More Good News from God in Dark Days

Let the People Be Glad!

(Isaiah 35:1-10, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, December 15, 2013)

[35:1] 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.If the deserts of the earth could talk, what would they say? “I'm thirsty. Water! I would like to be covered with flowers and fruit trees so that I could make a more joyful noise to my Maker.”

In the coming day of Messiah's kingdom, the trees of the fields will sing for joy to God. Places that were once fruitless and dangerous, will abound with the joy of the Lord. A Death Valley will experience the freshness of Mt. Pleasant. And God will be glorified by the removal of every sign of the devastation that came upon the earth because of the sin of mankind.

[3] Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
[4] Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”Even in the dark day of Isaiah, the words of this passage were very helpful. They aided the weak in finding new strength. A promise had come forth from God, who is always to be trusted. The Lord would bring His vengeance against men and angels who oppressed and abused His people. He would judge the wicked, and deliver the righteous from every danger. The Lord would save His faithful Israel who called upon His Name.

Because of this sure Word, weak hands were strengthened again. Feeble knees were once again steady and firm. Anxious hearts found a new courage. Even though the words pointed to an era that would only begin with the birth of a King centuries in the future, the righteous could live by faith, trusting in a Word from the Lord that would carry them through life and death.

[5] Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
[6] then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
[7] the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.In 2 BC, as best as we can date it today, Salvation was born. He escaped the notice of nearly everyone until He was baptized by John. But after that time, when he was about thirty-two years old, He began to perform signs that would fulfill ancient prophecies.

In John 9 He opened the eyes of a man born blind. In Mark 7 people brought to Him a man who was deaf and could not speak. That man's ears were opened and his tongue was released. In Acts 3, Peter told a crowd that it was because of the Name of Jesus that a well-known beggar who had been lame from birth was now walking, and leaping, and praising God.

These were not the only times when Jesus fulfilled the specifics of Isaiah 35:

Matthew 15:31-32 “And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.”

Luke 7:22 “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.”

[8] And a highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
[9] No lion shall be there,
nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.
[10] And the ransomed of the LORD shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.Jesus has brought about a new era of hope for weak and broken sinners who will repent of their old fruitless ways and turn to Christ to be declared holy through His blood. He has placed us on a new road called the Way of Holiness. Even those who are not skilled in wilderness travel will find this path to be well lit and safe.

The redeemed of the Lord are on that road, bought back from sin and hell by the blood of the Lamb. They are singing on their way to heaven. They have found a good deposit of joy with more promised upon their arrival or whenever the King returns to be with them forever.

The kingdom of the Christ child is the kingdom of the Spirit-born, Spirit-filled child of God. They speak the language of heaven best now. They rejoice to hear of those who were lost who have seen the light and are walking again with the redeemed.

They also know how to do Christmas right. How's that? They are not easily offended because they live in the joy of Jesus all the time. They believe in the hope of the life to come. They sing the song of a desert that has flowers and fruit trees on order and coming very soon. They see with the eyes of those who know the One who can make blind people see.

The deaf will hear His voice.

The blind shall see their Lord.

The joy of Jesus fills our hearts.

O Come, Let us adore!