Doug McMasters: Let's take our Bible and go to the book of Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: The book of Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: We're going to be in two chapters this morning chapters 34 and 35.
Doug McMasters: These two chapters are a capstone of a long section that we've been in for several weeks and even months, and that is chapters 13, all the way up to chapter 35.
Doug McMasters: All the way up to chapter 35.
Doug McMasters: We said that this section, which is oracles to the nations, is bookmarked and bookended rather by two sections a focus on King Ahaz in chapter 7 to 12 and a focus on King Hezekiah, which we'll be looking at in just a few weeks or for the next few weeks, in chapters 36 to 39.
Doug McMasters: Chapter 7 to 12 with Ahaz and chapters 36 to 39 with Hezekiah.
Doug McMasters: We find two kings with two crises, two prophetic confrontations and two responses Ahaz fails in unbelief and Hezekiah, though he falters, expresses faith and trust in God.
Doug McMasters: And in the middle of this has been this long section that we've looked at chapters 13 to 35, largely focusing outside of Judah and off to the nations, but also bringing it back home.
Doug McMasters: At the same time, and in the midst of this larger section, we've seen two significant themes one of judgment and one of deliverance.
Doug McMasters: Now, of course, these themes are woven as a tapestry throughout all of Scripture, but they are very much in view at the very front end of this section of Scripture.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah itself could be divided by those two themes.
Doug McMasters: Chapters 1 to 39 focus largely on judgment.
Doug McMasters: Chapters 40 through 66 largely focus on deliverance.
Doug McMasters: Prophet Isaiah speaks in the first 39 chapters about disobedience and idolatry and injustice not going unchecked.
Doug McMasters: That God's wrath and his judgment are not arbitrary but purposeful for the bringing down of iniquity but also for the purifying of a people in preparation for deliverance that will come, and that it extends to the nations and not just to the people of God under the sound of the word, to the nations and not just to the people of God under the sound of the word.
Doug McMasters: Wonderfully also intertwined with all of that expression of judgment and focus have been this glorious, red-hued thread of salvation that we've seen time and time and time again in Isaiah in these sections.
Doug McMasters: Now, soon, very soon, we'll be in chapter 40 to 66.
Doug McMasters: And as much as the emphasis has been on judgment in the first 39 chapters, in chapters 40 to 66, the larger focus will be on redemption and deliverance and we'll see expressions of the suffering servant.
Doug McMasters: We'll see statements of a new covenant.
Doug McMasters: We'll see a glorious picture of Zion, of the heavenly Jerusalem, in which God is bringing all things not to destruction but to restoration and renewal in a new heaven and a new earth.
Doug McMasters: These two chapters that we're about to dive into chapter 34 and chapter 35, stand as emblems of all of Scripture, but all of Isaiah as well Chapter 34 with its focus on judgment, and chapter 35 with its focus on redemption.
Doug McMasters: The one hand, we're going to see the inescapable hand of God expressing itself in judgment and, on the other hand, we'll see God's glorious activity of redemption.
Doug McMasters: We'll find Edom singled out as representative of the nations, giving us an understanding that this imagery, chilling as it is, is not abstract but real, it's certain and it's coming, and that salvation is not abstract but real and certain and coming.
Doug McMasters: The question that we have before us is will we walk in chapter 34 and find ourselves ultimately facing the judgment, or will we find ourselves within the context of God's glorious promises of redemption, as he expresses itself in chapters 35?
Doug McMasters: The fate of the rebellious is clear, but the promise of renewal is just as clear.
Doug McMasters: So, as we go into this chapter, I pray that we might bring ourselves into it and ask ourselves, examining ourselves in the light of these two chapters and discovering where we will stand.
Doug McMasters: Will we remain in chapter 34 or will we enter wholeheartedly into the promises of God in chapter 35?
Doug McMasters: So let's do that.
Doug McMasters: Let's go through these two chapters together.
Doug McMasters: Chapter 34, as I said, is God's judgment against the wicked, and in this chapter he strips away all illusion that rebellion against God can go unanswered, all illusion that rebellion against God can go unanswered.
Doug McMasters: And we're going to see in this chapter three different aspects of that.
