"The desert, and the waste, shall be glad; And the wilderness shall rejoice, and flourish: Like the rose shall it beautifully flourish; And the well-watered plain of Jordan shall also rejoice: The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, The beauty of Carmel and Sharon: These shall behold the glory of Jehovah, The majesty of our God. Strengthen the feeble hands, And confirm the tottering knees. Say to the faint-hearted: Be strong; Fear not; behold your God! Vengeance will come; the retribution of God: He himself will come, and will deliver you. Then shall be unclosed the eyes of the blind; And the ears of the deaf shall be opened: Then shall the lame bound like the hart, And the tongue of the dumb shall sing: For in the wilderness shall burst forth waters, And torrents in the desert: And the glowing sand shall become a pool, And the thirsty soil bubbling springs: And in the haunt of dragons shall spring forth The grass, with the reed, and the bulrush. And a highway shall be there; And it shall be called the way of holiness: No unclean person shall pass through it: But He himself shall be with them, walking in the way, And the foolish shall not err therein. No lion shall be there; Nor shall the tyrant of the beasts come up thither: Neither shall he be found there; But the redeemed shall walk in it. Yea, the ransomed of Jehovah shall return: They shall come to Sion with triumph; And perpetual gladness shall crown their heads. Joy and gladness shall they obtain; And sorrow and sighing shall flee away." (Isaiah 35:1-10,Lowth)
Restoration of the Earth
"The thing that has been, it is that which shall be." (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
This is most emphatically true of the things that God has made. For, "I know that, whatsoever God does, it shall be for ever; nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it." (Ecclesiastes 3:15)
When God made the world, and all things beautiful, "He created it not in vain." (Isaiah 45:18)
The fact that God made the earth perfect, is proof that it will be perfect. Not one of God's plans can ever fail. To man's short sight it may seem as though everything had failed; but God has eternity for His own, and can afford to be misunderstood and yet to wait. A few years, or a few thousand years are not a finger's breadth compared with eternity.
So although sin brings complete desolation upon the earth, the end of sin,--which is destruction,--will be self-destruction; and death,--the last enemy,--having been swallowed up in victory, the earth will be renewed, and "the desert shall rejoice, 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, and the excellency of our God." (Isaiah 35:1-2)
The places once most fertile are now most desolate. The earth is waxing old like a garment; but like an old garment, it is soon to be changed, (Isaiah 51:6; Psalm 102:26) and then it will reflect to perfection the excellency and beauty of Jehovah. We have learned something of the beauty of the Lord; that wondrous beauty will yet be seen even in the most desolate and barren portions of this earth. Is it not a glorious prospect?
What assurance have we of this? Is not the assurance of God's Word sufficient? But we have ample demonstration of it in the fact that man, who was made to rule over a perfect earth, and was therefore himself made perfect, but who fell, and thereby caused the desolation of the earth, is himself by the Word of God made a new creature even now in this present time. When the king is restored to his kingly state, is that not proof that he will have back his dominion? In view of this, what is said? "Strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, Fear not." (Isaiah 35:3-4)
When does this apply? Is it in the time spoken of in the first two verses? Most certainly not; for in the earth renewed there will be no occasion to say to anybody, "Fear not!"
The people shall then "dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places." (Isaiah 32:18)
No; now is the time when the assurance of what God will certainly do for even this sin-cursed earth, must be set before the faint-hearted, to encourage them. "[The] blessed hope [is] the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." (Titus 2:13)
Behold Your God
"Behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; He will come and save you." (Isaiah 35:4)
What else should be said to them that are of a fearful heart? This: "Behold, your God!" (Isaiah 35:4; Isaiah 40:9)
Where? Everywhere. "Do not I fill heaven and earth? says the Lord." (Jeremiah 23:24)
When Christ appears in the clouds of heaven there will be no fearful ones among His people. That will be the moment of the joy of deliverance. No one will then need to say, "Behold your God!" for, "every eye shall see Him." (Revelation 1:7)
"And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us: This is the Lord, we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." (Isaiah 25:9)
Therefore this exclamation, "Behold your God!" is to be uttered now in the ears of all the fainting ones of earth. "That which may be known of God is manifested in them; for God manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and Divinity." (Romans 1:19-20)
He upholds all things by the Word of His power. "Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." (Hebrews 1:3)
To be able to see God in all the things that exist, to know that He has not forsaken the earth, is enough to put courage into any man.
