. Edom, the surname of him who “despised the birthright,” was a fitting designation for those who profanely slighted their privilege as God’s special people.

5. The context is admittedly figurative, but if the lambs, bullocks, and goats be symbolical, then the unclean animals that are to occupy their places should be so, too.

6. In Heb 12:16-17 Esau stands as the type of profane and sensual-minded men, who are identified with those against whom Moses warned Israel in Deu 29:18-23 . The idea is further carried out in the next paragraph. In Isa 34:8-15 we have the more detailed account of God’s vengeance against the enemies of Zion, which is likened unto that upon Sodom and Gomorrah. This, of course, is not literal, but typically represents the punishment of God’s dreadful vengeance upon all his enemies while Edom is here again made the type. Isa 34:10 shows that this curse is to be everlasting in its typical aspect while the following verses show that Edom, as an example of such destruction, was to be literally and perpetually laid waste, and history verifies this prophecy respecting Edom.

The book referred to in Isa 34:16 is the book of Moses and perhaps includes the earlier prophets which had written in them the threatenings against the ungodly. At this time the Pentateuch and history of Joshua and Judges, and the history of the reigns of the kings up to this time had been written and preserved, but the reference is very likely to the Pentateuch, primarily, which was complete in one book and kept in the ark of the covenant. This appeal to the book by Isaiah is to prove that he was in line with the threatenings and judgments which preceded his time and that his prophecies were to be regarded as equal in inspiration and authority with the other scriptures of his day.

Isa 35 is a glorious counterpart of the judgment on Edom in Isa 34 and is distinctly messianic. The outline of these contents consists of three items. In Isa 35:1-2 we have the blessings on the land pronounced which reverses the corresponding desolation of Lebanon, Carmel, and Sharon, because of “the glory and excellency of our God.” This is a general statement of the reversal of the judgments before predicted. In Isa 35:3-4 is a general announcement of the hope and good cheer on account of the recompense of God. Then in Isa 35:5-10 the prophet particularizes these blessings which were literally fulfilled in the ministry of Christ. Then the prophet shows us the highway that shall be there, the way of holiness, with no unclean person, no fools and no ravenous beasts walking therein, over which the redeemed shall walk and the ransomed of Jehovah shall return with songs of joy to Zion, where they shall have everlasting joy upon their heads and where sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Thus commencing with the restoration to their land, then passing on to the coming and healing work of the Messiah the prophet closes with the blessing of their conversion. This hope is kept constantly before the holy remnant of Israel by Isaiah, stimulating them in these dark and gloomy hours, just As when the weary traveler gains The height of some o’er-looking hill, The sight his fainting spirit cheers, He eyes his home, though distant still.

This section, Isaiah 36-39, in our outline of Isaiah is called “The Historical Interlude,” sometimes called “The Book of Hezekiah.” There is a reference to this section in 2Ch 32:32 , thus: “Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his good deeds, behold, they are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.” as a matter of history almost all this section is embodied in 2 Kings 18-20, which should be carefully studied in connection with this passage in Isaiah.

This section may be regarded as the history of how Hezekiah stood the test applied to him. A like test was put to Ahaz (Isa 7:3-17 ), and he, an unbeliever as he was, simply put the offered grace from him, as swine would deal with pearls cast before them. But Hezekiah’s test reveals a different character, one vastly more interesting and instructive for God’s people in all ages. He proves to be a man of faith in God and, in a large measure, wins out in the conflict, but fails in the matter of the Babylonian messengers and the pride of his heart. Yet again he shows that he was a child of God in that he humbled himself so that the threatened wrath of Jehovah came not upon them in the days of Hezekiah. The case of David and Solomon, in which the consequences of Solomon’s sins were deferred till after his death for the sake of David, is similar to this.

This section divides itself into two parts, viz: (1) Sennacherib’s invasion (Isaiah 36-37) ; (2) Hezekiah’s sickness, and the embassy from Babylon (Isaiah 38-39).

Isaiah 36-37 contain a history of an event which had been predicted long before and frequently alluded to afterward (see Isa 8:5-10 ; Isa 10:12-19 ; Isa 10:33-34 ; Isa 30:28-31 ; Isa 31:8 ). It was stated definitely that the stream of Assyrian conquest, after it had overflowed Samaria, would “reach even to the neck” of Judah, and then be suddenly turned back. The fact of the prediction is unquestionable. The actual overthrow of the Assyrian power is as certain as any event in the world’s annals. These two chapters are thus the historical goal of tile book from Isaiah 7-35. So this part of the book is as inseparable from the preceding part of the book as fulfilment is inseparable from prediction itself.

Isaiah 38-39 are, on the other hand, the historical starting point for the rest of the book. These two chapters tell of the failure of the man who had checked the stream of national corruption; who suppressed idolatry, restored the Temple worship, and followed the guidance of the prophetic word; who had been rescued, both from a fatal malady and from the assault of the Assyrian king. When such & one fell away, no higher proof could be given that Judah must be subjected to the severe discipline of the captivity. With this dark foreshadowing there was a necessity for the following chapters of comfort.

The date of Sennacherib’s attack on Jerusalem is significant. The record tells us that this event was in the fourteenth year of Hezekiah, king of Judah, which was forty-six years after the vision of Isa 6 . This taken in connection with Isa 37:30 indicates that they were on the threshold of the Jubilee Year which, with its blessings, should be the sign unto Hezekiah that God would make the Jubilee laws effective at this time and deliver the land from the hand of Sennacherib.

From 2Ki 18:13-16 we learn that the immediate cause of Sennacherib’s invasion at this time was Hezekiah’s refusing to pay tribute. But the record also tells us that Hezekiah righted this wrong to the king of Assyria by sending the tribute and begging his pardon. This did not satisfy Sennacherib because he had a motive beyond that of getting the tribute, for we see him demanding the unconditional surrender of Jerusalem avowedly to be followed by deportation. This was an act of perfidy, as well as of cruelty and arrogance. Undoubtedly Sennacherib’s motive was not merely political, but he was bent on proving that Jehovah was on a level with the gods of other nations. Assyria had become a great power and, as she thought, had overcome the gods of all the other nations, including Samaria whose God was Jehovah. Just one more step now was needed to make Assyria the lord of the world, and that was the capture of Jerusalem. This evidently was his ulterior motive in this invasion.

In Isaiah 36-37 we have the details of this history which is a thrilling account of a conflict between the true and the false religion, similar to that of Moses and Pharaoh, or Elijah and the prophets of Baal. Here it is the Assyrian gods versus Jehovah. The items of this history are as follows: Rabshakeh was sent by Sennacherib from Lachish against Jerusalem with a great army which stopped at the upper pool near the Joppa gate, where Isaiah met Ahaz some forty years before.

Messengers from Hezekiah at once went out to meet Rabshakeh through whom he sent a message to Hezekiah belittling his confidence in Egypt and in Jehovah, saying that Egypt was a bruised reed and could not be depended upon, and that Jehovah had commissioned him to destroy the land of Judah. Then the messengers asked Rabshakeh to speak in the Assyrian language so the people on the wall could not understand, but he deliberately refused to comply, saying that he was sent to speak to the people on the wall. Then he grew bold and made a strong plea to those who heard him to renounce allegiance to Hezekiah and come over to Sennacherib, but they held their peace as they had been instructed to do. Upon this came the messengers to Hezekiah with their clothes rent and told him the words of Rabshakeh. Hezekiah when he heard it rent his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of Jehovah.

Then he sent messengers to Isaiah to ask him to pray for the remnant. Isaiah returned word that there was no need of fear, for Jehovah would send Sennacherib back to his own land and there he would die. Rabshakeh returned to find his master pushing the conquest on toward Egypt and hearing at the same time that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, was coming out to help Hezekiah. This seemed to provoke Sennacherib and he sent a letter to Hezekiah to warn him again putting his trust in Jehovah, reminding him also of the Assyrian victories over the gods of the other nations. Then Hezekiah took the letter and spread it before Jehovah and prayed.