Doug McMasters: We're going to see poetic descriptions of judgment.
Doug McMasters: We're going to see a powerful display of judgment to the people of Edom and we're going to see a purposeful design of judgment.
Doug McMasters: As we walk through it, we're going to understand that God does not act capriciously or without purpose in these judgments.
Doug McMasters: The main focus of this is the poetic expressions or descriptions of judgment.
Doug McMasters: The imagery of chapter 34 is vivid.
Doug McMasters: Imagery of chapter 34 is vivid, even repulsively vivid if you think about it.
Doug McMasters: And these things are, yes, meant to shock and unsettle us.
Doug McMasters: They are meant to awaken us and they are meant to cause us to examine ourselves deeply, because judgment is unavoidable, it is certain, and the consequences are extreme.
Doug McMasters: Let's go through some of these poetic descriptions.
Doug McMasters: And the first one we find is in chapter 34, in verse 3.
Doug McMasters: And it talks about there the stench of corpses in the blood-soaked mountains.
Doug McMasters: Their slaying will be thrown out and the stench of their corpses will rise.
Doug McMasters: The mountains will flow with their blood.
Doug McMasters: It's an extremely descriptive statement.
Doug McMasters: Why does it come?
Doug McMasters: Take a look at the first two verses.
Doug McMasters: You nations, come here and listen.
Doug McMasters: You peoples, pay attention.
Doug McMasters: Let the earth and all that fills it hear the world and all that comes from it.
Doug McMasters: The Lord is angry with all nations furious with all their armies.
Doug McMasters: With all nations furious with all their armies, he will set them apart for destruction, giving them over to slaughter.
Doug McMasters: What is this image of stench and blood-soaked mountains?
Doug McMasters: It shows us that God is going to bring all sin and all sinning people to an end, in which his wrath is outpoured upon them and it is pervasive.
Doug McMasters: All the earth, all the mountains will be stained with blood.
Doug McMasters: When we go to the book of Romans, in chapters one through three particularly, we find the apostle Paul unpacking the scriptures.
Doug McMasters: And he doesn't just look at a certain group of people and say, look, how bad they are, he brings the word of God forcibly through, as it expresses itself both to Jewish people and to Gentiles, and he brings it to a conclusion.
Doug McMasters: He says what is this conclusion?
Doug McMasters: All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Doug McMasters: Here Isaiah is speaking about all nations being liable to judgment before a holy God, and the effect of this is cataclysmic.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at the second image in verse 4.
Doug McMasters: All the stars in the sky will dissolve.
Doug McMasters: The sky will roll up like a stroll and its stars will all wither, as leaves wither on the vine and foliage on the fig tree.
Doug McMasters: This is not just poetic imagery.
Doug McMasters: It speaks of the depth of God's judgment and it speaks of a cosmic upheaval in which everything is brought to an end.
Doug McMasters: It is the very undoing of creation itself.
Doug McMasters: That's how unstoppable the force of God's judgment is.
Doug McMasters: And it shows us, in the stars falling from the skies and the sky itself rolling up as a scroll, that there's no power, be it on earth or in the heavenlies, seen or unseen, that can stand against God when he acts in judgment.
Doug McMasters: But it also tells us that God is going to bring something to an end.
Doug McMasters: The scriptures tell us at the very beginning, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, that the earth itself would be bearing the consequences of their iniquity, that the earth would grow thorns and thistles, that it would become a place of arduous labor, because the earth itself was receiving and bearing the scars of human iniquity.
Doug McMasters: And this creation that has been brought into the consequences of our disobedience is also going to be taken away and brought to an end.
Doug McMasters: This apocalyptic theme of the uncreation, of the destruction and undoing of the things that have been made is also found in the book of Revelation, in chapter 6.
Doug McMasters: The sky receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
Doug McMasters: Even the fabric of the heavens has to respond to the voice of God's judgment.
Doug McMasters: The very order of creation is under his power and control, and what we see here is the undoing of everything that seems permanent.