What means it that He is here? Nothing less than that He claims all things as His own, and is determined to stay by them. Though they be marred, and the Divine image may be almost effaced, yet He does not become disheartened or disgusted with them, but will by His presence restore them as at the first. If He did not claim them as His own, and did not intend to make them again worthy of himself, He would not remain in them; the fact that He tarries even amid the curse, is sufficient proof that He means salvation; and what He purposes He will surely perform.
Therefore, behold your God in the lowest and meanest created thing, that you may know that He has not forsaken man, His crowning work. Be of good courage; He will come and save you.
The Gospel of Health
"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 a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing." (Isaiah 35:5-6)
When shall all this be? Well, it will certainly be when the Lord comes to save His people, for then the dead themselves will be raised incorruptible, and the living will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, to immortality. "Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." (1 Corinthians 15:51-53) "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)
At that time there will surely not be a saint of God with any blemish either of soul or body. Christ will have "a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." (Ephesians 5:27)
But we are warranted in believing that a restoration will take place even before the appearing of the Lord, not indeed to immortality, but to soundness of mortal bodies. When Jesus comes "every eye shall see Him." (Revelation 1:7)
But there is even stronger evidence than this. Christ's presence here on earth brought healing to all that were diseased in any way. The proof of the Divinity of His ministry was this, that "The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them." (Matthew 11:5)
Now there was never a time in the world when there was more need of convincing proof of the genuineness of the Gospel than now. When Satan works with "all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness," (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10) as he sees the end near, God will not leave himself without witness among men, but will also work with many miracles and wonders and signs. The Christ who once walked among men, revealing the Father, will be reproduced in all His people, so that no particle of evidence will be lacking.
So as He then healed all who were sick and blind and lame, wherever He went, we may be sure the same thing will be done again, when all His people learn to behold Him still among them and in them.
Marvellous Signs to be Manifest
"In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert." (Isaiah 35:6)
That will be fulfilled when the wilderness and the solitary place are made new, and the desert blossoms as the rose; but we may expect to see it fulfilled even before the coming of the Lord. "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." (Isaiah 35:7)
When Israel went out from Egypt, water was brought from the flinty rock for them in the desert: "[God] turned the rock into standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters." (Psalm 114:8)
When God sets His hand again the second time to deliver His people, "There shall be a highway for the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt." (Isaiah 11:16)
Therefore we may expect to see the same wonders, and even greater ones, repeated. "Behold, the days come, says the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord lives, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The Lord lives, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land." (Jeremiah 23:7-8)
The wonders of the last days will entirely eclipse the miracles of the exodus from Egypt.
A Holy Highway
"A highway shall be there." (Isaiah 35:8)
Where? Without doubt in the new earth, in the holy city; but we should miss the joy of the Scripture if we put it all off till the future. Christ is the way, the way of holiness, and the way is plain. "The way you know." (John 14:4)
Anyone can find it; it is revealed unto babes; and the most simple cannot make any mistake in it. "The redeemed shall walk there." (Isaiah 35:9)
Even now "God ... has visited and redeemed His people." (Luke 1:68)
Therefore now the redeemed must have a place in which to walk. And they shall walk in the way, and they "shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads." (Isaiah 35:10)
Mark that it is with singing that they come into Zion. They do not wait until they get there to sing; they sing now. It is because they sing that they get there. Read 2 Chronicles 20:1-30, and note verses 21 and 22: "And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for His mercy endures for ever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten." (2 Chronicles 20:21-22)
It was when Israel began to sing and to praise the Lord, that they gained the victory. Then let the desert resound and be made glad with singing.
Let those refuse to sing
Who never knew our God;
But children of the heavenly King
Must speak their joys abroad.
--Isaac Watts, Hymn: Marching to Zion, from Hymns & Sacred Songs, 1707.
This they must do, because they "are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaks better things than that of Abel," (Hebrews 12:22-24) and,
The hill of Zion yields
A thousand sacred sweets,
Before we reach the heav'nly fields,
Or walk the golden streets.
--Ibid.
--Present Truth, July 20,1899--Isaiah 35:1-10.