For pointedness, faith, and earnestness, this prayer has few equals on record. Just at this time came another message from the Lord through Isaiah, assuring Hezekiah of the Lord’s intervention, as in very many instances before, to deliver his people from this Assyrian, whom he would lead by the nose back to his own land. Then follows the sign of Jehovah to Hezekiah assuring him that the remnant should prosper under Jehovah’s hand, reannouncing also the defeat of the plan of Sennacherib to take Jerusalem. The rest of Isa 37 is an account of the destruction of the Assyrian army by the angel of Jehovah and the death of Sennacherib in his own land.

Isa 38 opens with the statement, “In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death,” which is far from being a precise date, but the promise of fifteen years added to his life and the twenty-nine years of his reign in all, fixes the date in the fourteenth year of his reign, which is the date given in Isa 36:1 . In Isa 38:5-6 the two deliverances are coupled together in a way which suggests that they stood in some close relation to each other. Thus we are led to look on these two pairs of chapters, not as successive in point of time, but as contemporaneous.

In the record here Hezekiah’s malady is called a boil, but we learn that it was a special disease marked by the signs of leprosy. The same word occurs in Exo 9:9-11 to describe the Egyptian plague of “boils,” in Lev 13:18-20 to describe the boil out of which leprosy sprang, in Deu 28:27 ; Deu 28:35 to describe the “boil of Egypt” and the “sore boil that cannot be healed,” and in Job 2:7 to describe the “sore boils” with which Job was smitten. So, humanly speaking, his disease was incurable.

When the prophet announced that Hezekiah must die he prayed and wept. The prayer, as recorded here, is very brief but pointed, pleading his own faithfulness to Jehovah, an unusual petition though allowable in Hezekiah’s case because it was true and was in line with the promise made to Solomon (1Ki 9:4 ).

It was no weak love of life that moved Hezekiah to pray for recovery. It was because that he, who had followed God with all sincerity, appeared to be stricken with the penalty fore-ordained for disobedience. Leprosy means “a stroke,” and was believed to be a stroke from God. That was what made the stroke so exceedingly bitter. He was not to witness that great exhibition of God’s truth and mercy toward which the faithful had been looking for almost thirty years. Such was a sore trial to Hezekiah.

Upon the direction of the prophet, a cake of figs was applied. This remedy is said to be employed now in the east for the cure of ordinary boils. But it was quite an insufficient cure for this incurable “boil” from which Hezekiah was suffering. In miraculous cures, both the Old Testament prophets and our Lord himself sometimes employed means, insufficient in itself, but supernaturally rendered sufficient, to effect the intended cure. (See 1Ki 17:21 ; 2Ki 4:34 ; 2Ki 4:41 ; 2Ki 5:14 ; Joh 9:6 ; Mar 7:33-8:23 , etc.) These are examples of the natural and the supernatural working together for the desired end.

The sign given Hezekiah was the turning back of the shadow on the dial ten degrees. The dial was, perhaps, a large structure consisting of steps upon which the shadow of a great shaft was allowed to fall, which indicated the position of the sun in the heavens. In this case the shadow was made to run back, instantly, ten degrees. How this miracle was performed the record does not say, but it may have been seen by the law of refraction which does not make it any less a miracle. Hezekiah wrote a song of thanksgiving for his recovery, which in the first part looks at the case of his sickness from the standpoint of the despair and gloom of it, while the latter part treats the case from the stand point of the deliverance and wells the note of praise. In the middle of this poem we find his prayer which he prayed in this dark hour.

Hezekiah made a great mistake in the latter part of his life in allowing himself to become exalted in his prosperity and not humbling himself before the Lord as in former years (2Ch 32:24-33 ). So when God tested him again in the matter of the messengers from Babylon, he failed because he had not the spirit of discernment so as to know their purpose to spy out the land. He showed them everything and thus prepared the way for the capture of Judah by the Chaldeans.

The closing part of this section shows the necessity for the second division of the book. This part closes with the announcement of the captivity and gives us a very dark picture which calls for the opening sentence of comfort in the next division. Hezekiah is reconciled to it as we see from his language, but evidently it is to be understood in this connection that the prophet had already revealed to him that there should be peace and truth in his days. Now, if Hezekiah had his message of comfort and was thereby able to joyfully acquiesce in the future calamity already announced, should we not expect a message of comfort also for Judah? The last twenty-seven chapters furnish just such comfort for Judah, that she too might not despair in view of the approaching captivity.

From the many lessons that might be selected from the life of Hezekiah I take but one. Though he was upright and so highly commended in the Scripture (2Ki 18:5-7 ) he had a burden of guilt, from which only God’s grace could absolve him. He could not stand as the “Righteous Servant,” who should “justify many” by “bearing their iniquities.” If good Hezekiah could not, what child of man can? Nay, we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the relation of Isaiah 34-35 to the preceding parts, especially the preceding section, of the book?

2. What is the relation of these two chapters to each other?

3. How does this section open and what the nature of the prophecy as indicated by it?

4. What is the analysis of Isa 34 ?

5. Why adopt the allegorical view of the use of the word, “Edom,” in this chapter?

6. How is the idea further carried out in the next paragraph?

7. What is the book referred to in Isa 34:16 and what the import of this appeal to the Word?

8. What is the nature of Isa 35 and what the brief outline of its contents?

9. What is the section, Isaiah 36-39, called, where may we find a reference to them and where do we find nearly the whole of them embodied?

10. What, briefly, is the theme of this section, what similar test was applied to a king of Israel prior to this and what the difference in the deportment of the two kings under the test of each, respectively?

11. What case in the history of Israel similar to this?

12. How is this section divided and, briefly, what does each part contain?

13. What is the date of Sennacherib’s attack on Jerusalem and what the significance of the date in the light of Isa 37:30 ?

14. What is the cause of Sennacherib’s invasion at this time?

15. What are the essential points in the narrative of Sennacherib’s attack upon Jerusalem?

16. What is the date of Hezekiah’s sickness?

17. What was Hezekiah’s malady and what ita nature?

18. What did Hezekiah do when the prophet announced that Hezekiah must die and what plea did he make?

19. Why did Hezekiah pray to be healed?

20. What is remedy did he apply and why?

21. What is the sign given Hezekiah?

22. How was this miracle performed?

23. What expression have we of Hezekiah’s gratitude for this divine deliverance and what the viewpoints from which it deals with the case?

24. What was Hezekiah’s great mistake in the latter part of his life?

25. How does the closing part of this section show the necessity for the second division of the book?

26. What is great lesson from the life of Hezekiah?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Isa 35:1 The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

Ver. 1. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them. ] The Edomites, and other enemies, have had their part. It hath been sufficiently said, “Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him.” And now the prophet is bidden to say to the righteous, to tell him so from the Lord, that it “shall be well with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him.” Isa 3:10-11 The “wilderness” and the “desert,” that is, the poor people of God that have been oppressed and slighted in this world, shall be restored into a happy and flourishing estate. The Church shall have her halcyon days under Hezekiah, but especially under Christ, she shall have it both in temporals and spirituals. Isa 35:2

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Isaiah Chapter 35

In singular and striking conjunction with this terrible picture of the vast solitude for man, consigned as it were only to ravenous beasts and birds of prey and reptiles, God thereon shows that the day which beholds this desolation for Edom inaugurates Israel’s blessing. Nor is it only Israel rejoicing, but Jehovah will form a large and enlarging scene for His own glory, where erst was misery and barrenness. “The wilderness and the parched land shall be gladdened;* and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose (or, narcissus). It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon: they shall see the glory of Jehovah, and the excellency of our God” (vv. 1, 2). It is not mere fertility, but the restitution of all things when the day is come on earth: every joy, fruitfulness, and beauty. How singularly blinding is the theological prejudice which the pious J. A. Alexander expresses, when he says (Comm. ii. 34) that without any change of its essential meaning, it may be applied to the restoration of the Jews from Babylon, to the vocation of the Gentiles, to the whole Christian dispensation, to the course of every individual believer, and to the blessedness of heaven. As it has been so applied, certainly it may; but the question is, what is its definite meaning? The chapter before gives the awful judgement that awaits the earth in one aspect of it; so does this the deliverance of creation, and especially of Israel that follows, “in that day.”

*The ancient versions do not express the final, which the Authorised Version treats as a suffix, and renders “for them.” Some refer this to the noxious animals before named others to the judgements threatened, as others again to the returning exiles Many moderns agree with the ancients.

