1 The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus 2 it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. 3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 4 Say to those who are fearful of heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.
I think many of us can relate with the analogy of desert. At some point, all of us have felt our lives in a place of barrenness, with nothing growing or showing signs of life. Sometimes this is of our own doing, but sometimes it happens because of the misdeeds of others. Isaiah 35 comes in the wake of all kinds of brutal prophesies of violence and destruction for Israel and its surrounding neighbors. In fact, the previous chapter constitutes a death notice for Edom. But in the midst of such ominous prophesies, a message of hope comes to those in barren places. To those with weak knees and fearful hearts, God says “be strong, and don’t fear! Your God is here, and He is coming to save you.”
One gigantic concept we can gleen from this passage is that the God of Israel is not simply a bloodthirsty or vindictive God. When he expresses wrath, he does so for the sake of justice. God’s wrath is not simply destruction, but it is the righting of wrongs, and the weak and oppressed are on the receiving end of His blessings.
5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6 then the lame shall leap up like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
This passage presents another example of the kind of expectation being built up in the people of Israel through the prophets about the nature of God’s action among men. The Israelites were forming an imagination and an expectation of a God who gives sight to the blind, strong legs to the lame, hearing to the deaf, and speech to the speechless. As I have said before, I do not think that Isaiah was scrying into the future or seeing Jesus and then writing cryptic poetry about it. Instead, I understand Jesus as the complete fulfillment of the good, divinely-inspired messianic expectations of the Israelites. Because Jesus certainly fits the bill of what is discussed in verses 5 and 6.
"I understand Jesus as the complete fulfillment of the good, divinely-inspired messianic expectations of the Israelites."
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure that the Israelites were spot-on in their messianic expectations, considering that by the time Jesus came they were expecting a military leader. However, I would agree with the statement that Jesus was the fulfillment of God's promise of restoration, seen here in Isaiah's prophecy. That still works with your opinion that Isaiah did not see Jesus per se-- I would say that what Isaiah saw was God's restoration, which would later be fulfilled through Jesus.