35 The wilderness and the desert will be glad,
And the [a]Arabah will rejoice and blossom;
Like the crocus
2 It will blossom profusely
And rejoice with rejoicing and shout of joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
The majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of the Lord,
The majesty of our God.
3 Encourage the [b]exhausted, and strengthen the [c]feeble.
4 Say to those with anxious heart,
“Take courage, fear not.
Behold, your God will come with vengeance;
The recompense of God will come,
But He will save you.”
5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened
And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
6 Then the lame will leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.
For waters will break forth in the wilderness
And streams in the [d]Arabah.
7 The [e]scorched land will become a pool
And the thirsty ground springs of water;
In the haunt of jackals, its resting place,
Grass becomes reeds and rushes.
8 A highway will be there, a roadway,
And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it,
But it will be for him who walks that way,
And fools will not wander on it.
9 No lion will be there,
Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;
[f]These will not be found there.
But the redeemed will walk there,
10 And the ransomed of the Lord will return
And come with joyful shouting to Zion,
With everlasting joy upon their heads.
They will [g]find gladness and joy,
And sorrow and sighing will flee away.
If the last chapter sounded a lot like hell, this one sounds much more like heaven, but also maybe just a bit short. At any rate, though those in Israel may have hoped for it to come in their lifetime, I do not think you could rightly apply this any sooner than the coming of Jesus. Even now, one looks at things like vv. 8-9 where there is a highway with no fools and no lions or vicious beasts, and that seems afar off.
After all, we still have lions and vicious beasts… and fools. But perhaps it does figuratively point to something Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (recorded in Matthew 7)
So there is indeed a “Highway of Holiness” and Jesus showed us the way, what then? Well naturally, we should walk on it, and put aside our fear and foolish (selfish) ways, and rejoice that He has ransomed us indeed (v. 10). But also, we should heed the admonition of vv. 3-4, to “Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble…”
There are many in need of good news, and the best news ever is, “Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come…” We saw that in the previous chapter, “But He will save you.” We can’t save the feeble and exhausted, the blind, the lame, the deaf, or the mute, nor more than we could save ourselves.
Yet Jesus proclaimed the very words God gave Isaiah (though we’re jumping ahead a little),
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Isaiah 61 and Luke 4:18-19
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”
He alone can save, just as he promised in this chapter. Claim it, share it, own it, and live it.