Doug McMasters: A lot of things in this world seem to be in the cycles of permanence of human behavior that nations rise and fall, that families form and dissolve, that time marches on and that the powerful take the place of prominence, and that they exert that power for the purposes of self-satisfaction and gain.
Doug McMasters: And we find people in places of injustice, bearing under the weight of those powerful people who don't use their positions for the purposes of good but for the purposes of their own design and their own selfishness.
Doug McMasters: And what God is telling us here, when he expresses this kind of judgment, is that those kind of things will also be brought to an end If the stars themselves fall.
Doug McMasters: The power of human iniquity itself will come to nothing.
Doug McMasters: It will not reign.
Doug McMasters: All injustices, all iniquity, all of it will.
Doug McMasters: All inequity will be brought to an end and there will come a day when righteousness and justice and equity and love prevail.
Doug McMasters: I'm getting a little ahead of myself in chapter 35.
Doug McMasters: We'll see more of that in just a moment.
Doug McMasters: But another prophetic description, another poetic statement in verses five and six the sword of the Lord.
Doug McMasters: When my sword is drunk, it's filled in the heavens.
Doug McMasters: Then it will come down on Edom and on the people I've set apart for destruction.
Doug McMasters: The Lord's sword is covered with blood, it drips with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats and the fat of the kidneys of rams.
Doug McMasters: For the Lord has a sacrifice in Basra, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
Doug McMasters: This graphic image just adds another layer of emphasis to the completeness of God's justice, and that wickedness will be fully dealt with In the book of Deuteronomy, moses speaks these very same words in chapter 32.
Doug McMasters: As surely as I live forever, I will sharpen my flashing sword and my hand takes hold of judgment, and I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me.
Doug McMasters: I will make my arrows drunk with blood while my sword devours flesh, the blood of the slain and the captives, the heads of the enemy leaders.
Doug McMasters: This is a sobering thought.
Doug McMasters: This is a sobering thought, and here Isaiah is echoing out what God said in Deuteronomy, that his justice is both necessary and purposeful and it will bring those who stand against him to an end.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at verse 8.
Doug McMasters: We see another one, for the Lord has a day of vengeance, a time of paying back edom for its hostility against zion.
Doug McMasters: And then another one, in verses 9 and 10, of streams turning to pitch and dust into sulfur.
Doug McMasters: Edom streams will be turned into pitch or soil into sulfur.
Doug McMasters: Edom's streams will be turned into pitch or soil into sulfur.
Doug McMasters: Her land will become burning pitch.
Doug McMasters: It will never go out day or night.
Doug McMasters: Its smoke will go up forever.
Doug McMasters: It will be desolate from generation to generation.
Doug McMasters: No one will pass through it forever and ever.
Doug McMasters: God's judgment is permanent and devastating.
Doug McMasters: In verses 11 to 15 speak about the chaos of that destruction and it talks about wild animals taking over the land.
Doug McMasters: And we won't read all of that, but in it you'll see owls and ravens and jackals and other creatures and they're going to stretch out over Edom and they're going to be ruling it where there are now, at the moment, people controlling it.
Doug McMasters: Edom at that time was a very strong and prosperous place.
Doug McMasters: It rose up in its pride and its arrogance because of its possessions and because of its alliances.
Doug McMasters: And God says when judgment comes, there's going to be nothing but a desert and jackals scattering across it.
Doug McMasters: All of these images worldwide, even cosmic chaos, all result from the hand of God's punishment.
Doug McMasters: And he brings all of that universal expression down to one group of people.
Doug McMasters: And this is the second part of this chapter Not only the poetic demonstrations and displays and descriptions, but the powerful display of judgment found in Edom itself, at the heart of this chapter.
Doug McMasters: Edom, edom, edom, edom itself At the heart of this chapter.
Doug McMasters: Edom, edom, edom, edom is spoken with relentless detail and vivid descriptions of judgment.
Doug McMasters: Why, why is Edom singled out here as the one who will receive all of this judgment?
Doug McMasters: Why, why is Edom's downfall the focus of God in this place?
Doug McMasters: Why does it stand as a representation of all peoples?
Doug McMasters: Well, we have to know the history of Edom.
Doug McMasters: Edom is a nation descended from Esau, the twin brother of Jacob, the father of Israel.
