Isaiah 35

35:1 The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice, 2 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, the excellency of our God. 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 5 recompence of God; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, 6 and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams 7 in the desert. And the glowing sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water: in the habitation of jackals, where they lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. 8 And an high way 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, yea fools, shall 9 not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up thereon, they shall 10 not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: and the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

THE earlier visions of Isaiah (chaps. 1-35), in their three distinct series, point throughout to the approaching crisis of Assyrian conquest, and to the deliverance of Jerusalem by the sudden overthrow of the invading host. Already, in chap. 2, a day of solemn visitation is announced against all the splendor and beauty of the land of promise. In chap. 5 the invading power is more clearly foreshow, and summoned by the voice of God Himself from a distant land, to execute His judgment. In chaps. 7-12 the warning grows more distinct, being prefaced by the promise of Immanuel, the heir of David’s throne, whose kingdom should never fail. The invasion is to be a flood, reaching to the neck; and Zion alone, the head, would escape from the wide-reaching desolation. The Assyrian would reach the heights on the north of Jerusalem, and threaten it with captivity, but then be suddenly cut down; and the vista closes with a picture of Messiah’s happy reign.

The burdens begin with one on Babylon, to be last fulfilled. Then follow judgments to be inflicted by Assyria, the rod of God’s anger, on Philistia, Moab, Syria, Ephraim, Egypt and Ethiopia, and the Arabian tribes; and then on Samaria and the northern kingdom, with a promise of Jerusalem’s deliverance through her recovery from sensual blindness to faith in the God of Israel. The last burden on Tyre reaches onward to the times of Nebuchadnezzar and

Cyrus; and the series closes with a general warning, and renewed promises of the good things to come.

The woes, dating from the first years of Hezekiah, first denounce the speedy downfall of Samaria, the utter failure of the worldly hopes of the scornful in Judah, and the investment of Jerusalem by the alien armies; and then reveal, more clearly than before, the overthrow of the Assyrian spoiler by the hand of God.

Chap. 35:1, 2 describes the joy of Israel’s final recovery. The next verses announce that coming of Messiah which was to precede, and through which alone their recovery could be fulfilled. The rest of the chapter unfolds the blessings that are to follow, or the glorious reign of the promised Immanuel, the Prince of Peace. There seems no reason for confining the words in the opening verse to Palestine, and the absence of the article justifies us in giving them the widest sense. Everywhere, except in that doomed region of judgment, the wildernesses are to rejoice. The creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom. 8:21).

The four chapters of history (36-39) are the natural sequel of these prophecies, and the preparation for the later visions that follow. They occur also in 2 K. 18-20, with a few slight variations, and the omission of the writing of Hezekiah. But there are many internal signs that their original place is in this Book of Isaiah. The changes in the Book of Kings consist chiefly in the replacement of more dramatic by simply historical expressions, as in chap. 39:2, “was glad of them” becomes “hearkened to them.” Also the historical order is restored in the last verses of chap. 38, with other alterations suited to a book of simple history. Their connection with the structure of the whole book is most intimate and vital. The earlier prophecies all converge on that coming Assyrian overthrow, of which chaps. 36, 37 are the historical record; while the illness and recovery of Hezekiah (chap. 38) marks the transition from times of peril and danger to a gracious reprieve in years of peace and truth. Lastly, the message of Merodach, king of Babylon (chap. 39), and the weakness of Hezekiah, occasion a warning of that future captivity, from which all the later prophecies diverge; passing onward into a prediction of the days of Cyrus, the times of Messiah, and the full and final deliverance of Zion from her long sorrows. Birks.

Chap. 35. As said in the introduction to chap. 34, this chapter stands over against that; this giving the joyful changes which God achieves for His people; that, the woeful changes of ruin and desolation which God brings upon His incorrigible enemies. The central idea of this chapter is the wealth of God’s resources for blessing those who trust in Him, and the consequent richness and glory of those blessings. The change wrought in those who find mercy and rest in God is like that of a barren and waste wilderness becoming verdant and blooming; the blind restored to sight; the deaf to hearing; the lame to leaping and the dumb to songs again; sandy deserts bursting forth with bubbling fountains; a glorious highway for Zion’s pilgrims over what was only a waste of pathless sands before, upon which highway no dangerous beasts should ever ascend—none but God’s redeemed, and they, with songs and everlasting joy. It has been well said that the tenor of this description is so general and comprehensive that it may be applied to Israel returning from her long captivity in Babylon; to the calling of the Gentiles and to their great joy in the Gospel; to the Christian dispensation as revealing more richly than ever before the love of God and the power of His Spirit; to the experience of every true convert to Christ; and to the perfect bliss of heaven. H. C.