And assuredly man’s deeper wants are not forgotten. “Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the tottering knees. Say to them [that are] of a fearful (hasty) heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God! vengeance will come, of God the recompense! He will come himself and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf be unstopped. Then shall the lame [man] leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the glowing sand (or, mirage) shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of jackals, where they lay, [shall be] grass with reeds and rushes. And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called, The way of holiness: the unclean shall not pass over it; but it [shall be] for these. They that go the way, even fools, shall not err [therein]. No lion shall be there, nor shall ravenous beast go up thereon nor be found there; but the redeemed shall walk [there]. And the ransomed of Jehovah 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” (vv. 3-10).

God will then and thus demonstrate that, whatever Satan had brought of sin and woe into this world, goodness and mercy are His own delight. Such is the time that is coming for the earth, though an awful storm ushers it in. While all evil came through sin, and there is not an atom of the lower creation that does not bear some trace of Adam’s fall, there will surely come the day of the Lord, the last Adam. It seems plain however, that in the world to come judgement will leave its effectual mark. On the land of Edom the destruction will be unsparing, and that land will be left as a sear upon the face of the earth. It is not said that Edom will be the only one, for Rome also will be proved to he the vile corruptress, as in Paganism so in Christendom and in Antichristendom. But when the proud lie of the “eternal city” is punished for ever, then the poor and despised Jew comes forward, as it is said here. Divine vengeance on the enemies accompanies their salvation. Take all its fullness of meaning: it will be accomplished to the letter. God will prove that not a word of His mercy to Israel and their land can fall to the ground.

Indeed the mighty and blessed transformation which the Lord will then cause for the lower creation is but part of the still grander prospect which the reconciliation of all things opens (Col 1:20 ); when the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, even the universe, shall be headed up in the Christ, the Heir of all things (Eph 1:10 ) and the Head over all to His body the church. But here it was enough to give the earthly side of glory. It is the common point where, we may say, the bright visions of all the prophets meet. How astonishing that any Christian should fail to see what is so fully attested and so plain! It is painful that pious men in our land or any other should be behind Hengstenberg and the like, who own the change in the lower creation that is to accompany and characterise Messiah’s reign. The geologic ages do not touch the question. In Rom 8:18-21 is apostolic dogma, which resists all such efforts of unbelief. And Christ’s death, so far from being exhausted in reconciling all saints to God will assuredly reconcile all things in heaven and on earth, as Col 1:20 affirms. Prophecy, therefore, is in no collision but in perfect harmony with Christian doctrine. It is popular theology which opposes itself to God’s word through inattention and prejudice and tradition. It is irrational to talk of a fulfilment gradually growing more complete in life, but perfected only when probation is over. Scripture reserves the mighty change for the appearing of the Lords when we are manifested with Him in glory. Then at once, but not till then, shall the creation be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.

It is equally erroneous to deny heaven for the risen saints “in that day,” and to deny the change which God intends for Israel and the nations, and the earth itself and the creatures generally on it. If the fall be believed (and what more unblushing incredulity than to doubt it?), what joy to look onward to the glory of the Lord below as well as above! He is the Heir, as He was Creator, of all things; and were the least and lowest of His creatures excepted from the beneficent reach of His power, so far should He be defrauded of what is due to His name, and to His reconciliation which has no limit. Those only must be banished from the presence of His glory who persistently reject Him, yet even so they shall bitterly and for ever bemoan their rebellious folly. For “in virtue of the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of [beings] heavenly and earthly and infernal, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to God the Father’s glory” (Phi 2:10 , Phi 2:11 ).

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 35:1-10

1The wilderness and the desert will be glad,

And the Arabah will rejoice and blossom;

Like the crocus

2It will blossom profusely

And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy.

The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,

The majesty of Carmel and Sharon.

They will see the glory of the LORD,

The majesty of our God.

3Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble.

4Say to those with anxious heart,

Take courage, fear not.

Behold, your God will come with vengeance;

The recompense of God will come,

But He will save you.

5Then the eyes of the blind will be opened

And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

6Then the lame will leap like a deer,

And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.

For waters will break forth in the wilderness

And streams in the Arabah.

7The scorched land will become a pool

And the thirsty ground springs of water;

In the haunt of jackals, its resting place,

Grass becomes reeds and rushes.

8A highway will be there, a roadway,

And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.

The unclean will not travel on it,

But it will be for him who walks that way,

And fools will not wander on it.

9No lion will be there,

Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;

These will not be found there.

But the redeemed will walk there,

10And the ransomed of the LORD will return

And come with joyful shouting to Zion,

With everlasting joy upon their heads.

They will find gladness and joy,

And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Isa 35:1 wilderness This word refers to the uninhabited pasture (BDB 184, cf. Joe 1:19-20).

the desert This word (BDB 851) refers to the arid, sterile land (cf. Isa 41:18; Isa 53:2; Joe 2:20). Notice that wilderness is linked to desert and parallel with Arabah.

Arabah This word (BDB 787) refers to the Jordan rift valley south of the Dead Sea (cf. Isa 33:9).

will rejoice and blossom The first two VERBS of Isa 35:1 are also a parallel personification of the plants.

1. will be glad, BDB 965, KB 1314, Qal IMPERFECT (possibly JUSSIVE in meaning), this VERB is used eight times in chapters 61-66

2. will rejoice, BDB 162, KB 189, Qal JUSSIVE, cf. Isa 35:2; Isa 25:9; this VERB is used four times in chapters 61-66, cf. Joe 2:21; Joe 2:23

The third VERB blossom, bud (BDB 897, KB 965, Qal IMPERFECT) shows how the plants (i.e., personification) rejoice. Isaiah often uses personification of natural items (cf. Isa 33:9; Isa 44:23; Isa 55:12, cf. NASB Study Bible, p. 1004). The conditions of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1-2) are restored; the new age has come!

Isa 35:10 is repeated in Isa 51:11. This is a sign of the new age of restoration (cf. Isa 7:21-25; Isa 27:6; Isa 32:15; Isa 41:8-19; Isa 55:12-13).

NASB, NRSV,

PESHITTAcrocus

NKJV, JPSOArose

NJB, REBasphodel

JBjonquil

LXXlily

It is almost impossible to accurately identify (TEV flowers) the flora and fauna of the Bible. The rabbis say this (BDB 287) refers to the rose, while Luther and Calvin say it refers to the lily. Anybody’s guess is still a guess! A good resource about these issues is Helps for Translators series, Fauna and Flora of the Bible, UBS.

Isa 35:2 Lebanon. . .Carmel and Sharon These three areas were famous for their lush foliage. The phrase blossom profusely is the Qal INFINITE ABSOLUTE and Qal IMPERFECT VERB of the same root (BDB 827, KB 965) which denotes intensity or here, lush growth.

They will see This seems to be a continuing of the personification of the plants.

Isa 35:3-6 These verses mention several kinds of people.

1. the exhausted (lit. weak hands)

2. the feeble (lit. weak knees)

3. those with anxious hearts (lit. the hurried)

4. the blind (BDB 734)

5. the deaf (BDB 361)

6. the lame (BDB 820)

7. the dumb (BDB 48)

It also describes what God will do for them in this new day of restoration.

1. for #1 encourage (BDB 304, KB 302, Piel IMPERATIVE)

2. for #2 strengthen (BDB 54, KB 65, Piel IMPERATIVE)

3. for #3

a. take courage, BDB 304, KB 302, Qal IMPERATIVE

b. fear not, BDB 431, KB 432, Qal IMPERFECT but JUSSIVE in meaning

4. for #4 open the eyes, BDB 824, KB 959, Niphal IMPERFECT

5. for #5 open the ears, same VERB as #4

6. for #6 leap like a deer, BDB 194, KB 222, Piel IMPERFECT

7. for #7 tongue of dumb will shout for joy, BDB 943, KB 1247, Qal IMPERFECT

This is the message that Jesus sent to John the Baptist while he was in prison (cf. Mat 11:4-5; Luk 7:20-22). The new age is reflected in the ministry of Jesus!

Isa 35:4 Notice what YHWH promises to do for His covenant people.

