Verses 1-10
Isaiah 35:1. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them;
They shall be so glad that they shall inspire gladness where all was desolation, and brooding, melancholy batswing, and dragon’s howl. “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them.”
Isaiah 35:1. And the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
God’s people are a happy-making people. They are a blessing in themselves, and they shall be a blessing to others, till all shall say, “These are the seed that the Lord hath blessed.” “The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.”
Isaiah 35:2. 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 and the excellency of our God.
A wonderful sight to see, for there is one of the most lovely sights in the world when the glory and excellency of God are to be seen in the works of his grace in his own people. It is such a sight that it makes men first rejoice in their hearts, and then rejoice with their tongues. They shall “rejoice with joy and singing,” which is the double rejoicing of the heart and of the lip. Well, these must be a favored people who, wherever they go, can make others glad after this fashion. Brethren, they must be full or they could not overflow! They must be themselves alive, or else they could not quicken the desert places. They must themselves be in flower, blooming like the rose, or they could not make the wilderness so full of verdure. The Lord grant that we may be in that state that we may be able to go into the wilderness. There are some of God’s people that cannot trust themselves to go where they are wanted, because they have not grace enough. They are so weak that they are like the weak man standing on the river’s brink, who cannot leap in to pull out a drowning man for fear they should be pulled in themselves. But, oh! they are blest indeed who dare go into wildernesses and into the solitary places, and carry the transforming benediction of heaven with them till the wilderness changes its dress, and the brown of the sand gives place to the ruddiness of the rose, because God has come there with his people.
Isaiah 35:3. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
Are there such here tonight? No doubt there are — weak at work, and weak at praying. The two things go together — weak hands and feeble knees. May they both be strengthened.
Isaiah 35:4. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.
It is very singular how salvation and vengeance are so often associated together in Scripture. It is the day of salvation,” and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn.” Vengeance upon the false is the best consolation to the true. When God smites the sham, even to the heart, then does he bless that in which the truth is found. “He will come and save you.”
Isaiah 35:5-6. 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.
See what the presence of Christ does. See what the presence of Christ’s people will do when he comes in them and with them. They make the wilderness rejoice. But, besides that, the dwellers that are found in the wilderness — these lame and deaf people — get the blessing. Oh! may God make us to be a desert to others of this sort.
Isaiah 35:7. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
The greenest spots your eye ever rested upon are just there where the grass is so rooted in the morass that it is always green with a delicate tinge, and the reeds and rushes spring up abundantly. O God, make poor parched hearts to become like this! You barren ones, you desolate ones, he can give you the best verdure that is possible. Your hearts shall be as green and fresh as the spots where there is grass with reeds and rushes.
Isaiah 35:8. And an highway 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, though fools, shall not err therein.
Oh! what a blessing that is to us poor fools! We should err anywhere. To err is human, and we seem to have come in for a double share of it. The more we look at our lives the more we see the folly of our hearts. What a mercy it is that when we walk in the way of faith, in the way of Christ, fools as we are, we shall not err!
Isaiah 35:9-10. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: And the ransomed 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.
Like frightened things. They kept us company part of our road, but, when the Lord appeared they took to themselves wings and fled away. We could not tell where they were gone to. We were surprised to find that they had quite vanished. Oh! for the appearing of the Lord tonight to his mourning people who may be here.
This exposition consisted of readings from Isaiah 35. Hebrews 12:1-6.