A great and glorious change is here described under the figure of a desert clothed with luxuriant vegetation (verses 1, 2). The people are encouraged with the prospect of this change and with the promise of avenging judgments on their enemies (verses 3, 4). The same change is then expressed, by a change of figure, as a healing of corporeal infirmities (verses 5, 6). The former figure is again resumed, and the wilderness described as free from all its wonted inconveniences, particularly those of barrenness and thirst, disappointment and illusion, pathlessness and beasts of prey (verses 7-9). The whole prediction winds up with a promise of redemption, restoration and endless blessedness (verse 10).

The best description of the chapter is that given by Augusti in the title to his version of it, where he represents it as the description of a happy condition of the Church after a period of suffering. This is no doubt its true import, and when thus explained it may be considered as including various particulars, none of which can be regarded as its specific or exclusive subject. 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. The ground of this manifold application is not that the language of the passage is unmeaning or indefinite, but that there is a real and designed analogy between the various changes mentioned which brings them all within the natural scope of the same inspired inscription. A.

2. “It” (the wilderness) “shall blossom abundantly.” The imagination of the poet gives life and emotion to this desert—late a waste; now all verdant and beautiful—for it now rejoices even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon (not shall be, but) has been given to it; and herein lies this surprising change. All shall see the manifestations of God’s glory; His power to save and the infinite love of His heart, out of which all salvation flows. H. C.

3. With the prospect of this glorious change the people are commanded to encourage themselves and one another. The hands and knees are here combined, as Vitringa observes, to express the powers of action and endurance. The participial forms represent the hands as actually hanging down, relaxed or weakened, and the knees as actually giving way. The passage thus explained is far more expressive as denoting a permanent quality or habitual condition. In itself the language of this verse is applicable either to self-encouragement or to the consolation of others. There is no reason why the words should not be taken in their widest sense, as meaning, let despondency be exchanged for hope. That self-encouragement is not excluded may be learned from Paul’s use of the words in that sense (Heb. 12 : 12). That mutual encouragement is not excluded is sufficiently apparent from the following verse.

4. This verse shows how the command in the one before it is to be obeyed, by suggesting, as topics of mutual encouragement, the vindicatory justice of God, and His certain interposition in behalf of His people. The words are really a promise of deliverance to God’s people, and include the unspeakable gift of Christ and His salvation. A.—Let the saints have patience and never fear lest God should forget His words of promise or the interests of His people and kingdom. He will vindicate Himself as true to His words, both of threatening against His foes and of promise in behalf of His friends. H. C.

He will come and save. There was a solemn refrain, echoing alike from the Adamic and Abrahamic promises, caught up in the dying blessings of Jacob and of Moses, and repeated like the subtle motive of a fugue through all cadences of the statutes for sacrifices, festivals and Sabbaths. He will come—the Seed, the Shiloh, the Prophet will come. He will gather all nations to fellowship with Israel. Israel shall spread His blessedness over all lands. He will remove every curse and govern the world in righteousness and love. He will provide a sacrifice suited in character and occasion for all the earth and all the nations. Grey.

5,6. The change in the condition of the people is now represented by another figure, the removal of corporeal infirmities. The reason assigned in this last clause for the joy to be expressed shows clearly that the miraculous removal of disease and the miraculous irrigation of the desert are intended to express one and the same thing. The essential idea in both cases is that of sudden and extraordinary change. To the question whether this prediction is in no sense applicable to our Saviour’s miracles, we may reply with Calvin, that although 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 denote. The simple meaning of the passage is that the Divine interposition which had just been promised should produce as wonderful a change in the condition of mankind as if the blind were to receive their sight, the dumb to speak, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and deserts to be fertilized and blossom as the rose. In the process of this mighty transmutation miracles were really performed, both of a bodily and spiritual nature, but the great change which includes these includes vastly more. A.

There must be nobler things in store for that race with which the Son of God is contented to have such patience. If the great Husbandman waits so long for the feeble, springing blade, how precious must the full harvest be! There will be plentiful stores of pure wisdom for the world and boundless treasures for each immortal soul that covets truth. There are ages for the world to learn in and an eternity for the individual; and when the soul is able to bear full light, how many things will the great Teacher have to disclose! What secrets in providence and grace shall be uncovered—what blank deserts on the map of knowledge filled up with rich discoveries—what pauses and silences in the speech of Christ, replaced by matter of adoring wonder and praise! We shall find out why we can get no answer to many questions now. Where we are compelled to stand in awe before mysteries which stretch away like trackless wastes, we shall advance and see proofs of larger wisdom and deeper love than it entered our hearts to conceive. “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing, for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.” We shall drink at the fountain head of illumination, see light in God’s light, and find it all the sweeter that it comes from Him into whose lips grace is poured. Ker.