1. He comes with vengeance, BDB 668, cf. Isa 34:8; Isa 59:17; Isa 61:2; Isa 63:4; Deu 32:25; Jer 50:28

2. His recompense also comes, BDB 168, cf. Isa 59:18 (twice); Isa 66:6, also note Isa 65:6

3. He will save them, BDB 446, KB 448, Hiphil JUSSIVE, cf. Isa 25:9; Isa 33:22; Isa 38:20; Isa 45:17; Isa 49:25; Isa 59:1; Isa 63:1; Isa 63:5; Isa 63:9; Isa 64:5

Isa 35:6 For waters will break forth in the wilderness The blooming of nature goes back to Isa 35:1-2. The outward sign of God’s spiritual presence and blessing is nature’s wonderful display of beauty and growth (cf. Isa 35:7).

Isa 35:7 In the haunt of jackals The Peshitta and KJV translate this word (BDB 1072) dragons. We have found from the Dead Sea Scrolls that animals listed in the OT often refer to the idols of the surrounding nations, therefore, this either refers to (1) a deserted place or (2) the residence of the demonic (cf. Isa 34:11-15).

The literary reason for this poetic line is that the dry dens of the jackals are now filled with water and can support swamp grass.

NASBits resting place

NKJVwhere each lay

NRSVa swamp

REBtheir lairs

The MT has , BDB 918, its resting place. The NRSV changes it to , (see NIDOTTE, vol. 1, p. 692-693). The DSS scroll of Isaiah has he lies down.

Grass becomes reeds and rushes The grass will grow as tall as reeds and rushes to show the luxurious growth of God’s blessing symbolized in nature.

Isa 35:8 the Highway of Holiness This is a common theme in the book of Isaiah (cf. Isa 26:7; Isa 40:3-4; Isa 42:13). This same metaphor of a royal visit is used to describe the coming of the Messiah. John the Baptist claims he fulfilled the prophecy of Mal 4:5 in preparing the way for the Lord. This is a metaphor for preparation of a physical road, but it has spiritual implications referring to repentance.

Isa 35:9 No lion will be there The fact that vicious animals will be absent or changed into tame companions is a sign of a blessing of God (cf. Isa 11:6-9). It is also a reversal of the threat of Lev 26:22.

the redeemed This term was first used in connection with the dedication of the firstborn child to God (cf. Exo 13:13; Exo 13:15). The primary idea here is of deliverance from bondage at a set price. The relationship between redeemed (BDB 145 I, KB 169, Qal PASSIVE PARTICIPLE) in Isa 35:9 and ransomed (BDB 804, KB 911, Qal PASSIVE PARTICIPLE) in Isa 35:10 is repeated in Isa 51:11. See Special Topic at Isa 29:22.

Isa 35:10 will return This VERB (BDB 996, KB 1427, Qal IMPERFECT) means turn back (i.e., repentance or change of direction). Many commentators see this (and Isa 35:8) as a reference to the return from Babylonian exile (i.e., therefore is connected to chapters 40-66). This is surely possible because Isaiah’s poems are not always arranged in chronological order. It could express repentance as a lifestyle (i.e., way of highway of holiness).

Zion This later came to be a designation for the entire city of Jerusalem (built on seven hills), in particular the temple, although the Temple is geographically located on Mt. Moriah, not on Mt. Zion.

The returnees are characterized as

1. the ransomed of the LORD

2. coming with singing

3. coming with everlasting joy

4. having on their heads as a crown

a. joy

b. gladness

5. having no sorrow

6. having no sighing

With everlasting joy upon their heads The term everlasting is ‘olam (BDB 761). See Special Topic at Isa 32:14.

And sorrow and sighing will flee away See Isa 25:8 and Rev 21:4.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

This is a study guide commentary, which means that you are responsible for your own interpretation of the Bible. Each of us must walk in the light we have. You, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit are priority in interpretation. You must not relinquish this to a commentator.

These discussion questions are provided to help you think through the major issues of this section of the book. They are meant to be thought-provoking, not definitive.

1. This kind of joy and physical blessing seems to never have accompanied the return from Exile, if this is so, what does this chapter refer to?

2. Explain the significance and the difference between the two terms: redeemed and ransomed

3. Why is nature used to symbolize God’s presence and blessing?

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

The wilderness, &c.: i.e. the land of Edom referred to in Isa 34:9-16. While Edom becomes a waste, the Land becomes a paradise; and the way of the return thither a peaceful highway.

shall be glad for them = shall rejoice over them.

them: i.e. the noisome creatures of Isa 34:14-16, &c.

and = but; giving the contrast.

the desert shall rejoice, and blossom, & c. The description in this chapter leaves little to be interpreted. It requires only to be believed. No amount of spiritual blessing through the preaching of the Gospal can produce these physical miracles.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 35

Now chapter 35 is out of the darkness into the light. Out of the tribulation into the kingdom. The glorious day of the Lord to which we look forward to. In chapter 35, oh, what a glorious chapter as it speaks of the earth and its conditions when Jesus comes and establishes God’s kingdom and He reigns upon the earth. For at that time

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God ( Isa 35:1-2 ).

For the earth will be restored to its Edenic glory. And even in the desert and wilderness places, they will no longer exist upon the earth at that time. Buy up as much as you can in Death Valley–cheap prices now–because it’s going to be glorious out there.

Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, don’t be afraid: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; and he will save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will sing ( Isa 35:3-6 ):

The glorious restoration of God. You see, you do not see the world as God intended it or created it. You see a world that is suffering as a result of man’s rebellion and sin. You do not see man as God intended him. With his physical ailments and impairments. With the deafness, blindness, handicaps. God did not intend that. And in the Kingdom Age, these things will not be. How can a God of love allow a child to be born blind? How can a God of love allow a child to be born deaf or something? Hey, wait a minute. This world is presently under Satan’s control who has rebelled against God. Jesus came to redeem the world back to God and the day is coming when He is going to take His purchased possession unto Himself. And when He does, you’ll see the world that God intended and it will be a world without suffering. It will be a world without pain. It will be a world without physical weaknesses, impairments of any sort. For the lame will be leaping as a deer. The blind will see. The dumb will be singing the praises unto the Lord. And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and there will be streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, they will not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up there upon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there ( Isa 35:6-9 ):

Men will live in safety. No longer will the beasts be ravenous. The lion will lie down with the lamb and a little child will lead them and lion will eat grass like the oxen.

And the ransomed of the LORD shall return ( Isa 35:10 ),

Return with Jesus Christ.

and they’ll come to Zion [to Jerusalem] with songs of everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away ( Isa 35:10 ).

Oh, the glorious day of the Lord! How we long for it, and our prayer is, “O Lord, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth even as it is in heaven. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus.” Oh, how I love this thirty-fifth chapter of Isaiah.

The Lord gave me this chapter in a time of great need, personal need, in my own life. When my mother was with us and was dying, one day sitting there in the room I said, “God, I just can’t take it.” I was looking at those beautiful hands that had ministered so much to me. I could remember when I had a fever and those hands felt so cool on my forehead. That she would wipe the perspiration off. I thought of all of the neat rolls, pies, cookies, cakes that those hands had fixed. And my heart was just being wrung out within me and I said, “God, I can’t take it. Can’t stand to see my mother suffering like this. God, I need help. I need it now.” And I grabbed the Bible and I opened it and it opened to Isa 35:1-10 . And I read of this glorious day that is coming when the blind will see, the lame will leap as a deer, and the deaf will be hearing and the dumb will be singing. And the glorious day of the Lord. Gladness, the day of joy. Sorrow and sighing gone. And oh, how the Lord ministered to me. It was just glorious. God just ministered to me in such a beautiful way.

About a week later, we took her to the hospital and as she was lying there in a coma, again I just became sort of overcome with grief realizing that I was losing this woman who was so dear and precious to me. I was going to miss all of those prayers by which my life had been strengthened and helped. And there in the hospital I just said, “God, I can’t take it. I need help, Lord. I’m desperate. I need help. Please help me.” And I grabbed the Bible that was there in the hospital room. Not… if you grab the same Bible you say, “Well, your Bible just falls open to Isa 35:1-10 ,” but it was a different Bible completely. One that was there in the hospital room. I grabbed it and I just opened it up- Isa 35:1-10 . I read it and oh, how the Lord ministered to me again. Oh, thank You, Lord. Come quickly, Jesus.

