Joy finds expression in many ways, from quiet smiles to exuberant activity. Today’s text is all about euphoric joy that calls for a jubilant response in response to God’s delivering power. 

 

Many churches celebrate Advent through a progression of themes from hope to peace to joy and love. The third Sunday of Advent is sometimes called “Gaudete Sunday.” Gaudete, Latin for “rejoice,” is the first word in the Roman Catholic mass for the day. 

 

Today’s text is just that, a call to rejoice, directed to a bedraggled people who were clinging to their last shreds of hope. Despite their woeful situation, it promised a day when the desert would bloom and the lame would dance. 

 

Isaiah 35 should be read together with the previous chapter, with chapter 34 being the yin to chapter 35’s yang: the first chapter is a dark picture of desolation for Edom, while its twin is a bright image of redemption for Israel. 

 

Israel’s tradition held that the Israelites and Edomites were descended from the twin brothers Jacob and Esau, and the prophets often referenced that tradition in discussing the fates of Israel and Edom (see also Ezekiel 35-36 and Malachi 1). [DD] [DD]

 

 

 

When things are going so badly that life could hardly get worse, it may seem that the only hope is in a wholesale change. Sometimes that leads to social or political revolution within a country. When the oppressor is a foreign power with a clearly superior military advantage, however, revolution is risky. King Hezekiah of Judah learned that lesson when he revolted against Assyria’s King Sennacherib (c. 705-701 BCE), who ravaged the land and besieged Jerusalem. King Jehoiakim learned that lesson when he rebelled against the Babylonians in 601 BCE and died shortly thereafter. Babylonian domination grew over the next few years, with waves of Hebrew captives being taken into exile until King Nebuchadnezzar’s forces leveled the city of Jerusalem and destroyed the temple in 587, carrying even more into exile. 

 

That dark period of ethnic homelessness may be reflected in the background of today’s text, with the Edomites – some of whom aided the Babylonians in destroying Jerusalem – serving as an emblem for all of Israel’s enemies. 

 

Isaiah 34 depicts a slaughter of “all the nations” outside of Israel, with special attention given to Edom. The chapter is filled with imagery of desiccation, an unfolding picture of Edom’s fields and flora becoming parched as water sources dry up and the once-fertile land enters a period of empty desolation.

 

Chapter 35 portrays a totally opposite fate for Israel, promising life instead of death. [DD] Isaiah sees a day when the Promised Land – especially the desert areas bordering on Edom – would be suffused with gushing springs that would transform the wilderness into a verdant vision of fertility. [DD]

 

“The desert shall rejoice and blossom,” Isaiah said, “like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing” (vv. 1b-2a). Crocuses are prolific bloomers that can thrive in habitats from meadowlands to tundra, and can even be found in deserts.

 

In 33:9, the prophet claimed that the typically fertile areas of Lebanon, Sharon, Bashan, and Carmel had withered away. Now he names Lebanon, Carmel, and Sharon as prime examples of the land’s revitalization, [DD] but it is clear that the land’s restoration reflects the presence of God. Isaiah says that in the “glory” of Lebanon and the “majesty” of Carmel, “they shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God” (v. 2). 

 

The power of water in a dry land is obvious to anyone who has ever flown over the southwestern U.S., where giant green circles of farmland or lush fairways of golf courses sit amid a barren landscape. 

Ancient travelers in Israel’s environs would have seen the wonder of places like Jericho, where a single spring can turn desert land into an oasis. [DD]

 

 

 

In vv. 3-6a, Isaiah’s imagery shifts from a transformed landscape to people who need renewing. With striking imperative verbs, he offered encouragement to his hearers and challenged them to pass on their hopeful confidence to others. The redeemed should actively “strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees,” inspiring others to be strong and not fear (vv. 3-4a). 

 

The prophet goes on to call forth an image of God deleting what is evil and opening the door to a new world in which the blind and weak will leap for joy at God’s salvation, introducing an era in which those who once faced physical limitations will dance with joy in praise to God (vv. 4b-6a). [DD]

 

With vv. 6b-7, Isaiah returned to his overriding image of a land that is not just renewed to its former state, but more verdant than ever before. “Waters shall break forth in the wilderness,” he said, “and streams in the desert” (v. 6b). [DD]

 

The “burning sand” of v. 7 may describe a desert mirage in which heat waves create the image of water. In God’s new day, visions of desert lakes would become real, and the former wilderness haunts of wild jackals would give way to land so saturated that it supported tall grass, reeds, and rushes. 

 

The NRSV’s use of the word “swamp” is an unfortunate translation, obscuring the positive image with one that most readers would find unappealing, as we think of a swamp as an unpleasant place crawling with alligators, snakes, and dangerous insects. There is no word for “swamp” in the text, which says that the former lairs or “resting places” of jackals will sprout lush plants that normally grow only in water-fed wetlands, usually near riverbanks.

 

 

 

Isaiah’s paean to God’s restoration of Israel concludes by describing a highway for redeemed pilgrims to use as they return through the transformed desert on their way to Jerusalem. While we may call our roads expressways or parkways, this road would be called “the Holy Way,” a limited-access road where the toll would be paid by divine grace and only the righteous could travel.

 

Those who would follow the holy highway, furthermore, would be perfectly safe. Only the righteous would be there, and none of them would need to fear lions or other predators that could make travel by foot a dangerous enterprise. [DD] The wild beasts who had previously terrorized the way might be symbolic of the Edomites, who had formerly controlled the southern highway leading from the Negev to Jerusalem. 

 

Isaiah envisioned a day when “the ransomed of the LORD” would return to Zion amid songs of everlasting joy. Just as desolation would depart from the land and the wicked would be barred from the Holy Way, he said, “sorrow and sighing shall flee away” (v. 10, compare 65:19). The scene echoes Isa. 25:8, a promise that God will wipe away all tears, an image that reappears much later in Rev. 7:17 and 21:4.

 

This image of a secure freeway by which pilgrims could joyfully sing their way toward Jerusalem was so appealing that the same promise appears again at Isa. 51:11. [DD] 

 

The question we must ask about this text is whether the prophet spoke in metaphoric hyperbole – wildly exaggerating the change in fortunes of the exiles as they returned to Jerusalem – or whether he was thinking eschatologically, as in 2:1-5 and 11:1-10, the texts for our previous two lessons. 

 

If we assume an exilic setting, it’s likely that the prophet had in mind the exiles’ return to Jerusalem along a highway not unlike that spoken of in Isa. 62:10, and that he used the metaphor of a transformed landscape as a hopeful image of a better future. Many Hebrews did return from exile to Jerusalem, but it was not on a daisy-strewn pathway with fresh fruit on every side, and the return to the ruined city was characterized more by trouble than by everlasting joy. The ultimate fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy is yet to come.

 

What are modern readers to make of this prophetic and poetic call for praise to God? 

 

One doesn’t have to be captive in a foreign land to feel restricted or in bondage to circumstances that can make life burdensome or hard. One doesn’t have to live in a desert to experience such spiritual desiccation that we wonder if we’ll ever sense God’s presence again.

 

None of us have been threatened by Edomites, but many continue to be oppressed by those whose racist, homophobic, self-serving, and outright boorish behavior puts them at odds with God, even though some of them claim their attitudes are biblical. 

 

Are these situations likely to change? Not without the kind of intervention that could only be divine. Still, whether we look toward the return of Christ or a new life in heaven, Isaiah points to a day when joy abounds and all “sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

 

And what makes that hope possible? The coming of Jesus. Remembering that is what Advent is all about.