Doug McMasters: And their struggle between one another, between Esau and Jacob, started in the womb.
Doug McMasters: They weren't even born yet and they were already at odds with one another.
Doug McMasters: And it continued on through their life and down through their descendants and it shaped the history of the people of Israel, this hostility between Edom and Israel.
Doug McMasters: And geographically, edom sat at the southeast of Israel and because it did, it controlled a lot of the key trade routes and fortresses.
Doug McMasters: And the Edomites prided themselves on their wisdom, on their military strength, and they even got to the place where they thought they were untouchable.
Doug McMasters: And they even got to the place where they thought they were untouchable and because they were so arrogant, it led them to betrayal of their neighbors to the northwest Israel.
Doug McMasters: They refused passage to Israel.
Doug McMasters: In the book of Exodus, in Numbers, chapter 20.
Doug McMasters: And they rejoiced in Jerusalem's destruction.
Doug McMasters: You can read the book of Exodus in Numbers, chapter 20,.
Doug McMasters: And they rejoiced in Jerusalem's destruction.
Doug McMasters: You read the book of Obadiah in chapter one, you see them laughing at the downfall of Jerusalem.
Doug McMasters: And because of this history, because of this animosity, because of this arrogance, because of this refusal to help people in need, because of their laughing and scorning at the people of God even in their weakest moments, edom now is emblematic of all of the nations that rise up against God.
Doug McMasters: They are the one nation who most specifically and earnestly set themselves against God's son, israel, and so God's sword descends upon them.
Doug McMasters: But the scriptures tell us that there's another son, and he is the Lord Jesus Christ, the true son.
Doug McMasters: And the scriptures tell us that judgment will come to all of us, based upon what we do with that son, the true son, the true Israel.
Doug McMasters: You see, it speaks to us today, this judgment.
Doug McMasters: This judgment tells us, as Psalm 2 says Kiss the son, lest you fall under the wrath of God.
Doug McMasters: No force, no kingdom, no power that elevates itself against God and against his anointed will stand.
Doug McMasters: And just as Edom fell into ruin, every structure that's built on pride, every structure that's built on injustice, every structure that's built on injustice, every structure that stands in hostility to God and every individual who stands in opposition to the one Messiah, jesus Christ, will face this same judgment that's seen here in Edom.
Doug McMasters: We have to ask ourselves well, is this just simply about Edom's arrogance?
Doug McMasters: Is this just about Edom's full trust in its strength and its wealth?
Doug McMasters: Is this just about Edom and its deluded understanding of its self-sufficiency and its position to being invincible?
Doug McMasters: No, this is about us asking ourselves am I arrogant today?
Doug McMasters: It's about us asking ourselves what do I rely upon?
Doug McMasters: My strength, my wealth, my ingenuity, my self-sufficiency?
Doug McMasters: Do I stand as though I have every right to be confident in this world controlled by a holy God, the way I live?
Doug McMasters: We must reflect upon these things, and so, when we read chapter 34, we find poetic descriptions of destruction.
Doug McMasters: We find there that God also gives us a pinpoint, designated understanding of that judgment through Edom itself.
Doug McMasters: But we also understand, through reading this chapter, that there is a prophetic and purposeful design and God is wiping away this universe of all things that stand against him, and that he does so through temporal and eternal judgment.
Doug McMasters: His temporal judgment brings nations to humility that once stood in pride, but also eternal judgment, where he takes people and makes an everlasting judgment upon them and the characteristic of their life.
Doug McMasters: The scope of the one is in history, the scope of the other is a final assessment in eternity.
Doug McMasters: The purpose of the one is to humble, to correct and even to prepare for renewal.
Doug McMasters: The purpose of the other is to bring someone outside of time, into the culmination of history, in an irrevocable judgment of separation from God himself, in which everything that God is will be absent in their eternal being.
Doug McMasters: God who is love, god who is full of joy and gives peace, one who is kind and merciful and gracious, all the aspects of God's holy character in those ways are removed from those who enter into eternity and standing in opposition against God, to speak of it as eternal flames is only to give some real-life descriptor of just horrific that separation from God is.