And then when she was lying in the slumber room over at Flower Brothers in Santa Ana, and I went into the room and stood there. And I realized that this was it. My mom’s gone. And I just… The rest of the family had gone out and I was there by myself. And again the memories in a time like that just come racing through your mind and the thoughts. Again, I just sort of became overcome and choked up and said, “God, I just need help. Please, Lord, I need help. Strengthen me, Lord, I just need Your touch. I need Your help.” And I grabbed the Bible that they had set there in the room and I opened it up- Isa 35:1-10 . I said, “I’ve got the message, Lord. I’ve got the message!”

And so Isa 35:1-10 is a special chapter to me. God has so ministered to me through that chapter. And that is the longing of my heart tonight is for the fulfillment of God’s promise. The glorious Kingdom Age when the trials and the hardships and the afflictions and all of this present existence are over. When sin is put away and when the kingdom comes and the righteous King reigns. And we behold Him in His beauty and the earth is restored. O Lord, hasten that day. I can hardly wait.

Now may the Lord bless you and be with you and keep you in His love through the grace of Jesus Christ as we look forward to that glorious day of the Lord when He comes for us that we might be with Him in His eternal kingdom, world without end. God bless you and may the strength of the Lord be your portion this week. In Jesus’ name. “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Isa 35:1. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them;

They shall be so glad that they shall inspire gladness where all was desolation, and brooding, melancholy batswing, and dragons howl. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them.

Isa 35:1. And the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

Gods people are a happy-making people. They are a blessing in themselves, and they shall be a blessing to others, till all shall say, These are the seed that the Lord hath blessed. The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.

Isa 35:2. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD and the excellency of our God.

A wonderful sight to see, for there is one of the most lovely sights in the world when the glory and excellency of God are to be seen in the works of his grace in his own people. It is such a sight that it makes men first rejoice in their hearts, and then rejoice with their tongues. They shall rejoice with joy and singing, which is the double rejoicing of the heart and of the lip. Well, these must be a favored people who, wherever they go, can make others glad after this fashion. Brethren, they must be full or they could not overflow! They must be themselves alive, or else they could not quicken the desert places. They must themselves be in flower, blooming like the rose, or they could not make the wilderness so full of verdure. The Lord grant that we may be in that state that we may be able to go into the wilderness. There are some of Gods people that cannot trust themselves to go where they are wanted, because they have not grace enough. They are so weak that they are like the weak man standing on the rivers brink, who cannot leap in to pull out a drowning man for fear they should be pulled in themselves. But, oh! they are blest indeed who dare go into wildernesses and into the solitary places, and carry the transforming benediction of heaven with them till the wilderness changes its dress, and the brown of the sand gives place to the ruddiness of the rose, because God has come there with his people.

Isa 35:3. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.

Are there such here tonight? No doubt there are weak at work, and weak at praying. The two things go together weak hands and feeble knees. May they both be strengthened.

Isa 35:4. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.

It is very singular how salvation and vengeance are so often associated together in Scripture. It is the day of salvation, and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn. Vengeance upon the false is the best consolation to the true. When God smites the sham, even to the heart, then does he bless that in which the truth is found. He will come and save you.

Isa 35:5-6. Then 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: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

See what the presence of Christ does. See what the presence of Christs people will do when he comes in them and with them. They make the wilderness rejoice. But, besides that, the dwellers that are found in the wilderness these lame and deaf people get the blessing. Oh! may God make us to be a desert to others of this sort.

Isa 35:7. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

The greenest spots your eye ever rested upon are just there where the grass is so rooted in the morass that it is always green with a delicate tinge, and the reeds and rushes spring up abundantly. O God, make poor parched hearts to become like this! You barren ones, you desolate ones, he can give you the best verdure that is possible. Your hearts shall be as green and fresh as the spots where there is grass with reeds and rushes.

Isa 35:8. And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

Oh! what a blessing that is to us poor fools! We should err anywhere. To err is human, and we seem to have come in for a double share of it. The more we look at our lives the more we see the folly of our hearts. What a mercy it is that when we walk in the way of faith, in the way of Christ, fools as we are, we shall not err!

Isa 35:9-10. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: And 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.

Like frightened things. They kept us company part of our road, but, when the Lord appeared they took to themselves wings and fled away. We could not tell where they were gone to. We were surprised to find that they had quite vanished. Oh! for the appearing of the Lord tonight to his mourning people who may be here.

This exposition consisted of readings from Isaiah 35. Heb 12:1-6.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Isa 35:1-4

Isa 35:1-2

Many scholars profess to see a close connection between this chapter and the preceding one, and to interpret the wonderful blessings portrayed in this as being the consequence of the destruction of God’s enemies in Isaiah 34. We see no such thing. Whatever similarities may exist here between the great blessings of the Kingdom of Christ, which is most surely the focus of the chapter, and the return of a small remnant of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, it appears to us are very limited; and both in such types and the great reality itself, the cause of them must be discerned as being the intervention of God Himself in human affairs. Was it due to the destruction of enemies? Not entirely, because God still has enemies. The cause of the blessings in Christ’s kingdom is Jesus Christ himself. He is the HIGHWAY to heaven. Christ is also the highway that brought the Jews back to Jerusalem after the captivity; because the very purpose of God’s bringing them back was that the Jews should be preserved as a separate people until Messiah should be born.

The existence of a “highway” through the desert from Babylon to Judah, and that desert that blossomed like a rose as they came back home through that desert simply did not exist. This passage was not talking about such literal things as that.

There could, of course, be a prophecy here of a “highway” for the Jews to use on the way back from Babylon, if we could interpret such a highway as being the providential assistance that Cyrus the Persian ruler gave the Jews in allowing, aiding and encouraging it. Where else in these ten verses do we locate a prophecy of Jews returning to Jerusalem?

Isa 35:1-2

“The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon: they shall see the glory of Jehovah, the excellency of our God.”

No such transformation of the desert between Babylon and Jerusalem is recorded as having taken place on the return of the remnant; and therefore we must see in these words a prophecy of a spiritual transformation that would take place at some future occasion afterward from the times of Isaiah. What was it? As Barnes explained it:

“The sense here (Isa 35:1-2) is that the desolate moral world would be filled with joy on account of the blessings which are here predicted … and that the change would be so great under the blessings of the Messiah’s reign, as if there should be suddenly transferred to the waste wilderness (the desert) the majesty and glory of mount Lebanon … and that the blessings of the times of Messiah would be as great, as if the desert were made as lovely as Carmel, and as fertile as Sharon.

Archer understood that blossoming and singing desert to symbolize, “The inward changes that take place in the redeemed”; and that certainly makes sense. As the sense of this chapter begins to appear, we may easily understand why Lowth complained that, “It is not easy to discover what connection the extremely flourishing state of the church or people of God described in Isaiah 35 could have with those events (of Isaiah 34). We will go much further and declare that, in fact, there is hardly any connection at all, except the resulting dramatic contrast between, “The future of the unrepentant, God-defying world and the future of the people of God. There is also one other connection. The final glory of the Church will come after the execution of the final judgment; and since it is the final judgment that appears in Isaiah 34, it was most logical that the joy of the saints of God should immediately appear, as indeed they do, right here in Isaiah 35. However, the element of cause and effect is not in the two chapters, but only the element of their near simultaneous timing.

As indication of the many differences of scholars regarding these verses, take that word rendered “rose” (Isa 35:1) in our version. Peake gave it as, “the autumn crocus, “or “the narcissus.” “The Septuagint (LXX) renders it `Lily,’ the Vulgate gives us `Lilium’ (the same thing); and the Syriac version translates it `the meadow-saffron.’

Of course, anyone can see that the exact identity of the flower in this passage is of little, if any, importance.

