The future happy condition of God’s redeemed ones
35
📚The wilderness and the dry lands will be glad for them,
and the desert 📖 will rejoice
and blossom 📖 like the rose.
2 📚It will blossom abundantly,
and rejoice with gladness and singing.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
the splendour 📖 of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of the LORD,
and the splendour of our God.
3 📚Strengthen the weak hands,
and make the feeble knees firm.
4 📚Say to those who are
of a fearful heart,
“Be strong.
Do not fear.
See, your God will come 📖
with vengeance 📖,
God with retribution.
He will come and save you.
35:3-4 Heb 12:12 – the meaning is, endure what must be endured, be strong and courageous in times of trouble and danger.⚜
5 📚Then the eyes of the blind
will be opened,
and the ears 📖 of the deaf
will be unstopped.
6 📚Then the lame man
will leap like a deer,
and the tongue 📖 of the dumb
will sing;
for water will gush out in
the wilderness,
and streams 📖 in the desert.
7 📚And the parched ground
will become a pool,
and the thirsty land springs
of water.
In the habitat of jackals,
where each lay,
there will be grass
with reeds and rushes.
8 📚And a highway 📖 will be there 📖,
and a road,
and it will be called
The Way of Holiness 📖.
The unclean will not pass
over it;
but it will be for those
who travel on it.
Fools will not wander onto it. 📖
9 📚No lion will be there,
nor will any ravenous beast 📖
go up on it;
it will not be found there.
But the redeemed will walk
there,
10 📚And the ransomed
of the LORD will return,
and come to Zion with songs,
and everlasting joy
on their heads.
They will obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing
will flee away 📖.
35:1-10 Compare this chapter with similar passages in Isaiah such as Isa 11:6-9; 32:15-16; 49:8-11; 51:3. There is a strong difference of opinion about how this chapter should be interpreted. Some think it is a description of spiritual conditions in the land of Judah after the Babylonian exile. Some think it describes New Testament times. Some think it describes this whole age of grace. Some think it refers to the immediate aftermath of Christ’s second coming, the beginning of a thousand-year reign on earth. Some think it refers to conditions in the new heaven and earth. Some seem sure that this chapter has nothing to do with the literal land and people of Israel. Others are convinced it has to do with them alone.
The author of these notes believes that this chapter describes events after the second coming of Christ, probably refers to the Millennium, and that Israel is concerned in it. This belief is based on the evidence available. I also believe that some of the figurative expressions here may suggest, to some extent, what happens any time in any era, in human hearts when Christ does His work of salvation in them.
I believe also that, though it is important to interpret prophecy correctly, it is more important to live holy lives of love to God and man (1 Cor 13:2), and that it does not make us better people if we choose to believe a particular one of the above interpretations, or worse people if we reject it and believe another one. While trying to understand the meaning of the prophet’s words about the future let us try to learn also spiritual, practical lessons that will help us in the present to live as God wants us to live.⚜