Doug McMasters: Chapter 34 is a sobering reminder and it should speak to us in several different ways.
Doug McMasters: If we're discouraged by the chaos that's around us, if we're discouraged by the chaos that's around us, if we are victims of wickedness and injustice and inequity, if we are feeling that the vulnerability of the powerful who holds sway against us, chapter 34 is a word of encouragement that those things will not continue to reign, that those things will not rule humanity forever, that there will be an end of injustices, there will be an end of inequity, there will be an end of this powerful display of pride and arrogance.
Doug McMasters: It will come to nothing, display of pride and arrogance.
Doug McMasters: It will come to nothing.
Doug McMasters: It will fall from the skies as harshly and as quickly as the stars dissolve themselves.
Doug McMasters: But it also reminds us that if we're resisting God, if we are in those places of sinning against others because we are not in alignment with God, that there's a warning for us that God's judgments are not merely temporary, they're eternal.
Doug McMasters: And if Edom, who was so full of positions of pride and arrogance and haughtiness, fell, so will we, so will we.
Doug McMasters: Chapter 35 takes a swift and sudden shift.
Doug McMasters: There's not even a segue of movement between the two Chapter 34, filled with judgment, without a whisper of any hope.
Doug McMasters: And then you get to verse 1 of chapter 35.
Doug McMasters: The wilderness and the dry land will be glad.
Doug McMasters: The desert will rejoice and blossom like a wildflower.
Doug McMasters: It's hard, I have to say, even for me in this moment, to try to regroup my mind and my heart and my emotion coming out of chapter 34, because it's so abrupt.
Doug McMasters: This is such a hard turn.
Doug McMasters: Thank God it's a good one.
Doug McMasters: Chapter 34 has drawn this grim picture in which a world and a universe has been stripped bare, swallowed by fire, left to decay in the wake of divine justice.
Doug McMasters: And this shift, the wilderness that was once bare and lifeless in the previous chapter is now erupting in beauty.
Doug McMasters: The dry and desolate land is now bursting into bloom.
Doug McMasters: What is this telling us?
Doug McMasters: God's ultimate purposes are one of redemption and reconciliation.
Doug McMasters: That we should, yes, heed the warnings of judgment and flee from the wrath to come.
Doug McMasters: But where do we go?
Doug McMasters: We go into chapter 35, into the warm embrace of promise and redemption and hope.
Doug McMasters: This is the triumph of the redeemed, where sorrow breaks into singing, where brokenness moves into healing, where despair rises to joy.
Doug McMasters: That's what this is, where God invites us to walk in the way of holiness.
Doug McMasters: Walk in the way of holiness.
Doug McMasters: This chapter, when we go through it, you're going to find it, lands in one place, jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: Every one of these pictures that we're about to look find themselves with glorious fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: Yes, he talks about wilderness.
Doug McMasters: Yes, he talks about blooming, but he's talking about a day in which God will bring these things to bear on earth, in time and space, through one person, jesus Christ, the one who strengthens the weak and heals the broken, the one who quenches the thirst and opens the way, the highway.
Doug McMasters: So as we go through chapter 35, if you can go with me, let's move into it and the first thing you see is the desert blooms.
Doug McMasters: The desert blooms, the wilderness and the dry land will be glad.
Doug McMasters: The desert will rejoice and the blossom like a wildflower Verse 2,.
Doug McMasters: It will blossom abundantly.
Doug McMasters: It will also rejoice with joy and singing.
Doug McMasters: The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.
Doug McMasters: They will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God.
Doug McMasters: This land, this land just a moment ago, was soaked in blood.
Doug McMasters: This land, a moment ago, was the habitation of jackals and owls.
Doug McMasters: This habitation was nothing but an empty desert.
Doug McMasters: Not anymore.
Doug McMasters: Not anymore anymore.
Doug McMasters: That which was once lifeless and hopeless and dry and empty is erupting with life and vitality bursting into bloom.
Doug McMasters: It is a powerful picture of God's ability to restore everything that looks lost.
Doug McMasters: Is your life destroyed, is your life completely barren.