7. The idea of complete and joyful change is still expressed by the transformation of a desert and the consequent removal of its inconveniences, among which the prophet here particularly mentions the tantalizing illusions to which travellers in the wilderness are subject. A.—Glowing sand. Refers to a certain illusive appearance of water far in the distance over the desert sands which has often tantalized thirsty travellers, only to aggravate their disappointment. It is best known by the French name of “the mirage,” and is occasioned by the peculiar refraction of the sun’s rays passing over the sands of the desert, giving the distant horizon precisely the appearance of a vast lake. Hence the meaning here is that this deceitful mirage shall become really a pool of water, and bubbling springs shall burst forth in the very desert—which in that climate would clothe regions otherwise wasted and desolate, with magnificent verdure and beauty.

8. A new figure still appears. We have seen the great Sahara, putting on the glory of Lebanon, Carmel and Sharon; her desolate and scorching sands blooming with roses and even pouring forth her new joy in song; the mirage becoming pools of living water; moisture and consequent verdure succeeding to sterility and vast desolation; but here this trackless desert and its vast waste of drifting, pathless sands is cut by a highway—a road well cast up and fitted for rapid and easy travel. It shall be called—i.e., shall really be, the way of holiness, a new road made to bear men safely, high above the quicksands of temptation and the dreary wastes of sin. The unclean go not there. The clause, “It shall be for those,” with this construction, means, It shall be for the people of God alone for whom it was built. H. C.—The precise import of the original expression seems to be that the highway shall belong exclusively to them for whose sake it was made, for whose use it was intended. A.—The last clause means that travellers, even though of only ordinary intelligence, shall not miss the road. With honest hearts, though of only very moderate knowledge, this highway is very readily followed. The way of salvation is travelled safely by some who are only babes and children in understanding. H. C.

The distinctive features of revealed truth are presented so clearly that “the wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err” regarding them. They are like lines of light running through the Bible, illuminating all, and explaining all. No man who is willing to give to the interests of his deathless spirit a tithe even of the attention which he knows they justly demand need remain in doubt about the revelations of the Bible concerning the essentials of vital godliness, nor commit a mistake as to the method it discloses for securing everlasting life. E. M.

9. The wilderness, though no longer barren or pathless, might still be the resort of beasts of prey. The promised highway might itself be exposed to their incursions. But immunity from this inconvenience is here promised. A.—God provides against all dangers. There shall be nothing there to hurt or destroy. This blessed pathway is reserved for the redeemed alone and is made safe for them against all evil. H. C.

10. The whole series of promises is here summed up in that of restoration and complete redemption. A.—Those who are purchased with redeeming blood, bought off from their bondage to sin by a redemption as of captives, shall return from their captivity and come even to Zion, the very abode of the living God. H. C.—The highway before described not only leads to Zion the Church below, but to the Zion above, to the heavenly glory; and all the redeemed, all that walk in this way, shall come thither; at death their souls return to God that gave them, and in the resurrection their bodies shall return from their dusty beds and appear before God in Zion. Gill.

When they shall “enter into the joy of their Lord,” it shall be what the joys of this world never could be, everlasting joy, without mixture, interruption or period; it shall not only fill their hearts, to their own perfect and perpetual satisfaction, but it shall be upon their heads, as an ornament of grace and a crown of glory, as a garland worn in token of victory; their joy shall be visible, and no longer a secret thing, as it is here in this world; it shall be proclaimed, to the glory of God and their mutual encouragement; they shall then obtain the joy and gladness which they could never expect on this side heaven; “and sorrow and sighing shall flee away” forever, as the shadows of the night before the rising sun. Thus these prophecies which relate to the Assyrian invasion conclude, for the support of the people of God under that calamity and to direct their joy, in their deliverance from it, to something higher. Our joyful hopes and prospects of eternal life should swallow up both all the sorrows and all the joys of this present time. H.—That redemption complete, there will be no second apostasy. The perpetuity of restored humanity is guaranteed by a special decree of the Almighty. No tempter will be permitted to enter the celestial Paradise. Well may they exult who come home to the heavenly Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. Members of His body who sitteth upon the throne, oft as they turn a grateful eye to Him they are reminded of the perpetuity of their new life. Long as Christ lives they shall live with Him and in Him. No cloud obscures the prospects of futurity. The life which Christ restores is secured beyond the reach of power, and accident, and apostasy, and peril. It is a life of joy, without the possibility of falling away and without an end; for the well-spring of it is not our personal obedience, but the life of the Redeemer, the very life of God. W. Adams.

