Isaiah 35, Strength For Tired Hands
1. God Promises You A Future Of Joyful Abundance (v1-2)
2. God’s Word Provides Strength For You Now (v3-4)
3. God Promises You A Future Of Joyful Healing (v5-7)
4. God Promises You A Future Of Joyful Perfection (v8-10)
As we look at Isaiah Chapter 35 this morning I've titled the Message Strength.
For tired hands strength for tired hands and it's a message I want to share with you.
It's also a message I need to hear and so I share it this morning from a very personal perspective this week.
Man I.
I am tired.
I am tired this week like I am not.
I'm always tired but but I'm tired this week more than usual and just really continuing to recover from a very busy past.
Few weeks VBS and baptisms and things and these things.
Tend to all kind of add up in my life.
And then this past week I've just been really feeling the effects of it.
And then also this week has been a sleepless week, a lot of sleepless nights and things going on and just working through things in my mind and in my heart and not really getting a lot of rest.
And then along with that is there's.
You know?
Get tired on different levels, I guess.
Physically tired sleeplessly tired, emotionally tired.
I was telling my wife this week.
Like I, I don't.
I don't know when I became.
So impacted by emotions, but man, it's just draining and just really feels like a great a great like sucking out of energy.
And keeping my eyes open is difficult and and so I am tired now.
I'm not trying to start a competition or say that.
I'm the most tired person.
There ever was or I'm more tired than you?
I'm not even trying to say I'm more tired than I've ever been in my life.
I'm just sharing that I'm tired and as I've been fighting this fatigue and working through these things and reading through the Prophet Isaiah, this passage, this chapter really just stood out and stood out as one that I.
Need to hear.
And also need to share with you now the Prophet Isaiah as he was ministering to the nation of Judah.
He was ministering to his people during that time and as he did there was things that were going on that immediately the people would be impacted by the message.
Image of Isaiah but also the prophecies of Isaiah. You could call them or or think of them as being multidimensional, in that there were things that he was addressing for their present time. There were things that would be fulfilled partially in Isaiah's lifetime or in the the.
History that followed soon after that, but then also there were things that would be fulfilled in multiple ways. It would be fulfilled in Isaiah's lifetime.
It would be fulfilled later on in history, and then also even as we look at this today, that that they will still be fully fulfilled later on in the future and so.
So Isaiah kind of does that a lot where he's addressing like 7 different things with any passage, and really it has a lot of depth to it as you work your way through it.
And so I want to just run through really quickly.
Some of the things that are to come.
I know I showed this last week, but it's important for us.
To kind of keep in mind that.
Prophetic timeline and the things that the Lord has us in and so right now we live in what we would call.
The church age.
And you can follow along with this in the Book of Revelation as well.
This is really kind of an outline of the end time events as.
Outlined by the Book of Revelation, but the church age, it's the present age.
It's we live in this age until we look forward to that rapture of the church where the church is caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
And then after that, at some point there is going to be a new segment of history called the Tribulation period.
Seven years of wrath that is.
God's wrath being poured out upon the earth, dealing with and judging the world in regards to.
In now as we read Isaiah Chapter 34 this week, and the judgment that would be poured out upon Edam, it's a good example of that.
Because the nation of Edam would receive judgment and it was a historical thing that happened. But also Isaiah Chapter 34 really paints the picture and and foreshadows this tribulation.
Period that is yet to come. And so we considered that in Isaiah Chapter 34 this week, well after the Tribulation period, it ends when Jesus returns for the second time.
The second coming of Jesus Christ concludes the Tribulation period, but it starts a new period and that is known as the Millennium and that is when Jesus will rule and reign.
Hereupon the Earth for 1000 years and so Chapter 34 of Isaiah dealt with the Tribulation period.
Chapter 35 of Isaiah really foreshadows and speaks of the millennial Kingdom when Jesus rules and reigns upon the earth.
Now there were some things that would be fulfilled in Isaiah's lifetime and soon after, here in Chapter 35. But again, it also foreshadows and has multiple fulfillments as you.
Consider these things.
Well then finally you have after the millennial Kingdom you have eternity and so we enter in from the millennial Kingdom into forever and ever.
