In chapter 35 it is as though a brilliant shaft of light breaks through the clouds and all is bathed in splendor again. Arid wastes burst into bloom as the glory of the Lord comes down like refreshing showers, and the whole earth shouts for joy (vv. 1-2). It’s a vision to steady trembling hands, strengthen weak knees, and lift fearful hearts (vv. 3-4). The people addressed here remember the sights of home, but they are far away, and powerless to return. They have been conquered and brutalized, and their anguished hearts cry out for vengeance, retribution, and deliverance. But they have no strength to right the wrongs they have suffered or to bring those responsible to account. They are blind, deaf, lame, and mute; they have no power to help themselves; only God can save them. And the good news of this chapter is that He will do just that (vv. 5-7). He will raise up a highway for them and bring them home. They will enter Zion with singing…sorrow and sighing will flee away, and they will be overtaken by a joy that will never end (vv. 8-10).

Clearly, a situation of exile and return is in view here, something that will be developed at length in the second half of the book. But just as clearly, this chapter reaches beyond that to something else. The everlasting joy of this chapter corresponds to the everlasting destruction of the previous one. Beyond the judgments and blessings of history lie the final “everlastings” of salvation and damnation. These are the ultimate realities we have to reckon with. There are foreshadowing’s of them within history, but in Scripture something greater always looms up behind.

We of course, would like to have only one of these realities: blessing without curse, salvation without judgment, heaven without hell. And we are always in danger of rewriting the rules, so to speak, to suit our own inclinations. But the biblical revelation has a stubborn shape to it that resists all manipulation of this kind. It forces us to decision: we must have it as it is or not at all; accept it or make up your own religion. No quarter is given, either by biblical writers or by Jesus Himself. On the last day, some will go away to eternal punishment, and some to eternal life.

Let us concentrate for a moment on the highway of verse 8. It is the way to everlasting joy. It is the way to Zion, the city of God, and all that it symbolizes. In New Testament terms it is the highway to heaven. And it’s the Way of Holiness, which puts us in touch again with a major theme of the book. For Isaiah, holiness is the defining characteristic of God Himself. Above all else, God is Holy, so the way of holiness is not just the way to Zion, or the way to heaven; it’s the way to God! It’s not the golden streets or the pearly gates that make heaven what it is, but the presence of God. To be in heaven is to be with God forever, in totally joyous, unspoiled fellowship. And the way to heaven is provided by God Himself. It is for those who have been redeemed, or ransomed (vv. 9-10). These terms refer to powerful and costly deliverance. They have their roots in the exodus from Egypt, and find their final significance in the work of Christ, by which God rescues us from the power of sin and Satan. These acts of judgment and deliverance are the expressions, par excellence, of His holiness. Look at them, and you will see His holiness in action. The way of holiness is the way of salvation that God provides.

But it is also the way we must choose; it is not for the unclean or for the wicked fools (v. 8). It is for those who have chosen holiness as their way of life and renounced other ways. And what a glorious picture of holiness this chapter gives us! The way of holiness is the way of singing, joy and gladness (v. 10). No drabness here! The pursuit of holiness is the pursuit of God Himself, and the face that is set towards God will open to joy and gladness like a flower opening to the sun.

With this we have reached another resting-point in our journey through Isaiah’s vision. And as we pause and catch our breath, where do we find ourselves? At home, joyful and at rest in the presence of God; it’s where we long to be, and the only place where we will ever be totally content to stay. For we too are exiles, and our hearts cry out for home; for we cannot save ourselves, but the way has already been raised up for us, and we have already set out on it. Like the prodigal, we are on the way home, but we know far better than he did the welcome that awaits us. And this part of Isaiah’s vision is like a refreshing oasis on the way, where we can pause and gather strength for what remains of the journey. Joy and gladness and God Himself are up ahead, and with that certain knowledge we can rise above our weariness and set out again.

Isaiah 35:1-10 Reflection Questions:

Are you trying to make up your own religion by picking and choosing what you like from the Bible?

Have you ever found yourself to have no power to help yourself get out of the mess you’re in? How did God save you?

Have you chosen the way of holiness?