Doug McMasters: There is hope in Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: Jesus himself, when he came, spoke to a woman at the well, rejected of many different men, rejected of the women in the village.
Doug McMasters: She was in the middle of the day alone, grasping some water in a time and a place where there ought to have been no one there to get any water.
Doug McMasters: And Jesus speaks to her and he shows her the well and he says if anybody drinks the water that I give, they will never thirst.
Doug McMasters: They will never thirst and the water that I give will become in them a spring of water welling up into eternal life.
Doug McMasters: Jesus takes this picture of a desert turning into a blossomed garden and a botanical display of God's variegated creational ability and he says it's found in Jesus Christ, who offers the glorious life of the gospel.
Doug McMasters: And he said in John 7, whoever believes in me, as scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.
Doug McMasters: Everything about our life will be transformed.
Doug McMasters: When Christ rules the heart, he will make the desert of our very souls come to life.
Doug McMasters: This is why he said I've come.
Doug McMasters: John, chapter 10, I've come that they might have life, and they might have it to the full.
Doug McMasters: Have it to the full.
Doug McMasters: What do I have to give up to become a Christian Is the wrong way to think.
Doug McMasters: What do you receive when you become a believer way to think.
Doug McMasters: What do you receive when you become a believer, the wellsprings of God's glorious activity, to bring your life to fullness and to completion into the purposes for which it was ultimately designed, to be able to express yourself to all of the extent that God has made you for.
Doug McMasters: To the extent that God has made you for, that's what it is.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah saw the wilderness transformed.
Doug McMasters: Jesus brings a transformation to people.
Doug McMasters: Let's take a look at the next image in verses three and four Strengthen the weak hands, steady the shaking knees.
Doug McMasters: Say to the cowardly be strong, do not fear.
Doug McMasters: Here is your God.
Doug McMasters: Vengeance is coming.
Doug McMasters: God's retribution is coming.
Doug McMasters: He will save you.
Doug McMasters: After judgment, fear had set in, but Isaiah is calling to the people that the judgment will bring his people into a place of confidence and hope.
Doug McMasters: Do not fear, your God will come and he has come to save you.
Doug McMasters: This is the prophetic image of God interacting directly on behalf of his people to remove everything from them that had depressed them and to bring them into the place of deliverance by his very presence and the direct hand of his actions as a deliverer.
Doug McMasters: Hand of his actions as a deliverer.
Doug McMasters: Scriptures tell us that on one Christmas morn, a little baby was born and his parents were told that they were going to name that child and they were going to call him Jesus, a Savior, god who saves.
Doug McMasters: Why?
Doug McMasters: Because he is Emmanuel God with us.
Doug McMasters: And when Jesus came to this world, he came directly to the place where we live so that by his direct hand he could save.
Doug McMasters: And those hands that came to save us put themselves on the cross and allowed them to be nailed there so that he might stand that place as a sacrifice and substitute for sinners, so that we might be delivered.
Doug McMasters: And so now the invitation comes.
Doug McMasters: Jesus says come on, come unto me, all you that are burdened and weary, heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Doug McMasters: In 2 Timothy 1, paul reminds Timothy God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Doug McMasters: And these very words that are here in Isaiah, chapter 35, strengthen the weak hand, steady the shaking knees.
Doug McMasters: Say to the cowardly, be strong, do not fear are brought to us in the book of Hebrews, hebrews 12, verse 12, strengthen your feeble arms and your weak knees.
Doug McMasters: And what is the argument of the writer of Hebrews?
Doug McMasters: It is focus yourself on Christ, don't be led astray by anything that would detract or denigrate Christ as Lord in your heart are.
Doug McMasters: Denigrate Christ as Lord in your heart.
Doug McMasters: So strengthen your feeble arms and your weak knees by grabbing a hold of Christ, who is your sacrifice, who?
Doug McMasters: Christ, who is your salvation, christ who is your deliverance and Christ who is your hope.
Doug McMasters: And the more you hold on to him, it is if your feeble arms and weak knees have found strength, because he will renew you from the inside and strengthen you to live your life well on the outside.
Doug McMasters: Let's move on Isaiah 35, verses 5 and 6.