And the Lord hasn't told us a whole lot about eternity in regards to the specifics.
We know a lot about the Millennium and what things are going to be like, but beyond that, we just know it's.
Going to be with the Lord and.
Exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think, and so that's the kind of preparation for getting into Chapter 35 this week, understanding that we're coming out of the Tribulation period out of this time of judgment.
But Isaiah is not going to leave them with a kind of a final thought of OK now judgment.
It's over God's done and you know you're just cast off and and left desolate. But but he always couples together the judgments.
With those previews of the glories that God wants to bring in their life and in our lives as well, and so we can look at these things and understand that even in times of discipline and judgment and correction in our lives, that that it's not the full picture that God couples with, that there is a future ahead, a glory ahead.
And so that's what we want to consider today as we look at Isaiah Chapter 35.
Again, strength for tired hands.
We're going to work our way through four points here in Chapter 35. The first one is found in verses one and two. Here's point number.
One God promises promises you a future of joyful abundance.
God promises you a future of joyful abundance.
Verse one and two again says even the wilderness and desert will be glad.
In those days, the wasteland will rejoice and blossom.
With spring crocuses.
Yes, there will be an abundance of flowers and singing and joy.
The deserts will become as green as the mountains of Lebanon as lovely as Mount Carmel or the plain of Sharon.
There the Lord will display his glory, the splendor.
Of our God.
As we begin Chapter 35, we see a glorious.
Bursting forth.
A vegetation of flowers of blossoms of beauty being described.
At the end of Chapter 34, Isaiah is really focused on creation.
If you back up a couple of verses in verse 16 of 34, he says searched the book of the Lord and see what he will do.
Not one of these birds and animals will be missing and none will lack a mate.
For the Lord has promised this his spirit will make it all come true.
He has surveyed the divided land and deeded it over to those creatures they will possess it forever.
From generation to generation.
And then as we go on into Chapter 35, he's continuing that thought, and so the those creatures of Chapter 34, the the birds, and the animals that are being referred to there at the end, really addressing the subject of creation. It's talking about he's referring to the recovery that comes, and again, as you forecast this.
Ahead to the tribulation period.
It is going to be a time of tribulation.
Like the world has never seen before.
But but it's.
And it's going to be devastating.
You read through the Book of Revelation.
You see the craziness of the Tribulation period.
But but at the end of it, God says there's going to be a recovery, a restoration and creation is going to be restored once again, and so we see that started to be addressed in.
At the end of Chapter 34, but then into chapter 35 verse one, even the wilderness and desert will be.
Glad in those days.
There is going to be a such a change in transformation in the world in creation at that point, when the.
Judgment is completed and the Messiah, Jesus is on the throne in the millennial Kingdom.
There's going to be such a transformation upon all of creation in all of this world, so much so he says in verse one, even the wilderness and and desert will be glad.
In those days.
I wonder what does a glad desert look like?
Well, he's describing it here.
Here's a happy desert.
It's filled with vegetation and filled with life.
What Isaiah is addressing here really is the reversing of the curse that we experienced back in Genesis Chapter 3.
When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden and Sin entered into the world, it was Adam and Eve who were directly impacted.
Of course, by the curse of sin, but but not just Adam and Eve indirectly, all of us have been affected by the curse of sin as a result, but also.
All of Creation has been affected by sin and as much as much as we can find.
Some really incredibly beautiful spots in this.
World this world is not what God originally designed and intended before it's entered in and in the millennial Kingdom we will get to see the world that God intended where there will be this renewing of the planet, like we could never imagine the apostle Paul in.
Romans Chapter 8 tells us that all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are against its will.
He says all creation was subjected to God curse.
But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay.
That there will be this future season.
This future time where creation.
Is restored and creation Paul says is looking forward to his eager for that day that creation was subjected to the curse.
Unwillingly and so there is this anxiousness of creation to be restored to be given the glorious freedom from death and decay that has been caused by sin.
And so that's what Isaiah is referring to here.
He says even the desert will be glad in those days.
The wasteland, he says, will rejoice and blossom with spring crocuses.
