Beautiful poetry

The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God. Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you."

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away (Isaiah 35:1-10).

American culture has changed quite a lot over the last 60 years. Some changes have been improvements, while other changes have not. One thing that American culture has been losing since WW II is an appreciation for poetry. Before the war, books of poetry sold well. A man who was courting a girl often gave a book of poetry to her as a gift. But these days, poetry doesn’t sell as well. Few are the men who would give a book of poetry to their girl, let alone read poetry to her. As a result, most Americans don’t really understand poetry anymore, outside of song lyrics.

Isaiah was a prophet of God who wrote in poetry. In order for us to fully understand Isaiah’s message, we not only need to know what the Bible teaches about God, we also have to understand how poetry works. As Isaiah uses it, poetry is about word pictures. Isaiah creates images in our minds by the skillful use of words and phrases. Isaiah takes abstract ideas like salvation and life, and dresses them with shapes and colors so that we can understand them. God inspired Isaiah’s poetry in order to make the invisible truths of God visible to us.

In Matthew 11:2-11, Jesus quotes from Isaiah to prove His credentials as the Messiah to John the Baptist. John had been put in prison for telling the local king that he was living in sin. As John languished in prison, he began to sink into despair. As he grew more depressed, John began to wonder if the Jesus he had baptized really was the Messiah. How long would it be before Jesus would set His people free? How long would it be before Jesus set him free? But Jesus hadn’t come to end Rome’s political oppression of Israel. Jesus had come to set people free in a different way. Jesus made this point to John by quoting from the prophet Isaiah. Jesus was setting people free, just as Isaiah had predicted.

So, what did Isaiah predict about Jesus’ ministry? Well, first we are told that "the desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God." What are the desert and the parched land? These are the places where God’s people dwell. The parched land is the world we live in. It is parched because it doesn’t have the water that gives life. Without water, everything withers and dies. That is what sin has done to the world. Sin has dammed up the waters of life, leaving creation a desert that thirsts for the loving touch of the Giver of Life. Nothing thrives in this desert except the jackals, scavengers who prey on those who haven’t yet died of thirst. The jackals are Satan and his followers; their prey are the souls of men dying from lack of the Water of Life.

But when Jesus comes into the world, He brings the Water of Life. Jesus said, "whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (Johh 4:14). When Jesus died on the cross, we read that "one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water" (John 19:34). In a spiritual sense, that water has never stopped flowing from Jesus’ side. In Revelation 22:1-2, we are told "Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations." This Water of Life is a word picture—poetry, if you will. The Water of Life is a way for us to visualize the saving work of God through Jesus Christ, which washes away our sins, making us clean and acceptable to God.

When Jesus entered our world, He began to pour out His Living Water. Throughout His ministry, Jesus forgave the sins that separated people from the love of God. When Jesus died on the cross, the Waters of Life came out in a torrent as our Savior died to free everyone from the curse of sin and eternal death. These Waters of Life began to spread all over the face of this parched world as Jesus’ apostles preached the Good News of salvation to every tribe and nation. And as the Waters of Life have spread, faith in Christ has spread. The deserts of the earth are becoming fruitful farmland. Places untouched by the Word of God, used as sanctuaries for Satan and his jackals, are less than at any time in human history. The Gospel of our Lord has penetrated to the remotest corners of the world, daily turning deserts into fields ripe for harvest. Isaiah can truly say, "Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow."

We need to focus on this good news. Satan tries to defeat us by scaring us with bad news, like how poorly church is attended in Europe and the United States. Every night, the news is filled with reports of deaths caused by religious extremists, and threats of more of the same. But we must not give heed to Satan’s scare tactics. Isaiah says, "Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you." Jesus first came into this world to save us from our sins. Jesus will return to this world to save us from the sins of Satan’s followers. Jesus wants everyone to be saved, but make no mistake: those who reject Jesus will feel the everlasting judgment of our God. Satan and his minions will lose. Therefore, there is absolutely no reason for us to live in fear.

Isaiah says "Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy." Jesus certainly did all this things during the years of His ministry among us, but it would be a mistake to think that Jesus’ healing work stopped two millennia ago. Jesus continues to grant us healing today. Every medical advance, every new vaccine developed, has come about solely because Jesus cares about His children and wants to ease their suffering. And Jesus does not restrict Himself to acting through the hands of doctors; every day people recover from illnesses to the astonishment of doctors who had given up hope. God answers our prayers, and James assures us that "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" (James 5:16).

But when we speak of Jesus’ healing, we must never separate it from His forgiving of sins. All sickness and deterioration of health is a byproduct of the death that sin brought into God’s perfect world. Disease and decay are symptoms of the sin that taints everything in the universe. When Jesus came to minister to us, His first concern was the state of our souls. Jesus did not want us to be condemned eternally, along with those who willingly side with Satan. Jesus suffered the death of our sins on the cross so that He could forgive the sins of everyone who trusts in Him. As a result, we who believe now have entry into the heaven that our sins had denied to us. Some Christians may be physically blind, but all Christians have been given the ability to see their salvation. Some Christians may be deaf, but all Christians have been given the opportunity to hear God’s saving Word. Even the heart of a Christian confined to a wheelchair can leap for joy in thankfulness for his forgiveness. Even the heart of a mute Christian can sing praises to the Lord our Savior.

"And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the LORD will return." For the Christian, there are only two roads through life, two ways to live. There is the Way of Death, and there is the Way of Life. Jesus provided us with the Way of Life, the Way of Holiness. Jesus created the Way for us, as a scout leader blazes a trail through the wilderness for his troop. But this isn’t just a trail; Jesus’ way is a high way, a path that is above the ways of this world. Unholy, wicked people will not be able to walk upon it, because the Way can only be seen by the eyes of faith. All mankind is blinded by sin; only those whose eyes have been opened by Jesus can see His Way in order to follow Him. The Way of Holiness is a word picture for living life under God’s directives. The Way of Holiness is a lifestyle of repenting our sinfulness, trusting in the forgiving love of Jesus, and asking Jesus to help us live our lives in service to Him. And God promises us that He will keep us safe while we are upon the Way. Jesus said, "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:27-28).

The Way of Holiness has a definite destination. Isaiah writes "They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away." Zion is the capital city of God’s kingdom; by the Way of Holiness, Jesus leads us to heaven. The faithful will enter Zion with singing. We will arrive with the same kind of excitement that a car full of travelers has, when after hours and hours of driving the home of their loved ones finally appears ahead in the darkness with lights glowing warmly in welcome. The glory of the Lord will surround us; gladness and joy will wash over us, driving away all sorrow and tearful sighs. We will be home in the embrace of the Savior who loved us enough to die for us, and we will never have to say good bye to any loved ones ever again. The journey will be over forever.

Isaiah paints a beautiful word picture for us, both of what Jesus has done for us, and what He is going to do for us. Jesus has set you free from the oppression of sin and eternal death. If you repent of your sins and trust in Jesus, He has promised that your road of life will end in heaven. May this picture linger in your mind, and help you keep your life in proper perspective this Lenten season.