Isaiah 35:5 - Meaning and Application

Then, when your God comes, even Christ, to set up his kingdom in the world, the prophets had all pointed to this. They had spoken of it especially near the close of their promises about the church’s rescue from trouble, and this prophet does so in a special way. At that time, we should expect great things.

Wonders will happen in the realms of both nature and grace. God will show mercy in ways strong enough to prove that only he could be coming to us. Some of these wonders will be on people’s bodies. The eyes of the blind will be opened. Our Lord Jesus often did this when he was on earth, sometimes with just a word, even giving sight to one who had been born blind (Matthew 9:27; Matthew 12:22; Matthew 20:30; John 9:6). By his power, the ears of the deaf were also opened with a single word, “Be opened” (Mark 7:34).

Many who were lame had their limbs restored so fully that they could not only walk, but leap for joy, as the man who was healed at the temple did (Acts 3:8). The mute were also enabled to speak, and then it was no wonder that they were eager to sing for joy (Matthew 9:32, Matthew 9:33). Christ worked these miracles to prove that he was sent from God (John 3:2). More than that, by doing them in his own power and name, he proved that he was God. He is the same one who first made the human mouth, the hearing ear, and the seeing eye. When he wanted to prove to John’s disciples that he had come from God, he did it with miracles like these, fulfilling this Scripture.

Even greater wonders will be worked in people’s souls. By the word and Spirit of Christ, those who were spiritually blind were given sight (Acts 26:18). Those who were deaf to God’s calls were made ready to hear, like Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened so that she listened (Acts 16:14). Those who were helpless in every good thing because of divine grace are made not only able, but active, and they run in the way of God’s commandments. Those who were mute and did not know how to speak to God or about God, once their minds are opened to know him, will have their lips opened to praise him. The tongue of the mute will sing for joy, the joy of God’s salvation. Praise will be brought to fullness even from the mouths of babes and infants.

The Spirit will also be poured out from on high. There will be waters and streams, rivers of living water. When our Savior spoke of these as the fulfillment of Scripture, most likely this Scripture, the Gospel writer tells us that he was speaking of the Spirit (John 7:38, John 7:39). This prophet says the same thing elsewhere (Isaiah 32:15). So here, in the wilderness where no one would expect it, waters will break out (Isaiah 35:6). This was fulfilled when the Holy Spirit came upon the Gentiles who heard the word (Acts 10:44). Then the fountains of life were opened, and streams flowed out to water the earth richly.

These waters are said to break out, which shows a pleasant surprise to the Gentile world, as if they had been brought into a new world. The blessed result will be that the parched ground becomes a pool (Isaiah 35:7). Those who labored under guilt and were heavily burdened, and those scorched by a sense of God’s wrath, found rest, refreshment, and abundant comfort in the gospel. In the thirsty land, where there was no water and no ordinances (Psalm 63:1), there will be springs of water, meaning a gospel ministry and the full and pure administration of gospel ordinances. These are the river that makes the city of God glad (Psalm 46:4).

In the home of dragons, where such scorched places were once gladly chosen (Isaiah 34:9, Isaiah 34:13), these waters will flow and drive them out. Then the place where each had lain will become grass, reeds, and rushes, showing great abundance and usefulness. So it was when Christian churches were planted and flourished greatly in Gentile cities that had long been homes of dragons, or rather demons, like Babylon (Revelation 18:2). When the property of idol temples was taken over and used for Christianity, the homes of dragons became fruitful fields.

The way of religion and godliness will also be clearly opened up. Here it is called the way of holiness (Isaiah 35:8), the way of holy worship and holy living. Holiness is the right ordering of human nature and the human will in harmony with God’s nature and will. The way of holiness is the path of religious duty in which people should walk and keep pressing forward, looking to God’s glory and their own happiness in enjoying him. When our God comes to save us, he marks out this way for us by his gospel, in a way that had not been described before.

It will be an appointed way, not a road we merely tolerate, but a highway. It is a way we enter by divine authority and travel with divine protection. It is the King’s highway, the highway of the King of kings. Though we may be attacked there, we cannot be stopped. The way of holiness is the way of God’s commandments, and it is, as highways usually are, the good old way (Jeremiah 6:16).