Now I pulled up a picture of desert in in Israel nearby Israel.
This is the Negev.
Desert and.
It's a sad desert you could see because it's all brown and dead and dry.
That's what we expect when we think about deserts, right?
But this is not God's intention. This is not God's original design. This is this land subjected to futility as a result of sin as a result of the curse.
And so it's a sad desert, dry and dead.
But what does a happy desert?
Look like well.
I don't have an exact picture, but here is a close approximation of what a happy desert looks like.
It also gives you a good picture of what a happy mum looks like she's watching.
I think online and poppies are her favorite flowers, so I found these. This is a happy desert. What what he's talking about here. It's a picture of the the Super bloom in 2019 over in lake.
Uh, in an area where you know it might very easily look like this, but during that time, as the rains poured out and and brought forth life, then the the hills were transformed.
I grew up over off of Indiana between La Sierra and Pierce and there's those hills right there.
There's last year, not last.
There, but I don't know the name of that high school, but it wasn't there when I was a kid, but there's those hills right there and there's that high school right there.
In Indiana, I'm going to take a guess and say it's called Indiana High School.
I don't know, but those hills every year, you know they were brown most of the time.
But then there would be that one month or maybe 2 where there would be a little bit of water.
A little bit of rain and then they would turn green and they would transition from sad hills subjected to futility too.
Happy Hills and vibrant and green and and and overflowing with life and so this is what Isaiah is referring to you.
He's talking about the wasteland, the desert, how it will rejoice and blossom it.
It's going to be a transformation.
And everywhere on the Earth is going to be full of love.
He mentions a specific flower, the spring crocuses.
I have no idea if I'm pronouncing that right, but this is what those would look like.
And so instead of the orange poppies you could imagine you know these purple flowers filling the desert.
There will be this wilderness.
This vast lands of sand and and deadness.
Now that will be overflowing with vegetation with life and budding with flowers, and it will be incredibly beautiful.
In verse two, he goes on to say the deserts will become as green as the mountains of Lebanon as lovely as Mount Carmel or the plain of Sharon.
There the Lord will display his glory.
The splendor of our God, and so again he's picturing here.
And it wasn't hard for the the people of Judah to picture these things, they.
Lived in this environment.
They saw the sad desert.
They knew exactly what that looked like.
Much of Judea and the region around Jerusalem is desert like this.
And so they they're familiar with the pictures of the desert, but they're also familiar with Mount Carmel.
Well, Mount Carmel, here's a little snapshot of it is a mountain in the northern area of Israel and it is full of vegetation full of life and so this is an image of it currently.
And you know, perhaps it was even more so back in the time of Isaiah in in their experience.
The plain of Sharon.
Phone is a plane of land at large portion of land on the coast of Israel at the Mediterranean Sea, kind of the Central Israel area, and so this is also an area that's full of life, and so he's using these things.
The picturing of Mount Carmel, picturing of the plain of Sharon.
And he's saying look all of the deserts will be like that, that there will be this restoration to creation.
And so there's going to be life and vegetation everywhere now.
Again, the the prophecies here of Isaiah can be really considered multidimensional and that there is some fulfillments immediately after Assyria is turned back.
Now, one of the primary threats to the nation during Isaiah's life and ministry was the nation of Assyria that was conquering the whole region.
Taking over the world and threatening Judah directly, and as we read ahead, chapters 36 through 38.
Give us the accounts of some of the history with Hezekiah and Syria, and and then we see at the end that God actually takes out the Assyrian Army single handedly.
He sends out an Angel and wipes out the Assyrian army.
They're they're actually driven away because Hezekiah turned to the Lord and called out to the Lord.
God defended Israel and protected them.
From a seer.
And so there's a little sliver of fulfillment of chapter 35 after a serious turned back then, the people of Israel are the people of Judah, rather are able to leave the city of Jerusalem leave the fortress.
They're able to to go back out.
To the fields.
And experience life and refreshing and you know away from the desert.
Kind of situation, and so there is a little bit of a fulfillment there.
There long term in Israel history you can think about in, you know, our generation and couple generations.