Rawlinson, as we see it, properly identified this whole chapter as a prophecy of, “The glory of the last times, and Hailey explained the reasons for doing so, as follows:

“The wilderness through which the redeemed came singing to Zion is not the road from Babylon to Judah, but the spiritual desert which led them into the captivity … Afterward came the Medo-Persian role and oppression, then Alexander whose role was totally void of spiritual values … then the Ptolemies, the Syrian Seleucids, the Maccabean wars … and the Pharisees and Sadducees, religious rulers who corrupted the spiritual life of the nation … and after them the Romans. It is obvious that the glorious picture in Isaiah 35 was certainly not realized at any time during the period between Babylon and the coming of Jesus Christ. Only a messianic interpretation of the chapter fits the text.

Isa 35:3-4

“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; he will come and save you.”

As Payne wrote, “`Vengeance’ today has a negative and unproductive ring about it; but vengeance and recompense belong together. The world cannot be put to rights and the era of peace be brought in without both the banishment and punishment of the wicked, and also the blessing of the `ransomed of the Lord.’

Certainly, the admonition here for the strong to aid and strengthen the weak and fearful has an application to every age of God’s people, whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament. New Testament admonitions on this subject are: 1Co 3:1; Gal 6:1; Heb 5:12-14; and Rom 15:1. That these verses also had a direct application to the Jews of Isaiah’s day is certain; for they apply to every age of God’s people.

The big thing that is promised in this passage is, “Your God will come … and save you.” “This is nothing less than an announcement of the Incarnation! Efforts of some to apply these words in any manner whatever to the Jewish return from captivity were described by the same author as “most inadequate. Barnes denied that the words here have any other explanation than as a reference to the Father; but it was not “The Father,” but “The Son” who actually “visited” us from on high and brought redemption to fallen man.

Isa 35:1-4 SAVED: Chapter 35 stands in direct contrast to chapter 34. These two chapters conclude or summarize the two propositions of this section (28-35): (a) World governments cannot help Gods people (especially Egypt) for they oppose Gods sovereignty; (b) God will keep His promise to deliver from eternal destruction all who believe and trust Him.

This chapter finds its ultimate fulfillment in the messianic kingdom (the church). Just as the God-opposing world governments were defeated and judged at the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ (see comments ch. 34), so the great deliverance and productiveness portrayed in vivid landscape scenes refer to the same climactic event in history. It would seem evident to us that all the predictions of the prophets concerning the rejuvenated land of Israel or the restoration of the people of Israel to the land must either be fulfilled in a literal (though hyperbolical) way after the captivity, or in a spiritual sense in the establishment of the church-or both. We cannot abide the idea that the prophetic predictions concerning the land and the people will find their fulfillment in a literal restoration of the Jewish economy (dispensation) at some time future to the church.

a. So far as we are able to discover, the New Testament says nothing of literal, genetic Israels reoccupation of Palestine and restoration of a Jewish system.

b. Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple but He said nothing of its rebuilding for the restoration of a Jewish system.

c. Jesus said, My kingdom is not of this world.

d. Paul told the Gentile Ephesians they were blessed with every spiritual blessing in the church.

e. Paul told the Gentile Galatians that all who were in Christ were heirs of Abraham and the promise made to Abraham.

f. To restore a Jewish system would invalidate the credibility, authenticity, finality and superiority of Christianity as revealed in the book of Hebrews.

g. To establish again the kingdom of Israel of the Old Testament would be to establish a kingdom conceived in disobedience, born in rebellion and perpetuated in apostasy. That is exactly what the O.T. kingdom of Israel was.

Matthew Henry says, Under the Gospel the desert land of heathenism becomes blooming. The flourishing desert shall have the glory of Lebanon given to it, which consisted in the strength and stateliness of its cedars; and the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, which consisted in corn and cattle. All the beauty of the Jewish economy passed into the Christian and appeared in its perfection, as the apostle shows in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Whatever is valuable in any institution is brought into the gospel.

In the Messianic age the best of every pagan kingdom will be blended with the best of Gods chosen people to form the beautiful, productive, joy-filled new kingdom of God. Isaiah amplifies this thought with vividness when he speaks of the wealth of the nations being brought into Gods Messianic kingdom (cf. Isa 60:8-22; Isa 61:1-11, etc.). The wealth of any nation is, of course, its godly people-not its silver and gold. Gods great universal kingdom (the church) is to possess the glory of every nation on the earth. And so it has; and so it shall continue to do. These prophecies began to be fulfilled when the gospel began to conquer and possess people from the regions of Tyre, Sidon, Antioch (all in Lebanon) (Act 11:22; Act 11:26; Act 13:1, etc.); by the gospel capture of people from Caesarea (at the foot of Mt. Carmel) (Act 8:40; Act 10:24, etc.).

The prophecy has a far greater range than that, of course. Wherever the gospel is preached and men surrender to the rule of God in Christ, there the glory of Lebanon is blended with the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. There rejoicing and singing take place. There beauty and productiveness become the new order.

Isa 35:3-4 are apparently paraphrased in Heb 12:12-13. Perhaps the idea of Isaiah in this whole section (Isa 35:1-7) is appropriated by the Heb 12:12-13 passage. Hebrews 12 is the chapter in which the Mosaic dispensation is contrasted with the Christian dispensation (Zion) and the Hebrew Christians are exhorted to cling to the kingdom which cannot be shaken (Christian) because this was Gods goal in the Old Testament. This seems to indicate the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews is saying the Christian dispensation is the fulfillment of the promises made in Isaiah 35, and therefore the messianic age is the point upon which Gods people are to focus for strengthening the weak hands and confirming the feeble knees. One thing is certain, the coming of God with vengeance, recompense and salvation should provide strength. What God is going to save from is the unbelief and perversity of carnal, satanic opposition to His redemptive work. That salvation has nothing to do with a particular land, race, people, circumstance or social class. It was accomplished by Christ once for all. Of course, we look forward to a new heavens and earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. But glorified circumstances or environment are irrelevant without glorified people. Heaven without sanctified people would be Hell. So it is not a land God is primarily interested in-it is a people!

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

The message of this chapter stands in close relation to the message of the preceding one, and yet in almost startling contrast to it. That was a picture of desolation. This is one of restoration. As in the former the whole earth was described as having been brought into confusion and emptiness, this great song opens with a description of the restoration of natural order. In all the beauty and glory of His rule men are to see anew “the glory of Jehovah, the excellency of God.” This is to be brought about by the coming of God. It is a message of hope to the weak and the feeble. It is the explanation of the fearful vengeance described in the previous chapter. Through that vengeance God moves to this victory.

The glorious issues of the divine activity are then declared, as they will be realized by His own chosen people. There will be an end of all the spiritual dullness of which the prophet has so consistently reminded them. All material defense will be removed, and a highway will be constructed. Finally the ransomed of the Lord will return, and sorrow and sighing will pass away. According to the whole teaching of the Old Testament concerning the purposes of God, this earthly restoration of His people will issue in world-wide blessing.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

the Rejoicing of the Redeemed

Isa 35:1-10

Gods judgments change Carmel and Sharon into a waste; but His blessing makes the wilderness and parched land as Carmel and Sharon. Where the smile of God rests, deserts sing and become carpeted with flowers. Your hands may be weak and your knees feeble, but when your helplessness invokes the help of God, He will begin to perform wonderful things that pass expectation. Say over and over to yourself: My God will come: be strong, my heart, and fear not. He will come and save. Oh, for the quickened sense; the bounding leap of our nature lamed by the fall; the songs from lips that God will touch! Your dreariest desert shall become water-springs; the mirage shall no longer disappoint; thirst shall be satisfied; and the dragons of the heart extirpated. Nothing can hurt us while we walk with God in holiness. Dreaded evils may threaten to cast their shadows on our path, but they shall not stay our songs as we come with singing unto the everlasting joy.

For Review Questions, see the e-Sword Book Comments.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

EXPOSITORY NOTES ON

THE PROPHET ISAIAH

By

Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.

Copyright @ 1952

edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago

ISAIAH CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

MILLENNIAL BLESSING

THIS precious portion, which concludes the first division of our book is a beautiful inspired poem, setting before us the delightful conditions which will prevail in this world after the binding of Satan as depicted in Rev 20:1, and the enthronement of our Lord JESUS CHRIST as Sovereign of the universe. Isaiah’s own heart must have been thrilled as he looked forward to this time of peace and righteousness following the long years of strife and wickedness which have caused such grief and suffering throughout human history. Even creation itself will share in the blessings of that day of the Lord’s power, and so we read:

“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God” (verses 1, 2).