Judgment is the natural corollary of the fact that God is king (chapter 33). A king must rule, or he is no king at all, and that means that rebellion must finally be put down. The fact is that God is almost unbelievably patient, but Isaiah is clear that His just anger is a reality to be reckoned with, and we delude ourselves if we think otherwise. Hence the urgent call to listen in verse 1. God has put the world on notice that He will not tolerate insurrection forever.

God’s wrath is expressed every day in a thousand ways. Every morning’s newspaper provides more tragic evidence of the terrible price that the world is even now paying for its rejection of God. But this is nothing compared to what is to come; it is like tremors that precede an earthquake. And it’s the earthquake itself, the final shaking of everything that Isaiah sets before us. The language is concrete and vivid. Divine judgment is no theological abstraction here, but destruction, slaughter, stench, and blood (vv. 2-3). It is the sky rolling up like a scroll, and stars falling from the heavens like leaves from winter trees (v. 4). The end of the world is a reality which we instinctively push to the back of our minds because we find it too difficult to cope with, like the fact of our own approaching death. But the Bible will not allow us to evade these realities; it forces us to face them and live in the light of them.

God is king; that is the bedrock truth on which judgment rests. But He is also a warrior, and in verse 5 we meet His sword. It swings in a mighty arc from heaven to earth and finds its mark in Edom, Judah’s southern neighbor. Edom is representative here then, not of the nations in general, but of the enemies of Israel. And once we grasped that we are in a position to see clearly the purpose of God’s judgment. It is to uphold Zion’s cause (v. 8). The vengeance and retribution which this involves are expressions of God’s commitment to those He has chosen to be His people.

There is no direct correspondence of course, between this and the tragic political and territorial conflicts in the Middle East today. The line between God’s people and their enemies is quite differently drawn this side of the cross, as the rest of the book will make abundantly clear. Zion’s cause in this passage is a quite different thing from modern Zionism. However, there are theological principles which do still apply. From the moment God chose Abraham, the crucial question for others was how they would respond to him. They would be blessed if they blessed him and cursed if they cursed him. Their fate was in their own hands; they could choose their response, but not its outcome. It is the way God has always worked, and still does today. Only the particulars have changed. God now works through Christ and His people, but the same basic choice faces the world as faced ancient Edom.

The judgment on Edom is pictured as a terrible slaughter, but also a sacrifice (v. 6), which alerts us to something very significant about judgment as the Bible understands it. It is not just God acting to vindicate a particular group of people. Sacrifice is about recognizing who God Himself is and giving Him His due. Judgment is not just a judicial or military act; it’s a religious act. It is God acting to claim at last the honor that is due to Him as Creator and Ruler of the world. That is why the Bible ends with a great outburst of praise to God for His righteous judgments, for they mean not only the vindication of His people, but the vindication of God Himself. This is what we ask for when we pray, as Jesus taught us, “Your kingdom come, your will be done.” In its most profound sense it is a prayer for the end of the world.

Isaiah will not let us go until he makes one final point, and the time he takes over it is no doubt calculated to impress us with its gravity: there will be no reprieve from that last and terrible judgment. Edom is set before us as a smoldering ruin, gradually overrun by nettles, brambles and wild creatures, and never rebuilt (vv. 9-17). It is a picture of utter finality. Isaiah never shrinks from his responsibility to set this terrible truth before us. In the last analysis, Isaiah’s vision is a missionary vision, and every great missionary movement has derived its urgency from this truth: the world is in rebellion against God, and without the gospel people will be lost, utterly and eternally. Judgment may be necessary and right, but it is not what God delights in or the goal He is working towards!

Isaiah 34:1-17 Reflection Questions:

What could Edom have done to be the object of such fury on God’s part?

Who are some of Israel’s enemies today? What has recently happened at the United Nations against Israel? What was the United States response?

In what ways are you building a current and active relationship with Christ?

These two chapters are unified by their sustained focus on the theme of good government – government which is grounded ultimately in the presence of the Lord among His people and the recognition by them of His kingship. This theme is introduced at once in the opening line of chapter 32 and the climax is reached towards the end of chapter 33. For the most part Isaiah is looking forward in these chapters to a future, ideal situation – the dawning of a new age. But the context from which he speaks is anything but ideal. It’s a situation in which the complacent have to come to terms with stern reality when a destroyer is on the move and when diplomacy has failed and the nation’s leaders are distraught. It’s against this background that Isaiah pointed to the only alternative that could secure the nation’s future: government grounded in the kingship of God.