Previously you can see the transformation that's happened in the physical land of Israel when they re populated the nation and became a nation.
Once again the land was not in good shape.
But today Israel produces an abundance of fruits and vegetation and flowers, and so there's partial fulfillment in just the life that we're living now.
The history that's happening today.
The fulfillment of these things.
Of course, will be during the Millennium, that thousand year reign of Christ, where creation will be reset back to what God intended for it.
But then there's also another fulfillment for us to consider, and that is a spiritual fulfillment that these things also picture for us, things that God can do and desires to do in our lives.
Pastor Warren wiersbe
That's not Pastor one, but this one pastor Warren Wiersbe says as you wait for these physical blessings, you can enjoy them in a spiritual way.
God can give you deliverance, fruitfulness, strength, holiness and joy.
As you yield to him.
And so there is the opportunity for us to look at these things and understand.
The fulfillments and how they will take place, but also to make it personal and bring some application to our hearts.
And again, that's why it gives me the point this morning.
God promises you a future of joyful abundance.
Jesus told the woman at the well.
If you drink from this water you will thirst again.
But if you drink the water that I give you, it will become a fresh bubbling spring, giving you eternal life.
That there is.
Many times in these things, pictures for us of the vibrant life that God wants to give us the joyful abundance.
The transformation from desert to overwhelmed with abundant, flourishing and blossoming and vegetation.
Is a picture not just of what God is ultimately going to do during that thousand year reign, but it's also a picture of what God can do in our lives, and so I would ask you to consider this morning what what aspects of your life, what parts of your life are most accurately depicted by a desert?
What where are those parts of your life?
And perhaps it's in your relationships.
Perhaps it's in your workplace or career.
Perhaps it's in, you know.
Your personal condition, physically or emotionally, perhaps it's some other thing that you might be thinking of now that that there are sometimes those pieces of our life that are just really.
Pictured well, the accurately described by this barren wilderness type of visual type of environment.
And the Lord would want to remind us this morning that as much as you feel, the ache of that desert, and that emptiness, and that dryness, and that dust as much as you feel, that that and it.
And it's not pleasant, and it is difficult and challenging that God promises you that that's not how it's always going to be.
That aspect of your life or any aspect of your life is not always going to be best pictured by a desert, but God has for you in the future.
And maybe you get like a taste of it now, just as there is multidimensional aspects to the fulfillment of these prophecies that that there will be glimpses of the future that is promised to you in your life and you will get a taste of that joyful abundance in many ways throughout your life.
And yet we also want to understand that the fulfillment the ultimate fulfillment.
Of all of these, things are at the return of Jesus Christ and that he is the final fulfillment of all those promises and the full fulfillment.
The joyful abundance that is promised to us will be experienced at that time.
Until then, we are experiencing the effects of the curse we're experiencing the deserts, and when you experience the desert, God wants to remind you he wants you to know there is a joyful abundance ahead.
He promises it.
So hold the course, stay faithful to him. See walking with him. He's got some good things in store and that's what Isaiah goes on to address here in verses three and four for point #2 godsword provides strength for you now.
God's word provides strength for you now, verse three says.
With this news, strengthen those who have tired hands.
And encourage those who have weak knees.
Say to those.
With fearful hearts, be strong and do not fear.
For your God is coming to destroy your enemies.
He is coming to save you.
Thinking about the future millennial Kingdom, it's kind of natural for us to wonder.
How did this message really help the people of.
Isaiah's day.
There's this real physical threat of Syria coming against them.
They're feeling the droughts they're feeling the desperation they're feeling the desert as they rush and scramble to the stronghold of Jerusalem, trying to preserve their lives and many of their friends and families.
And people have been lost and their territories have been lost.
Their land has been lost there, they're just filling all that dried up desert and now fearful of their lives as Assyria continues to threaten them.
And so Isaiah says, don't worry guys, 6000 years from now there's going to be a reign of Christ and the people say, well, what does that do for me now?
I would encourage you to think about the dilemma.
As they're experiencing these hard times and difficulty and war.
We understand that.
Hard times and difficulty in war are experienced.
By both the ungodly and the godly.