All that is lovely in the present condition of the world, such as the grandeur of Lebanon, the beauties of Carmel and Sharon’s plains will be retained in that new era, and to these will be added many additional testimonies to the CREATOR’s joy in the world which He brought into being by the word of His power, but which has been so terribly marred as a result of man’s sin.

Every fruitful field or orchard, every lovely garden, presents a foretaste of what in Messiah’s day will be everywhere prevalent, when the parched deserts will give place to verdant meadows, and the thorns and thistles brought in by the curse will vanish, and trees and shrubs bearing fruits to appeal to the appetite and flowers to delight the eye, will spring up instead. But the physical and spiritual blessings that will come to all mankind will transcend all of these material changes.

“Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong: fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you. Then 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: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert” (verses 3-6).

“Hope deferred maketh the heart sick” (Pro 13:12). For long centuries the people of earth have yearned for deliverance from the countless ills that affect humanity. So the prophet exhorts those whose faith is weak and whose hearts are fearful to lift up their eyes and look on to the time when GOD Himself shall come down to earth to end its travail and bring in new and happy conditions. When JESUS came the first time all the signs of the coming age were manifested as sickness of every form fled away at the sound of His voice or the touch of His hand; when blind eyes were opened, deaf ears made to hear and the tongues of the dumb to sing. To some extent these signs followed the preaching of His apostles who could say with authority to the lame and helpless, “In the name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk,” and whose very shadow at times had healing power. All of these wonders were but foretastes of what shall be everywhere prevalent in millennial days.

“And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes” (verse 7).

Venomous and baneful creatures such as the crocodile and the alligator will no longer molest mankind nor prove a menace to the safety of children. Only what will minister to man’s comfort and security will remain.

“And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools [or, simple] shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up therein, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: And 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” (verses 8-10).

The way into GOD’s presence is ever the way of holiness. So in that day when men’s hearts shall be turned to the Lord, He will lead them to Himself along the highway of holiness, to Mount Zion where His throne will be established and from which His law will go forth into all the earth. Under His beneficent and righteous reign sorrow and sighing shall come to an end and joy and gladness take their place.

While we who belong to the Church, the Body of CHRIST, have our hearts fixed on the heavenly hope, as we look for the coming of our Lord JESUS and our gathering together unto Him, we cannot but rejoice to know that GOD has such blessing in store for Israel His earthly people and for the nations of the earth who have been the prey of such distressing circumstances throughout their history, circumstances which they are so powerless to change. It is most humbling to man’s pride, to realize that all our boasted civilization is utterly unable to prevent war and oppression in spite of Peace Conferences, a now effete League of Nations and our present United Nations Council. CHRIST alone can put things right. His return is man’s only hope for lasting peace.

~ end of chapter 35 ~

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Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Isa 35:8

The way of holiness is (1) a high way; (2) a strait and narrow way; (3) a plain and obvious way; (4) a safe way.

J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 399.

Reference: Isa 35:8.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1912.

Isa 35:10

I. “Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (1) The sorrow of bodily disease shall pass away. (2) The sorrow of dying will pass away. (3) The sorrow of bereavement will pass away. (4) The sorrow of poverty will flee away. (5) The sorrows caused by the sins of others will flee away. (6) The sorrows produced by the fear of evil, by dark imaginations, and by blighted hopes, shall flee away. (7) The sorrows of this life’s illusions and delusions shall all pass away. (8) The sorrows of sin will pass away. (9) The bitterness of the heart shall flee away.

II. When shall this be? (1) It shall be to the individual saint when his earthly career terminates. (2) To the saints as a body this will be realised at the times of the restitution of all things.

III. By what signs may we be assured that our sorrows will flee away? (1) The first sign is personal faith. (2) A second sign is acknowledged and avowed citizenship in the kingdom of the Saviour. (3) A third sign is the fleeing away of sin-the being cleansed from sin. (4) Another sign is the present good effect of sorrow. (5) A fifth sign is a living hope-hope, born of faith-hope, the child of God’s promises-the hope which is the anchor of the soul. When these five signs exist-personal faith in Jesus, avowed citizenship in His kingdom, the fleeing away of sin, the present good effect of sorrow, and a living hope-then we have good reason to expect that our sorrows shall flee away, and that our sighings shall for ever subside.

S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 2nd series, No. 2.

References: Isa 36:5.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 646; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 283.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

CHAPTER 35

Restoration Glory and the Kingdom

1. Creation blest and the glory of the Lord revealed (Isa 35:1-2) 2. The spiritual and material blessings of the kingdom (Isa 35:3-9) 3. The return of the ransomed of the Lord (Isa 35:10)What follows the great judgments of the day of Jehovah, when our Lord Jesus Christ is revealed from heaven in flaming fire, is now brought forward in this final chapter of the first great part of Isaiahs vision. The unscriptural view, that the coming of the Lord in judgment means the complete end of the world, is once more answered. After judgment ruin comes restoration glory. What that glory is we find in this chapter. Read it carefully and also the Studies in Isaiah which follow this analysis. The last verse shows the ransomed of the Lord returning to Zion, delivered from sorrow and sighing, filled with joy and singing salvation songs. It is the bringing back to their own land of a delivered people.

A brief word of review. Each section of Part I, chapters 1-35, foretells great judgments. Judgments upon Jerusalem, the land of Judah, the nations, the whole world. These visions were not at all fulfilled in the past judgments. The day of the Lord (in that day ba yom hahu, a phrase so often used by Isaiah) will bring these threatened judgments. But there are the predictions of restoration and blessing, which always follow that day. Each of the three sections end with the vision of a regathered and restored people, brought back to their land. The scope is perfect because it is divine.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

wilderness: Isa 29:17, Isa 32:15, Isa 32:16, Isa 40:3, Isa 51:3, Isa 52:9, Isa 52:10, Eze 36:35

be: Psa 48:11, Psa 97:8, Rev 19:1-7

desert: Isa 4:2, Isa 27:6, Isa 55:12, Isa 55:13, Isa 61:10, Isa 61:11, Isa 66:10-14, Hos 14:5, Hos 14:6

Reciprocal: Num 17:5 – blossom Neh 8:10 – the joy Job 38:26 – on the wilderness Psa 65:13 – they shout Psa 72:7 – In his days Psa 72:9 – They that Psa 89:12 – rejoice Son 2:1 – the rose Son 2:12 – flowers Isa 42:11 – Let the wilderness Isa 54:3 – thou shalt Eze 34:27 – the tree Eze 47:8 – and go down Joe 2:21 – be glad Amo 9:13 – the mountains Luk 11:24 – dry Act 8:8 – General Act 8:39 – and he Act 11:1 – the Gentiles