It will also be an exclusive way. It is the path by which God brings his chosen people to himself, but the unclean will not pass over it, either to defile it or to trouble those who walk there. It is a way set apart from the world, because it means separation from the world and refusal to conform to it. It will belong to those whom the Lord has set apart for himself (Psalm 4:3), and it will be kept for them. The redeemed will walk there, and the pleasure they take in these pleasant ways will be beyond the reach of an evil world. The unclean will not pass over it, because it will be a fair way. Those who walk in it are the undefiled in the way, who escape the pollution that is in the world.

It will be a straight way. The travelers who choose it, even if they are fools and have little understanding in other matters, will receive such plain guidance from God’s word and Spirit that they will not go astray in it. This does not mean they will be perfect in their own conduct, or never make any mistake. It means they will not make a fatal mistake, and they will not miss the way so badly that they cannot find it again and reach the end of their journey. Those who are on the narrow way may take different paths at times, some less right than others, but they all meet at the same end, and they will never return to the broad way. The Spirit of truth will lead them into all the truth they need.

The way to heaven is plain, and it is easy to find. God has chosen the foolish things of the world and made them wise for salvation. Knowledge is easy to the one who understands.

It will also be a safe way. No lion will be there, and no ravenous beast (Isaiah 35:9). Nothing will be there to hurt or destroy. Those who stay close to this way are out of reach of Satan, the roaring lion, and that wicked one does not touch them.

Those who walk in the way of holiness can go on with holy confidence and peace of mind. They know that nothing can do them any real harm, so they will be quiet and free from the fear of evil. In Hezekiah’s time, after the ten tribes had been carried away, God was displeased with the foreign settlers there and sent lions among them (2 Kings 17:25). But Judah kept its faithfulness, and so no lions would be there.

Those who walk in the way of holiness must keep themselves apart from what is unclean and destructive. They must save themselves from a crooked generation, and if they trust that they are among the redeemed, they should walk with the redeemed who travel that road. The end of this way is everlasting joy (Isaiah 35:10). This promise of peace for now will soon lead to endless joy and rest for the soul.

Here is good news for the citizens of Zion, rest for the weary. The ransomed of the Lord, and therefore those who ought to follow him wherever he goes (Revelation 14:4), shall return and come to Zion. First, they come to serve and worship God in the church on earth. They come out of Babylon (Zechariah 2:7), ask the way to Zion (Jeremiah 50:5), and find the way (Isaiah 52:12). God opens a real way of escape out of captivity, and it will work even if many enemies oppose it.

They join themselves to the gospel church, that Mount Zion, the city of the living God (Hebrews 12:22). They come with songs of joy and praise for deliverance from Babylon, where they once wept whenever they remembered Zion (Psalm 137:1). Those who are made citizens of gospel Zion by faith may go on their way rejoicing (Acts 8:39). They sing in the ways of the Lord and keep praising him. They rejoice in Christ Jesus, and the sorrows and marks of their conviction are driven away by divine comfort. Those who mourn are blessed, for they shall be comforted.

Second, they come to see and enjoy God in the church in glory. Those who walk in the way of holiness, under the guidance of their Redeemer, shall at last come to Zion, the heavenly Zion. They shall come as one people and all be presented together, faultless, at Christ’s glorious coming, with great joy (Jude 1:24; Revelation 7:17). They shall come with songs. When God’s people returned from Babylon to Zion, they came weeping (Jeremiah 50:4), but they shall enter heaven singing a new song, one that no one can learn except them (Revelation 14:3).

When they enter the joy of their Lord, it will be the kind of joy this world could never give, everlasting joy, with no mixture, interruption, or end. It will fill their hearts with perfect and lasting satisfaction, and it will be on their heads as an ornament of grace and a crown of glory, like a garland worn to show victory. Their joy will be visible, no longer a hidden thing as it often is here. It will be declared for God’s glory and for their mutual encouragement. Then they will receive the joy and gladness they could never hope for on this side of heaven, and sorrow and sighing will flee away forever, like the night shadows before the rising sun.

So these prophecies, which speak of the Assyrian invasion, end by strengthening God’s people in that trouble and by turning their hope in deliverance toward something greater. Our joyful hopes and expectations of eternal life should outweigh both all the sorrows and all the joys of this present life.