That just because people are godly and walk with God and have a fellowship and a relationship with God doesn't mean that their lives are protected from desert experiences.
All types of people from all walks of life with all kinds of different relationships with God.
Experience the full degree of humanity and that is joys and sorrows.
Highs and lows.
Springs and refreshing and desert and dust.
At the same time, we need to understand the ultimate fulfillment of all. God's promises are really not for this life.
So we all experience hardship, difficulty war.
Desert God promises us things that.
He works in our lives in the present, but the ultimate fulfillment of all of his promises are really in eternity.
And it's there that we will experience the fullness of what he has for us.
And so the whole while as we walk through the desert in this life, God is saying, trust me.
And walk by faith.
I will make everything right. That's God's promise.
To those who trust him and walk by faith, he says, I will make all things new.
I will restore and refresh.
I will bring justice.
There will be a renewal.
And it will all be worth it.
And so.
God is saying this to all of us as we walk through hardship and difficulty in war.
Calling us to trust him and to walk by faith.
But what's the alternative?
The alternative is to abandon God.
You see, the desert doesn't change.
Whether we're godly or ungodly, we still experience the desert in this life.
But what happens in the desert is we're incredibly tempted to abandon God because of the desert experience because of the hurt because of the ache because of the the loss that we're experiencing.
There is the temptation to try to give up on the things of God, but what happens when you abandon God, of course, is that, well, you still get the desert.
Abandoning God doesn't get you out of the desert, it just gives you a much worse eternity.
Godly or ungodly.
We're going to experience the desert, and if we abandon God, we're going to experience the desert.
Now and then.
A worse eternity after.
So how does this message help the people of Isaiah Day?
It helps them.
To hold the course and trust God and walk by faith that he will make all things new because the alternative, turning from God and giving up on God is a much worse option.
Here God is addressing people who are on the verge of abandoning God now.
The reason why they're experiencing this desert?
Directly is a part of their rebellion against God.
And so Isaiah, part of his ministry has been calling people to repentance.
But there are people in the nation.
Who are?
Not in outright rebellion against God.
Some of them need to hear, repent, turn from your idolatry and get right with God.
Some of them need to hear that.
Nysia has been delivering that message.
Some of them.
Are seeking the Lord and walking with the Lord and they're experiencing the effects of the nation as a whole.
Turning away from God, they're experiencing the deserts.
Everyone around them is caving in, and worshipping false gods and involving themselves and things that God has forbidden.
And so there are these faithful.
Who have tired hands?
They've been trying to hold on for a while.
They've been trying to resist the flow and the.
Direction that the nation is heading.
They've been trying to endure the difficulties at hand.
As a result of the nation turning away from God.
But they're tired.
And they've got weak knees.
And they've got fearful hearts.
And so God sends Isaiah verse three with this news.
Strengthen those.
Who have tired hands?
And encourage those who have weak knees, say to those with fearful hearts.
Be strong and do not fear.
For your God is coming to destroy your enemies.
He is coming to save you.
Don't give up.
Hold on a little bit longer.
Stay the course.
This message from Isaiah helps the people to set their hearts and minds and hope.
On the things that are to come to continue walking with God, they're not going to see the full fulfillment of these promises.
But those.
Who would receive it?
Are those who stayed?
On the course to receive those promises.
And so they need to be encouraged, and their hands need to be strengthened.
Their knees need to be strengthened to continue to walk the path.
To walk by faith and not by sight.
The author of Hebrews in Hebrews Chapter 11.
Recapping the Hall of Faith, the example of those men and women who trusted God in hard and difficult challenges.
He says all these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised.
For God had something better in mind for us so that they would not reach perfection without us.
Why didn't they get experience? All that God had promised them? Because in God's plan we're going to all experience the fulfillment of those promises together.
And so those promises that we have from God are promises of God.
We may not see the full fulfillment of them.
In our lifetime.
But we will.
See the full full fulfillment of them.
If we stay the course and walk with God and continue to be faithful in our relationship with him and our love for him.
And so there are these people who are in danger of missing out on those promises, because their hands are tired.
And so God says, go strengthen with this news with this message of what is to come with this future picture.