Doug McMasters: Then the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped, and the lame will leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute will sing for joy, for waters will gush in the wilderness and streams in the desert, the parched ground will become a pool and the thirsty land springs.
Doug McMasters: In the haunt of jackals and their lairs, there will be grass, reeds and papyrus.
Doug McMasters: Of jackals and their lairs, there will be grass, reeds and papyrus.
Doug McMasters: Jesus is restoring what's broken.
Doug McMasters: Jesus is filling what's empty.
Doug McMasters: Jesus is taking what seems to be permanent and changing it.
Doug McMasters: The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will leap, the mute will shout.
Doug McMasters: They're no longer to be identified by those things which bind and restrict and mark them.
Doug McMasters: Now they're no longer blind, they're no longer deaf, they're no longer lame, they're no longer mute, because they have eyes and ears and voice and legs of strength.
Doug McMasters: Jesus restores what is broken.
Doug McMasters: Jesus in this world, when he ministered in his earthly capacity, did exactly these things In Matthew 11 and verse 5, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.
Doug McMasters: Jesus came in order to change the categories of people, to change them from the blind to the seeing, from the deaf to the hearing, from the mute to the vocal, from the weak to the strong, from the dead to the alive.
Doug McMasters: What's your problem today?
Doug McMasters: What's your debilitating, constraining force today?
Doug McMasters: Well, I'm just no, you're not just.
Doug McMasters: With God's intervention, through Jesus Christ, there's no locked in to anything other than the fact that he can unlock every one of those closed doors of you, every single one.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah is prophesying the restoration of the broken, and Jesus is the fulfillment of that restoration.
Doug McMasters: If you need wholeness, he is the source.
Doug McMasters: If you're wounded, he is the strength.
Doug McMasters: And again the waters flow.
Doug McMasters: We see it here again in verses six and seven, that dry land once again streaming flooding, bringing life and abundance.
Doug McMasters: Revelation 21.
Doug McMasters: And verse 6,.
Doug McMasters: Jesus himself speaking there to the thirsty, I will give water without cost from the springs of the water of life.
Doug McMasters: When Christ rules a person, this life flows freely.
Doug McMasters: And then the highway of holiness.
Doug McMasters: The highway of holiness, verse 8,.
Doug McMasters: A road will be there and a way.
Doug McMasters: It will be called the holy way.
Doug McMasters: The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for the one who walks the path.
Doug McMasters: Fools will not wander on it.
Doug McMasters: There'll be no lion there, no vicious beast will go up on it, they will not be found there.
Doug McMasters: But the redeemed will walk on it and the ransomed of the Lord will return.
Doug McMasters: And the ransomed of the Lord will return.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah closes this whole section of judgment to the nations with a statement that the day is coming where there'll be a return of the people of God on a highway of holiness, a path set apart for those who walk in the light of his salvation.
Doug McMasters: And when we get to the New Testament scriptures, it's no accident that Jesus, the night before he is crucified, looks at his disciples and he says I am the way, the truth and the life.
Doug McMasters: He is bringing this prophecy to fulfillment by speaking about himself.
Doug McMasters: In Hebrews, chapter 10, it says that the way into the very presence of God is to draw near to God through the blood of Jesus.
Doug McMasters: That way is his way, jesus' way, and so when you read the book of Acts and if you've noticed this, the phrase the way is used multiple times.
Doug McMasters: It is the first characteristic and description of what the life of the Savior brings to us.
Doug McMasters: Acts 9.2, paul seeks permission to arrest followers of the way in Damascus.
Doug McMasters: Acts 19.9, some in Ephesus rejected the way and speak against it.
Doug McMasters: Acts 19.23, a disturbance arises concerning the way due to the economic disturbance of idol making.
Doug McMasters: Acts 22.4, paul recounts the persecution that he did against those of the way.
Doug McMasters: Acts 24.14, paul defends himself before Felix, affirming his faith as the way.
Doug McMasters: In Acts 24.22, felix, familiar with the way, postpones judgment against Paul.
Doug McMasters: The way, the way.
