CHAPTER XXXV.
Zion’s Wilderness Transformed.
JUDGMENT having been pronounced upon Edom, Isaiah turns to the final consolation of Zion. Her wilderness shall at last be glad ; and her desert rejoice and blossom as the rose (crocus or narcissus). What is involved in this ? Is it a prophecy chiefly concerning the land itself—now neglected and unproductive—-or does it chiefly concern the people ? In the beginning, the curse for disobedience came first upon Adam, and then upon the ground for his sake. And so, in the remedy proposed, the people must first be healed, and then the ground itself will be blessed and bring forth abundantly. The condition of the Land, and of all lands, is more intimately bound up with the moral condition of Israel and of all the peoples than they have any conception of.
With regard to Zion’s wilderness, the testimony is plain: “ Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness ” (Jer. xii. 10). It was in such a wilderness that the Lord Jesus arose “ as a root out of dry ground ” (Isa. liii. 2). Jewish life was a wilderness, and he a despised and neglected “ plant.” As already remarked on Isa. xxxii., he wrought some transformation, and introduced some “ plants ” of the Father’s planting ; but these, though “ the blessed of the Father,” were removed from the Land, which was given over to destruction for a long time. The fulfilment of this prophecy was then far future. The Land and the Nation and the Saints had for ages to lie in the wilderness condition till the time of transformation should arrive.
And so " the word ” passed westward, and as with Israel, so with Christendom, " many pastors ” destroyed and trod down this new “ planting of the Lord.” The Apostasy triumphed, so that
John in Revelation xii. saw the faithful remnant as a fugitive woman flee into the wilderness from the face of the serpent. And when, afterwards, he was shown by the spirit the fate of the Great Roman System, he was “ carried away in the spirit into the wilderness.” So that Christendom is regarded of God as was Israel—a destroyed, downtrodden, and desolate vineyard, broken down by wild beasts, and turned into a wilderness.
It is to alter all this,both with relation toIsrael andto the
world, that Christ comes.He is the kernel of this visionof the
conversion of the wilderness into Paradise. It is Israel first, of course, for “ Salvation is of the Jews,” and the kingdom, even the first dominion is to come “ to the daughter of Jerusalem.”
The Lord shall comfort Zion ; he will comfort all her waste places ; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord ; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody” (Isa. li. 3).
Instead of the thorn, shall come up the fir tree ; and instead of the brier, shall come up the myrtle tree ; and it shall be to the
Lord for a name, for aneverlastingsign thatshall notbe cut
off ” (lv. 13).“ Trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord,
that he might be glorified ” (lxi. 3).
Here the " myrtles,” and “ trees of righteousness,” are the constituents of “ the name of Yahweh,” chief among whom is the Lord Jesus himself as the “ Plant of renown.” This is in harmony with the language of the chapter under consideration. “ It shall blossom abundantly. . . they shall see the glory of Yahweh
and the excellency of our Elohim ” (verse 2). The trees and plants of Zion’s Paradise that once was a wilderness, are the constituents of the glory of Yahweh ; they are “ our Elohim,” trees or “ mighty ones of righteousness.”
In view of this, the mission or “ message ” of the prophet in this place is to comfort such in prospect. “ Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful (“ hasty,” or fluttering) heart, Be strong, fear not ; behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence ; he will come and save you ” (verses 3-4). That is, the Lord Jesus will come “ in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know
not God and obey not the gospel,” but to give “ rest ” and “glory” to those who are "troubled” for his sake in that day (2 Thess. ii.).
So long ago as Job, he, according to the testimony of Eliphaz, did what the prophet here enjoined by the Spirit. He “ instructed many,” “ strengthened the weak hands,” upheld the falling, “ strengthened the feeble knees ” (Job iv. 3, 4). And so long after Isaiah’s time as a.d. 60, or thereabouts, an apostle enjoined the same course on his “ chastened ” Hebrew brethren (Heb. xii. 12). “ Looking unto Jesus,” was his motto in this connection, which he exemplified in his life. And the Lord Jesus himself had something to say of God’s avenging “ his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them ” (Luke xviii. 7). "I tell you,” said he, “ that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find the faith in the earth ? ” Here, then, is the very picture of the prophet reproduced in a sentence— earth a faithless wilderness, and God (the Son of Man) coming with vengeance. Looking unto him, and his endurance of “ the contradictions of sinners against himself,” we shall be strengthened, and our fearful hearts calmed.
And when he comes “ with vengeance,” “ 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.” In the days of his flesh, the Lord Jesus was always healing the blind, the deaf, the lame, and the dumb ; and there was water in the wilderness in connection with it all, though it was not an external hydropathy. His words of life and power were among the multitudes as the water from the smitten Rock was among the Israelites in the wilderness of old. “ If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” So he spoke (John vii.) ; but, though many literally tasted of his healing power as concerns the flesh, few had their eyes and ears sufficiently opened to “ the word ” to accept his gracious invitation. Few indeed of halting gait among the “ dumb dogs ’’ in Israel (Isa. Ivi. 10) became strong men to run the race of life, and eloquent to show
forth the praise of God, and to set forth “ the truth.” A few were thus healed in the higher sense—mentally and morally—but even they were still mortal, and presently passed away.
But when he comes with vengeance, these partake of the water of life and live for ever. They partake of Iris healing power, and are even empowered to do “ greater works.” With him they will literally be able to heal the blind, the deaf, the lame, the dumb ; but not only so, with him they will also be able spiritually to transform a world full of mental and moral cripples of all sorts, which is a " great er work” than those the Lord wrought 1,900 years ago in Israel. And they will do it by “ the waters in the wilderness.” " He that believeth on me, a? the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living watei. This he spake of the Spirit, which the}- that believe on him should receive ” (John vii. 39). He was at that time the Word made flesh. Hereafter he will be revealed “ in Spirit.” And in the day of vengeance, “ his name is called the Word of God ” (Rev. xix. 13). And of this “ name ” and “ glory,” those that believe in him are then constituents. And here Isaiah pictures their mission. Is it not a picture calculated to “ strengthen weak hands, and confirm feeble knees.” ?