Strengthen those who.
Have tired hands.
That they would continue to leave her, that they would continue to to persist and carry on, knowing that God will carry them on God will make all things right.
But don't give up because your hands are tired.
And encourage those who have weak knees.
It's hard to carry the weight.
It's hard to press on to continue trudging along.
Through the desert.
But you can do it.
You can go a little bit farther.
You can continue to walk by feet and trust God with this news with this future picture with this understanding that God will fulfill all of these things.
Encourage them Isaiah to press on and those who are fearful they're hearing about, uh, Syria and their hearts are just torn within them.
Frozen within them, they're just so overwhelmed with fear by all the things that are threatening them.
I say I say to.
Them God is on the way.
He's on the way.
He's bringing salvation.
In all of these things, the overarching message is God sees you.
He knows your struggle.
And he says I have a message for you.
Don't give up.
I know it's hard.
Keep walking in faith.
This will all be worth it.
God's word provides strength for from you now or for you now.
Here's the message Isaiah deliver it to my people that they would be strengthened that they would be encouraged that their hearts would be settled and they'd be able to trust in me.
God sent his.
Sends his word to strengthen his people.
Of course you can look at that in a few different ways.
This is a message brought forth by a prophet.
And that is part of the prophetic ministry.
The apostle Paul and 1st Corinthians, chapter 14.
Tells us that one who prophesize strengthens others encourages them and comforts them, and he's contrasting that with the spiritual gift of tongues.
He says a person who speaks in tongues is strengthened person.
Really, but when he speaks a word of prophecy strengthens the entire church, and so there's a a bit of a difference.
Not that one is wrong or right, but but that the difference.
The distinction is that when someone is giving a word of the Lord.
A prophecy that it brings forth these things.
These three things, notice it strengthens, encourages, and comforts for those who are tired and weak and fearful.
That there is this.
Answer to these things that we experience, our tiredness and weakness and fearfulness is is answered by the Lord in his.
Word in his prophetic speaking.
Now this idea of of prophecy here in First Corinthians chapter 14 it's not prophecy in the general sense of like Isaiah, is a prophet, but it's prophecy in the sense of ministry amongst one another in the present by believers today.
That God supernaturally gives us.
To minister to one another to help us.
Address and deal with these situations in each other's lives, so that when we are tired and when we are weak and when we are fearful, many times God will give a message.
Give a word.
Give something to share to someone around us to help us address that tiredness and weakness.
And fearfulness that we experience.
And so the prophetic ministry is an important aspect for us to receive and be a part of, and it comes from those times of fellowship and being led by the Holy Spirit in our conversations.
And our interactions.
Of course, we can look to our personal devotions.
As well that.
God, through his word, will be ministering to us.
Prophetically in that way as well.
And answering that tiredness and weakness and fearfulness that we have times of corporate study and Bible study like we go through are also really important.
And used by the Lord in that way, so that God.
Through his word provides strength for what we need right now.
Are you tired?
Listen, God sees you and he wants you to be strengthened.
He has a word of encouragement and comfort and hope for you.
He's saying help is on the way, so hang in there.
Hold the course.
During Jesus Ministry in John Chapter 6.
There was a challenging thing that Jesus said and caused many people to turn away.
It says that many of his disciples.
Turned away and deserted him so he looked at the 12.
The core group of the disciples and he says are you going to leave also?
There is that temptation.
There is that tendency, and there will be those who are tired and weak and fearful in a wilderness experience, and so they will leave.
They will wander away because of their experience at that point.
But we need to be like Simon Peter.
Who responded to Jesus question there in John Chapter 6, verse 68 Peter says, Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.
Where would we go?
You're the one who has what we need, and so we're going to hold the course, yes.
The desert is hard.
The challenges are tough.
The message is difficult.
But in the end.
We walk by faith because we know you will fulfill all.
Of your promises.
Well boy #3.
Looking at verses 5 through 7, God promises you a future of joyful healing.
God promises you a future of joyful healing.
Verse five says.
And when he?
Comes he will open the eyes of the blind and unplug the ears.
Of the deaf.
The lean will will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak.