Doug McMasters: God has opened up the way into his very presence through Jesus Christ, because he is the way and those who follow him are on the way, and those who follow him are going toward the destination that the way brings them.
Doug McMasters: And what is that destination?
Doug McMasters: Take a look the ransom to the Lord will return and come to Zion, to the very place of God's presence, with singing crowned with unending joy.
Doug McMasters: Joy and gladness will overtake them and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
Doug McMasters: This is the end, this is the destination point, not chapter 34.
Doug McMasters: Chapter 35.
Doug McMasters: Chapter 34 makes you look at God and say get me out of here.
Doug McMasters: And you find, even if you went to the widest reaches of the universe, to the most distant star, it's going to fall and I'll fall with it.
Doug McMasters: But then you come to chapter 35, and he builds this image of a place where, ultimately, you come into the presence of God and there's no fear there, there's no sorrow there.
Doug McMasters: There's no sorrow there, there's no crying there, there's no agony there.
Doug McMasters: There is joy and rejoicing and salvation and life and singing and abundance, all of it.
Doug McMasters: Here's the question.
Doug McMasters: Here's the question Am I Edom?
Doug McMasters: Am I that arrogant resister of God and his people?
Doug McMasters: Am I full of self-sufficiency and pride?
Doug McMasters: I'll do it my way.
Doug McMasters: You stay on that way, you'll miss this way.
Doug McMasters: Are we trusting in Jesus?
Doug McMasters: Am I?
Doug McMasters: Am I marching to Zion with joy in my heart that the highway is opened and judgment is gone, because Christ has come to open this up for me.
Doug McMasters: So here we have chapter 34 and 35 in dramatic contrast judgment and devastation, followed by glorious renewal and redemption, with these glorious words at the very end no lion will be there, nor will any vicious beast go up on it.
Doug McMasters: They will not be found there, but the redeemed will walk on it safe and the ransomed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with singing, crowned with unending joy.
Doug McMasters: Joy and gladness will overtake them, sorrow and sighing will flee.
Doug McMasters: Here is the sweeping invitation of the celebration of salvation, where every threat, every sorrow and every struggle is gone and joy takes the place forever On this place where no hidden danger can ever attack us and no grief ever overshadow our song.
Doug McMasters: It's not just escape from judgment, is it?
Doug McMasters: God's salvation is not just okay, you have a pass.
Doug McMasters: It's to bring you into fullness in life, into full restoration, into companionship in his presence, with eternal joy, so that your life might be swallowed up with triumph and not loss.
Doug McMasters: This is God's redemption, this is his promise.
Doug McMasters: And when we get to chapters 40, all the way to the end of chapter 66, this is just going to grow and grow and grow and grow and grow as we see God, who was the God not only of judgment but of redemption.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray, father.
Doug McMasters: We thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ, because without him there would be no hope for us, there would be no chapter 35.
Doug McMasters: Without Christ, we would all be crying and agonizing and speaking woes against ourself because our doom would be sure, because there is none righteous no, not one.
Doug McMasters: We would all be before the presence of a, a holy God, with our mouths stopped silent, recognizing that judgment was just and certain.
Doug McMasters: We thank you, lord, that you didn't leave us there and you don't leave any human there, that you open up the invitation of life through the prophetic picture of chapter 35.
Doug McMasters: This glorious image of life and vigor and strength and song of healing and hope.
Doug McMasters: And, lord, I pray that all of us might find ourselves in the way who is Jesus Christ and that we might be able to walk in the way who is Jesus Christ and that we might be able to walk in the way who is Jesus Christ and that we might find the destination of that pathway where the way ends in the very presence of God and in the Lamb.
Doug McMasters: Lord, I pray that all of us might flee from wrath and run to redemption, as it's offered to us today.
Doug McMasters: Whatever temporary judgments we have faced, may they be the very impetus to cause us to hunger and thirst for this truth and this redemption, and may we be sobered by it to recognize that whatever temporary ills we face are only meant to point us to everlasting joy, but they also stand as a harbinger of eternal judgment if we neglect them.
Doug McMasters: Lord, may these eternal issues of life move us today.
Doug McMasters: We pray for your glory and in Christ's name, amen.