“ And the parched ground shall become a pool.” Literally, the “ glowing sand,” or mirage, as the Revised Version happily puts it. The mirage is a striking phenomenon. The writer has witnessed it more than once. Riding or driving across the “ glowing sand ” in the heat of summer, with the atmosphere all trembling with the radiations, you suddenly see in the distance a beautiful vista of a lake and palms, etc. As you approach the spell is broken, the fair vision vanishes, and nothing but the “ glowing sand ” and scorching heat remains. The mirage is a vision either of an unreality, or, possibly, a distorted image by refraction of a reality elsewhere than where the spectator beholds it.
Such is the paradisaical vision of “ the wilderness,” Jewish or “Christian.” The “glowing sands” of its desert present to its wayfarers a “ mirage ” of " kingdoms beyond the skies,” of " souls ” of the deceased in glory there, of angels with
“ And a highway shall be tnere, and (even) a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness ; the unclean shall not pass over it ; but He himself shall be one of them, travelling the road ; and the perverse shall not stray thereinto. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up thereon they shall not be found there ; but the redeemed shall walk there ” (verses 8, 9—R.V. and Rotherham).
Even in Eden we read of “ the way of the tree of life.” Literally, this was the approach to the tree ; but, metaphorically, the appointments of God, which, patiently obseived, culminate in life. At the flood, all flesh had corrupted “ His way,” and He gave “ the world of the ungodly ” over to destruction by water, saving Noah and his family by the Ark, which was to him and his “ the way of life,” or preservation from the avenging waters. Ages afterwards, Jesus appeared in Israel and said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life ; no man coineth unto the Father but by me.” He was to his generation like the Ark to Noah’s, a comparison that an apostle actually makes (1 Pet. iii. 21), and that is implied by Jesus’ own words (Luke xvii. 26). In sacrifice, he, by his blood, opened into the holiest “ a new and living way ” (Heb. x. 20) ; which is illustrated in the apostolic preaching of his Name for the remission of sins upon belief of the Gospel of the Kingdom and baptism into Him. This is " the way of
life ” of our dispensation. But it has been lost ; and he is absent, and does not intervene by his almighty power ; and the voice of reason (reasoning out of the Scriptures) makes no impression in the world.
But when he returns all is made plain. " The way of holiness ” is openly and palpably manifested in Jerusalem. “ I am the way ” is then the voice of a divine multitude of which he is Head. “ And he himself shall be one of them travelling the road ” or “ walking in the way ” ; that is, he will be manifested in the divine nature to direct mankind to God, so that his saying, “ No man cometh unto the Father but by me,” will receive ample vindication, and further illustration for a thousand years.
Like the way of the tree of life in Eden, this ” way of holiness ’ is jealously guarded. He and his traverse it, and have access to eternal life; but not “ the unclean,” not "fools,” not lions,” nor any “ destroyers among beasts ”—only the redeemed. As he himself declares of the Holy City (the symbol of “his redeemed ”—Rev. xxi. 27) ; “ there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie ; but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” “ And the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass” (verse 21). Gold is the symbol of a tried and precious faith (Rev. iii. 18 ; 1 Pet. i. 7), so that this “ street,” or “ way,” is composed of the “ called and chosen and faithful "■ like Christ.
The popular interpretation of Isa. xxxv. 8, or a certain version of a sentence of it, is a fallacy. “ The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein,” is taken to mean that the gospel is so plain that any mortal can easily understand and appropriate it, no matter bow neglectful and ignorant of “ the word ” he may be (for the words are generally quoted as an excuse for ignorance.) But this is not true. Fools do err grievously concerning “ the way.” The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge ; but fools despise wisdom and instruction ” (Prov. i. 7) Here the word evil, a fool, is the same as in Isa. xxxv. 8, and is “ always morally bad.” Such despisers of wisdom and
instruction never get into “ the way,” even as pilgrims, let alone as immortal constituents of the golden “ street ” of the new Jerusalem. It is quite true that Christ’s wayfarers are accounted fools now for his sake ; but that is not the idea before the prophet’s mind. He is speaking not of now but “ then ” (verses 5, 6). And the truth is that fools (evilim) will then be excluded, with the "unclean” and “ravenous beasts,” from “the way of holiness ” in the sense of exclusion from the Kingdom of God.
The “ fools ” do not “ err ” in the way of God, but out of it. Thus it is written : “ The priest and the prophet have erred
through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink, they err in vision, they stumble in judgment ” (Isa. xxviii. 7). “ All we like sheep have
gone astray ; we have turned every one to his own way ” (liii. 6). These and similar passages in Isaiah illustrate the relation of fools to the way of God. And as it was with priest and prophet in Israel, so it is in Christendom—“ they are out of the way through strong drink ” (compare Rev. xvii.). But when Christ returns, they will be awakened and compelled to come up to Jerusalem to learn of Yahweh’s ways, and to walk in His paths. And at last they will be only too glad and thankful so to do.
“ And the redeemed 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.” This is the end to which the prophet saw all things tend. All the apostasy of Israel, all the antagonisms of his enemies, all the judgments to come upon them for their spite against Israel, all the rivalries of Gentile dominions in all the ages, are but transient phenomena working out in their complicated inter-actions the eternal purpose of God in Israel, as declared in the covenants of old.