Will sing for joy.
Springs will gush forth in the wilderness.
And streams will water the wasteland.
The parched ground will become a pool and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land.
Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will flourish, where desert jackals once lived.
The Millennial Kingdom will be a time of full healing.
And restoration for the planet.
And also for people.
You might remember this.
Because Jesus really alludes to it to John the Baptist to indicate that he is the promised Messiah.
Verse five says, and when he comes.
When the Savior shows up.
And there was a partial fulfillment of these things in the life and Ministry of Jesus.
In Matthew Chapter 11, John the Baptist is in prison and he sends messengers to Jesus.
He says look, I've been in prison for a long time.
I baptize you and declare that you are the Messiah.
I know you're the Messiah.
But now that I'm in prison.
Let's call it the desert.
Now that I'm in the desert and things are dry and hard and difficult.
I'm starting to wonder.
I'm starting to doubt those things that I I once knew so clearly and understood, and so he sends messengers to Jesus saying.
Are you the Messiah?
We thought I thought you were I baptize you.
I said you were.
I saw the sign of the Holy Spirit come upon you.
But now I'm in the desert.
Are you the Messiah?
And Jesus sent word back, saying, look at the ministry, that's going on the blind, see the lame walk.
The lepers are cured.
The deaf hear the dead are raised to life and the good news is being preached to the poor.
These things Isaiah prophesied about in chapter 35. It's not a full fulfillment of these things, but it's a it's a partial fulfillment.
These things are happening.
Jesus says in my life and in my ministry, foreshadowing that return of Jesus when he will roll in rain, and these things will take place fully.
Looking forward to that resurrection.
And that millennial Kingdom.
He will open the eyes of the blind in verse five it says he will unplug the ears of the death.
The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will sing for joy.
In the Millennium.
And for you and I in the resurrection of our bodies, we will experience a full and complete healing that brings us great joy.
We will sing for joy.
We will leap like deer.
The incorruptible.
Is preceded by the corruptible Paul tells us in First Corinthians chapter 15.
In the resurrection of the dead, our earthly bodies are planted in the ground.
But then they will be raised to life forever.
They're buried in brokenness, but they'll be raised in glory.
Buried in weakness, but raised in strength.
They're buried as human natural bodies, but they'll be raised as spiritual bodies.
God is promising you.
A glorious new body fully healed, no more infirmities, no more difficulties.
No more challenges in that way.
He promises you a future of joyful healing. Well, finally, verses 8 through 10 gives us point #4 God promises you a future of joyful perfection. Verse 8 says.
And the great Rd will go through that.
Once deserted land, it will be named the highway of Holiness.
Evil minded people will never travel on.
Right?
It will be only for those who walk in God's ways.
Fools will never walk there.
Lions will not lurk along its course, nor any other ferocious beasts.
There will be no other dangers, only the redeemed.
Will walk on it.
Those who have been ransomed by the Lord will return.
They will enter Jerusalem, singing, crowned with everlasting joy, sorrow and mourning will disappear.
And they will be filled with joy.
And gladness.
He finishes the chapter.
Talking about this.
Great return to the land.
Roads in those days were dangerous.
The Syrian Army was all over, so there was great threat.
If you were going to leave Jerusalem and travel the roads.
There was a really good chance you were going to face an enemy and some kind of confrontation.
And so people are sheltered inside the city strongholds.
But at this time.
There's going to be a massive highway.
Built for God's people to return.
To Israel in the millennial Kingdom there is going to be a return to Israel.
We we've seen a little glimpse of that again, Israel has become a nation again.
And so there's some partial fulfillments there, but the full things are going to be fulfilled.
In the Millennium, and there's going to be this highway.
Of holiness.
For only holy people to walk on.
During that millennial Kingdom, there will be a time of righteousness.
And people who are white right with God will be traveling this highway.
To get.
To Israel in the presence of God.
And there won't be any threats, any dangers, any issues?
Along the way.
And verse 8 at the.
End it says fools will.
Never walk there, there's another way too.
Translate that.
I like the English standard version of it.
It says it shall belong to those who walk on the way, even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
The idea is that even if they're not the most wise, those who are on this highway, they they can't.