O eternal kingdom, kingdom of all ages, where is light that fails not, and the peace of God that passeth all understanding; wherein the souls of the saints are at rest, and “everlasting joy is on their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away!” O how glorious is the kingdom in which all Thy saints, O Lord, reign with Thee, clothed with light as with a garment, having crowns of precious stones on their heads! O kingdom of everlasting bliss, where Thou, O Lord, the hope of the saints, and their diadem of glory, art seen face to face by the saints, gladdening them on all sides with that peace of Thine which passeth all understanding! There is joy without end, gladness without sorrow, health without pain, life without toil, light without darkness, life without death, all good without any evil. There youth never grows old, there life knows no end; where beauty never grows pale, and love never grows lukewarm, and health never decays, and joy never decreases, and pain is never felt, and gladness is ever retained, and no evil is dreaded; for there the supreme good is enjoyed, which is to seek forever the face of the Lord of hosts. Happy then are they who have already succeeded in coming home from the shipwrecks of this present life to such great joys. O our country, O country of safety, we behold thee from afar; from this sea we greet thee, from this valley we sigh after thee; and we strive with tears, if haply we may reach thee. O hope of mankind, Christ, God of God, our refuge and strength, whose light, beaming from afar amid the dark mists over the tempestuous sea, like the ray of a star of the sea shines brightly before us, that we may be guided to the harbor; steer our bark, O Lord, with Thine own right hand, by the rudder of Thy cross, let us not perish in the billows, let not the raging water drown us, nor the deep swallow us up; but by the power of Thy cross draw us from this sea to Thyself, our only consolation, whom we can scarcely discern through our tears, from afar off, as the morning star and the sun of righteousness, awaiting us on the shore of the heavenly country. Lo, we cry aloud unto Thee, we, Thy redeemed, but now also Thy banished ones, whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious blood. “Hear us, O God of our salvation, hope of all the ends of the earth, and of those in the sea afar;” wild is the sea through which we are faring onward; Thou art standing on the shore, and looking on our dangers; save us for Thy name’s sake. Augustine.

In the illumination of eternity, redemption will be seen as the great end and unity of all things human, the key of history, the harmony of events, the beginning and the ending of this world’s life. Then shall we attach new meaning to the august titles of our Lord—the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the King of kings and Lord of lords—for of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever! Amen. W. Adams.

The field of Messiah’s operations is the world; nor will He cease to put forth His power for the extension of His Church till He has made the wilderness and the solitary place to be glad, and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose. The outward ordinances of visible Christianity shall be universally spread abroad; efficacy shall be given to the means of grace, by the outpouring of the Spirit; and every obstruction to the triumphant progress of the chariot of salvation shall be effectually removed. Ignorance shall be dispelled before the spreading beams of Gospel light. The evidences of Divine truth shall compel infidelity to hide its head. The delusions of the false prophet shall be dissipated by the drying up of the river Euphrates, that a way may be prepared for the kings of the East. Jewish obstinacy and unbelief shall be broken, and the veil taken from the eyes of that interesting people in reading Moses and the prophets. All the hideous forms of polytheistic paganism shall give way to the one religion of Jesus. The anti-Christian leaven, which has been so extensively diffused, shall be purged out of both churches and nations. Every usurper of the rights and prerogatives of Zion’s King shall be pushed from his seat. Every rival kingdom shall be overthrown. The civil and ecclesiastical constitutions of the earth shall be regulated by the infallible standard of God’s word; their office-bearers, of every kind, shall acknowledge the authority of Messiah the Prince; and the greatest kings on earth shall cast their crowns at His feet. All enemies shall be put under His feet; and such as resist the melting influence of His grace shall be crushed beneath the iron rod of His power. And at the last, there shall not be a spot on the face of the habitable earth where the true Church of Christ shall not have effected a footing, nor a single tribe of the vast family of man which shall not have felt the meliorating and blissful influence of Christian laws and institutions. W. Symington.

We have entire confidence in the ultimate success of the missionary enterprise. Christianity triumphantly surmounted, ages ago, far

greater obstacles than now lie in the way of its progress. Its whole empire has been wrested from the grasp of paganism, as degraded, as inveterate, as stubborn as the forms with which it now contends. Because we believe it the truth of God, revealed for man, and adapted in its form of communication to the nature, faculties and wants of man, we doubt not that man under every mode of culture may be brought to the intelligent reception of its truths, the practice of its duties, and the enjoyment of its hopes. We receive as from Divine inspiration the predictions of the Hebrew seers and of the Christian apostle, which foretell the entire re-

generation of the human family, and cannot but believe that man will yet rewrite in history the brightest pages of prophecy. N. A. Review.