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Isa 35:1. The wilderness and solitary place, &c. As the land of the churchs enemies, which had enjoyed many external blessings and comforts, shall be turned into a desolate wilderness, as was declared in the foregoing chapter, so, on the contrary, Emmanuels land, or the seat of Gods church and people, which formerly was barren and despised, like a wilderness, shall flourish exceedingly. We have more than once had occasion to observe, that by the wilderness is generally meant the Gentile world: now, it is here foretold, that, through the influence of the gospel and the grace of God, it should put on a new face, and become like a pleasant and fruitful garden; that multitudes of converts to the true religion should be made therein, and a vast number of spiritual and holy worshippers should be raised up to God in it. Some, indeed, would interpret this chapter as referring merely to the flourishing state of Hezekiahs kingdom in the latter part of his reign, or to the cultivation of Judea again after the return of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon. But, as Bishop Lowth observes, that it has a view beyond any such events as these, is plain from every part, especially from the middle of it, where the miraculous works wrought by our blessed Saviour are so clearly specified that we cannot avoid making the application. And our Saviour himself has, moreover, plainly referred to this very passage, as speaking of him and his works, Mat 11:4-5. He bids the disciples of John to go and report to their Master the things which they heard and saw; that the blind receive their sight, &c., and leaves it to him to draw the conclusion in answer to his inquiry, whether he, who performed the very works which the prophets foretold should be performed by the Messiah, was not indeed the Messiah himself. And where are these works so distinctly marked by any of the prophets as in this place? And how could they be marked more distinctly? To these the strictly literal interpretation of the prophets words directs us. According to the allegorical interpretation, they may have a further view; and this part of the prophecy may run parallel with the former, and relate to the future advent of Christ; to the conversion of the Jews, and their restitution to their land; to the extension and purification of the Christian faith, events predicted in Scripture as preparatory to it. We may conclude, therefore, with certainty, that as the slaughters and desolations foretold in the former chapter look far beyond the calamities brought on Idumea and the neighbouring nations, by the Assyrians or Chaldeans; so does the bright and pleasant picture of the prosperity and happiness of Gods people, drawn in this chapter, look far beyond any felicity experienced by the Jews, either in any part of Hezekiahs reign, or after the return from Babylon. It is undoubtedly the flourishing state of the kingdom of Christ, or of the gospel church, composed of Jews and Gentiles, which is here predicted, and especially as it shall exist in the latter days, after the destruction of all the anti-christian powers, when the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brought in, and all Israel shall be saved.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Isa 35:1. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad. After giving the people bright hopes of recovery from the devastations of invading armies, the prophet dwells at large on the glory and grace of the Messiahs kingdom. Dr. Lowth has here left the Versions behind, by reading, The well-watered plains of Jordan shall rejoice. His authorities for reading Jordan instead of desert are very few. He has refined on the original, and gaited the pure and beautiful simplicity of the English version, which very happily expresses the original. For the Jordan to rejoice was no new thing: its vallies and plains, from one to ten miles broad, were fertile and greatly coveted by Lot. They were adorned, as a prophet says, with all the pride of Jordan. Jer 12:5.

Isa 35:8. A highway shall be there, and a (plain) way. The Hebrew ve-derek, and a way, is repeated, which some have thought an error of the scribe. The Greek is, a clean, a clear, or an open way. The Latin is, Semta et via, which requires some expletive, as above.

It shall be called the way of holiness: the unclean, the uncircumcised in heart, shall not pass over it. At the same time it shall be so open, and so crowded with nations of devout travellers, that the wayfaring man, though unskilled in travelling, shall not lose his way. This text and song must therefore be understood in unison with Isaiah 2. and Micah 4., which spake of mount Zion as being established on the tops of the mountains, to which all nations shall go up, and crowd the courts of the Lord. The Zion below derived much hope and comfort from this beautiful song; but Jerusalem above, the new-testament church, the mother of us all, is the real Zion, whose temple can contain all nations, and which could not be built and established by human hands.

Isa 35:10. The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion. Joyful tidings to the Hebrews: they shall be liberated from captivity, they shall return and build the city and sanctuary of the Lord, and once more rejoice in his courts. Aye; but short were their joys, and long their troubles. Yet those who return to Christ, being the ransomed of the Lord from all iniquity, shall find a city and temple already built, and her twelve gates, wide as the arch of a rainbow, always open. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Crowns of glory shall be given them, and an unalienable inheritance; and wars and death shall be no more. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have a right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city. Rev 22:14.

REFLECTIONS.

After the storms of war, after the land had been washed in blood, and stained with every crime, we see the Lord laying aside his anger, and returning again with love to his people. The prophet, in a sublime and beautiful song, consoles them with national felicity, a figure of the more glorious kingdom of Christ. As the bloody Assyrians had devastated the country in the career of conquest, so now the cedars of Lebanon, the flocks of Carmel, and the fruitful Sharon, are made to exult in their destruction. Those beautiful hills saw once more the glory of God in his covenant prosperity under Hezekiahs happy reign. When God came with vengeance on the enemy, and with a recompense of their spoil, they who were as blind and deaf both saw and heard his work; yea, the lame man leaped as a hart. A highway was opened for all who had fled to return, a way of holiness, for the people came back to worship the Lord with better minds. It was so crowded and so plain that the wayfaring man, though ignorant of the country, could not err. The peace and protection were so great that neither lions nor robbers dared to annoy the worshippers in their journey. And the captured Hebrews, ransomed by the munificence of their country, returned to Zion with garlands of joy, or crowns of flowers on their heads.

But to restrict this prophecy to the prosperity in Hezekiahs reign would be injurious to Israels hope, and totally dissonant to the method of prophets who referred all their joys to the Messiah, and who connected every temporal deliverance with the grand chain of blessings extending from the everlasting covenant. Hence we look forward with the prophet, from the glory and peace of his king to the greater glory of the Messiah, and the happiness of the converted. The gentile world is called a wilderness, Son 8:5, which was made to bud and blossom as the rose by the grace of the gospel. It lay in a dark and desolate state, but when the gospel came, truth, righteousness, and piety flourished in myriads of converts to the Lord.In like manner, the gospel not only converts, but it comforts: it strengthens the weak hands, and confirms the feeble knees. Heb 12:12. It brings a thousand motives, and adduces a cloud of witnesses to encrease our faith and confidence in the Lord. John the baptist himself was strengthened in prison by the evangelical accomplishment of this prophecy. Go and tell John, said Jesus, the things which ye do see and hear, that the blind see, that the deaf hear, &c. Mat 11:6. Yea, the eyes of the gentile world were open to see the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The preaching of the gospel was also accompanied with an effusion of the Spirit. Waters broke out in the wilderness, and pools in the parched ground, when the Spirit in all his grace and fulness descended from on high. Churches were everywhere formed, and the waste places of the gentiles became the garden of the Lord. The way of faith and holiness was laid open as a highway to heaven; and this good old way was made so plain by divine instruction everywhere abounding in the church, that the most simple and inexperienced enquirers would not err in any hurtful degree, provided they were truly sincere. At first indeed there were many lions in the way, the fierce beasts or persecutors, with some of whom Paul fought at Ephesus; but in the glory of the latter day, kings shall more eminently than ever be nursing fathers to the church. Then the Hebrews, ransomed from the sentence of exile, oppression and sin, shall return to Zion with singing and everlasting joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Isaiah 35. The wilderness shall become fruitful as the most fertile districts of Palestine. Let the timid take courage, for Divine vengeance on the enemy is at hand. The blind and deaf, the lame and dumb, will be healed. The thirsty desert shall abound with streams and springs. In the haunts of wild creatures will be grass for cattle. There shall be a holy way for pilgrims, on which the godless will not be permitted to travel; it will be unmolested by wild beasts, so that the pilgrims may travel on it in safety as they go up to Zion.

Isa 35:1. rose: better autumn croons (mg.) or narcissus.

Isa 35:3. Carmel: pp. 2830.Sharon: p. 28.

Isa 35:5-7. The descriptions are literally intended.

Isa 35:7. glowing sand: the rendering mirage (mg.) is very attractive. The phantom lake which deceives the traveller in the desert will be replaced by real pools of water. But it forms no good parallel to thirsty ground, and is not suitable in Isa 49:10*

Isa 35:7 b. The text has been mutilated. Originally it may have run somewhat as follows: In the haunts of jackals and wild cats Will be a resting place for your flocks and herds; The enclosure of the ostriches Will be filled with reeds and rushes.

Isa 35:8. for those: read, for his people, and continue, when it walks in the way, and fools shall not go to and fro in it. Fools bears a moral rather than an intellectual sense. They are the irreligious, and they will be excluded. The EV is singularly unfortunate, since it has been commonly taken to mean that the way to heaven is so plain that not even a fool can miss it.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

35:1 The {a} wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

(a) He prophecies of the full restoration of the Church both of the Jews and Gentiles under Christ, which will be fully accomplished at the last day: although as yet it is compared to a desert and wilderness.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

References to the wilderness and desert tie this chapter to the preceding one. The wilderness that God so thoroughly judged, personified here, will eventually rejoice because it will blossom profusely. The beauty and glory that formerly marked Lebanon and Carmel, before the devastation of chapter 34, will mark these places again, but more so. Their transformation, at God’s hand, will enable them to appreciate the inherent value and majestic dignity of Israel’s sovereign Lord (cf. Rom 8:13-25).

"If we will give God his glory, then he will give his to us." [Note: Oswalt, p. 622.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)