Go wrong, even if they.
Try it, even if they're foolish, and I like that because if there's a way to mess.
Things up I'm going to be there.
Want to find it?
I'm picturing the car ride at Disneyland Autopia or something like that, right?
It's like you can turn the wheel, but you can't mess it up.
You can't get off the track.
You can't get off the road.
In that day, there's going to be this highway and it's going to be a highway of perfection.
For the Lord's people to walk on. No dangers. No threats, no animals, no enemies. Only the redeemed will walk on it, it says in verse 9 those who have been ransomed by.
The Lord will return.
It's only for the redeemed.
It's only for those who have been ransomed.
I would ask.
If you could try to picture yourself.
You're a toy.
On a shelf.
In the arcade counter at Castle Park.
And there you are.
A toy on the shelf.
There's a price tag on you. You cost 10,000 tickets.
Now there is no way for you to get off the shelf as a toy to go play the games and win the tickets in order for you to be free from your place of captivity.
There in the arcade counter.
Your only hope is for someone.
Out there to go play the games, win 10,000 tickets come and choose you and pick you with all of their 10,000 tickets.
To redeem and to take home and to.
Be set free.
This is the picture that of what Christ has done for us.
He is our kinsman Redeemer.
And we were captive.
We were unable to save ourselves, to redeem ourselves, to pay back our price.
The the the debt that we owe because of our sin.
But Jesus, living a perfect life, having died upon the cross for us, collected all the tickets and used them to choose you and you and you and you and you, so that you could be redeemed.
And this road is only for those people.
That is, you can't earn your way.
You can't, you know, accomplish some other way.
The only way.
Is to receive what Christ has done for us.
Pastor David Guzik says this highway isn't for everyone.
It has a toll booth but you can't make it.
On this highway by.
Paying your way, you're only allowed on this highway if you're cleansed by the great work of the Messiah.
And so those who walk in this road tells us in verse 10 they will enter Jerusalem singing.
Crowned with everlasting joy.
Sorrow and mourning will disappear, and they will be filled, filled with joy.
And gladness.
In this time there is going to be.
And for you and I and our glorified bodies, we will get to experience what it's like.
Can you imagine a day?
When you never have to see people hurt.
For your mistakes.
Can you imagine a day when you never have to regret?
Losing your temper.
Can you imagine a day when you never have to apologize?
I mean, you may be already experienced that you never apologize, but that's not necessarily ideal.
But imagine a day where there's no reason for apologies.
Because I never did you wrong.
Imagine a day where you never behaved foolishly and never misrepresented God and never neglected responsibilities.
That's not today.
But there is that day.
God promises you a future.
Of joyful perfection.
And so let.
These promises
Strengthen your hands today.
God brought this news to his people.
So that they would stay the course.
That they would carry on through the difficulties and challenges.
That they wouldn't give up and abandoned hope and abandoned God.
In spite of what they were seeing and how impossible the situation looked.
But that they.
Would trust God and walk by faith.
All of these promises will be fulfilled.
But you will only get to experience them.
If you receive.
What God has done for you.
And if you walk with him.
Where else would we go like Peter said?
Running other ways, running to substances running to bad habits and patterns.
Running into other types of religions.
There's no answers there.
There's no help there.
There's no future there.
Running to the Lord.
Holding fast to him.
Secures for us a future.
Of joyful abundance, joyful healing and joyful protection.
So let God.
Glimpse of what's to come strengthen your hands.
For the life for the desert.
For the challenges for the things that.
You face today.
What I pray?
For each one of us and whatever wilderness experience we might be walking through, I pray Lord, that you would help us to have a clear picture.
Of these promises.
Of your goodness that you plan for us and Lord of the need for us to be strengthened to be encouraged to be comforted.
As we look to you.
Learn that we might hold fast.
The confidence.
That we might hold fast in the faith that we might hold fast in our.
Relationship with you.
I pray God that you would draw us near.
Help us.
In your strength and by your power to overcome.
Or that you might be glorified.
And that we.
Might get to experience.
All that you plan for us, we pray this in Jesus name.