Isaiah develops his theme in four main movements. The first (32:1-8) sets out the nature of good government and the results that flow from it. The results of such government are spelled out in verses 2-5 of chapter 32. One result is security, conveyed by four images from the natural world in verse 2. Another result is the restoration of sight, hearing, good judgment and clear speech (vv. 3-4). Since Isaiah is apparently speaking here about the reversal of the conditions that prevailed in Judah in his own day, it’s best to take the blindness and deafness of verse 3 as the unresponsiveness to the Word of God, especially among the nation’s leaders. The fool and scoundrel of verse 5 are each described in turn in verses 6 and 7 before the contrast with the noble man is drawn in verse 8. This little discourse undoubtedly reflects what is happening all too often in Judah in Isaiah’s day. But good government will put an end to that.

The second (32:9-20) shows that there is no shortcut to this ideal; it can only come through judgment and the outpouring of God’s Spirit. It’s the men not women who bore the main brunt of Isaiah’s stern preaching. However here, he focuses on women, partly because of their shared responsibility as wives and partly because their demeanor was an indicator of prevailing attitudes. There is another reason also, Isaiah was going to issue a call to mourn and lament and such calls were customarily addressed to women as those who would be touched most deeply by the suffering that was anticipated. In little more than a year harvests would fail (v. 10), once cultivated land would be overgrown with thorns and briers (v. 13a) and Jerusalem would become a joyless city (v. 13b). In short Judah and Jerusalem would experience the full impact of the Assyrian invasion (v. 14). The new age of God’s blessing will be an age of material prosperity (vv. 15, 20) and true and lasting security (vv. 17-18) grounded in justice and righteousness (v. 16 which, as we have seen, are the foundational characteristics of good government. This new age of the Spirit was inaugurated at Pentecost and will be here in its fullness when Jesus the Messiah – who is both Spirit-endowed and the One who bestows the Spirit – returns in power to reign.

The third movement (33:1-6) summarizes in more specific terms the steps by which the new age will be ushered in: the Lord will arise, destroy the destroyer, and establish His rule. There is much in chapter 33 which reflects the last-minute turning to the Lord which took place in Jerusalem, led by Hezekiah, when Sennacherib’s envoys were at the gates. The treachery of the destroyer in verses 1-3 probably refers to Sennacherib’s treachery in accepting Hezekiah’s tribute and then preparing to attack. Isaiah speaks in this chapter of both the immediate blessing of deliverance from the Assyrians and of the final blessedness of Zion when all His purposes for her will be fulfilled.

The fourth and final movement (33:7-24) then fills out this summary by repeating each of its elements, but in a more expansive fashion. In this final movement the theme of divine government receives its most elaborate treatment. The lament in verses 7-9 shows the need for divine government by expressing the total bankruptcy of the human alternative. The answering oracle of verses 10-13 proclaims the Lord’s total adequacy (and intention) to deal with all who challenge His own authority and the welfare of His people. Here is the negative aspect of divine rule: Judgment. But this causes some anxious heart-searching among the people of Jerusalem themselves. Verses 15-16 respond to this by calling for the amendment of life which is the necessary accompaniment of repentance, for ultimately only those who reflect God’s own character can dwell with Him. Verses 17-24 then present the positive aspect of divine rule: the blessings that will flow from God reigning in the midst of His people.

After the climax of verse 22, two final touches complete Isaiah’s vision of the coming age. The first is a reminder to his contemporaries that they are utterly unable of themselves to bring it about. They are like a stricken ship, totally at the mercy of forces beyond their control (v. 23). The second is closely related to this, namely the assertion that the fundamental truth about all who inhabit the ideal world to come is that they will be forgiven people (v. 24). Only grace can get us from where we are to where we need to be. The blessings of God’s rule are for those who know that they are sinners in need of God’s forgiveness more than anything else. That is just as true for us today as it was for Isaiah’s original audience.

Isaiah 32:1-33:24 Reflection Questions:

Who do you think is this king mentioned in chapter 32:1?

Have you come to the realization that you are a stricken ship?

What are some of God’s blessings you are experiencing now?

Have you ever experienced God waiting till the last minute to come to your aid?

What’s the message here?